Arters AP Literature 2016-17 discussion

The Sandman has been a prominent figure in both folklore and pop culture for many years, taking root in Scandinavian children's stories, and making appearances as the topic of popular songs or even as a mascot for mattress companies. Never before, however, has the Sandman been anthropomorphized in the way that Neil Gaiman portrays him as the titular protagonist in his 1989 fantasy/horror graphic novel, The Sandman. In an interview, Gaiman tells NPR that he has always been fascinated by dreams saying, "The world that's important is the world behind each of our eyes, which is something that none of the rest of us can access." He even jokingly recants about how he frequently talks in his sleep, sometimes having full conversations with his wife at night. Dreams remain the focal point and one of the most prominent motifs throughout the duration of the book. When Gaiman set out to create the Sandman, also known more commonly as Dream in the story, he wanted to create what he believed to be the true embodiment and personification of dreaming. Dream, for the entirety of the story, is a bland, tense recluse who follows the rules and rarely ever even smiles let alone jokes with others in the book. Dream also seemingly lacks empathy for mortals for the most part, especially those who attempt to cross or defy him. I didn’t enjoy this aspect of the book very much, because Dream became a static character and had no growth or development in the story. Perhaps this is because The Sandman is part of a twelve part series and he will have his character arc in later installations, but I was still left with a want to see Dream evolve as a character even in the slightest.
The narrative follows Dream attempting to retrieve possessions that were stolen from him while imprisoned by mortals for almost a decade. These possessions were powerful magical artifacts that allow Dream to manipulate, move through and even create dreams. Each individual who had stolen an artifact had one common goal, that goal being a lust for power. This becomes an overarching theme in the story as Gaiman attempts to use the thieves as vessels to carry the message that the want for power lies within all of us to some extent. He shows that it is human nature to seek dominance over our fellow man, regardless of one's walk of life.
For the most part, I found The Sandman to be quite enjoyable, however I have some criticisms. I enjoyed the plot overall, I found it to be very interesting and compelling, however it had a slow start and it was hard to understand what was happening until about halfway through the book. I also found some of the symbolism to be slightly overworked and trite. For example, a theme that frequently came up was religion, specifically false gods and other sacrilegious imagery. Perhaps this is just my opinion, but I feel as though the whole concept is overused and could be interpreted as insensitive in an attempt to seem rebellious or anarchical. Along the same lines, I also felt that the amount of gore and violent imagery was overpowering the plot and subtracted from the overall impact of the story. I would have understood if maybe one or two parts were gorey to punctuate the story and add emphasis, but it loses its power to be impactful when their is blood and gore on almost every other page. While I understand that this graphic novel falls under the horror genre, I don’t see that as a legitimate excuse to add brutality and bloodshed in excess. However I did think that the plot was very clever and original and there is no doubt that Neil Gaiman is a fantastic story-teller, his ability to utilize language to create masterpieces is astounding and The Sandman is truly a staple piece in the graphic novel genre.

Michael wrote: "The Sandman has been a prominent figure in both folklore and pop culture for many years, taking root in Scandinavian children's stories, and making appearances as the topic of popular songs or even..."
Here's the link to the NPR interview I cited:
http://www.npr.org/2015/12/15/4583195...