Thursday, September 16, 2010

Coming of age and finding one's self in Cookalein

In the fourth and final book in Will Eisner's, A Contract With God, there is a family who is going through, or will go through major problems.  This family is sent to camp Cookalein because their husband/father want them gone for the summer. The older woman named Fannie in the story is sent there by her husband because her husband wants to spend the summer with his mistress. This shows how some Jewish men acted during the time when Will Eisner was growing up. It is said that this Graphic novel is somewhat of a memoir of Will Eisner's life, Is it possible that his father was having an affair on his mother when he was growing up. Going off of that is the character of Willie, who, by no choice of his own is forced to go to the camp Cookalein for the summer (Willie is the son of the cheating father and older mother). There at a dance one night, Willie meets this attractive woman, Maralyn. Maralyn thinks Willie is 19 or 20 (he's 15) and decides to sneak out of her room at night to meet Willie in a barn for sex. After the two have sex, Maralyn's husband suprises her and Willie because he caught his wife, Maralyn, cheating. Maralyn tells her husband that she has needs after her husband physically assults her and then the two have sex in front of Willie. Looking at how Willie acts through the rest of the book shows he is confused by this incident; after all, it is assumed he was a virgin. This obviously had a major impact on him. Again, since this is somewhat of a memoir, are we to assume Will Eisner is the character of Willie in the book. Did this happen to him? Or maybe to someone he knew or was close to? There has to be some significance of why this was put in his graphic novel unless we are to assume that this part was entirely made up. Willie had a major coming of age experience and due to the last page of the book with him standing outside on the balcony, it diffently confused him in some shape or form.

1 comment:

  1. This is a really interesting point. I had no idea that happened to Eisner during his youth between his parents. It actually, in my mind, proves the autobigraphic side of the story from Eisner's life.

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