When reading a visual text, you are exposed to an additional layer of the story that is not present when reading a story that is purely text. Instead of just reading and perceiving how the story would look in your head, a visual text puts paints of picture of what is happening not just with words, but with illustrations as well. Before this unit I have had little experience reading visual texts but after these past few weeks I've really enjoyed reading them since the idea of the illustrator opening a window for the reader to look out and get a new perspective on the story is really interesting to me. With that said, we can look at the visual text called "A Contract with God" by Will Eisner, and see just how much illustrations can change how the reader interprets a story. The story "A Contract with God" by Will Eisner, is about how keeping ones' faith is important and this can be shown by how Frimme Hersh character is depicted as the story goes on.

When people are faced with troubling times, a common thing that helps people overcome their struggle is faith. Either having faith that their situation will improve or that help is just around the corner, having faith helps people cope with their situation. And in terms of "A Contract with God", Frimme Hersh is no different. Throughout the story Fremme keeps his faith, which is symbolized in the contract he wrote with god, and he proceeds to live a good life. That is until tragedy strikes and his adopted daughter succumbs to illness. This is the main turning point in the story and where we can see a clear transition of how Fremme acts when he is faithful and when he is not. Since he believed that God having his daughter die goes against their contract he loses faith and becomes a completely different person. Different not only in how he talks but in how he is illustrated as well. Instead of dressing in his usual attire that he has worn all throughout his life, you can see that he now wears extravagant clothing and he shaved his long beard. Not only has how Fremme is depicted different after he lost faith but also how he talks. One of the first thing he says to the three elders was "I am very rich now, everything I touch turns to gold-as they say", which is something he would have never have said before the death of Rachele. Another thing the illustrator did to show his loss of faith was how they way he looked and pointed towards God. Before Rachele's death not once did Frimme look or point to God in any sort of way. The only time he did this was after Rachele's death when he lost faith. It is an interesting transition since before her death, he has no reason to believe his faith his misplaced since after making the contract he has lived a good life and had good fortunes. Another way the illustrator shows his loss of faith is the way they drew Fremmes eyes. The only time we actually are able to see his eyes are after he loses his faith and it makes him look like a completely different person. When we are able to see his eyes, they look crazed they don't look like they would belong on a normal, rational person. And finally, his lack of faith culminates where he challenges God one final time and directly afterwards Frimme suffers from a heart attack and dies. 

"A Contract with God" is a story of losing faith and the struggles that come with trying to gain it back again. In a sense, I can see where Frimme is coming from. If you trust someone and they break that trust, it takes a long time for the wound to heal, if it ever does. It is a struggle for Frimme to regain that faith because he has lived by the same moral code his entire life and then for seemingly no apparent reason his daughter dies, but that is life. He feels he has been betrayed and demands retribution for this wrong doing. This is probably Frimme's biggest mistake, he tries to make his own rules for God to follow when in reality it should be the other way around. "A Contract with God" along with all other visual texts, can be interpreted in a number of different ways. The interesting blend between text and illustration enables the reader to look at the story in an entirely different perspective.

