TRACING THE AUTOBIOGRAPHICAL ELEMENTS AND THE VISUAL METAPHOR USED IN THE NOVEL EL DEAFO BY CECE BELL

El Deafo is an American comic by Cece Bell. El Deafo according to the novel means “listeners’ to all”. The graphical novel is partially autobiographical and the author uses bunnies to depict her situation even better. The novel basically tells the story of the deaf Cece, who is the main character and the events that happen around her. After she manages to get a hearing aid, she attributes some superpower qualities to the equipment. Later she develops a special interest in listening to all the gossips going around. The author has also used anthropomorphism in her novel by attributing certain human characteristics to the bunnies. Hence general human nature and emotions are also dealt with in the novel. After going through a series of struggles, Cece manages to overcome all the problems by claiming her hearing aid to have a superpower quality. This paper intends to focus on tracing the major autobiographical elements in the novel and how Cece successfully uses bunnies to depict what she went through during her childhood.