Andreia Tobias, Monica Recusani and Rosana Marcondes
October 2010
Introduction
In order to develop our stylistic analysis, the group has chosen two stories of the Brazilian Comic Book, Monica´s Gang, because they own an informal and, in this case, a funny language which apparently represent a simple written production, but in its creation we observe that there are various elements that compose them.
The group will analyze the Punctuation because there are a variety of resources in order to represent a real story, aspects of spoken language (features of comics book) and the present time. Another topic that it will be analyzed is the Figure of Speech because most of Comic Books are full of this aspect to enrich the text and make them more similar to the spoken language, trying to catch the reader’s attention by representing the sound of our real world.
About Comic Books
The Comic Book plot is narrated by frame through drawings and text and uses a direct speech, characteristic of spoken language. A comic book portrays a story through a series of sequential illustrations that incorporates short bits of text containing dialogue, sounds, or narratives. The story may be humorous, or may present a world of adventure, mystery or fantasy. Most comic books are printed on a regular basis and have one or more central characters that appear in each issue. A particular story may be told in a single issue and it may continue from one issue to the next over a period of time. The artistic style of a comic book is often attributed to a single artist, although most comics are produced by a team of artists and writers working together.
The Comic book has an autonomous language, which uses its own mechanisms to represent the narrative elements. There is the meta-language with its own language, usually regular format, technique of narration through images and the use of ellipsis that selects the main actions that occurred between one and another comic book, figurative and linguistic codes (balloons) and the words. In a Comic Book, according to the author’s intention, there may be only use of pictures where the messages are implied, or in the most comics, pictures and words complement each other and may not cause redundancy in the message.
About punctuation and figures of speech
When we express ourselves through our speech (spoken or written) we reveal our feelings, show our ideas in order to interact and expose them in a social level. As a result, we observe that our speech is full of personal impressions, intonation as pauses, incomplete thoughts and elements which show what we want to express. When it is a written speech there are significant and fundamental marks as punctuation marks and figures of speech that reveal the feelings and emotions the author uses to create an impact. These marks are stylistic resources to make a written text more appealing and serve to give a meaning which will cause an effect and impression to the reader.
Punctuation is a system of symbols called punctuation marks used to separate sentences and parts of sentences, and to make their meaning clear. Punctuation marks aid to the understanding of written texts. Each punctuation mark is used to a definite purpose and depending on the author´s choice may mean and express certain feeling and emotion, may represent pauses, and may express the intonation the writer wants to show. Consequently in order to express clearly the ideas it is necessary to use, more specific, how to use properly punctuation marks, thus the reader may understand the message. The punctuation is part of our life and is a fundamental tool in written and spoken speeches that is why is so important to use them accurately and properly.
Figures of speech are resources that authors use to make a message more significant. They are resources used for sounds, words, structures or meanings to better valorize our language. It is a tool which serves to manipulate the speech to express emotions, persuade, convince, or have an impact on the reader in order to reach specific goals. The produced text is a result of the choices an author does when he writes and we observe clearly how he uses a stylistic resource, how this style reflects on the construction of a text, and how these figures are presented.
In order to analyze how an author uses punctuation and figures of speech in a comic book we have chosen two texts to show how it works and how the author manipulates the speech to cause the effect he wanted.
Analyzing the Comic Book: Monica´s Gang
Monica's Gang, originally titled Turma da Mônica in Portuguese, is a popular Brazilian comic book series created by Mauricio de Sousa. The plots are centered on the adventures of a group of seven-year-old friends in the fictional neighborhood of Limoeiro in São Paulo. It is a magazine made up of narrative artwork with individual scenes and combines both word and image in sequential order. It is accompanied by dialogs which are represented by word balloons.
In the first story (Figure 1) we can observe the use of the figure of speech onomatopoeias which is a stylistic way to emphasize and create emotional reaction to what is being said. The onomatopoeia is a figure of speech that imitates or suggests the source of the sound that it describes. The first onomatopoeia is in the picture six, where the author expresses Jimmy Fives´s joy by his thought “He He He” because his plan seems to have worked out. In picture 7, Monica is making a great effort and the word “OOf” helps to show the reader this feeling.
The punctuation is a mark or sign to separate words into sentences, clauses, and phrases in order to clarify meaning in order to help the reader, and make the meaning clear. We observe in the first story the use of ellipsis to mark pauses and expresses too much emotion, insinuation and also creates tension.
The author shows the idea of space and time using ellipsis when Monica prepares a recipe. And with musical notes around the balloon, he indicates that the character prepares her recipe singing happy. Then, using ellipsis conveys the character’s effort to prepare the dough with cement. In the last picture, the ellipsis indicates a pause when they talk to bring suspense into the action and to the character.
The text is also full of exclamation marks at the end of the sentences to show strong emotion and emphasize surprise and effort.
In the second story (Figure 2) of Monica´s Gang, we can realize that most of pictures have onomatopoeia because the characters – Smudge and Jimmy Five – are trying to make each other laugh. In order to make the characters to reach their goals the author makes use of many sounds to represent fright, effort, laugh, disgust and monster.
In the second story (Figure 2) of Monica´s Gang, we can realize that most of pictures have onomatopoeia because the characters – Smudge and Jimmy Five – are trying to make each other laugh. In order to make the characters to reach their goals the author makes use of many sounds to represent fright, effort, laugh, disgust and monster.
The ellipsis pauses and the exclamation emphasizes the jokes and the fear that the characters feel when they go to bed because they cannot sleep for remembering the jokes they had made during the day .
Figure 2
Conclusion
The importance of using figures of speech as well as punctuation in the kind of subgenre we analyzed is primordial because it is well observed that the use of stylistic resources play a fundamental role in the creation of the atmosphere that a Comic Book, in this case, Monica´s gang comic book, requires. It shows how an author uses these resources in written to tell and communicate us the feelings and emotions of the characters. All these resources are appealing and present the grammar structures used to create these stories. We are perfectly able to understand and fell how a character is expressing himself. The punctuation marks in written are symbols that help the readers to understand the meaning of the sentences and the figures of speech helps us to provide emphasis, freshness of expression, or clarity.
References
BRITANNICA ONLINE ENCYCLOPEDIA online] Available from http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/483473/punctuation [Retrieved 31 October 2010 00:10 am]
COMICS ANALYSIS [on line] Available from http://amazingmontage.tripod.com/theorymenu.html [Retrieved 17 October 2010 11:21am]
LIVRARIA CULTURA [on line] Available from http://www.livrariacultura.com.br/imagem/capitulo/2698445.pdf [Retrieved 16 October 2010 3:36 pm]
PORTALINTERCOM [on line] Available from http://www.intercom.org.br/papers/nacionais/2009/resumos/R4-3617-1.pdf [Retrieved 16 October 2010 4:12 pm]
