Politics & Watchmen Essay

Comic take fors involve long held the fascination of young and freehanded alike. Their social description on politics and cultural integration of societies along with their charismatic protagonists pitted against the forces of sliminess be hap a gateway into self-reflection whether or not that self be a person or a government. In Alan Moores lifelike novel The Watchmen such policy questions and the ambiguity of evil come to the forefront of the story.The Watchmen is a graphic novel with takes amaze in the United States in the 1980s hardly particulars near history cave in changed in show to give the lecturer a more amoral order Nixon is still pre gradientnt, America won the Vietnam War and the future get winds like a bright place exuberant of peace thanks to Dr. Manhattans element introducing naked as a jaybird engineering feats to even new fabrics (as seen with Rorschachs mask that had once been a ladys dress). exclusively of these elements combine to enlighten the indorser and to scram them to question a static government whose lines of good and evil argon n unrivaledxistence in the lawsuit of progress as Moore stated in 1986, I was consciously trying to do something that would make people palpate uneasy. (Ste fightt Synchronicity and Symmetry 1987). This paper will seek to develop an analysis of Alan Moores classic graphic novel including definition from other sources that will support and deny the brilliance of this novel and its social commentary on American culture.Alan Moore presents the reviewer with passages throughout his text which aid the reader in subplots of his story. Some sections are dedicated to Nite Owl while others are dedicated to the tragedy of a pirate shipwrecked in Tales of the fatal Freighter. The point of these sm every last(predicate) diversions from the main story is to give the reader a more comprehensive look into the morals of the story at hand.Moore is giving his readers an idea about zepes and their obl igations to justice paired with their private identities as Singh states, And we hurt the protagonists, each with his or her own set of personal demons including the amoral Edward Blake/The Comedian (a timber about whom I would have liked to learn more) whose death sets the plot in motion and the two erstwhile Nite Owls who meet on Saturdays to reminisce about glories past.The only character in the guard who actually has supernormal powers is Dr Manhattan/Jonathan Osterman, who create extraordinary control over matter following a laboratory accident. While the classic super crampfish derisory might have used Dr Manhattan to great effect in action thoughts, his function here is opposite he serves as a dispassionate observer/commenter on human affairs.(Of course, he is also beingness used as a weapon by the US a dubious move, since his very strawman in the domain encourages the possibility of mutually assured destruction. ) (Singh How Superheroes Fade 2006). Through Moore s writing the reader discovers that the heros battle for justice is being at a lower placewritten by the government, especially with the enforcement of the Keene Act An act which requires disguised avengers to give the public their true identity. While some heroes do in event acquiesce to this new law (i.e. the Silk Spectre/Laurie Juspeczyk, and Ozymandias/Adrian Veidt) or not (Rorschach/Walter Kovacs), or simply retire (the second Nite Owl/Daniel Dreiberg) the fact that the government is requiring for their heroes to divulge their identity and thereby become more of a target to their enemies is part of that tally dialogue of government policies that serve no purpose, and definitely no good purpose that Moore was adamant about writing into his story.This idea about heroes begets the ideas about Greek and Roman culture (indeed many comic book heroes have their origins with ancient gods and goddesses) and with this connotation comes another Greek route That of a heros shortcoming as Bradford Wright writes about Moores concept of the graphic novel that The Watchmen is, Moores obituary for the concept of heroes in general and superheroes in particular. (Wright 272).There is one hero in this story which allows for the bending of good into the landed estate of evil to play a dynamic role in the book Ozymandias/Adrian Veidt seeks to become like horse parsley the Great. Alexander the Great conquered the known world- and he did this in order to unite the world and thereby give opposition and evil. In Adrians mind, in order to become a great hero he must accomplish a united world in order to have global peace. Thus, he decides to fake a global threat in the form of an alien fall upon toward the close of the novel.This attack succeeds in uniting the United States with Russia and other leaders (remember this was a clipping when the Cold War was a serious issue, and even though Moore chose to change the face of the president for his graphic novel, the impending d oom of the world is something he still kept in as a fact for his story). As most heroes have flaws, Ozymandias flaw may be considered to be his ego for he wants to be greater than his own personal hero Alexander the Great. Tragic heroes begin their stories with aplomb of luck, or ego, or a rosy scene of the world.With literature or drama the tragedy of the unmistakable truth found in the characters own self-realization is typically the denouement. The writers tragic heroes have survived in life under false pretences, thus they are doomed to suffer from their one flaw of ego as Iain Thomson writes,ontogenesis its heroes precisely in order to deconstruct the very idea of the hero and so encouraging us to reflect upon its significance from the many varied angles of the shards left lying on the ground.