“A.D.: New Orleans After the Deluge” is a graphic novel created by Josh Neufeld, a cartoonist who published the work as a webcomic at the beginning. It explores the story of the natural disaster of 2005, hurricane Katrina, through various characters and viewpoints. The author inspects the horrid story through several characters: Denise, The Doctor, Abbas and Darnell, Kwame, Leo and Michelle to present the different reader’s opinions, lives, and experiences. This essay will analyze the character of Abbas and what his function within the novel was.
The character that is about to be presented named Abbas (Hamid in the webcomic). He is an owner of a grocery store, which got severely damaged during the Katrina hurricane. He is an Iranian-born person with a wife and two children, whom he appears to be valued less than his store. He is portrayed as a responsible person, caring about his friend, store, and family (Neufeld, 9). He is a small businessman, aware that he can lose everything with the loss of his income. He is not a wise or farsighted person since he thought that the hurricane would be insignificant and he will keep everything dear to him. He is a character that is meant to ‘cure’ the readers’ nativity and showcase through him the true extent of the hurricane. Throughout the disaster, Abbas acts goofy, but he quickly realizes that nature is more dangerous than it appeared initially. This is the image that stood out to me, since the moment of realization was so realistic and in that time I could feel the distress Abbas felt and how the naivety about the catastrophe changes to the more realistic perception.
To conclude, the story of a natural disaster was a grave and horrid representation of the real tragedy of 2005. Many people lost their properties (as the Abbas did), friends, and family due to their nativity in handling the disaster. Abbas represents a human factor that tends to minimize the brain’s misfortune only to meet reality, which is unfortunately not as optimistic. Abbas is a simple man with simple desires, which later proves to be not beneficial for him or his friend.
Work Cited
Neufeld, Josh. A.D.: New Orleans After the Deluge. Pantheon Books, 2009.