Analysis of Technique, a Theory of How Safe Area Gorazde by Joe Sacco - Essay Example

An analysis of technique, a theory of how Safe Area Gorazde by Joe Sacco Safe Area Gorazde, a so-called journalistic comic book, was the result of Joe Sacco's experiences who is a Palestine during a total of four months spent in Bosnia, former Yugoslavia, in 1995 to 1996. The book was heralded as a landmark of a new era in journalism. The appeal of the book comes not only from its unique presentation, but from Sacco's fascinating style in successfully combining the histories of the Bosniaks trapped in Gorazde he himself heard first hand and his observations of the enclave and the dangers of war he personally witnessed. The Gorazde is an enclave in the former Yugoslavia where Muslims were trapped and besieged by Bosnian Serbs during the war, which followed the death of Yugoslavia's charismatic partisan leader, Josip Broz Tito. The researcher believes that Sacco actively chose how his book and Gorazde's story was presented to the world to maximize the reactions he wanted his readers to feel. Joe Sacco heavily used irony in presenting the life of the Bosniaks during the forced refuge in their town by juxtaposing ideas and concepts we have taken for granted in the modern world as we knew it in 1995 and 1996 with that of Bosnia, whose claim to fame is the ravages of ethnic cleansing. This style was made clear in the beginning of the comic book, Prologue. Well, before that, an observant reader would opine that the title of the book itself is an irony. Gorazde, surrounded and bombarded by the Serbs, was never a safe place at that time. Safe Area Gorazde opens with the Bosnians of Gorazde seemingly at ease and taking a bit of a rest in a caf. This ordinariness is belied by the opening statement, "We were sitting in the Alkatraz "backs to the wall Doc Holliday style" as Edin liked to say, waiting for the end of the war" (Sacco and Hitchens). Though Alkatraz at that time had already declared a national recreational area and a United States landmark well before Sacco entered the enclave, its reputation as a very isolated prison didn't diminished. This is supported by the claim that during the 29 years Alkatraz operated as a federal prison, no one had ever successfully escaped (National Park Service). Sacco, from the get go, has declared that everything is much more that what it seems. That is the calmness of the opening scenario is suffocated by the fact that the Muslim Bosnians are trapped in their town of Gorazde not unlike those prisoners in the fable, long ago Alkatraz. Of course, the mention of Doc Holliday in the same breath as Alkatraz just emphasized the gravity of the situation. Doc Holliday, an American gambler and gunfighter who lived sometime in 1851 to 1887, was famous for his devil may care attitude and his pursuit of death no matter how violent rather than die by his disease, tuberculosis. In a following scene, a new character was introduced. A man claiming to have written the book "The Real Truth About This Town" said that if Joe Sacco was a "real journalist, who sought the Real Truth," (Sacco and Hitchens) then he would "visit him and look over his manuscript about Gorazde, and he would explain everything " (Sacco and Hitchens). This is the funniest irony in the book. After all, Sacco is a real journalist, that is, as real as they come. Sacco, at the end of the first day, which the researcher assumed, mentioned that no announcement was ever made to the disappointments of the prisoners, er, residents of Gorazde. In the same breath, Sacco said, "Milosevic, Tudjman, and Izetbegovic were still behind closed doors in Dayton, Ohio, and maybe the war was going to go on forever" Milosevic, Tudjman, and Izetbegovic are the "three ethnic leaders at the Dayton, Ohio, talks convened by the Clinton administration in late 1995 to end the Bosnian conflict" (New York Times). Slobodan Milosevic, the Serbian leader, represented the Serbs, Franco Tudjman that of Croatia, and Alija Izetbegovic for the Bosnian Muslims. In the above representation, the researcher believes that Joe Sacco and Christopher Hitchens were comparing the agitation of the Bosnians of Gorazde of the uncertainty of waiting and that of the three ethnic leaders in their uncertainty of the results of their more than a week long negotiations in Dayton, Ohio. Though the United States brokered the dialogue to eventually produce peace agreements among the former Yugoslavian divisions, this is uncertain as Milosevic, Tudjman and Izetbegovic brought with different and often times opposing agenda to the table unlike those people in Gorazde who wishes for one thing only, that the war ends soon and not go on forever. The happenings of the negotiations in Dayton were so detached from reality as Joe Sacco depicted in Safe Area Gorazde. "I didn't make any difference between Serb, Croat, and Muslim children. We were always together... fishing, in forests, on the playground, the stadium..." (Sacco and Hitchens). During the Dayton negotiations, Warren Christopher in his autobiography observed that "Milosevic and Tudjman were still having trouble closing on the issue of how long the Serbs would take to withdraw from Eastern Slavonia. Milosevic demanded three years; Tudjman offered one" (262). One wonders why such complexity aroused from the former unity and national cohesiveness of Yugoslavia in Tito's time, which was brandished around the world as a model nation of diversity. Nevertheless, the impact of what happened was succinctly summarized by Sacco's "Before the war, Everyone had everything, cars, food, jobs. They had a good life... and then they started shooting. Never in my life will I understand why. They destroyed our lives, the Serbs, but also they destroyed their own lives." It is irony that the reason why everyone started shooting is reduced to a gap in a sentence []. Though the exploration of this reason is not Joe Sacco's raison d'tre in writing the book, the book, however, with its vivid portrayal of the hardships of Serbs, Croats and Bosnians alike during and after the war forces its readers to explore why people behave as they do and in the process destroy not only the lives of others, but their own as well. Sacco's Safe Area Gorazde forces its readers to ask "What happen" Thus, the researcher concludes that the experience of the book goes beyond the reading of its last page. After the book, one can't help but ask "Why did the Serbs, in spite of having lived in harmony with their Muslim friends and neighbours, suddenly start shooting at these same friends and neighbours, torturing them and executing them Why forego harmony for violence Why did the rest of the Serbs follow the actions of their Chetnik brothers Why Why Why Most of these questions may never be answered, but what matters is that through Sacco's eyes, we learned what would happen if once again, such hatred reigns. The author also successfully juxtaposed the ordinary lives of Gorazde's inhabitants with that chaos resulting from a war they themselves didn't wish or desire for. "Every morning, before tending to the animals, Edin's mom would tiptoe into the room where I slept to get the wood fire going in the stove. Water was boiled and dinner heated on the stove. Clothes were dried above it. The stove provided the house's only heat. I loved that stove." (Sacco and Hitchens) The above seemingly common day to day life of Edin's family and their foreigner visitor is disturbed continually by the endless boredom of war. "I got some magazines from the British peacekeepers when they were here. I read about a film called 'Pulp Fiction.' I really want to see that movie. We want to talk about something other than the war... New fashion... ANYTHING new." Though, the readers may unanimously agree that Safe Area Gorazde is not a pleasant or happy book, it does serve its purpose very well. Though most of us will never experience the events and feelings depicted in the books, it doesn't mean we need to stop caring for the plights of the less fortunate. Joe Sacco's book was successful in that it will always be a living plea to everyone to start caring. References Christopher, Warren. Chances of a Lifetime. New York: Simon and Schuster, 2001. National Park Service. "Alcatraz Island", National Park Service U.S. Department of the Interior. http://www.nps.gov/alcatraz/ (17 Oct. 2010). New York Times. "ranjo Tudjman, Ex-Communist General Who Led Croatia's Secession, Is Dead at 77." New York Times 11 Dec. 1999. http://www.slobodan-milosevic.org/tudjman-death.htm (17 Oct. 2010). Sacco, Joe and Christopher Hitchens. Safe Area Gorazde: The War in Eastern Bosnia 1992-1995. Seattle: Fantagraphics Books, 2002. Read More