I must be missing something here, it appears that I just completed a text in which the protagonist appeared essentially useless. While I did not like Omar, I must say that there were a number of themes in Santiago’s work whose sheer resonance with society today cannot be ignored. I think class discussion will probably torch the topic of female portrayals so I would like to start with one of my favorites, anger.
I’m sure it’s just me, but there seemed to be a bit of a political statement with regard to Omar’s anger in In My Darkest Hour. We’re presented with a character, who as far as I can see, has only seen the external depths of abuse, which is to say that outside of abuse, I really couldn’t see a legitimate reason for Omar to carry so much anger. His critical eye is quick to point out the negative in life (well, his life at least) but I struggle to see where Omar seeks the harmony of balancing forces, other than in women, Lucinda included. Omar’s anger comes with an a priori touch, almost as if it is a product of man’s inevitable engagement with nature and the world around him. I’d say it’s just the unstability of Omar, except Santiago does so much to create an ugly world that is easy to find displeasing (the shadowy feel of the black coloring, the unpleasant merging of different text fonts and sizes, the turbulent and sometimes undecipherable panels etc…).
Is this the answer? IMDH struck me with an agenda to inform me of the state of modern youth in transition in relation to the world today, and the agenda came with anger. It seems to me that Santiago’s contemporary piece presents a message that “life today comes with many negatives and that anger will be all around us in our engagement with life. The anger will be so present that it is almost as though the anger is a character in itself. You’re only claim for sanity is to negotiate life spending a majority of your conscious efforts suppressing the anger that the is naturally inside due to living in this nasty ugly world.” I’m not psychic, but I swear I heard Santiago whispering this to me throughout my three takes with the text. Please, no one call a doctor, I am fine. No mental or medical attention required over here, it’s my mind’s reflexive engagement with IMDH.