Hostage by Guy Delisle Literary Analysis Essay Sample

Hostage, a graphic novel written by Guy Delisle, was originally published in 2016, in Paris by Dargaud.  Later on, in 2017 it was translated to English by Helge Dascher and published by Jonathan Cape into the United Kingdom. Guy Delisle, known mostly for his autobiographical travelogues, unfolds the disconcerting abduction story of Christophe Andre in 1997 through his unmatched illustrating skills, not to mention the 15 years of hard work and research put into creating the novel. On the night of July 2nd, a Frenchman working for the medical NGO in the North Caucasus was kidnapped by a bunch of armed Chechen men who he initially thought had come to raid the safe which was full of money at the time. A victim of kidnapping, he didn’t know he would spend the next 4 months in an empty room with nothing other than his mind to give him clues and hopes of escaping. Trying his best to make sense of everything, Christophe had nothing but the disturbs in his daily pattern of kidnapping involving nothing other than a few location changes (which provided him with almost the same room), pictures being taken, and rare loud noises from outside. When he finally escapes, it is due to the mere chance of luck he gets from his amateur abductors. Confined to the emptiness of the room, the story gives Delisle extraordinary visual, and narrative constraints. Even so, he fails not to portray the psychological effects of solitary confinement, the repercussions of negotiating with kidnappers, and the nature of freedom. Through the adroit use of various motifs, symbols as well as camera angles for visual support, Delisle succeeds to evoke feelings of confinement, isolation, freedom, and vulnerability from the readers’ minds. 

In Hostage, motifs, such as the empty room and the handcuffs, take an immense role in establishing mood and connecting to the themes of the text, thus helping to spark particular emotions in the readers. As mentioned before, the majority of the story takes place in an empty room with nothing but a mattress, radiator, and a broken lamp hanging from a wide ceiling. This room is the place where Christophe spends the majority of his time: thinking, making connections, building hope, fantasizing, or just keeping his mind busy (pg. 176-179). The room is where Christophe carries out all the functions of his mind. Thus, the room is a representation of Christophe’s mind. The structure of the room gives us an insight into his mind: the emptiness representing the cluelessness of his mind, the largeness emphasizing the emptiness, the absence of light representing his declining mental health, and the few pieces of furniture representing the few things he was ever sure of. This connection of the room and the mind help to enforce the purpose of the novel: illustrate Christophe’s psychological journey through 4 months of solitary confinement. The representation of the room combined with the description of Christophe’s thoughts helps to put the readers in a mood of desolation and devastation, connecting to the theme of isolation. On the other hand, the handcuffs that Christophe is attached to all the time except when eating or using the toilet (bucket), make a connection with the theme of confinement, imprisonment as well as freedom. When handcuffed, Christophe is inconsiderate of escaping or being let out. However, when free of handcuffs, a sense of freedom hits him like a wave, bringing with itself an option of escaping as seen in pages 190-192. In this case, handcuffs symbolize confinement and limitation. Delisle could simply illustrate him as being locked in a room. But instead, the use of handcuffs in representing Christophe’s confinement gives the readers a sense of restriction and even a claustrophobic effect. It is when Christophe is forgotten to be handcuffed that he escapes allowing a sense of freedom to sink in for both the readers and the character/s. Thus, the use of motifs in Hostage help to put the reader in the right emotional state for the events taking place ranging from confinement to isolation to freedom. 

Symbolism is another technique Delisle uses to elevate the reader’s sensory experience as well as appeal to their emotions. A distinct symbol portrayed in Hostage is the garlic Christophe finds in the room he is transferred to later in the novel. Throughout pages 320-323, he’s able to snatch a clove of garlic and hide it beneath his mattress. He spends the next hours going over “every detail of how I’m going to savor this little wonder.” The garlic acts almost like an anchor, a reminder of hope to Christophe who is on edge. This explains his struggle just over grabbing one clove each day he has left in the room. Each time, Christophe waits until he can’t wait anymore to eat the clove, he grabbed earlier proving it to be a final and only source of comfort and hope anchoring him to his sanity. These moments are doubtlessly the purest moments of happiness in the entirety of the book. These wholesome moments add memorability to the scene as Christophe’s hopes are quickly shared and his despair lingers in the reader’s mind much after the event. Symbolism helps the reader correlate with the emotions of the character, living through the scene and sparking the emotions of joy, relief, and hope, along with pity and sympathy.

Lastly, Delisle uses various angles as a visual technique to create drama and set the mood for the scene. The types of angles often used are middle shots and high angles, sometimes ranging to aerial and point of view, and rarely low angles. Each angle creates a different perception of the scene and the characters in it which contributes to distinct atmospheres. The emotional response of the reader, therefore, shifts into the mood of the scene, helping the author reach the readers psychologically and drive the point home. For instance, a top shot that shows Christophe lying down on the mattress in the corner of the vast, empty room evokes a sense of helplessness in the reader’s mind as seen on the cover of the book.  Our minds correlate small with weak and vulnerable and big with powerful. As a high angle shows the subject, Christophe, as small compared to the vastness of the room, it creates a vulnerable outlook to the character provided that he was kidnapped. The shadow of the kidnapper illustrated in the scene also appears larger to the eye from the angle we are provided with, giving the person behind the door power in our subconscious thinking. Compared to the figure of Christophe, the kidnapper seems way larger and brawnier due to the high angle showing the readers that he is somehow overpowered. Similarly, low angle manipulates the perception of the scene and characters through size. Low angle, being barely used throughout the text due to its strengthening effect, can be finally seen at the end of the book as Christophe stares at Borodino/ “La Moskova” (pg. 431). Having regained his freedom, Christophe’s figure is illustrated as comparable to the height of the sky, giving the readers an eventual feeling of relief and peace as if they were being freed with Christophe himself. Thus, the variety of angles that Delisle makes use of in Hostage, helps to reach the subconscious of the reader through the manipulation of perception and evoke a sense of vulnerability and power along with other emotions that come with it. 

In essence, motifs, symbols, and camera angles are the techniques Delisle uses to draw an emotional response from the readers. The techniques combine to give the audience a full sense of captivity and vulnerability Christophe goes through throughout his abduction journey. As the story takes place in a single empty room (for the most part), Delisle is left with visual and literal language and representations to illustrate the reality of the situation without overdramatizing or undermining it. All the techniques have a visual as well as psychological effect on the readers, helping to enrich the otherwise dull process of captivation. Overall, with limited features to create a narrative, Delisle’s design of the story successfully reaches the audience’s heart, transferring every possible emotion Christophe feels through every chapter to the readers. Without the inclusion of much context, the story still succeeds to drive an emotional response from the audience, be it relief, anxiety, pity, etc. Extracting the most he can from such an uneventful narrative, Delisle focuses on the workings of André's mind, illustrating a story of how one survives when all hope is lost.