Black·Wings (graphic novel)
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Black·Wings (Chinese: 黑·羽翼, literally “black wings”)is a graphic novel by Macie Lynn. The story depicts the life of Emerson, a girl who has a pair of black wings on her back, living in a world where humans are separated by their races—one race (the Aryans) is greatly privileged while the others (the Aliens) are deprived of basic rights. Lynn has drawn inspirations from the myth of the Trojan War and the history of the Holocaust and Nazi Germany during World War II. This graphic novel addresses the issues of colonialism, racism and sexism, and it also examines how these three deep structures of injustice affect the everyday lives of the characters in the fictional world.
Macie Lynn is a self-proclaimed creative writer-illustrator-photographer-designer. She has written numerous articles and essays, and she is aspired to write more. She even plans to write and publish an original novel in the future.
Besides writing, she is also experienced in drawing and photography. She sometimes draws in her spare time, and she is capable to replicate real-life objects in her drawing as well as create her own ideas and designs. She holds strong enthusiasms toward photography because she believes that photography enables her to “record the everyday surprises and happiness” in her life. She is also capable to use Photoshop and other technologies to make pictures or photos more vivid and appealing.
Lynn is not just a typical artist who draws and writes; instead, she is also proficient and strongly interested in mathematics and economics. She considers herself as a person who has both an artistic side and a logical side.
The story takes place in a fictional world, named Idealland, where people are categorized into two groups: the Aryans and the Aliens. The Aryans considered themselves as the ones with pure and superior blood, while the Aliens— everyone else—are considered as the imperfects and the inferiors. The Aryans believe they are descendants of the powerful gods and goddesses while the Aliens come from evil spirits; thus, they treat the Aliens as if they are slaves. The Aliens are divided into twenty two different sections, where they work as labor forces and perform different tasks for the Aryans; they have to live within their sections and have to follow numerous rules. The Aryans teach children in school stories about the Greek gods and imposes the ideas of their supremacy. No one really knows when this system started, and no one has ever questioned this system. However, the Aryans become more and more tyrannical: they force the Aliens to work longer time yet give them less food, and they also capture innocent Aliens and sent them to experiment labs, where they performs experiment on the Aliens…
There is a place called Idealland. The center of it is the Capital, where modern and efficient infrastructures, such as skyscrapers and railroads, are ubiquitous, and this is where the Aryans live; surrounding the Capital, there are 22 sections, each of them is filled with factories, farmlands, and small houses, and this is where the Aliens live.
One night, in Section III, a baby girl was born; but soon after the girl was born, her mother died. The family then finds out that the baby girl has two hideous scars on her back, so they think the baby is a monster carrying bad luck, and they decide to abandon the baby near a river. Fortunately, Beatrice (also called Bea), a weird old lady, sees the baby, and she takes the baby home and takes care of the baby herself. She named the baby “Emerson,” hoping the baby will become brave and powerful.
Bea works in the farmlands of Section III, so she will bring Emerson with her when she goes to work every day. As Emerson grows older, Emerson starts to help Bea with her work during daytime, while Bea secretly teaches Emerson how to read at night (Even though the Aliens are prohibited to own any books, Bea secretly hides some books in her house). Emerson loves reading; although she has read all of the books that Bea owns, she would still read them over and over at night.
As Emerson turns six, she has to go to school. There is only one school in each Section, and all children in one section attend to the same school. The school has very strict rules. On the first day of school, all rules are taught to the students, and the students have to remember all the rules all the time. In the morning of school, the students will have lessons taught by the teachers from the Capital, who always appear to be disgusted by the students; in the afternoon, they will be assigned different tasks to work on, such as sewing, planting, etc. Emerson does not really like school; she does not like the teachers’ lessons that the Aryans are the descendants of god and are always superior while the Aliens comes from evil spirits and is always inferior to the Aryans. The teachers are the only Aryans who Emerson has ever met so far, but Emerson cannot find that many differences between the teachers and everyone else from the Aliens, except that the teachers have better and prettier clothes.
As Emerson turns thirteen, she no longer has to attend school, so she works on the farmlands to help Bea. One night, Emerson finds a pair of black wings growing out of her back, where her scars are. She shows it to Bea, Bea is shock at first and soon calms down and warns Emerson never show it to anyone else so that people would not freak out and treat her as monster. However, as Emerson grows older, her wings also grows bigger, which makes her look like she is hunchbacked. Some people laugh at her, but she never gets upset or worries about what other people say about her. Emerson does not have any close friend, but she is content because she has Bea and the books.
