The Return of Frank the Fish part III
In today’s new-run of For Better or For Worse, we get to see the funeral of Frank the Fish, and the reactions of the Patterson kids to the event. Or rather, we see the reactions of a 60-year-old woman in the body of a kid.
1. Frank doesn’t look like Frank any more. This is the classic reaction of adults going to an open coffin viewing. How much does the person in the coffin remind them of the person they knew in real life? Sometimes they look dramatically different, and this comment comes up. As for me, this is a comparison I never made as a kid when one of my pets died.
2. Elly hands Michael a jewelry box and tells him it is a little coffin. A regular 6-year-old, without any experience with death would ask his mom what a coffin was.
3. John buries Frank and asks if anyone has a few words to say. Kids without any experience with funerals would ask: Why did you put Frank under the ground? A few words about what?
It is as if Lizzie and Michael are old hands, well-experienced with funerals. The things you would expect Michael to talk about aren’t touched on at all. Frank is not just sleeping. Frank’s body has stopped working. Frank is not coming back. It’s OK to cry about Frank. It’s OK to still love Frank. There was the potential for a touching strip here; but Lynn Johnston cannot get her head out of her body and into a 6-year-old’s head.
1. Frank doesn’t look like Frank any more. This is the classic reaction of adults going to an open coffin viewing. How much does the person in the coffin remind them of the person they knew in real life? Sometimes they look dramatically different, and this comment comes up. As for me, this is a comparison I never made as a kid when one of my pets died.
2. Elly hands Michael a jewelry box and tells him it is a little coffin. A regular 6-year-old, without any experience with death would ask his mom what a coffin was.
3. John buries Frank and asks if anyone has a few words to say. Kids without any experience with funerals would ask: Why did you put Frank under the ground? A few words about what?
It is as if Lizzie and Michael are old hands, well-experienced with funerals. The things you would expect Michael to talk about aren’t touched on at all. Frank is not just sleeping. Frank’s body has stopped working. Frank is not coming back. It’s OK to cry about Frank. It’s OK to still love Frank. There was the potential for a touching strip here; but Lynn Johnston cannot get her head out of her body and into a 6-year-old’s head.
posted by howard at 10:39 PM
10 Comments:
howard,
It is as if Lizzie and Michael are old hands, well-experienced with funerals. The things you would expect Michael to talk about aren’t touched on at all. Frank is not just sleeping. Frank’s body has stopped working. Frank is not coming back. It’s OK to cry about Frank. It’s OK to still love Frank. There was the potential for a touching strip here; but Lynn Johnston cannot get her head out of her body and into a 6-year-old’s head.
This will not matter to the teary-eared folks slobbering about cameras in houses; they'll ignore the falseness of the dialogue and focus on the things that actually do remind them of real life.
It is as if Lizzie and Michael are old hands, well-experienced with funerals. The things you would expect Michael to talk about aren’t touched on at all. Frank is not just sleeping. Frank’s body has stopped working. Frank is not coming back. It’s OK to cry about Frank. It’s OK to still love Frank.
Oh, but that's just because they already went through all this off-panel with Fred. Since we're supposed to read between the lines and all.
There was the potential for a touching strip here; but Lynn Johnston cannot get her head out of her body and into a 6-year-old’s head.
Once again. She misses how her "all the characters are me" is such a fail.
When I was six, or even five, I understood the concept of death, and the permanence of it, and I knew how corpses were disposed of (and that they decomposed), and I knew what a coffin was. Little boys at that age are often very interested in the idea of death. Indeed, one of the reasons we liked to "play army" was that it was fun to get spectacularly killed.
DreadedCandiru2,
This will not matter to the teary-eared folks slobbering about cameras in houses; they'll ignore the falseness of the dialogue and focus on the things that actually do remind them of real life.
Yes, I can see it now. “I had a fish that died too. You must have a camera in my house.” “You must have a camera in my house. I ate some fish once, and I think it was dead.” “You must have a camera in my house. After I catch a fish and fry it up, it doesn’t look the same as when I caught it.”
aprilp_katje,
Oh, but that's just because they already went through all this off-panel with Fred. Since we're supposed to read between the lines and all.
This is the part I like best. We are supposed to presume unseen kindness and good parenting from Elly and John, having seen nothing but poor parenting in the panels that are shown. I would guess that in many families, a mom who shrieks at her kids in public, is even worse to her kids in private.
Once again. She misses how her "all the characters are me" is such a fail.
It makes me wonder if Lynn also has those same kind of issues with controlling her bodily excretions, since she does so many jokes about it.
josephusrex,
When I was six, or even five, I understood the concept of death, and the permanence of it, and I knew how corpses were disposed of (and that they decomposed), and I knew what a coffin was.
I presume that there was opportunity for all of this to have been observed, a death of a relative or a pet or something like that. When my kids were little, they came across a mouse caught in a trap which was quite dead, and tried to pet it back to life. My son would have been about 5 years old at the time.
Little boys at that age are often very interested in the idea of death. Indeed, one of the reasons we liked to "play army" was that it was fun to get spectacularly killed.
I liked that too growing up. Unlike my kids, I was exposed to a lot of Westerns on TV which were considered to be family entertainment.
It makes me wonder if Lynn also has those same kind of issues with controlling her bodily excretions, since she does so many jokes about it.
Maybe that's the real reason her friend Andie P. spent the night in the emergency back-up hotel room. ;)
Re. having a concept of death. My son is the age Mike is supposed to be, and his understanding of death comes largely from playing video games like Sims. Of course, in Sims, it's possible to buy your life back from the Grim Reaper, so I wouldn't say his concept of death necessarily encompasses its permanence. We had a death in the family last year (husband's stepsister's husband), but I don't think our son really grasped what was going on beyond it being a large family gathering.
aprilp_katje,
Neither my son nor my daughter have been to a funeral. Their first experience with death was the goldfish experience, oddly enough. However, despite having that experience, they still believed they could pet the mouse back to life.
Their first experience with death was the goldfish experience, oddly enough. However, despite having that experience, they still believed they could pet the mouse back to life.
Awww... I can see how they might think their are different rules for mice than there are for fish.
josephusrex,
Little boys at that age are often very interested in the idea of death. Indeed, one of the reasons we liked to "play army" was that it was fun to get spectacularly killed.
Just little boys? Glad to be told I was a secretly a boy growing up and that only boys "play army" and things similar.
And also having worked with that age group for a great many years, I think I can safely say that for every child it is different. Some six year olds - boys AND girls - know about death either due to curiosity or the death of a pet or family member. Other children won't.
Psychological most children will not fully grasp what death is until they are a good deal older than six. There are always exceptions but I doubt Micheal Patterson is one of them.
Though if we got with Frank being the second fish and that they've already gone through this with Fred it is/would be easier to accept that Micheal would have less questions.
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