Blankets

Panel 1: page 51. The whole page is taken up by a panel with a smaller panel in it. It shows the main character with his hands clasped looking up saying "At that moment I knew what I wanted..." and then the larger panel shows him dancing in the clouds naked saying "I wanted heaven." I like this panel because the smaller panel is consumed by the bigger picture: heaven. Also the clouds from heaven go into the smaller panel. It's dreamlike. He is picturing himself in heaven. I think a really interesting part in there is that he is naked. He is bullied because of his skinny body, and there is hinting at that he may have been molested in the previous pages. This can result in shame about his body, but in heaven he may see himself free of his body.
Panel 1: page 59. The bottom panel shows three images of Craig. At the top of them is "I wanted to burn my memories." What's interesting about this is that his torso is drawn out, but his face is blurred slightly in the first image, more blurred in the second, and then the third image has no recognizable features of his face and then there is a split at the top of his head with what looks like flames coming out of it. There is torment in this. Obviously someone is tormented if they say they want to burn their memories, but the pictures shows an imagined effort to follow through.
Panel 3: page 127. I like the way this panel illustrates the effort of the furnace to kick on and when it finally does the hum in the picture surrounds the room. I think it is a beautiful way to illustrate the noise and the heat of the furnace enveloping the rec room.

The first part of the book talks about being young and wrapped up into religion and what it can positively do. Craig, the main character in "Blankets" is comforted by the fact that heaven could be a place where he doesn't experience pain. In "Oranges" the young Jeannette found comfort in her religion as well. However, when both characters get older their sexuality conflicts with the messages of the church. "Blankets" goes further into their problems with the bible, but they both address what the church doesn't do for them. Dickinson's poem "Some Keep the Sabbath" discusses the same idea of a building for a church is not what works for her. This is the eventual realization that both characters of "Blankets" and "Oranges" comes to.