Although the Aliens have always been treated badly, the situation has gone worse over time. The Aryans become more and more demanding, they tighten their control on food but make the Aliens work more. Some people start to hide food from the Aryans so that the whole family would not starve to death, even though they might be killed if they caught doing so. In addition, the Aryans also start to capture innocent people and take them to the Capital, and those people who are captured are never seen again. However, most of the Vices still follow the rules of the Aryans because they think they are safer in this way.
One day, Emerson finds that Bea is captured by the army of the Aryan after she comes home from work, so she decides to sneak into the Capital to save Bea at night. The dark night perfectly conceals her black wings, and with her black outfit, she is almost blended into the dark night sky. Tracking the trial of the army, she finds the “prison” — a worn down building near Section III— where Bea is captured. Along with Bea, there are several other people from Section III who are also captured. Since it is just a temporary transit place for the captures, there are not many soldiers guarding them. Emerson distracts the guards ad eventually rescue Bea successful. She then learns from them that the Aryans are capturing the Aliens and sending them to the labs so that scientists can perform real-life experiments on them.
Instead of feeling fearful, Emerson feels furious for the unjust oppression and mistreatment against the Aliens, and she decides that she needs to save everyone from the Aryans, despite Bea’s warnings. She secretly practices combat skills and studies the use of herbs. Because she is always a fast learner, she soon becomes skilled on both fields. She starts to secretly rescue the captured Aliens from the temporary transit sites, and later she starts to shift her targets to the larger sites. Her intelligence and her skills have enabled her to succeed every time. Yet her frequent action of rescue has also attracted the attention of the Aryans.
One day, she saves an old lady from one of the transit site, yet the woman wants to go back to the Aryans and be captured. Eventually, Emerson learns that the woman’s daughter, Rae, is wanted by the Aryans because of her beauty, the woman attempts to keep her daughter from being taken, but the father of the girl insists to turn in the girl to prevent getting into troubles;, the woman is left no choices and has to secretly sneak out from home and try to save the daughter herself. Emerson decides to help the woman and promises to save her daughter.
After several nights of searching, Emerson finds Rae in a well-guarded room in one of the skyscrapers. She sneaks in through the window and tries to save Rae, yet Rae refuses to leave because she believe it will be better for her family and she has to listen to her father. Unable to convince her, Emerson decides to just take her by forces. However, Rae starts yelling, which alerts the guards. Although Emerson still escapes with Rae successfully, the guards find out that kidnapper has a pair of wings. Emerson brings Rae to Section XIII, where Rae’s mother is waiting. After a short reunion between Rae and her mother, the mother tells Emerson that Rae cannot go back home, otherwise the father will just turn her in again. So Emerson brings Rae back to her house. Learning that Rae is homeless, Bea kindly let Rae stays with them.
The news about a winged creature kidnapped a girl from the Aryans, makes the Aryans angry yet causes panic and fear in the Aliens community. Everyone wants to find out about the creature, so Bea forbids Emerson from leaving their house. Rae learns a lot from Emerson, including many thoughts about equality between races and between genders. Although Emerson is forbidden to leave her house, she still sneaks out at night to help rescue other Aliens, yet the rescues are getting harder and harder to accomplish.
Eventually, one night, Emerson is injured and caught by the Aryans. The Aryans decides to burn and kill her in public as a punishment. Most people from all sections see her black wings and think she is a monster who deserves to die. Emerson is killed, and Rae and Bea are devastated, yet Rae realized that she has to do something. She starts to secretly spread the idea of equity and equality and also remind everyone the unjust oppressions and brutal mistreatments that the Aryans have imposed on them. Gradually, some people (mostly young people) change their mind and realize that they should not obey rules blindly. A secret organization is formed with Rae being the leader, an unprecedented movement is about to begin…
Emerson: the protagonist of the story; has a weird scar on her back, where later grows a pair of wings; is unwanted by society but never gives up on society; brave, powerful, and intelligent; eventually sacrifices herself, which arouses Rae’s determination to make a change.
Beatrice (also known as Bea): an old widow who lives by herself; people think she is odd and weird; takes care of Emerson and treats Emerson as if her own daughter; always kind, cheerful and caring.
