The Name of the Game

Today I finished reading Will Eisner's The Name of the Game. It was the story of how one Jewish family, the Kaynes, came to rise up in the social circles of the Jewish New York high society. In class we've been discussing how the style in the art of the comics is used to draw the reader in. I found his style to keep me very emotionally detached from what was happening in the story. Which may be the point considering some of the subject matter. It was easier to take in the whole tale when you don't get all up in arms over subjects like the abuse that takes place. The emotional distancing also takes place in how the story is told. It starts at the foreword with the letter from the Kaynes telling the audience a brief synopsis of the tale. But then the story jumps all the way back to the Arnheim family. By going back into the history of the Arnheims it does two things. One, it starts the tale from it's origins. Allowing the whole drama to unfold around the reader. The second thing it does is break the reader out of their initial connection with the Kaynes from the foreword. It also gives the appearance of a collection of stories about families marrying up for status. In the end the story was about the Kaynes. It ends on how Misses Kayn, not originally from the Arnheim family, has now been accepted into a local garden club bacuase of her new connections through her son. It seems that of all the families in the story it is only Mr. and Mrs. Kayn that do well and are not living a shame of a marriage in the end. Which is the reason I think they promote the whole idea of marrying up into status. Where as Rose Arnheim knew what that life was like and had married Aron to escape that life. Which just turned into one of those shame marriages anyway.