Here

Fiction | Graphic Novel/Book | Adult | Published in 2014

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Summary

Background

Chapter Summaries & Analyses

Pages 1-113

Pages 114-209

Pages 210-303

Character Analysis

Themes

Symbols & Motifs

Important Quotes

Essay Topics

Tools

Beta

Discussion Questions

Symbols & Motifs

Tree

On page 114, in 1775, there is a tall tree that extends past the upper limit of the page. At the base of its trunk is a small panel, dated 1564, that shows a small sapling. On page 116, the tall tree appears again, with a larger panel depicting a taller, yet still thin, tree in 1579. This tree is a motif that explores the theme of The Fluidity of Time, by layering panels of the tree’s growth over the mature tree. The overlay of these smaller panels over the tree on the page creates a narrative of growth over time, in which the tree matures in the same space over hundreds of years. While this suggests a chronological narrative, a panel on a later page provides a different view of that same spot. The tree does not survive into the 20th century, and where it once stood now stands the room. On page 124, a panel dated 2014 shows a potted plant in the space once occupied by the tree. The return of a plant to this space represents renewed growth in the same place, showing how, despite hundreds of years passing, a plant once again grows. Time in Here has no set past, present, or future, and each of these moments shows a connected narrative spread out over disjointed moments.

Child Playing Drum

Pages 184 to 193 show the room in 1973, as a woman sets up the canvas for a projector and a family gathers around that projector watching a home video of a child playing a drum. The moment that this video captures occurs in the room as well, with panels on pages 185, 187, and 189 showing the boy and a sibling playing with and fighting over the drum in 1959. These moments form a motif that represents The Interconnectedness of Human Experiences by showing the same moment in two different times, bridging a gap of 14 years and bringing people together. The home video shown on page 193 captures the moment depicted in the individual panels as the family watches a moment on the screen that once occurred in the same room. This duplication revitalizes this moment, bringing it to life over a decade after it first occurs. It is the only time in Here that a moment is depicted in two different times: both as it occurs and as it is replicated in another time. The child playing the drum represents interconnectedness, allowing the characters in the room to reminisce, to share in a moment together. They relive watching the child with the drum, creating the same experience across two different moments in time.

Shark

In the top left corner of page 264, there is a panel dated from the year 2126 that depicts a shark swimming. When the panel is layered over the background image of the room in 2005, it suggests that the shark is swimming where the ceiling of the house should be. The shark is therefore a symbol that represents the changing space over time and nature’s disregard for human construction. A panel on page 143 shows the house being flooded in 2111, and pages 148 and 149 depict the space in 2113, completely underwater, with no trace of the house. Just as scenes from centuries before the house’s construction depict an ever-changing landscape, so too do the panels from the future. Whether the changing landscape is a result of global climate change or a natural disaster, the house is insignificant against the forces of nature. The shark’s presence introduces the notion that the house does not survive into the future and that the world itself changes drastically. There are many panels throughout Here that depict nature at different points over time, often demonstrating how for most of history, the story of this space is not the story of the room, the house, and its inhabitants. The shark therefore expands the story into the future, prompting questions of what comes next.