The Three Craigs: Narration in Craig Thompson's Blankets Rick Fahr Jr. College

Craig Thompson’s graphic novel/comic Blankets chronicles the life of protagonist Craig. The novel follows Craig from childhood through young adulthood. It is a bildungsroman in more than one way. Craig’s journey through the years, obviously, fits the arc of a coming-of-age work. However, his relationships (family and love interest) evolve and leave him confused, and at the heart of the novel is his faith and how his feelings about faith and religion change, leaving him with a literal blank slate though no black-and-white answers, an excellent example of a 21st-century bildungsroman. Thompson weaves a compelling tale, and one of the devices he uses to do so is a multiple narration scheme — Current Craig, Young Craig and Older Craig — each aspect serving a particular purpose. Current Craig moves us through the novel through mostly intradiegetic narration. Young Craig gives us insight to Craig’s upbringing, often through extradiegetic narration. Older Craig shows us how Craig has developed and matured, using a mixture of narration types. Briefly examining a few examples of each narration type will illustrate how the methods convey information in effective ways.

Young Craig as narrator occurs mostly at the start of the novel, which...