Graphic Novel ‘Not All Burned’
Part of the sentence ‘Three Breaths’ that talks about hope in ‘Not All Burned Out’. Providing a bright future
The COVID-19 pandemic has brought about many negative changes, but more than anything, it has dramatically exposed the racial and socioeconomic disparities underlying society. Discrimination and stigmatization were rampant due to the chaos of the pandemic.
The graphic novel ‘Not All Burned’ depicts the pain of the pandemic felt by teenagers from a black family in American society, where strict coronavirus quarantine measures were implemented due to a surge in confirmed cases.
The speaker is a teenager who is quarantined at home due to COVID-19. His father is infected with COVID-19 and is coughing constantly, avoiding contact with even his family. Her mother repeatedly watches the news of protests against the case of George Floyd, a black man who died from excessive force by white police. Her younger brother is engrossed in a game, and her younger sister is annoyed and tells her younger brother to get out of the way, saying he is taking up too much space.
Part of a sentence from ‘One Breath’ from ‘Not All Burned’ that describes a racist situation. Providing a bright future
This situation is expressed in three long sentences that read like poetry or a diary. Each sentence forms a chapter with the titles ‘One Breath’, ‘Two Breaths’, and ‘Three Breaths’. Breath One depicts a frustrating situation in which racist incidents are repeated, and Breath Two depicts a family in a state of panic due to being quarantined due to COVID-19. Three Breaths depicts the hope that a situation that seems unchangeable will gradually change, as a person seeks out an oxygen mask to escape from a helpless reality.
The core of the book is the illustrations that run to 384 pages. The pain of the suffocating reality is maximized by the combination of colors sprayed on top of collage illustrations of various textures and relatively simple text added by typing. It won the 2023 Caldecott Award, which awards picture books with outstanding illustrations. Rather than simply placing it in the category of a book, it could be viewed as a catalog of modern art.
Not All Burned · Written by Jason Reynolds · Illustrated by Jason Griffin · Translated by Seokhee Hwang · Published by Bright Future · 384 pages · 28,000 won
Soyeon Kim Reporter jollylife@hankookilbo.com
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