Contarct with God and Other Tenent stories by Will Eisner

A Contract with God and Other Tenement Stories is a 1978 graphic novel by Will Eisner, who is considered by many to be one of the pioneers of the graphic novel. A Contract with God is a collection of stories that mix melodrama and social realism which focus on poor Jewish characters who either live in or have a connection with a specific tenement building in New York City.

To me, one of the most outstanding aspects of this piece is the art style, a trait Will Eisner is famous for. Will Eisner focuses on depicting the emotions of the characters with the eyes.Through this, we can clearly see what is going in their minds and their emotional states. Many artists think that the mouth is enough to convey emotion, but in truth it never comes across or conveys the emotion strongly. Will Eisner proves in this work and many others like The Spirit that the eyes are actually the most important element in drawing emotion, and that the mouth should just be used as subtle way to enforce the emotion.

Another aspect of this work that stood out to me are the stories and characters. The stories focus on the tragic struggles of traditionally Jewish immigrants. I find that the first story, the one actually called A Contract with God, to be the one that affected me the most. The story follows an older traditional Hasidic Jewish man from Russia named Frimme Hersh, who, as a boy, carves a contract with God on a stone, believing that God will make life perfect for him and take care of all his worries. However, his entire life comes crashing down with the death of his adopted daughter, and he breaks all ties and renounces God. After this, his entire personality takes a complete turn around, and he proceeds to cut off his beard, lie to others, etc.., until he eventually becomes one of New York's richest men and real estate moguls, even buying the tenement he once called home and raising the tax on it. Soon he goes to a local synagogue and demands that the rabbis write up a brand new contract with God for him, believing that his contract was null and void since he wrote it on a stone when he was a boy and probably wrote it incorrectly. Reluctantly, the Rabbis give him a new contract and in his home,  Frimme Hersh, relishing in his new contract, spouts that everything will be just as it was, but better. He will live a wealthy life, get married and have a brand new daughter, who he will name Rachele, which is the exact same name of his deceased daughter. However, seconds later, Frimme's heart gives out and he collapses and dies.

Being a very religious person myself, I have seen these types of situations happen many times. Each time it brakes my heart to see someone lose their faith to such a degree or even misunderstand God's messages and commandments. Coupled with the brilliant art style, the emotions of the characters leave quite the impression on me. We the readers can see just in their faces alone how the character can go from perfectly fine to growing more and more insane. Overall, I find Will Eisner's approach to art style and his ability to convey the emotions to be very impressive.