Rae: a very beautiful girl from Section XIII; is turned in to the Aryans by her father to prevent; influenced and encouraged by Emerson; eventually becomes the leader of a movement against the Aryans.
Lynn drew inspirations from myths and history when she created the novel. “When writing the story, Black·Wings, I was using inspirations that I got from the myth of the Trojan War and the history of the Nazi Germany during WWII,” Lynn mentioned in an interview, “and I created most of the main characters by taking characteristics from certain characters in the myth or in history and adding new personalities to them. It felt like I was mixing elements of chemicals together to make a completely new products, and the process was always fun and fascinating.”
According to Lynn, the protagonist of the story, Emerson, is modeled after Eris — the “goddess of discord” in Greek Mythology. “Many stories of Greek mythology are sexist in some ways,” said Lynn, “the story of the Trojan War is an example that reveals the structure of sexism in Greek mythology.” In the story of the Trojan War, Eris is not invited to Zeus’s banquet, yet she somehow shows up with a golden apple upon which inscribed “KALLISTI, meaning ‘For the Fairest’,” and the golden apple stirs up “a vanity-driven dispute among the goddesses that eventually led to the Trojan War.” Therefore, Eris is usually blamed for provoking the Trojan War, while Paris, who steals Helen from Menelaus and causes Menelaus to invade Troy, is never blamed.
“I wanted to write stories for the female characters who are the ‘victims’ of sexism in the Greek myths,” said Lynn, “so Eris is who I choose to write about in Black·Wings.” Lynn took the characteristics of Eris that Eris is unwanted and feared by society and added it to the protagonist, Emerson; however, Lynn wanted to manifest more about the “hidden sides” of Eris, which are her intelligence and her agency—the ability to act or to influence others, so these personalities are also added to Emerson and will be emphasized in the graphic novel.
Other than Eris, Lynn also created a character in her story based on Helen from the myth of the Trojan War. Helen is the most beautiful woman on earth, and she is the wife of Menelaus. Some versions of the myth say Helen abandons her husband willingly and leaves with Paris because of her lust, yet others says that Aphrodite made Helen fall in love with Paris. “Both versions describe Helen as a culpable and vulnerable person,” Lynn said, “she is either blamed for being adulterous or is depicted as mere puppet--a person with no agency.” Lynn agrees with Ruby Blondell’s idea that Helen is “a concept, not a person” and is created for the imagination and desire of men. Because of her beauty, many men are willing to fight for her, and thus wars happen. Some people say that Helen’s beauty is “the roots of all evil” and blame Helen for the Trojan War. However, Lynn disagrees, “Helen does not have the choice to choose whether she wants to be beautiful or not, and blaming her for being beautiful is in fact sexist.”
Lynn attempted to show a different perspective toward the myth regarding the part about Helen. “I wanted to overturn the image that woman is either vulnerable or evil,” Lynn said, “and I created Rae based on Helen yet quite different from Helen. Unlike Helen, Rae changes over time, and she develops agency — the ability to act according to what she wants; with the influences of Emerson, she eventually becomes the leader of the anti-Aryans movement.
In addition to the myth, Lynn has also borrowed some elements from history and implemented them into her story. She adopted the social structures of Nazi Germany during World War II as the foundation for the setting of her story. She even named the fictional world “Idealland” because this society would be the ideal society in Hitler’s belief of master race. However, the society is in fact all messed up and is full of injustices and inequalities; thus, the name of the world serves as a satire to the racist belief of the ideal world. “I was attempting to replicate the ‘ideal society’ that Hitler dreams about,” Lynn said, “however, I will not try to defend it but will destroy it.” Furthermore, Lynn named the supposedly “superior” race the “Aryans” and named the “inferior” race, which is everyone else, the “Aliens.” Such setting is also an attempt to recreate Hitler’s philosophy of “Master Race” and “Alien Races.”
Themes and Social Critique
Racism, Colonialism, and Sexism
Since the setting of the world is based on the history of Nazi Germany, the novel also adopted many structures of inequality that are clearly manifested in the Nazi society. Racism is one of the deep structures of injustice in the fictional world. The belief that the Aryans are the superior race while all the others (the Aliens) are the inferiors directly exposes the structure of racism. In addition, the elements of racism is also manifested by the rules that are imposed on the Aliens and the mistreatments from the Aryans For instance, the teachers from the Capitals who show disgusted looks toward the students and the lessons that the students learn at school are the means to emphasizes the racist belief in their educational system, exposing them to little kids, which helps strengthen the belief as well as imposes it as a universal thing into everyone’s daily life.
