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Review in English / Reseña en Castellano
White All Around
by
Wilfrid Lupano
SINOPSIS: Canterbury, Connecticut, 1832: a charming female boarding school has found success among the locals, with two dozen girls enrolled. Some in town question the purpose of educating young girls—but surely there’s no harm in trying? At least not until the Prudence Crandall School announces its plans to start accepting black students. Thirty years before the abolition of slavery in the United States, in the so-called “free” North, these students will be met by a wave of hostility that puts the future of the school in question, and their very lives in peril. Even in the land of the free, not all of America’s children are welcome.
My rating: 3 of 5 stars
Such amazing people and history ; such floundering put story.
The grace of graphic novels is that it is a way of spreading stories in a simple way, sometimes on topics as important as this, so, on that side, it serves its purpose by highlighting the school for black girls created in 1832 in Connecticut. Not to mention that it could be said that it was the first integration of a black student in a school for white girls. But the canvas here falls short to demonstrate the courage and importance of the people who lived it. For the short time that could be.
It's difficult to understand the idea of "Free" without civil rights.
What it did help me was to learn about a piece of history that made me want to do a little more research on Prudence Crandall, a Quaker-educated woman who opens a boarding school for girls in Canterbury, Connecticut ("The Canterbury Female Boarding School" in 1831-1834). When 20-year-old Sarah Harris asks to be her student to teach other black girls later, the trouble begins. The parents protest and withdraw the white girls, and so Prudence ends up turning it into a boarding school for black girls in the face of opposition from all over town, and specially from her neighbor Andrew T. Judson(*), a politician, who previously supported her with her school.
Prudence ends up in jail, and they fight for the girls to continue in the school with laws and they manage to get a new law, but that is not enough because violence prevails.
The twist that Lupano gives to his novel is to introduce a black boy who lives in the woods and who recites the story of Ned Turner, who starred in a bloody rebellion and created a kind of even greater paranoia towards blacks who could read and write and that knew something of the biblical scriptures. It is in how he presents this child that I have a problem, because he seems too close to that of the 'good savage' (he even says he calls himself Feral) with his proclamations against "white" education.
And then he goes and puts that woman who lives in the forest (a witch?), And he puts feminism and the Goddess and all that story that I think he got a bit out of hand in wanting to put everything together with the education of the women and all the anti-patriarchal roll and against religion and traditional European education. It is too much together that you want to put here, diverting the focus from the main idea.
So, no, I am not satisfied with how this story is told. The History is so much better.
What I did like was how the girls interacted at school.
The art? Interesting color and palette.
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La gracia de las novelas gráficas es que es una forma de difusión de historias en forma sencilla, a veces de temas tan importantes como éste, así que, por ese lado, sirve su propósito destacando a la escuela para señoritas negras creada en 1832 en Connecticut . Eso sin contar que podria decirse que fue la primera integración de una alumna negra en una escuela de niñas blancas. Pero el lienzo aquí se queda corto para demostrar la valentía y la importancia de la gente que lo vivió. Por el breve tiempo que pudo ser.
Resulta dificil entender la idea de ser "libre" sin tener derechos civiles.
En lo que me sirvió a mi fue para conocer una pieza de la historia que me hizo querer investigar un poco más acerca de Prudence Crandall, una mujer educada como cuaquera quien abre un internado para niñas en Canterbury, Conneticut ("The Canterbury Female Boarding School" en 1831). Cuando una joven negra, Sarah Harris de 20 años le pide ser su estudiante para enseñarle después a otras chicas negras es cuando empiezan los problemas. Los padres protestan y retiran las niñas blancas, y así Prudence termina convirtiendole en un internado para señoritas negras frente a la oposición de todo el pueblo, y especialmente de su vecino Andrew T. Judson , un politico, quien anteriormente la apoyaba con su escuela. Prudence termina en la carcel, y se lucha porque las chicas sigan en la escuela con leyes y logran sacar una ley nueva, pero eso no es suficiente pues la violencia prevalece.
El giro que le da Lupano a su novela, es introducir a un niño negro que vive en los bosques y que recita la historia de Ned Turner, quien protagonizara una cruenta rebelion y creo una suerte de paranoia aun mayor hacia negros que supieran leer y escribir y que supieran algo de las escrituras bíblicas. Es en cómo presenta a este niño que tengo un problema, pues me parece demasiado cercano a eso del 'buen salvaje' (inclusive dice llamarse Feral) con sus proclamas en contra de la educación "blanca".
Y después va y mete a esa mujer que vive en el bosque (¿una bruja?), y mete feminismo y la Diosa y todo ese cuento que creo que se le pasó un poco la mano en quere meter todo junto con la educación de las mujeres y todo el rollo antipatriarcal y contra la religión y la educación tradicional eurpeo. Es demasiada cosa junta que quiere meter aqui, desviando el foco de la idea principal.
Así que, no, no me deja satisfecha como esta contado este cuento. La historia es mucho mejor.
Por otra parte, me gutó como interactuaban las chicas en la escuela, a pesar de ser diferentes y como pensaban.
¿El arte? Interesante color y paleta.
(*)Este politico perteneció al "American Colonization Society" que tenía la idea de enviar a los negros a Africa.
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