The graphic novel “One Hundred Demons,” illuminates many of the difficulties young people face in life. Whether it be overcoming toxic relationships with people around you or stepping into roles of newfound responsibility, Lynda Barry gives a unique perspective on what “demons,” both internal and external, one might face.

The main character appears to be a depressed young girl, trying to overcome social isolation. She struggles to build relationships with other children around her and loses many of the important relationships she does manage to build. Two specific lines exemplify her “broken” emotional state and the way that she struggles to cope with her increasingly grim view of the world. By using the “archealogical dig” method in this close reading, readers can find this meaning behind the literal words written on the page.

The text found on page 70 of the graphic novel, emphasizes the internal demon which young adults may face on their way to reaching maturity. The line, “Remembering not to remember fractures you, but what is the alternative?” uses a variety of literary devices to make such a point. The oxymoron found in “remembering not to remember” brings attention to the difficulty, and quite literally, the impossibility of the task. The young girl can’t help but remember the emotionally damaging events of her social interactions at school and this only worsens her internal conflict. The hyperbole found in “fractures you,” emphasizes this emotional damage caused by attempts to forget, while not able to actually physically break the girl. The rhetorical question found in, “what is the alternative,” seems to almost plead with the readers to find some other way to make the “dark ghosts vanish.” She can’t escape her demons all together by trying to ignore them, but accepting them would only send her further into a depressed state. From this one line alone, we understand the pain of the young girl in the graphic novel, trying to overcome the social obstacles in a difficult childhood.

Further into the text, yet another line brings attention to this internal struggle in stating, “This ability to exist in pieces is what some adults call resilience. And I suppose in some way it is a kind of resilience, a horrible resilience.” Again we see the use of certain literary devices to emphasize the internal conflict the main character faces in the graphic novel. “The ability to exist in pieces” is not physically feasible, but in this case the author is using another hyperbole to represent an emotional rather than physical state. The girl has broken herself down in an attempt to overcome her internal conflict, and now lives in different shells of her former whole self. The repetition of the word “resilience” allows it to go from being a positively denotated term, to one that connotates a negative emotional state from the inability to “remember not to remember.” Her emotional wellbeing is further at risk from this resilience with which she dwells on her difficulty in forming social connections with the people around her.

Elements of this theme can be seen in “The Little Prince,” through the emphasis on different perspectives of the world between children and adults. Children such as the prince see the world beyond the surface, through creativity and ingenuity. In the eyes of an unhindered child, a box could represent a sheep and a hat could represent a snake eating an elephant. Meaning lies in the eyes of the beholder in this case. On the other hand, when such an openminded perspective of the world is shut down from a young age, we lose the ability to see the world in the pure light of a child. The pilot had given up on representing the snake eating an elephant, when those around him could not see past the image of a hat. In the case of the graphic novel, the young girl had all of the positivity of a typical eager child, but it slowly deteriorated as she grew up and encountered certain aspects of the harsh world. She slipped into depression as she was grew older, and lost the view of the world which she once had.