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Essays about watchmen
Essays on the watchmen
Essays about watchmen
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In Alan Moore’s comic book “Watchmen” the author uses many references and allusions to various works of literature to help add a whole new dimension to the analysis of the characters and themes of the work for readers. Moore draws from these references to show that he is highly educated and has a certain expectation for his readership. Even if the reader is not well read, the cited quotes at the end of each passage provide an opportunity for the reader to educated themselves.
The first literary reference is the title of Chapter 5, which is called “Fearful Symmetry” which comes from the William Blake’s poem “The Tyger”. The poem itself is not cited until the end of the chapter, but not the whole poem, so in order for the reader to understand the importance of the reference, one must read the poem, and understand the interpretation behind it. The last two stanzas of poem are most important to understanding the meaning: “…When the stars threw down their spears/And watered heaven with their tears/Did he smile his work to see/Did he who made the Lamb make thee/ Tyger! Tyger! burning ...
All graphic novels are structured to provide few words so the reader can follow the story through the illustrations. The comic panels are drawn to be extremely vivid and revealing. In Watchmen, a story based in a Cold War America, political symbolism is everything. Alan Moore strategically places numerous clues for the reader throughout the story to develop and reveal crucial components of the character’s lives, the setting, and the theme of the novel.
In a world dominated by technology, reading novels has become dull. Instead of immersing into books, we choose to listen to Justin Bieber’s new songs and to scroll through Instagram posts. We have come to completely neglect the simple pleasures of flipping through pages and getting to finally finish a story. Sherman Alexie and Stephan King’s essays attempt to revive this interest in books that has long been lost. They remind us of the important role that reading plays in our daily lives. “The Joy of Reading and Writing: Superman and Me,” for instance, demonstrates how being literate saved the narrator from the oppressive nature of society. The author explains that even though he was capable of reading complex books at an astonishingly young
Alan Moore’s “Watchmen” focuses on several characters throughout the novel making the idea of a main character moot. However, one character can be described as the most influential to the plot of the graphic novel. Rorschach can be seen as such due to the fact that he narrates a large portion of the novel, and his heroic code that he follows. Not only does he influence the plot by those two reasons, but also by uniting the characters after a long silence. The Comedian is the only character that almost perfectly fits as the character with the most influence on the plot of “Watchmen.” The death of his character allows for the plot to be set in motion. He has not only has he shaped every other character in the novel, but the symbol that represents his character can be found throughout the graphic novel. Although Rorschach can be interpreted as the most influential character of “Watchmen,” The Comedian influenced more aspects of the plot than any other character of the graphic novel.
To conclude, the graphic novel Watchmen presents the non-fantastic representation of a superhero, implying that not all heroes are like Superman. This notion is explored within the novel by mentioning the realistic motives of the characters choosing to become superheroes, by Rorschach’s representation and through the heroic reactions of the New Yorkers to a street crime. These elements all contribute to Watchmen’s uniqueness and complexity as a superhero comic.
Watchmen is not just a graphic novel, but also a unique representation of American idealism as expressed through character image. Although the characters are portrayed as "superheroes," each is psychologically complex in that they become symbols for the flaws of American culture. Together, the characters of Watchmen reflect an unflattering image of American identity. We sacrifice morals to defend principles, rather than saving people. We sacrifice ourselves for commercial gain and for the fame that comes from the worship of strangers.
Alan Moore successfully breaks down the effectiveness of superheroes portrayed in your average comic book with his use of Dr.Manhattan:Super-powers and the superpowers inside his graphic novel Watchmen. Dr.Manhattan is made out to be less than divine. The American’s “placing our superhuman benefactor in the position of a walking nuclear deterrent”(Dr.Manhattan:Super-powers and the superpowers.II), depicting him as the Vitruvian Man and having a God present among mere mortals all lead to Moore being able to break down the common conceptions about superheroes.
To create living people should always be the goal in literature. It is how a writer can illuminate a new facet of existence and can only be achieved through the use of a sympathetic imagination. Hemingway erred however, when he argued, “A character is a caricature” (153). A caricature may be a character sometimes, but it may also be a fully realized and living person at others. As in Watchmen, when a caricature lives, it can be an extremely powerful thing.
