According to McCloud, “Closure” is the
notion that the human mind fills in the missing gaps. Such concept empowers the
readers to end the storyline or fill it since it is rhetorical. In chapter 3 of the book Understanding Comics, McCloud argues
that one relies on sensory insight to experience certain events in the outside
world. According to McCloud, one’s discernment of realism is an act of conviction
(p. 9). As McCloud employs the concept of closure, he allows the readers to
view scenarios in the bigger pictures.
In
the story “The Necklace”, Guy de Maupassant employs the concept of closure
wherein readers had to decide the ending of the story. He introduces a
character named Mathilde who borrows a necklace from Madame Forestier. Then, he
weaves his plot narratives in ways that he never provides an ending. The
closure technique seems disappointing, but it allows the audience to fill in
the missing gaps. De Maupassant utilizes the notion of closure idea that the
ending of the story leaves his readers some determined and optimistic sentiments.
With this, McCloud clearly shows how the concept of closures applies both in
comics and in stories like the one revealed by de Maupassant.
Overall, McCloud also presents the concept of closure. He
uses the idea to allow comics readers to interpret the events invisibly within
space between individual panels. The subject that he use basically commits an
entire chapter. As he aims to find an appropriate grammar of comics, his use of
closure technique encourages the readers to understand and fill in the missing
gap or meaning of the narrative.
Works Cited
McCloud,
Scott. Understanding Comics: The
Invisible Art. Northampton, Mass (1993).
De
Maupassant, Guy. The Complete Short
Stories of Guy de Maupassant. WJ Black, 1903.
Ahmad, good work on your blog! I liked that you went into depth about the story that you chose. By previously stating that McCloud thinks that by allowing the audience to have closure they can make or believe in a bigger picture for the ending of a story or movie. I think that by allowing audiences to picture the ending and build their own scenarios it could lead to a better ending than the author could have written. Using closure in the comic that we are reading as a textbook for class is also interesting because we, as the audience, have to infer a lot of information or scenarios that have not actually been illustrated for us. Overall I think that you understand the concept of closure very well. Good work on your blog!
ReplyDeleteHi, Ahmad. You did a nice job. I like your explanation of McCloud’s thoughts. I am surprised that I may talk about Maupassant’s productions on our English course’s blog. I have a deep impression of several Maupassant’s production because they are frequenters of our Chinese textbooks. Sometimes, Maupassant’s productions appear in our Chinese exam as the reading and understanding part. I studied “The Necklace” when I was in high school.
ReplyDeleteIn my mind, Maupassant gave a dramatic ending that the necklace which the heroine lost was a fake one. I think Maupassant left a suspense to his readers, but not a real “closure”.
Ahmad, your blogs are always one of my personal favorites to be able to read. You always seem to understand exactly what it is that Mr. Claflin is asking us to blog about and you almost always execute it in a way that I learn a completely new idea off of your blogs. This blog is defiantly one of those. The was you define the use of closure as a way for the author to help the reader grasp the material better by having the reader fill in the gaps is something I did not notice when looking into closure. Good job keep up the great work.
ReplyDeleteAhmed, nice work outlining closure, and providing an example. Leaving an ending to the reader's imagination is a kind of closure, though a big and deliberate kind. Do review the guidelines for bibliographies. You are missing the publisher and medium with McCloud as well as the date is in the wrong format. With De Maupassant you are missing the location and the medium.
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