Did Jack do this? (post entry 7)

As long as I read the first 3 chapters, I would say that Jack has the most possibility of being guilty. Or at least he is involved in the murder–if the murder really exists. First of all, when Jack shows up in Bigby’s office, at the very beginning of the story, he looks “out of breath” and seems like “been climbing Beanstalks again”. While the truth is, Jack takes taxi to the building where Bigby’s office locates in, and then runs to Bigby’s office through a short distance. This process is not that strong movement, and Jack acts as normal before he gets into Bigby’s office. But once he shows up in the office, he suddenly becomes super fatigued. I feel like Jack behaviors like this in purpose, which is suspicious. Another reason for me to suspect Jack is the motivation. In chapter 2, we know that Rose-red has been engaged to Bluebeard, while Jack is still her boyfriend. This can be a motivation for Jack to kill Rose-red. Another point is, in the end of chapter 1, when Bigby says “I’m taking you in”, Jack immediately gets angry and attempts to attack Bigby. This indicates that Jack is easy to be impulse, which raises the possibility for him to act the murder.

While there are still some elements I cannot explain, such as the repeated appearance of the big, and the unnatural crime scene. For the appearance of pig, at first I thought that it is just for indicating the identity of Bigby—-the wolf from “three little pigs” story. But then I found the pig shows up again and again for no reason at all, acting like some symbol that infers to some unknown. And somehow the crime scene is unusual. The blood is spilled in the room evenly, and there is no footprint in the ground.

Frame Analysis: Page 43, bottom left

Image

This frame shows a scene in Snow-white’s memory, which depicts the moment when Snow-white caught her husband, Prince Charming, in her sister’s bed. The Snow-white’s face in up-left corner indicates that the frame is about Snow-white’s memory, and the main body of this frame show the specific moment. Prince Charming’s words “The minx seduced me” represent the flippant and irresponsible character. The text and the scared expression in Prince Charming’s face together make the frame ironical and funny.

4 responses to “Did Jack do this? (post entry 7)

  1. jaredshedrofsky

    I definitely agree with your accusal of Jack as the killer of Rose Red. You brought up a lot of good detective points that made your case very strong. A lot of the points were exactly what Willingham seemingly wanted the reader to pick up on! Jack appeared odd throughout the whole story and he was definitely involved in some way, although I was pretty convinced like you that he killed her. I wrote about the same thing for my post and completely missed the cab scene in the beginning, and then he was all the sudden out of breath. I felt like that was the most telling piece to make this decision and he included it right at the start of the novel. I like the frame you chose too, it is a good example of how Willingham is able to flip from past to present in such a clear way. I did not notice her face in the corner at first at all though, which seems to make it even more clear. Good example of what makes the little side stories of the novel very enjoyable to read and also very funny.

  2. eleanorcovington

    You have good points about Jack in this case, I never thought about the fact that he acted so exhausted when he got to Bigby’s office! And although anyone would be upset if someone was trying to arrest them, Jack does react rather strongly to being taken in. I’m a bit confused by your frame analysis, however. To me, this frame showed the awful thing that happened to Snow to break up her marriage, and the awful thing that her sister did to hurt their relationship. Do you think that the creators intended for the image to be satirical?

  3. You analysis of the frame where Snow White walks in on her sister and husband is spot on. I think the expressions on their faces say it all. You can tell the devastation in Snow’s face, the guilt in her sister’s face, and the terror in her husbands face. I also never noticed that Jack was exhausted when he got to Bigby’s office…also I think it is strange that Jack does not seem upset by the death of his girlfriend. All he seems to care about is not going to jail, but if he really cared about Rose he would be too saddened by her death to be worrying about anything else.

  4. I really enjoyed your predictions and thought your analysis was very interesting. After Prince Charming seduced the waitress I was pretty put off by him and didn’t give him much of a thought. But I definitely agree with you that he has a flippant attitude and it’s clear that he doesn’t care about anyone but himself. I think the author did a great job of modernizing his character into a womanizing dude that’s just looking to find someone to pay his bills. A complete 180 from the total gentleman that was in all of the Disney movies growing up!

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