Sexism is also one of the biggest themes of the novel. Similar to the Nazi Party’s supportive belief that “world is her husband, her family, her children, and her home,” people in the fictional world also want women to focus on their own family and be submissive to their husband, enforcing the power of men over women. For example, Rae’s father turns in Rae to the Aryans despite Rae’s mother’s opposition; even when Rae’s mother goes to save Rae, she goes secretly by herself because she fears the opposition from her husband; Moreover, because she wants to obey her father’s order, Rae refuses to leave with Emerson; when she finally reunites with her mother, she still cannot go back home with her mother because she fears the power of her father. All these scenes are indications of the existence of sexism in the fictional society.
The setting of put the Aliens into sections resembles the action of the Nazi Party setting up concentration camps, where they imprisoned and enslaved non-Aryan people. These sections or camps are representations of the internal colonies, where the human resources are exploited as labor forces and slaves. Such setting reveals the structures of internal colonialism in the fictional world.
The main protagonist of the story, Emerson, is not the prettiest in the world. She is born with hideous scars on her back and is eventually abandoned by her family. The event of the new born baby being abandon marks the first unfair judgment and mistreatment against Emerson by society: they judge her by her physical features and her appearance. However, she is fortunate enough to meet someone who is willing to take her in—Bea.
Bea is another character who is judged by society, and she is perceived as being an odd widow who lives by herself in a small cottage house. However, unlike what people would imagine her to be, Bea is always cheerful and kind, and she is willing to take care of Emerson and treat her as her own daughter despite Emerson has two ugly scars on her back. Bea does not care about what other people think about, that is probably why Emerson later becomes immune to how everyone else looks at her.
Throughout the story, Emerson is perceived as an outcast of society. She has ugly scars and dark black wings; she has the Alien blood which is unwanted by the Aryans; she looks like she is hunchbacked when she hides her wings under her shirt. However, instead of getting upset and giving up on life, Emerson is content about her life because of Bea and her books, which give her both physical and spiritual supports for life. Although society abandons her, judges her and even wants her dead, she never gives up on society, and she is even willing to fight for the people who judges her, abandons her and dislikes her; when she is caught by the Aryans and is going to be executed, she never blames society and never regrets her choices. She has her own beliefs, and she is strong and independent, and this creates a sharp contrast with most of the women in Idealland, who is submissive to their husband or father and has no agency.
Rae was one of them. However, Rae changes under the influences of Emerson. Rae learns to be on her own and decide her own path. She grows from a girl who is submissive and obedient (what society wants from a typical girl) to a mature woman who have her own thoughts and are able to carry out her own ideas—she even becomes the founder/leader of the anti-Aryans organization and leads the movement against Aryans.
Unlike most graphic novels in which a masculine male character will show up at the end and fix everything, male characters in Black·Wings are usually associated with being manipulative and irrational, such as Rae’s father who insists on giving Rae to the Aryans so that they could prevent troubles. Female characters play a more important role in this graphic novel. They can do whatever a man can do and also things that sometimes men are afraid to do. Rae’s mother is an example. Although she is still submissive toward her husband, she is willing to take the risk and be captured by the Aryans in order to save Rae.
Special Edition (Summary and Analysis)
Lynn has drawn a one-page special edition episode for the novel, and it is a short story corresponding to the history of book burning in Nazi Germany in May, 1933. Although it is not part of the main story, it is included at the end of the Graphic Novel. Below of an excerpt of the description about the story:
“It was a cold night, yet Emerson did not feel the coldness at all during that night; her heart was hurting, aching, and being torn part, as the armed soldiers stormed in her house and swept away all the books in the hidden drawer. She stood there helplessly, staring blankly at the empty drawer, at the place where her books used to be… Not long after the search and seizure, Emerson saw through the window that a fire was started at the Town Center of the section. She rushes out of her house and ran toward the bright, burning redness… In the Town Center, beyond the crowds of scared faces, she saw the red, burning flame devouring a big pile of books. Tears started to fall down her face, yet something has deeply rooted in her mind…”
This special edition describes to the readers another side of Emerson—her vulnerable side. Although Lynn has always depicted Emerson as being the bravest and strongest characters in the graphic novel, “it is inevitable for everyone to feel vulnerable and weak sometimes,” said Lynn, “and this is what Emerson is feeling when her books—one of her spiritual supports—is taken away from her.” Books and Bea are the spiritual and physical support of life for Emerson; she regards them as her best friends and her loved ones. When her books are taken away from her and are burn down by the Aryans, she will definitely feel sad, powerless and helpless. “Emerson is a normal person too,” said Lynn, “she is just a bit stronger than the other.” The special edition shows the emotional and vulnerable side of Emerson, and it helps to humanizes Emerson, which allows the readers to relate to Emerson instead of simply regarding Emerson as an indestructible machine-like person.
