Formal Analysis of “The Boat”
The Boat is an interactive, digital graphic novel adapted from a short story written by Nam Le, who immigrated from Vietnam to Australia. The narrative follows 16-year-old Mai on her journey to Australia along with over 200 other people, while illustrating the hardships and challenges that she faced on the boat in regard to both herself and the people she befriended. Over the course of six chapters, the reader learns more about Mai’s journey with the help of illustrations, music, and animations. With an option between manual and automatic scrolling, readers can either take the story at their own pace or give up control and experience the narrative exactly as the creators intended. This combination of medias, the way those medias are influenced by the culture from which the story is derived, and the control given to the reader over the pace at which they experience the story make The Boat more impactful than it might be in a more traditional format.
In the first chapter, “The Storm” readers are told the story of a devastating storm wreaking havoc on both the boat and the people occupying it. Behind the text of the story is an animation of a boat rocking in the waves of the storm. This small detail is enough to make the reader feel more grounded in the narrative, but things only get more intense from that point on. When the narrator begins talking about people in the boat being knocked around and into each other, the comic-strip-like illustrations and accompanying text are thrown about the page in much the same way.
As the story progresses, the background animation continues to get darker as a reflection of the development of the storm. When Mai begins to focus her attention inward, rather than on what is going on with the boat, the illustrations become more stagnant, presumably to guide the reader into a different part of the narrative. In the second chapter, the background is less distracting and engaging than in the first chapter, which allows the reader to focus their attention more on the illustrations and the story leading up to where Mai was in “The Storm.”
The story also separates the narrative from the dialogue by using speech bubbles that appear on the illustrations as characters are speaking, which helps with the pacing of the story. In addition to these speech bubbles, there are also thought bubbles throughout the story that contain pictures of actual refugees on a boat, presumably on a journey similar to Mai’s. These pictures are in every chapter except for the fourth one, “After the Storm,” — though there doesn’t seem to be anything particular about where they are placed — and the credits are accompanied by a silent video of these refugees. This unique way of approaching the story helps to make the reader feel more involved in what is going on.
There is also an element of sound to this narrative that works to heighten the experience even further. In “The Storm” the audio is a combination of a few different things, the first of which are wind and rain. The other most prominent sound is the crashing and creaking of the boat as people are thrown around inside of it and as it is thrown around in the waves. These noises fade away toward the end of the chapter as Mai begins to fall asleep. The second chapter, “A Good Child” begins with a woman singing an old Vietnamese folk song, which echoes what Mai hears while on the deck of the boat. This then transitions into the sound of birds chirping when Mai is talking with her mother. The beginning of chapter three “Relief” takes place in a market, and is accompanied by the sound of distant, overlapping conversations, while croaking frogs and the gentle movement of water are heard when Mai is in the canoe. These are just some examples of the ways the sounds used in this narrative help the reader feel more immersed in the story and understand the tone of each section they read.
Nam Le, who wrote the story from which The Boat was adapted, experienced a journey much like the one depicted here when he was less than a year old. One problem that often arises from people reading about the experiences of others is that it is easy for them to forget that the things in the story actually happened to someone. This applies just as much for The Boat as it would for any other such story because even though these exact events didn’t take place, they are very much grounded in the reality of what Vietnamese people go through when leaving their home. The construction of this narrative and its use of different forms of media help readers stay present in the story and made aware of the reality of it.
The art style of both the background animations and the more prominent comic-strip illustrations are very recognizable as having stemmed from Asia. The sounds, such as the conversations in the market place, also allow the reader to feel immersed in this culture. The singing of the Vietnamese songs accomplishes this same thing, although in a slightly different way. Both of these things help the reader feel more in touch with the culture of this piece and better empathize with the story that Nam Le tells about these people and their hardships.
Without the combination of all of these different elements, this narrative would not have the same impact on someone without first-hand experience of these kinds of hardships. The combination of art, music, and scrolling through the story keep the reader engaged with three different senses and allows them to experience this narrative in a very specific way. The culture embedded in these art forms enhances the reader’s ability to understand this work and what its creators were trying to accomplish in their telling of this story.
