 A contract by Will Eisner depicts the story of a man named Frimme Hersh who is a Jewish man in an anti-Semitic Russia.  Eisner wrote this work in 1978 as a part of a 4 story book revolving around Jewish people in New York City.  Eisner's work focuses around religion and strife.   With this visual text Eisner cemented his legacy of a pioneer in the comic industry.  Eisner uses frame size, shadowing, perspective, and other various tactics to help his story make an impact on the reader and what we perceive the message to be.  

The story starts with the main characters background of being born in late 1800s Russia how he was lucky to survive being a Jew and because of this was a special person.  His parents died and he became the adopted son of the village.  He would perform acts of kindness for the village and because of this they decided to send him to a safe America.  On the trip to the ship the boy makes a contract with god.  He faithfully followed the contract and did well within the community.  He was gifted a child on his doorstep and names it after his mother.  He loved the child until she falls fatally ill.  Frimme feels deserted and betrayed by god.  Frimme becomes a wealthy businessman and years later returns to his first home In America.  He begs the Jewish elders to write a new contract for him and god.  The conflicted elders do it because of the money they are offered and Hersh began to think about his new life.  He demands that god not violate this contract then drops dead on the spot, the ending of the story comes with a young boy picking up the old contract in an alley.  The moral of the story is no matter how good you once were never think that you are on the same level with God.  

One of Eisner's biggest tools with this text is his use of shadowing and when he uses it.  While Frimme is a boy, Eisner uses shadowing to keep us from seeing the boy's face. This is to make the boy seem more likeable at the time to us as readers.  This is evidenced mainly by the change in that shadowing to where we see Fimme's face once he is older and starts to become a little bit less holy.  His face as an adult is quite frankly ugly and brings a negative connotation to us as the readers.  This plays an important role in our understanding of the meaning in the text.   The young Frimme was innocent and good until he tried to bargain with god or consider him his equal and then he turned ugly.  Another example of shadowing in the text would be how he helps us establish setting.  Setting is something visual text has a major artistic advantage with because it allows the author to form and shape our ideas about the setting with images instead of leaving it up to our imagination like is the case in strictly literary text.  Eisner uses shadowing the sky why the boys is in Russia in every frame.  This gives us the feeling of an overcast sky perhaps but more importantly it makes us feel the dreariness of the environment Frimme grew up in.  Another example of shadowing in the story is Frimmes face when he tries to level with God. Only part of his face is shadowed and the other half is lit up.  This would signify the crookedness of what he was doing in trying to bring God down to his level to where he could write the contract.  When it is known that God hands down his commands to his people.  However shadowing was just one of the techniques used to convey Eisner's friends.

Eisner uses perspective to get across his meaning by giving the reader a certain view in the story.  The majority of frames are illustrated with the reader looking down on the scene or the situation.  The illustrative reasoning for this is that it gives us a wider lens to what is happening in the story.   However it also allows us to kind of feel like maybe this is god's view of the story.  This allows us to start thinking like we are in god's shoes perhaps.   Another example of perspective in the text that works side by side with shadowing occurs when Frimme is turning crooked and requesting a new contract with god.  Eisner rarely shows Frimmes face and especially when he is requesting a new contract.  During this part of the text Eisner only really shows Fimme's back to the reader or he shows Fimme from the side.  This maybe is to bring attention to the elders.  The elders here create a vast contrast with Frimme here.  The elders were who Frimme were on track to be before his daughter passed away.   Another interesting part of these frames is that Frimme is seen towering over the three elders.   These two aspects combined contribute to the reader's view of crooked frimme.   When we do see Frommels' Face it is with a crooked smile and in a demanding pose.  He makes an offer the elders can't refuse even though it conflicts them morally.  Perspective is just another way Eisner conveys his message and feeling to us.

The final main way that Eisner conveys his message through the visual text is the frame size.  Eisner makes the frames that he feels are important larger than the ones that he feels just add more detail to the text.  Frames that carry more meaning then others are made larger to stand out more.  This is evidenced in a few places.  The main place being page one hundred and thirteen to page one hundred and seventeen where all 4 of the frames take the whole page.  This is because the story right here is very important to the narrative of the story.  This is where the daughter is introduced and Frimme is being rewarded for his religious obedience.  This is also where she is taken away and Frimme feels like his god has forsaken him and violated the contract established.  When Frimme is asking for a new contract the frames take up half a page because they are still fairly important but maybe not as transitional as the previous four pages.  At the beginning and the end it is 3 or more frames per page because that is more of narration and setting up for the transitions to come.  The very end has six frames because it shows how quick it could end adding meaning to the text.

In conclusion uses three various methods to convey meaning throughout the text.  Eisner uses Shadowing to convey wickedness of Frimme as the story moves on by allowing his face to be covered while he is young and innocent.  The author also uses perspective to change our viewpoints and shape our thinking of what is going on.  In addition he uses the size of the frames to add emphasize into our minds of what is going on.  All these add to the meaning of religious strife and the problems men have when they feel betrayed by their deity.   

