Light Than My Shadow Character Analysis

Katie Green’s, “Lighter than My Shadow” is a graphic novel that discusses her journey with an eating disorder and mental illness. On page 315, the passage begins with images showing Katie’s unhappy situation through three different strips. Based on the images from the passage, Katie looks worried, sad, isolated and disappointed. As a result of her traumatic episode with her therapist Jake, she chooses to bury the incident. Earlier in the novel, we see Jake take advantage of Katie by sexually assaulting her. I will focus on the passage (Green 315). In panel one, Katie sits in an isolated environment, she looks restless, and dark scribbles form on the right, and have arms reaching towards her. In the second panel, she digs through the ground, and a box, to her right, is covered with scribbles. In the third panel, she holds the box, and buries it.
She is alone in an unknown environment, and appears restless, devastated, betrayed, and sad. She thought about what Jake did to her, and she could not believe that someone she trusted could hurt her. Jake promised Katie that he would do anything to make her happy, but unfortunately, he said that to take advantage of her (Green 251:4:2). The dark scribbles denote that Katie has flashbacks of what Jake did to her, and the arms reaching out to her are just personification of Jake’s arms trying to reach her. Katie still felt very uncomfortable about herself, she is exhausted, and shattered to pieces. (Green 373:1). Trust is an issue we all have to deal with or have dealt with a least once in life. It’s such a pity how people take advantage of another person’s vulnerability. In any situation, people find themselves trusting people, but in a therapeutic environment should be dealt with