Themes

Themes that can be found are struggle, perseverance, fear, togetherness, overcoming, love and war. As with any tragedy, a multitude of themes can be found throughout. We see these themes throughout the use of image, dialogue, behaviour of characters and the content of the memoir itself. 

Struggle, perseverance and fear are a constant theme displayed throughout the memoir. We see this with the use of low and wide angled shots, they create an appearance of loneliness and insignificance - the close shots allow the viewers to feel sympathetic and emotional for the characters. This is also portrayed to the viewer through the mothers thoughts. The author constantly shares her mothers thought with the viewer, they are often fearful and worrisome. The persistent running of the mother and daughter help portray these themes of hardship. We see that war is also continuously mentioned throughout the novel, through conversation of the characters, images of nazi flags, and appearances of soldiers. 

The more positive themes of overcoming and love are displayed less often throughout the novel. The coloured pages help enforce the more positive themes. Coming from black and white images - times of hardship - the colour represents a new beginning, easier times and togetherness. This is also seen through the faithfulness of the mother to her husband until they find each other again. Finally, it is also significant that this entire journey is completed by a daughter and mother side by side - togetherness and love are portrayed heavily as we see the sacrifices one is made for the other, and the bond the share which is more evident to the readers near the end of the book when they are on the phone speaking about the time in the snowfall. 

Crisis has a tendency to toss us from one extremity to the next, and calls out aspects of ourselves that we may not normally practice or express. Powerful emotions are being portrayed throughout.

https://ehne.fr/en/article/wars-and-traces-war/representations-war/comics-and-war
This link talks about comics and memoirs created in Europe during the first world war and whether they are an instrument of propaganda, heroisation or denunciation.