Undesirables Unite!
Reading WE3, I didn’t expect to find a story that made me get that throat-tightening sensation when you really want to cry, but hold it inside because you’re in a public place. But I *did* find that story. The cat kills a rat and brings half back for the dog. It’s difficult for me to come up with an example of another graphic novel that has had a similar effect on me. The effect being that my heartstrings are almost yanked out. It’s touching on some level that I can’t quite articulate to see the remnants of WE3 taken care of by a homeless man. Which brings me to the next point of this blog entry…
We touched on the names briefly in class on Tuesday, but it’s been rattling around in my head ever since. The house pets (because that IS what they were) are named Bandit, Tinker, and Pirate. Each name represents a group of people who have typically been considered outcasts or undesirables. Yet each name is also a romanticized name for the group. Not burglar, crook, or robber. Bandit. Not stranger, vagabond, or traveling salesman. Tinker. Not criminal, murderer, or plagiarizer. Pirate.
Additionally, the names of the pets represent groups of people known to be thieves of varying goods; bandit seems to evoke loss of money. Tinker brings to mind child-snatching stories, while pirate stirs thoughts of property loss on a large scale. Furthermore, each group of undesirables represented by the names of the pets has an aspect of transience. Tinkers and pirates have mobility inherent in the definition of the group without a doubt. But even the word bandit contains connotations of roaming groups of thieves on horseback in the deserts of Mexico a century and a half ago.
For the abovementioned reasons (and plenty more), it fits beautifully, poetically, and logically that a homeless man would take care of the two remaining pets. He belongs to yet another undesirable group of people which has the transient facet coupled with the perception of theft. Just as WE3 worked as a team and helped each other, the outcast will help other outcasts.
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