Esther

JT Waldman’s retelling of the Book of Esther in “Megillat Esther” was both new and interesting to me. Although I did not have much knowledge of the Book of Esther before reading it for this class, it seems like an appropriate topic to discuss in our class. Because Waldman was able to transform the book into a graphic novel, it gives the story a different feel. The adaptation of the story allows us to also take other themes into consideration and focus on other aspects of the story by putting emphasis on certain frames.

I enjoyed reading parts of “Megillat Esther,” but I had a hard time following it as a whole. It’s possible that I had trouble interpreting it because I don’t have much background with the Book of Esther. I found the graphics in the novel to be extremely detailed which caught my attention, but it was a challenge for me to follow the story. It seemed like I had to search for the text on each page and I wasn’t exactly sure where to begin reading, if it even mattered. I also had a hard time interpreting what some of the pictures displayed because I think there was just so much going on in each scene. Not to mention the fact that the text was also translated in Hebrew, which I thought was really cool but just too distracting for me.

I’m interested to see what our class discussion holds. I think after we talk about the underlying themes of the story and the concepts we are supposed to understand from both stories, I will better appreciate them.