Comic books may not be considered in the same realm as the great novels of F.Scott Fitzgerald and George Orwell; some don’t even consider comics literary works but there is a viable argument to justify their presence as culturally important pieces of literature. Similar to the great novels of our time, comics express the difficulties of human nature and are timeless works (Kalstein Web). The content of these short stories can be used as primary sources of popular culture as they are filled with historical references and have been influential in guiding the thoughts of the nation through their patriotic content over time, leaving an impactful mark in history.
Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons graphic novel Watchmen, is about showing the human flaws in being a superhero. The story follows a couple of different characters from a second generation of masked crime fighters called the minutemen. Alan Moore takes the superhero persona and gives it to normal people with bleak life outlooks. Through flash backs of the early days of both generations of you can see how much more cheerful and eneev the masked crime fighters. Then as the book gets on the reader sees how the masked crime fighters end up either died or crazy.
The graphic novel Watchmen written by Alan Moore looks at the world from a different perspective and allows the reader to see a universe that is parallel to the one we experience every day. Watchmen is snapshot of our history in which many alterations have taken place. These particular adaptations hold certain significance since they are comparable to the very reality which we live in. Through these comparisons we can analyze certain aspects of the novel and understand what messages are being conveyed. While reading this fictional novel there is an extraordinarily serious and depressing underlying tone which is prevalent. This dismal portrayal also arises from the characters within the novel and their pessimistic outlooks on the world which
This essay provides a Reader-Response based analysis of William Blake’s “The Tyger.” Following a brief overview of Reader-Response theory, where the subjects of the reader serve to give meaning to text, the essay begins focusing on the contradiction and the division that lives within the tiger itself. Blake’s “Tyger” is simultaneously a beautiful and ferocious creature. From this, the essay moves forward by examining the multiple references to symmetry made by Blake in “The Tyger,” and proposes that these are an overall collection that contains many of the tiger’s contradictions. Moving forward, the essay proposes, within the context of a secondary literature that debates the realism of Blake’s portrayal of the tiger, that while Blake does not represent an accurate tiger in his poem, this is largely irrelevant as the work is focused not on the tiger as an actual animal, but rather on the tiger as a myth of nature. With all of the above in mind, the essay concludes by noting that “The Tyger” is especially open to Reader-Response analyses because of its open-ended portrayal of the tiger as well as its openness to divergent interpretations.
Through a dramatic tone, William Blake's “The Tyger” reveals that everyone is afraid of something by using diction. The author uses diction to form exaggeratedly fearful and fierce words. Consequently, these words are causing the tone of the author to be more dramatic. An excellent example is in line 6, where it says” fire of thine eyes”. The fire in the beast's eyes was created to make the tone more fearful, since it usually refers to an animus and fighting figure.
William Blake’s 1793 poem “The Tyger” has many interpretations, but its main purpose is to question God as a creator. Its poetic techniques generate a vivid picture that encourages the reader to see the Tyger as a horrifying and terrible being. The speaker addresses the question of whether or not the same God who made the lamb, a gentle creature, could have also formed the Tyger and all its darkness. This issue is addressed through many poetic devices including rhyme, repetition, allusion, and symbolism, all of which show up throughout the poem and are combined to create a strong image of the Tyger and a less than thorough interpretation of its maker.
Even though there are superheroes existent in the Watchmen universe, a majority are human and thus exhibit routine human characteristics. They frequently “ponder what sort of person would put on fancy dress and punch muggers every evening,” but when they do themselves, their flaws shine though the costume, causing them to commit questionable actions (Barber). They are not perfect heroes, exposed by the fact that Moore created them as shadows of well-known superheroes like Batman, Superman, and Iron Man (Barber). Furthermore, there are no clear protagonists or antagonists because each character battles their own morality, adding to the human factor of the novel (Wu). Hence, humanity’s worth can be distinguished through an analysis of the morals
To begin, William Blake uses his poems The Lamb and The Tyger to point out flaws of society, but also to show the importance of balance. In these two poems basically William Blake says that there are two types of people a lamb which is nice and timid: and a tiger which is mean and awful. He shows that the lamb is nice and innocent on page 748 lines 14-17, “For he calls himself a Lamb: He is meek & he is mild, He became a little child: I a child & and thou a lamb.” He says that the lamb is meek and mild which represents those people in this world that don’t mean any harm to others and try to make everyone happy. In The Tyger he says, “Burn the...