(Thomson Deconstructing the Hero 101). What is different in Moores novel is that Ozymandias doesnt succumb to his ego at least not in the written pages of the novel (for Rorschachs nov el does reach the attention of the Frontiersman newspaper and the reader is left to assume its pages will be printed and the truth about the alien hoax will be publicized). Thomson goes on to state develops its heroes precisely in order to ask us if we would not in fact be better off without heroesand the storys deconstruction of the idea of a hero suggests that perhaps the time for heroes has passed which further illustrates this postmodern work from the deconstructions of the hero in the existentialism movement. (Thomson 111). Thus, with the hero turned bad shout (for the cause of world peace) and not being punished by the ultimate superhero of the book, Dr. Manhattan, the reader is left question Where is justice?It is this question which spurns on the plots and subplots of the novel. With the Keene Act masked avengers are forced to reveal their identity only when The Comedian/Edward Blake does not have to do this as he is an agent for the government. His work for the governme nt is equivalent to a mercenary sol crushr he goes into American occupied territories and takes care of local uprisings. The part of the book dedicated to Blakes story shows him in Vietnam with a flame thrower killing soldiers. The next scene is of Blake in a bar with a pregnant woman asking him to take of her now that the war is over.Blake laughs at her and she then grabs a bottle and breaks it then attacks him brutally slashing his face as Reynolds states of Blakes personality, he is ruthless, cynical, and nihilistic, and yet capable of deeper insights than the others into the role of the costumed hero(Reynolds 106). The justice of the novel in this scene takes place when Blake takes out his pistol and shoots her in the stomach. The underlining commentary on this scene is further developed as the reader realizes through Blakes dialogue with Dr.Manhattan that Manhattan could have turned the gun into anything he wanted, but he didnt, he simply allowed events to play through. So, t he characters amoral personalities and their ability to follow their government as soldiers and kill villagers then kill a pregnant woman, or even to allow a pregnant woman to be killed when one could have done something to prevent it, layer the story with what are the definitions of good and evil and these traits applications to men who claim to be fighting for justice.Does guilt make evil actions less amoral? This is a question which plagues through Moores commentary on the government. The United States government sent Dr. Manhattan to annihilate small villages in order for them to surrender to the U. S. all in under the guise of peace as Klock states, like Alan Moores kenosis, Veidt must destroy, then reconstruct, in order to build a unity which would survive him. (Klock 75). Does a government feel guilt over the thousands that die on the oppositions side?And, if they do feel guilt, how does a feeling make cover for the harm that is done? Indeed, Moores novel about ambiguous fe elings gives all of the contradictions of the American government (Sabin 165). In the world of graphic novels, the cut and dry interpretation of the hero fighting side by side with its government and government agencies such as cops, it would seem then that the government would become a hero in association with the protagonists of the story.In Moores novel, the reader sees the development of the anti-hero in full climax with the character of The Comedian. The Comedian is a social commentary on how governments, different agencies and countries are a joke they squall to help the people but when the government sends Blake and Dreiberg to control the rioting in the street all it takes it one person from the crowd to throw a beer bottle at the Archimedes (Nite Owls flying device) for Blake to go into the crowd shooting his gun at the people hes supposed to be protecting.All throughout the novel Moore has Dave Gibbons illustrate the dialect Who Watches The Watchmen written in graffiti all over the city. At this pivotal scene in the novel, when the crowd disperses one lone soul is spray painting this phrase on the side of a building when Blake comes up to them. This is main theme of the graphic novel who controls the hero when the hero becomes evil? This question comes to a climax with Ozymandias character along with (to an extent) Blakes character.