Effectiveness of Using drawings of Facial Expression and Environment in Safe Area Gorazde Safe Area Gorazde is a graphic novel about the war in eastern Bosnia during 1992-1995. It is a very effective book that can resonate with readers and trigger feelings and emotions about the war. The author Joe Sacco uses many extremely detailed drawings realistically reflect the cruelness of the war and gives readers a feeling of actually be in Bosnia during 1992 to 1995. Among these drawings, those detailed depictions of facial expressions and the environment are the most effective ones. Depictions of facial expressions give readers a close look of the lives and moods of those refugees in the war and depictions of environment helped readers to relate…show more content… The frame is about Serb soldiers trying to rape Muslim female patients. The greedy grins on the two of soldiers’ face showed their ruthlessness, eagerness and prurience. Frightened faces of women showed their timidness, pain and sorrow. This is a powerful image because readers would feel the women’s helplessness and Serb soldiers’ barbarity by only looking at it. The last frame on page 80 is also a great example of using facial expression to send emotional message. There are no conversations in this frame, but it is still compelling enough. This frame is about people running away from their own home because of Serbs’ attack. Women are screaming and children are crying. People drawn their eyebrows together and lowered their eyelids; they are definitely in pain. From their facial expression readers can feel their agony because of losing homes, their anger because their old neighbours are bombing their homes and their helplessness because they don’t know what else they can do besides running away. It is a small vignette but it successfully makes readers generate sympathy to people in Gorazde. In the first frame of page 120, some