The discussion when Anya sympathized with Emily

The discussion when Anya sympathized with Emily

The first time I started to see Anya as sympathetic was when Emily told her what happened to her and how she was killed. She portrayed to Anya that she was actually murdered, and chase by the person who killed her family to the well, which she fell inside. Emily was too crushed to be able to call out for help, which led her to die in the well. Once Anya heard this, she was sympathetic to Emily and ended up becoming friends with her. She started to respect all the things Emily did for her before she found out Emily was lying and became dangerous. Anya being sympathetic really shows in the frames on page 92. Anya is frustrating as well because she thinks she wants one thing but then changes her mind on what she originally wants. She is also a moody teenager and does not act like she cares about her family unless she is trying to save them from Emily, which she does at the end of the book. She is more worried about boys and being popular than anything else. On pages 96 and 97, Emily starts to feel sympathy towards Anya when Anya discusses why she does not want to go to church. Emily even agrees with Anya when she says Dima is always there by replying, “oh, that awful little nerdy boy?”. This shows how Emily tried to sympathize with insinuating the same views she had for Dima that Anya also has. This then continues onto page 98 when Anya is discussing how there are not a lot of Russians around, and Emily replies by saying, “that must be so sad.” After these two exchange acts of sympathy towards each other, this is when Anya starts seeing the ghost as a true friend. Emily is also frustrating when she is constantly trying to help Anya, annoying her at first, and then when she tries to get Anya the boy she likes. She starts to become jealous and wants the life Anya has, which means Anya has to try to live it Emily way, or she will become dangerous, which is what ends up happening.

Reply:

I agree with you in your discussion. Anya indeed sympathized with Emily when Emily first narrated her story and how she was murdered. Also, when Anya’s mum tripped over the toys and fell on the floor, she became injured, and when Anya realized that her mum was injured, she apologized and requested to take her to hospital. Through such an action, Anya proved to be sympathetic. Emily frustrated Anya when she told Anya that Anya was the most selfish person that she had ever met with. Emily told Anya that she loved her family so much that even Anya had lied about her last name. Additionally, Emily told Anya that she was not a saint, and such utterings made Anya frustrated.

Character fluctuation is an ongoing theme in a lot of books. In Anya’s ghost, sympathetic and frustrating moments occur for both the main characters, Anya and the ghost of Emily. Within the first few pages of the graphic novel, the reader learns that Anya and her family just moved to America from Russia. The story starts her off strong from the very beginning to have the readers feel sympathetic to her. She feels like an outcast at school, does not like her appearance, and overall does not have self-confidence. When Emily is introduced to the story, she tells Anya her story of how she was once engaged, but he died fighting in WWI. She said that she fell into the well when she was running from a murderer. This story makes Anya feel sympathetic to her and tells her she will help get her soul to rest. The frustration comes out further into the graphic novel when Anya does research on Emily, and she discovers her lies. She finds out that she was not engaged at all. The man she liked actually denied her, so she went to his home and murdered his wife and him. She fell in the well and died running from the police. I feel as though Emily is the more frustrating character, but Anya has her moments as well. She does not get along well with her family, who she takes a lot of anger out on. Even with these character evolutions, in the end, Emily’s spirit moves on, and Anya meets up with Siobhan and begins to have a new look at her life.

Reply:

I support you in your discussion on the themes of sympathy and frustration, as demonstrated by Anya and Emily. Anya was first sympathetic with Emily after Emily told her about how her life had been, although Anya was later frustrated when she came to realize the truth. Anya sympathized with Dima when they met in the library. Dima told Anya that the other boys at the gym had broken his glasses too many times. Emily said that if she had not all along stayed with Anya, Anya would have remained that weird girl who fell on her ass in the gym, and this acclamation frustrated Anya.