Visual and Literary References
The cover of the graphic novel is consisted of an image of the protagonist, Emerson, dressed in all black with a pair of magnificent black wings, and an image of the Capital in the background. Lynn designs the outfits for Emerson to be all black so that it would allow her to travel at night with her wings without other people’s notices (Emerson always attacks the transit sites at night because the dark sky help disguise her).
Although the setting of the story is based on the history of Nazi Germany during WWII, the story is set to happen in the near future; therefore, there are many skyscrapers and modern day infrastructures that readers can find in the novel when Lynn describes the Capital. However, the 22 sections only have small buildings and factories; thus it creates a great contrast between the living environments of the two communities, which serves to emphasize the inequality in the fictional society. “I want everyone to image that the story happens in today’s world,” said Lynn, “and I want them to be able to connect with the story. When they looks at the skyscrapers in the big cities and compare them to the small and worn down houses in the poor village, I want them to understand that inequality also happens in today’s society.”
Some characteristics of Emerson resonate with Lauren Olamina, the protagonist of Octavia Butler’s novel, Parable of Sower. Lauren attempts to read all different kinds of books, including books about how to distinguish and use herbs, to learn survival skills, and Emerson wants to learn combat skills and usage of herbs when she confront the Aryans during her rescue. Both of them are brave and intelligent. In addition, both of them both have some superpowers that are also their disabilities. Lauren has hyper-empathy which supposedly should help her understand and connect with others, yet she has to kill people before she feels their pains, in order to prevent herself from feeling the enormous pains that those people are bearing. As for Emerson, although she sacrifices herself to save others, Emerson does not get supports or helps from the Aliens because of the black wings she has; the black wings help her when she confronts with and fight against the Aryans, but it also kills her when she faces the judgments from society.
The graphic novel has received some negative feedbacks from the critics. One of the problems that the critics have noted is that the structures of the world are not sophisticated enough, and the characters in the story are simply “black and white,” with the Aryans—the bad guys—oppressing the Aliens—the victims. Some also points out that the counter narrative of the story is not yet well-developed, and they believe that the counter narrative seems to be a reverse of the master narrative. Some also criticizes Lynn’s novel for reverse-racism. Rather than defending the view of the “Aliens,” it seems to attack the “Aryans” and dehumanizes everything that they do.
Blondell, Ruby. Helen of Troy: Beauty, Myth, Devastation. Oxford University Press, 2013.
Bock, Gisela. "Racism and sexism in Nazi Germany: Motherhood, compulsory sterilization, and the state." Signs (1983): 400-421.
Burkert, Walter. Structure and history in Greek mythology and ritual. No. 47. Univ of California Press, 1982.
Butler, Octavia E. Parable of the Sower. Open Road Media, 2012.
Danticat, Edwidge. Breath, eyes, memory. Vintage, 1994.
Epstein, Catherine A. Nazi Germany: Confronting the Myths. John Wiley & Sons, 2015.
Evans, Richard J. The Third Reich in Power. Penguin, 2006.
Korfmann, Manfred. "Was there a Trojan war?." Archaeology 57.3 (2004): 36-41.
Peukert, Detlev. Inside Nazi Germany: Conformity, opposition, and racism in everyday life. Yale University Press, 1987.
Reich, Greater German. "Nazi Germany." World War II (1939).
Schweller, Randall L. Maxwell's demon and the golden apple: global discord in the new millennium. JHU Press, 2014.
Sheehan, Thomas. "Heidegger and the Nazis." The New York Review of Books35.10 (1988): 38-47.
Wilson, Emily. "An Invented Woman The many meanings of Helen of Troy." NEW REPUBLIC 245.8 (2014): 56-59.
s-u-f-j-a-n-s-t-e-v-e-n-s
romaincrisis
blakekathryn
germansingergirl
origamiaround
pixelskylines