Nathan A. Pareaux
Professor Perdiue
English 1302
21 March 2011
Rabbithead
I found the symbol of the flower to be used sparingly and dramatically by our heroine Rabbithead. I noticed it used sparingly in the comic and for dramatic prose when Rabbithead places it at the grave in the beginning of the story. This is a comic that has many symbolic characters and events that can be interpreted any number of ways, but one single event struck me as odd at the beginning of the story. People generally place flowers at the tombstones of their loved ones for symbolic reasons of mourning. Rabbithead places the flower after she fills the grave herself and then rides away on her horse. To many this would mean she is mourning someone recently deceased close to her but this story can lead many to believe the flower is a different type of symbol. If you look further you will notice different flowers take on different roles throughout the comic. You see the one flower grow and get eaten by a pig while another grows and eats the head off another creature. In this regard it seems that flowers and plants signal impending death and retribution. A small unstoppable force against what initially appears as overwhelming odds. This story in generally carries a very strong 'circle of life' type theme and I found the flower to be symbolic of Rabbithead's understood fate, as if she was saying to the graveyard that she will soon be returning, maybe even digging her grave with the task she is about to embark upon. She does in fact take a seemingly dangerous mission as she gets into trouble with local tough guys at the western saloon. With no words to guide us we are stuck taking nothing but symbolism from these events and forced to creatively assign meaning and narrative. In fact one of the only definitive acts this story does offer us is the flower being placed at the grave in the beginning. Almost every other event has a cause, or at least a natural evolution that would not need to be decided.
So I found the flower to mean purpose, the single control in the story. Our heroine knew she would return to the grave and, as told by the vicious circle of events, is brought back at the end against her will. She had prepared for the inevitability of death and ritualized it with her flower. The story seems to be telling me she is actively pursuing death as she keeps returning to her aggressors with no indication of why. This story seems to be forcing symbolism from every angle and I feel this leaves a lot open to imagination. This is a good thing because it can be read over and over again and each time you may pick up on something different. It's hard to tell but I think her face seems sad in the first few frames as she is laying the flower down by the grave. Maybe she is trying to avenge someone and knows she will be unable and will soon die but has no choice. I can't think of another reason she continues to return to her tormentors until her demise. This would again explain the flower as a mourning symbol either for herself or the person she is to avenge.
The flower is a symbol that should be noticed because it stands out so early in the story. It is the main plot device given to the reader and the only thing we have to go on when finding purpose or reason for the events of the book, however fleeting it may be. The rest of the story is very busy and moves at a pretty fast pace but for one single frame early in the book, we have a single flower, dropped beside an empty grave by our heroine before she rides off to take care of some unfinished business. It is almost as if her past is destined to haunt her as her own spit is what ultimately brings her full circle back to her grave at the end. Regardless of any interpretation that may be given, the flower needs to be paid attention to because it clearly symbolizes something and that may be different to each reader. The book tells us it is important but leaves it to the reader to determine exactly why. Maybe it is a religious symbol that can be coupled with the cross above the grave. The flower may tell us more about the person reading the story as well as we can take their interpretations and find out more about them. To me it maybe lent itself toward avenging a loved one or a symbol of your own impending death, but to another it may be nothing more than sympathy for the people you are about to kill or sacrifice to a higher deity. Rabbithead might have been killing on assignment and relieving herself of her former duties by 'burying' her previous life and in an attempt to remove herself from that life found fragments of it she could not escape that ultimately was her final demise. Maybe someone gave it to her a long time ago under the oath of a dying wish or task. These reasons I have listed is why I feel people should pay attention to the flower. There is no certain reason for it or definitive conclusions given, so one person's take on it will be different from another person's.
If you look at how powerfully the flower is used and the different times it appears in the story, I think it is very important for people to at least acknowledge the flower. Either as a symbol of your own impending death or as a symbol of a dying loved one or even a religious token of your faith, it has a place in this story whether forced or not. This may be taken many different ways and is important for people to recognize so the story can take on new meanings and be adapted to different people.