In “One Hundred Demons,” the author uses “demons” to refer to a wide variety of childhood and adulthood plagues. Specifically in the segment about head lice, she takes “demons” to refer to the head lice but also to refer to her ex-boyfriend. Demons, therefore, take on multiple meanings: they can be muses, dark delights, pests, literal pests, and people who are unkind. As the author draws the demons from Japanese culture, she is giving her own Filipino American spin on the idea of one hundred demons.
Regarding the panel above, the author depicts her giving head lice to her ex-boyfriend and how he nags at her in retaliation. In this panel, the “demons” take on an ironic twist. Instead of the head lice being the expected antagonist, the “demon” is actually her ex-boyfriend. The head lice is actually a way to connect with her first love, the Professor. Then, the author delivers another twist: the head lice is the “demon” because her ex-boyfriend is a head lice! There is a lot of interplay between the idea of a head lice a neutral evil, and her ex-boyfriend’s shared characteristics of being a neutral evil, as shown by how he is nagging at her while they both have head lice, “You keep talking about things that have nothing to do with me! You talk talk talk…” The chattering of his lips is almost like the scuttling movement of head lice on their heads. The author makes light of both of these neutral evils by relating it back to how she was in the good graces of her first love due to head lice and white people head lice (her ex-boyfriend).
I really think you found an important theme in “One Hundred Demons” in the way that Barry incorporates small ideas and memories to represent major parts of her adolescence. The example that you gave about the head lice where the lice are interconnected with her romantic aspects of her life. Another great example of this would be in the piece where Barry talks about the specific scents of peoples homes. Every person’s home has a unique scent that can be attributed to the different parts of their identity: their culture. In this way, she takes another thing that seems to be small and comical, but uses it to represent something much larger that in turn had an effect on her coming of age. Being that Lynda is part Filipino, her house is filled with scents that are specific to that culture. Growing up in America, many of the kids around her had not been exposed to aspects of Filipino culture, like the different scents that are associated with the things that they cook. Because of this, kids would make fun of her because she was different, which in turn impacted her childhood greatly.
The author Barry used “demons” to separate different chapters in the young girl’s life. Each demon represents a small memory that affected a major part of her adolescence. Like the example you gave about how the head lice is actually also related to her ex-boyfriend. Also, the example from the comment above about how the unique scents from every person’s home is different. These are all small “demons” of the girl’s life that impacted her childhood. It all came together and it shows how effective each demon was to emotionally mentally damaged her. Every demon in the end, eventually intertwine with each other.
I really like how you incorporated and explained a situation that you found in the book to back up your claim about demons in the book. All throughout the book, there are small attributes that make up the way the main character is the way she is today. She mentions and names these attributes as “demons”. These demons aren’t necessary evil demons but they are certain instances that has caused an impact. Just like the previous comments, another example of how these demons has impacted her life on a larger scale than what is at the surface is when she talks about magic. The moment she turned 13, she stopped believing in magic. This wasn’t just an issue of stop believing in magic, but at a larger scale of her growing up and coming of age. In doing so, the author presents real issues at a lighter weight. I can also relate to this because when I was young, I used to hang out with my childhood friends that are 3 years younger than me. the moment I attended middle school, I felt as though I was too cool and blocked them out immediately. Looking back, I can definitely see how this may represent a demon and make up the way she is today.
I agree with you, it’s quite fascinating how Barry depicted these “demons” to have multiple meanings. I spent quite some time deliberating on the meaning of the demons when I first read the piece. But after some time it became apparent that the “demon” was whatever she meant it to be. In addition to the way Barry portrayed the demons, I also found her art style to be quite interesting. The characters seem to have a rough appearance. Nothing is polished to perfection and it’s almost realistic in a sense. From the excerpts that were provided, we can get a sense of Barry’s life as she grows older and learns more. But since she did say that it was an autobifictionalgraphy, it makes one wonder what is the truths in the story and what are the fictional parts? Are they all true stories and just names are changed around or are scenes emphasized to convey stronger points? And why does she coin the term autobifictionalgraphy, why not just make it an autobiography? There’s a lot to ponder with the given excerpts but I did enjoy the way it was written in sort of a blunt manner. Maybe all these questions are demons too and maybe that’s what Barry intended, to show that there are demons in all shapes, forms, and instances.
I like how in “One Hundred Demons,” you picked out this example to talk about in your post. The author, Barry, had definitely taken the word, “demons” and affiliated it with numerous other meanings. A demon can be used to describe a negative event to have occurred, like in this case, lice or to describe a person that is simply negative such as an ex-boyfriend. In this sample, we can see that a word can be used to describe not just one certain aspect. This can be seen in our own regular lives. I could say that I find the color gray to be a demon because its a dark dull color. However, it could also be that I don’t like the color gray because the person that I don’t like loves that color. Therefore, I am referencing a person that I find to be deemed as a demon. Each demon in the story interconnect with one another. The head lice demon connected with the ex boyfriend demon. These demons range from different stages of her life but proven to impact her immensely. However, all these demons don’t necessarily have to be an evil demon. These demons have impacted the main character to be the person that she is today. By taking these demons, you learn from what they had to offer and therefore become a better version of yourself.