French Milk by Lucy Knisley

Context

The comic strip is set in December 2006, in a Paris apartment. The artist, Lucy Knisley, took a trip to Paris with her mother and drew this comic strip to commemorate her experiences. Read it

Comic Features

The comic strip is largely comprised of hand-drawn illustrations, which help us to get a much better idea of what is going on inside Knisley's head then just prose. The doodles and illustrations are annotated in a childish way, which overall makes them enjoyable to read as the information is easy to process. The comic strip uses humour to entertain the reader, such as sarcasm and hyperbole. Unusually, the second panel contains a photograph of the place Knisley's parents stayed at, which shows a contrast between the comic drawings and reality. 

Language

The adjectives used show how Knisley felt towards Paris itself. There are are mixture of positive and negative opinions. Knisley is negative about the large crowds of people and suffering from a lack of sleep, and positive about the architecture and landmarks of Paris. She refers to the crowds as a 'ridiculous line' and makes positive remarks about the comics drawn by Herge, the 'gorgeous old church' and 'Pompidou was great'. Her own mood is projected on her surroundings, so that on a good day, her surroundings are enjoyable, and not so enjoyable on a bad day.

Point of View and Character

The comic strip is based entirely off of the narrator's memory. This means that the information could be incorrect as we can alter memories, and how we remember events may not be how they have actually happened. However, Knisley presents an honest opinion about Paris, as she describes both positive and negative attributes. Knisley is the protagonist of the piece, as everything is told entirely from her own views and opinions. This makes the piece very subjective. Knisley's mother has a secondary role as she provides her own opinion through the dialogue. John's role in the comic strip is also very important, despite the fact that he does not appear in it. This is because Knisley sees him as important. The crowds in Paris are also used to provide an explanation to why Knisley feels the way she does, as they are used to illustrate her emotions.