Night

has fallen and the moon casts an eerie glow on the streets below the
window where I sit. But this is not the same white glow that usually graces the city;
no, something is different tonight. Tonight the light is heavy and the night is grim.
Even though the light is here, I can tell that it has been consumed by the dark. This
dark light blankets the city for as far as I can see through my small third story
window. I become blanketed with fear cowering in the safety of my home, while the
city is being consumed by rage.
Chaos fills the streets, as their distant howls grow louder, angrier, and closer.
Madness and the craving of revenge possess them to the point where they will not
settle for anything less. They are coming for me because they know what I have
done.
Twenty-six of them approach like missiles locked onto their target. I
remember each one as clearly and if not clearer than my own face. The fearful look
in their eyes as us soldiers surrounded a village, then came the whining and howling
as they set off a warning, and lastly was the silence. I remember the look of
confusion in their innocent eyes as I would let out a sigh and take in the silence of
their deaths.
As I sit here one million thoughts run through my head and I see them round
the bend down the street. My past streamlines towards me like a pack of rabid dogs
coming closer, closer, and closer until it is right under my nose and I am looking at it
dead in the eyes, just as I did to twenty-six dogs so long ago. Everything falls silent
and motionless as I gaze down from my window and the dogs sneer up at a coward.
I let out a sigh. I pulled the trigger. I took their lives.



The panels I chose are the four panels on page 4 that provide us with an
opening to the story. Even when watching the film this was one of my favorite
scenes because so much emotion is conveyed with so few words. In the panels
leading up to these four, motion lines are used excessively to show the urgency if the
dogs as they tear through the streets. However, in these four frames time seems to
slow down as the dogs and Boaz come to a standoff. The frame that shows an up
close image of one dog’s eyes is so detailed and without a doubt is meant to show
the animal’s rage and anger. However we then see Boaz who, sitting high in his
window, is distant and whose face we can barely make out. This leaves room for
interpretation by the reader as we stay an extra few seconds on this frame and try to
imagine what he must be feeling/thinking. Additionally, the frame with Boaz is
almost completely cloaked by the yellow light that Folman utilizes throughout the
novel. This is a technique he uses to show that the event is based in memory but is
unknown and distorted. We see the same lighting with Folman’s own flashback from
the massacre.
I think these frames do a great job of showing how our pasts can be haunting
and how eventually we must all face the parts of our pasts that we most want to
forget.