One! Hundred! Demons!

Nonfiction | Graphic Memoir | YA | Published in 2002

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Summary

Background

Chapter Summaries & Analyses

Chapters 1-4

Chapters 5-8

Chapters 9-12

Chapters 13-15

Chapters 16-19

Key Figures

Themes

Symbols & Motifs

Important Quotes

Essay Topics

Tools

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Discussion Questions

Background

Social Context: Intersectional Identities

This graphic novel approaches many social issues from a personal angle. Rather than centering one specific issue, Barry explores the way many contemporary and recent historical social issues intersect across her life and contribute to her adult identity. Barry explores her racial identity, depicting scenes from her childhood with her mixed race mother and Filipino grandmother and describing moments where she experienced otherness linked to her culture and race. Barry also describes the impact of class on her upbringing, showing how it intersects with the performance of gender and with access to self-expression and art. She traces the way social class continues to affect her adult life and observes how others are shaped by the social class of their own upbringing.

Perhaps most central to this work is its exploration of trauma. By excavating memories that speak to her intersectional identities, Barry writes about the childhood traumas that deeply impacted her conception of herself and continue to manifest in her adult life. She explores how inherited trauma courses through her family, shaping her mother’s anger and class anxiety and emerging in Barry’s own behavior. She explores her harmful experiences of being racially othered, her family’s refugee status, gender-based violence, substance abuse, and mental health challenges.

Barry’s work adds to contemporary conversations about inherited trauma and the way historical tragedies and psychologically challenging environments recur through generations. Barry’s candid and astute observations about herself provide a personal insight into the reality of that process.

Authorial Context: Barry as Author and Pedagogue

The winner of a MacArthur Fellowship (commonly known as the MacArthur Genius award), Barry is considered a seminal artist in the graphic novel and cartoon space. Barry’s work is known for its “uncanny capacity to depict the intense emotions of adolescence” and collage-based style (“Lynda Barry.” MacArthur Foundation, 2019).

She began her career as a cartoonist by drawing a comic strip for her college paper alongside Matt Groening, eventual creator of The Simpsons. Groening helped Barry land a newspaper comic strip in the Chicago Reader, allowing her to make a living from writing and drawing for the rest of her career. Her work has run in many newspapers and has been published in several collections. Barry has also published several illustrated novels and graphic memoirs exploring events from her childhood and adolescence.

Barry’s more recent work is more educational; it focuses on her creative process, gives insight into the origin of good ideas, and contains writing prompts and creative exercises designed to encourage readers to explore their ideas the same way Barry does. Barry has won significant acclaim for her pedagogical approach, including two Eisner Awards, the American Library Association’s Alex Award, and many more state-wide and national honors. Her graphic novel The Good Times Are Killing Me (1988) was adapted into an Off-Broadway play.

Barry has carved out a niche as teacher, using inventive methods dedicated to silencing the inner self-critic and opening doors to creativity for people who may not consider themselves artists or writers. Barry has also taught for many years at the University of Wisconsin at Madison, specializing in Interdisciplinary Creativity.