GRAPHIC NOVEL: LOCAL
While LOCAL (written by Brian Wood and illustrated by Ryan Kelly, Oni Press, Portland, 2008) is billed as twelve interconnected short graphic stories that cover twelve years in the life of the main character, Megan McKeenan, the theme of the series is a young woman’s search for home. Megan must search for home because her mother, in life, never provided the boundaries and limits that home typically encompasses. Trapped in a bad marriage, Mrs. McKeenan indulges the desire to escape Megan exhibits as a typically developing, rebellious teen. Her forays into running away are never thwarted. While Mrs. McKeenan is always there to pick Megan up or with something to eat whenever she returns home, she never admonishes or punishes Megan for not being responsible.
Due to Mrs. McKeenan’s lack of reaction to Megan’s wandering, Megan’s homecomings make her feel less and less like she is home. Without any restrictions or boundaries, rather than freedom, Megan feels like her mother doesn’t care, and maybe wants her to leave. Thus, Megan travels throughout the United States and Canada for most of her twenties searching for something that is elusive. She seeks a sense of belonging, yet isn’t sure what belonging feels like. Belonging, of course, comes from being part of a community, in relationship with people. This entails a level of responsibility to others in some sense. Since Megan never had to be responsible in her family, she fears it every time it is thrust upon her as she meets people, dates them, works with them or is roommates with them. Then, she runs.
We see Megan return home at the end of the twelve stories. Her mother has died, and she is left with many unanswered questions. She repairs her childhood home as she answers herself in the process. She reflects upon her memories and those of her brother, and their very different reactions to being reared by a woman in a miserable marriage.
In Megan, we see the result of a generation of women who believe they want something different for their daughters, yet who lack road maps they might give to those daughters. “Different” is all a generation of women could ask. They hoped their daughters, armed with directionless support, could forge their own paths. Sure, “all who wonder are not lost,” as J.R.R. Tolkein is famous for writing. However, purposeful wandering is different than wandering while on a quest of some kind. Yes, daughters may forge new paths, yet they need a path from which to diverge. Otherwise, they are without even a compass.
I believe this was the challenge of the generation of mothers of the seventies and into the early eighties. They knew they wanted something different for their daughters, yet they had no idea what that was. We were told there was a wide world out there for our taking. With limitless choices, in many instances, we sat amongst tables of food and starved, not sure what it was for which we hungered.
Megan’s character represents the wanderlust of youth, and the result of a mother who hopes to live a free life, albeit vicariously through her daughter. In the end, we can hope that Megan has come to some kind of answer for her life, some direction. As women, we hope this for current and subsequent generations of daughters. We may even hope this for ourselves.
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