Pleasure Reading: Ghost World

Recently I decided to venture from my usual text novel reading to read Daniel Clowes' graphic novel Ghost World. I have to say that at first, I found it to be extremely vulgar. The characters used the "F" word on many occasions and there were various sexual references. Looking past the vulgarity of the text though, I could see how these two female main characters could relate to teenagers today. The major theme of the novel was finding one's identity and dealing with change. In the end, Enid, the main character who hates everything about herself and life, decided to attend college and get out of her small town to become a new person. It seemed like a depressing ending, but when she came into the last scene of the comic, the reader could tell Enid was happier.

The movie turned out to have a different motive than the graphic novel. Enid once again was trying to find herself amongst all of her cynical ideas toward the world, but she did so through another, slightly creepy man named Seymore. I did not like how the Director interpreted the story in this way. Also, Enid denied a scholarship to attend college in order to stay at home in her cynical life that she hated. The Director definitely changed the entire idea and moral of the novel by changing the story in this way and it thoroughly disappointed me. Though it was disappointing and different, it still turned out to be interesting and both stories related to young adults, which in turn would relate to our future students.