Throughout many people’s lives, he or she arduously strives for greatness trying to be something that they are not. Joan Cornella, in her unknown comic strip, exemplifies through different compositions and frames that when a person does an action that is harmful against themselves for another person, the end result is unfortunate. Cornella is able to make the common individual connect to this piece immediately through the common relevancy in every day society.

One major aspect presented in the comic that truly shows the different feelings of the male is the setting. The background plays an important role for the audience’s perception of the story. The use of different colors translates into feelings of success and failure. In the comic strip, Cornella uses six time frames to demonstrate the composition as a whole. The beach serves as the background of the first time frame of the comic which leads the viewer towards a positive perspective of the situation. This background serves to show favor for the common man in society today because many people feel as if this environment is relaxing and enjoyable. The background also sets the tone of happiness, and gives the reader a high expectation for the male character. Despite the feeling of happiness set by the background, there is a sacrifice that is made. The trade-off is the sacrifice of his body for the opportunity with the girl. The audience continues to have a positive impression of the story through the combination of the gold background with stars in the next frame. The viewer gets a feeling of accomplishment through the gold stars because most individuals relate them to success. Also, the woman wearing a wedding dress makes the reader feel happy since weddings and joyfulness usually go together. The perception of the two characters getting married on a beach fills the reader with a sense of happiness.  At this point in the comic, the point of marriage, the sacrifice of the male seems worthwhile. 

The story takes a sharp turn when the beach and gold background become lime green. Lime green is a color that elicits a negative connotation for the reader. The sudden transition from the beach and the gold background to lime green makes the viewer believe that the decision of the man was a mistake. With the lime green background, the viewer begins to feel a sense of regret. A feeling of uneasiness is felt by the audience because of the simplicity of a solid background with little to no details. This is in contrast to the detailed background of the beach and gold stars that elicited happiness. The simplicity of the background exemplifies the inability to receive a reward for the man’s sacrifice of his body. Through the changing of the background, the author is able to show how making sacrifices for another can have negative consequences. 

The use of facial expressions used in the comic contribute to how the audience feels about the story and furthers the point that there are negative effects for when someone sacrifices for another. Beginning in the first frame of the comic, the viewer can interpret the emotions of the male and female through facial expressions. The author expresses the male with a sad expression conveying that the male has low confidence in himself. As the next frame appears, the viewer can conclude that the male has come up with an idea of how to gain the attention of the girl by changing his skin tone. The male decides to do this by burning himself. In the third frame after he damages his body, he receives the attention of the girl. The expression on the male’s face reflects a sense of heighten self-esteem.

 All of the aspects of the comic of each frame tie into different emotions to convey the overarching emotions. Along with the changes of background, the graphics and facial expressions help to convey the change of emotions throughout the comic to the viewer. Specifically, the transition of the third frame to the fourth shows the male finding love through his sacrifice. By the third frame, the graphics show the viewer that the male is trying to get the female by sacrificing his body. In the third frame it shows hearts around the female representing love of the female towards the male. The features in this frame makes the reader read the image as if the female falls for the male just because he changes his physical features that are more admirable for the girl. So by this point, yet again, the viewer begins to feel as if the sacrifice of the male was for the common good because of the outcome of it. In the fourth frame it shows the male and the female holding hands while the woman is in a wedding dress, displaying that the two got married and are in love. By the next frame, the viewer completely has an understanding of accomplishment and happiness for the male and his sacrifice.

In the fifth frame, the negative consequences from his actions are further supported by all the individual aspects of the image working together. In this frame, the viewer begins to lose all hope in accomplishment and begins to feel empathy for the stupidity in the male. The emotional doubt seen on the male’s face in this frame along with his wife being obese and less appealing and accompanied by children, the viewer is able to discover the theme of the comic: when a man sacrifices his genuine self for a gift in his life that appears to be beneficial, there will often be dissatisfying consequences. 

Joan Cornella in her comic strip uses different configurations and frames to exemplify how when an individual makes a sacrifice that is harmful towards themselves for another person, the end result is disastrous. One aspect the author uses to convey this message is through the details of a setting or background with different colors and objects illustrated. With the different settings, the author also uses differing facial expressions and graphics to convey a story that the audience can follow while reading the illustrations. Joan Cornella shows the audience that giving up something that is part of yourself only ends in a worse reality then where you started at. The audience is able to truly get a grasp on how giving up your individuality for a perfect reality makes a person’s world imperfect. 