Incarceration In 'Can You Picture This?' Activism Art And Public Scholarship

Have you or someone you know ever been impacted by incarceration? Can You Picture This? Activism, Art and Public Scholarship by Rachel Marie-Crane Williams is an essay written in comic style about her process transitioning from writing scholarly publications to making something accessible for many. The essay also focuses on incarceration, and especially women who are in prison and their experiences. As I read and looked at this comic, I was shocked with how Williams was able to use drawing to evoke strong feelings with the reader. Marjane Satrapi, author of Persepolis, is also successful in her application of the comic style and explores many themes similar to Williams. The essay presents many unique and interesting perspectives that are specific

Activism, Art and Public Scholarship I thought that comics were just about superheroes for young boys and were not meant for an older, more serious audience. After reading these works, I learned that comics can be for anyone and can cover really deep and dark emotions and events. I think that Williams can connect with Satrapi for a multitude of reasons, especially the fundamental idea that the comic style allows for visual details about the senses and emotions. One quote from the essay that demonstrates this is, “Comics are more than stories: this way of presenting experiences also allows me to succinctly share the sounds, sights, and even smells of prison, as well as the conversations and body language” (203). In the essay, Williams utilizes comics to connect with the reader’s senses and provide them with a more personal experience while reading. This novel also tackles very difficult themes and uses the comic style to help present them to a broader audience, similarly to what Williams has done in this essay. The Iranian Revolution was a very serious and violent uprising that drastically altered the lives of many who lived there. Satrapi made these challenging topics and events accessible to someone younger; I was 14 when I first read it. Williams has made it clear that she has this same goal in mind, when using the comic style to present the ordinary reader with information about the prison system and the treatment women

I took English 115, The American Experience, where we spent much of our time learning about the institution of the prison system and what the experience of incarceration is like. It was really interesting to combine this past knowledge with what I learned in the essay, especially because that class focused on men in prison, not women. English 115 taught me that the prison systems in the United States can be very intense and challenging for those that are serving time. We also talked about the need for prison reform and making jail time more about rehabilitation instead of punishment. When I began interacting with the essay, I noticed some similarities between what Williams discusses and the ideas that I learned last semester. One example of this is, “People who are incarcerated need people from the outside to bear witness to their struggles, remorse, and endless punishment through our justice and social system” (209). In English 115, we often discussed the idea of social and judicial reform. Williams seems to have a similar perspective on this issue, that the incarcerated need their voices to be heard because they are unrepresented by the systems in our country. We focused on male prisoners during that course, and used texts like The Nickel Boys by Colson Whitehead, Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass by Frederick Douglass and the film The Shawshank