Into The Woods By Emily Carroll: Literary Analysis

For this graphic novel paper, I read Into the Woods by Emily Carroll. This novel is composed of five short stories and an introduction and conclusion. Each short story is independent but the introduction and conclusion are in the same chronological universe. Unlike American Elf 2 and One Hundred Demons, each story has no connection to the previous or the one after it. In this aspect, Into the Woods is like a Grimm’s Fairytale book rather than a novel. The cover art of the novel reflects the art featured in each short story. This relaxed realism and use of subjective color leaves the impression of each story containing fantasy, in addition to, realistic concepts. For example, the cover employs the use of black, white, red, and blue to portray the scene. By using neutrals, as the base color, it gives the book a darker and more serious tone. The accents of blue and red are used as emotional signals, red meaning danger and blue meaning courage, as well as contrast to the black and white. Before even opening the book, a reader can get a sense of it and the tone/themes of each short story.

Before the prologue, a reader can see an array of images that are linked to the front and back cover, along with the introduction and the conclusion. This serves as a running subplot to each short story featured in the graphic novel. This tactic is often unutilized when it comes to the organization of a novel. Like in American Elf 2 and One Hundred Demons, an ongoing story plot isn’t facilitated in this matter. Instead of an ongoing plot being told through each comic and panel, Into the Woods functions subconsciously as the reader is the character reading a book of fairytales before