Memorial – Gary Crew and Shaun Tan
Task:
Ø Brainstorm and explain the themes presented in Memorial and how distinctively visual features are used to represent these ideas. Use quotes to support your analysis where relevant.
Ø List and explain the ways Memorial links to The Shoe-Horn Sonata through its overall themes and ideas. Remember to identify the techniques which are used to shape meaning.
Themes:
Ø Memory
· ‘Memory won’t die.’ Personification said by the grandfather.
· ‘That’s something I’ll never forget.’ Old Pa.
· Images – a line of medals that transform into photographs, superimposed onto leaves. Medals are symbols for his memories. The transformation into leaves suggests living memories. The images are of people who have died suggests that ‘memory won’t die’.
· The blue of his eyes stands out to suggest that memories and stories can be told through his eyes.
· Leaves are repeated motifs representing the tree and reminding us about the war. Rebirth of leaves that fall off and grow again.
· Questions about the endurance of memory – does it live past the memories of those who were there?
Ø Human endurance
· The tree symbolises this theme. The tree is ragged, rough, to represent the experiences. It, too, has lived through difficult times. It is old, like Old Pa and Pa. It remains alive through the end of the First World War, the Second World War, the Vietnam and survives until contemporary times.
· The introduction of the Vietnam War is represented by a change in the colour palette which gets greyer and therefore sadder.
Ø Growth
Ø War
Ø Heritage
Ø Acceptance
Ø Reconciliation
· Demonstrates acceptance
· Untold truths through the father’s perspective of his involvement in the Vietnam War.