I created a one-shot manga chapter that includes roughly 20 pages and a cover. A manga is a style of comic books that originated in Japan and is read from right to left. A one-shot manga specifically is a type of manga that has the entire story included within the lesser amount of pages given for the story. They are similar to a television pilot as one-shot manga are often written to be submitted in a writing contest and can possibly develop into a full-length series. My capstone project addresses the SLA core values through the messages in the story. The teacher of the main character is constantly asking questions to gain a better understanding of new knowledge. The teacher and their family’s constant research over generations is the reason they and the people around them were able to progress in the world they live in. Collaboration is shown through the peace and bonds built upon successful collaboration of a community. Presentation was shown through character interactions as well as my best attempt at paneling and drawing. The main character undergoes growth stemming from self reflection. The teacher’s application of these core values is what allows the main character to succeed, displaying the benefits of the SLA core values. The steps I focused on were meeting with my mentor, organizing my ideas in a google document, practicing drawing, and researching the manga creation process.

“Is there joy in this? There could be, but have they chosen it? You can’t tell by looking.” Thought by Offred in chapter 37 page 235, this topic of thinking is something I think about often. I assume I question other people’s thought processes a lot because of the amount of time I’ve spent with psychiatrists/therapists throughout my life. Thoughts on what causes someone to have feelings about something and someone’s true feelings are common for me to think about. Like Offred, I question the grand unknown of other’s interests and experiences. Is the joy that things grant someone able to truly be understood by others? The way you answer this question depends on how your joys have come to be. There are things that bring joy to multiple people. One of the many examples of this is how many people enjoy a sport like soccer. Although they all feel joy from soccer, the joy that various people feel from soccer is still different from one another due to their individual experiences. These experiences that a human goes through are the deciding factors in what the human enjoys. These experiences are also tied to the development of what a human values. Someone like me who grew up with the lessons of how to treat others correctly is going to have different values than someone who was taught that others have no value. Although people are able to learn more and change their values through more experiences, the base values that someone is taught determine the start of the human’s journey. The empathy that I was taught has helped me go through anger issues and depression by allowing me to understand the value of life. This has allowed me to find joy in helping others but someone with a different start can lead to them finding joy in hurting others. I think that the “joy” someone feels can be forced upon them by being manipulated. Someone close to me was manipulated into moving back to the United States of America and they don’t have the means to leave after finding out they were tricked. They didn’t want to come back here but they were able to find enjoyment while here. Although it might be genuine joy, they were still manipulated into coming back here. This person really affects my life and yet I still can’t tell if their joy was a result of a choice they were willing to make. Having someone close to me who has some of their enjoyments in life as a result of something they were forced to do makes me question if other people’s joy is the result of something similar. This is especially the case for people who find enjoyment in something that I doubt I would find enjoyment in. Do the murderers and people who like Pepsi enjoy what they do because they were forced to? I don’t have the desire to kill people because I have empathy as a result of my experiences. I don’t like Pepsi because my taste buds are correct. Pepsi tastes as if carbonated liquid sugar was rotten. The thought process of deducing the reason people enjoy things and if I can enjoy something is continually affecting me today. I want to try new things that I think could bring me joy but looking at other people’s hobbies can make me concerned if the hobbies are extremely harmful to others. I feel like acknowledging this thought process can help me find more enjoyment in my life but I still worry about people who are forced to find joy in the situations they are forced into. I want people to be able to find true joy in what they seek as long as it doesn’t harm others. I don’t want anyone else to feel like they are restricted due to what situation they were forced into. I don’t want anyone else to feel as though someone close to them isn’t experiencing the joy they truly wish for. My life so far has allowed me to value my experiences. I am including all of my experiences no matter how good or bad I felt at the time. These experiences have still resulted in me being able to experience true joy. Those who have never had this privilege are those who I wish to be able to gain this privilege. I feel that no one else should bear the feeling of not discovering what it truly means to feel joy. I wish for everyone to discover their true essence.

My artwork is about the scene with Offred and her doctor in chapter 11. This drawing is from the perspective of Offred when she is lying down on the examining table. The title “Pressed” is referring to how Offred is being physically pressured, with him literally pressing her body with his hand, and the eyes mentally putting pressure onto Offred. I used three references for my drawing. The first reference is for the first person perspective. It was from a photo of a patient point of view lying on a medical bed. The patient in the picture was wearing pants with stripes and I had originally drawn the picture with the stripes on Offred’s pants. I later on removed the stripes and pants because Offred was completely naked in this scene. The bottom of the artwork is black because she is naked and I can’t draw anything. I also had to remove the sleeve the patient had in the photo. The second reference I used was of a doctor with a mask. The picture worked really well as a reference because of how similar the characteristics of the doctor in the photo and the doctor in “The Handmaid’s Tale” were. The doctors both had a white mask on and had brown hair. Although I didn’t use color in my drawing, it was still easier for me to draw because of this. I didn’t use color in my drawing for any particular reason. The third reference I used was a frame from a scene of “Demon Slayer”. The hand was of a demon and it was the shot I felt was what would come across as creepy. The hand of a demon was also supposed to have it represent how the doctor’s actions are inhumane. The doctor is pretending to come across as friendly but is also doing this purely for his own pleasure. The demon from the show is narcissistic in the same way as the doctor. I wasn’t able to have the hand turn out exactly as I wanted but I still think it comes across as a creepy grasp. I didn’t draw anything past a small part of the doctor’s chest because I didn’t have any more room but I still think that the floating hand of the doctor comes across as intended. The eyes all around are representing Offred’s feeling of worry. Offred worries about if someone can see them. On page 61, Offred says “What are the odds, is the room bugged, who’s waiting just outside the door?” The fear of being caught by people who are eyes is also meant to be shown through the eyes around the room. Offred in this scene is the one who is being violated and yet she is in a situation in which she would be punished if someone saw. She is the victim but there is no help. A person with higher power is taking advantage of her situation for his own personal pleasure. The feeling of being pressured and helpless. The feeling of no one being on your side. The feeling of wrongfully being in the wrong as the victim. These feelings that Offred had to endure are what I wanted to express through this drawing. The terrifying perspective of a woman in Gilead and to remember how people feel this way in our world today.