Wolf in White Van Analysis
John Darnielle’s Wolf in White Van redefines trauma not as a symptom of psychological disorder but as a form of self-medication, a treatment to reign in disturbing thoughts and desires.
Category: Student Posts
A Lone Wolf
Sean uses the game Trace Italian to escape from the real world. Although he becomes separated from reality, in the end, this helps him personally recover from his trauma.
You can read my full argument here.
Wolf In White Van blog post
The controlling idea for my essay was that coping mechanisms are a good thing after a traumatic event, but if the person holds onto the coping mechanism compared to fully recovering the coping mechanism is harmful.
Wolf in White Van Essay
As Sean begins the long journey to recovery, he uses Trace Italian as an escape from the real world. Sean doesn’t want to recover and reach normalcy after the “accident”, rather he prefers to remain isolated in his escape.
Wolf In White Van: Driving Idea Behind the Argument
In my analysis of Sean Phillips in John Darnielle’s novel, Wolf In White Van, I point out Sean uses his imagination and his role-playing game, Trace Italian, as a distraction to solve his inner emotional problems, as opposed to solving to them. Many will agree that Sean did not properly handle his situation, while others will disagree in saying that his fantasies were the only way to cope with his depression and isolation. However, beyond this small argument, I believe there is something deeper to consider.
In the middle of the Sean’s telling of his story, he shows signs of trying to really solve his own problems by reflecting upon his thoughts and motives before the accident. Yet, as so much time has passed of denying/coping with his problems, whichever you may argue, Sean can no longer identify with his past self – “that younger man was dead” (71-72). Wolf In White Van demonstrates that one can only deny or cope with their problems for so long the core issues of our lives catch up to us and remind us of our pain. These issues must be dealt with, head on, with courage and humility or else they will consume us and take our lives away from us. In the end, Sean Philips took his own life.
You can read my full length argument of Wolf In White Van here.
Featured Image Credit:
- The photo belongs to username BMclvr, of Flickr, which can be found here.
Wolf in White Van Analysis
Wolf in White Van and Trauma: <– Link to the main page of the essay.
My controlling idea for this analysis is that trauma mainly exists in the minds of people as their representation of the real world and its problematic state. I also make use of the idea that we all turn to the worlds in our minds when we feel a sense of alienation from the real world outside of our minds.
Podcast Reflection: Halo
I was extremely excited to create a podcast in which I would be working with someone else to analyze a game that revolutionized an industry with its art, music and seemingly endless story-line that is set in time periods before the game takes place and after. Going into the project I was unsure how to go about analyzing art in Halo in an in-depth manner. The sound and sky boxes, the characters, cut scenes all deserve their own analysis to be able to fully show that Halo is an art game. In the end, we decided that the weapons and a few ships in both the Human and covenant fleet would be enough to effectively prove our point.
After deciding what to analyze, our next challenge was depth. We could not just briefly explain all the artistic elements each of the objects had because it would have made our argument too simplistic and would not have emphasized the true art behind the objects. Our solution to this was to tie the objects to a theme. This theme was evolution and we looked at the objects and their designs throughout many of the games. We found that many of the weapons and ships kept the same basic designs but were built upon as the series progressed in order to maintain their belonging in the game.
The process of analyzing the art of Halo also helped me to see that most of the covenant weapons, while feeling alien, were not so unlike the weapons we are used to seeing in the UNSC and in the real world. This evolution of art is what makes the game unique and is something that I can’t say any other game I’ve played does.
Podcast Reflection: Halo
When I was approaching the assignment, I was at first worried that I would not have enough to say to cover the 10 minutes. After all, my argument seemed obvious: halo must have fulfilled standards of art, gameplay, and story in order to have become so successful. However, as I began digging for nuances within the game, I realized that the initial approach I took may have been misguided. Instead of trying to, once again, advocate for the value of the game, I could use a symptomatic reading to order to determine what the game has become after being exposed so long to the gaming community.
It was with this perspective that I found the similarities and differences in game design between objects within the game. It is was also at this point that I realized I had much more discussion than space within a 10 minute timeframe. As a result, I decided to focus on only the most iconic objects within the Halo universe: the sidearms and the starships.
Even then, the number of weapons and ships were still too numerous and their roles within the story were so complex that I feared oversimplifying how crucial they were to each faction. The solution was to tie each object’s design to a larger theme that can encompass the entirety of equipment. That theme was the evolution of graphic design in Halo. I noticed that as the series progressed, much of the designs, although polished, remained fundamentally the same. The various new designs that were incorporated into the game did not seem alien; in fact, they contributed more to the over atmosphere of the game. The reason Bungie was able to maintain the fundamental essence of Halo is because they synthesized already existing designs to create something new.
I later found that the concept of evolving art was applicable to all of Halo’s design. In order to make the object feel like it belonged in the Halo universe, graphic designers have taken care to combine existing faction designs and create a new faction altogether. By doing so, they are truly maintaining and building upon the culture that is Halo.
Kentucky Route Zero
It was a really weird game to say the least. In the beginning, it seemed like a pretty normal game. We were riding around on a road trying to find things, and connect the pieces. At first I thought our choices meant something. As it turns out, you’re just delaying or speeding up what is bound to happen in the game. That in itself was pretty frustrating but I liked the game enough to play Act II before it was assigned. Once I found Kentucky Route Zero in Act II, it was an out of this world experience. It transcended reality and honestly made for a fun game play. There’s something to say about the scenes in the church and bureau but I’m not sure what. The only thing that was frustrating about this game was completely forgetting what the goal was. I had to look up the game to remember that we were trying to deliver a package. But maybe there’s something to be said about that too…
Kentucky Route Zero Reflection
Out of all the games we have played in this class, I’d have to say that Kentucky Route Zero is my favorite. I like the ambiguity that it comes with. There are many ways that one could look at the game ranging from it being an attempt to depict a journey through life or it being your standard adventure game. The game is set on a secret highway in caves beneath Kentucky. Along this highway you encounter many strange characters that sometimes provide you with certain tasks or drag you on a exploration through old mine shafts. Another interesting elements of the game is that there are two routes, one above ground and one below ground. This leads for the gamer to ask whether or not there is a heaven and hell complex or is it implying internal and external conflicts.