Very little needs to be said about the awesomeness that is the graphic novel, Watchmen. Published in single issues during 1986 and 1987, Watchmen is a murder mystery story involving retired superheroes, an impending nuclear war and much more. Featuring a dynamic cast of characters, Watchmen explores many issues within it’s covers. 16 concordances on Watchmen follow.
Image Credit: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Watchmencovers.png
“Look down your backstairs buddy, somebody’s living there an’ they don’t really feel the weather” (Chapter 1, Page 10, Panel 1).
Here, Moore incorporates lyrics from the song “Neighborhood Threat” by Iggy Pop. The song is directed to a man who has someone living on his backstairs, most likely a homeless person. The idea of a homeless person living on someone’s backstairs implies a feeling of danger or threat. In Watchmen, the song appears in the foreground of a panel, coming from a boombox. In the background of the panel, Dan Dreiberg (Nite Owl) can be seen walking home late one night. The lyrics in the panel suggest that Dreiberg is in an unsafe neighborhood and also foreshadow the break-in that Dreiberg is about to discover. By using a song like “Neighborhood Threat”, Moore sets the mood as dark and gloomy, and hints at what the rest of the novel might be about.
Chapter 2, Page 1, Panels 2 and 3
In the second and third panels of Chapter 2, Laurie and Moloch are both seen holding red flowers. Laurie’s flowers are a gift to her mother; she uses them as a gesture to show that she cares about her mother. The color red symbolizes her love and affection for her mother. Moloch brings his red flowers to Blake’s funeral where he is paying his respects to Blake. The flowers are red roses, which symbolize love and respect. The abundance of red flowers in this chapter shows the close bond between the characters, despite the years of separation and disagreements. Gibbons purposefully used the color red for the flowers to show the connections between the characters and to give readers more knowledge about the characters and their traits.
Image Credit: http://www.oxtonflowers.co.uk/acatalog/Wreaths_and_Posy_Pads_to_UK.html
“Yeah, well, so’s Dachau. I’d never forgive somebody who did that…” (Chapter 2, Page 2, Panel 1).
Laurie compares her mother’s near rape to the political concentration camp from World War II, Dachau. Comparing the rape to Dachau is significant because the United States desperately trying to prevent a third world war, and this mention of a World War II concentration camp foreshadows the impending war and the atrocities that will come with a war. Moore uses Dachau as the concentration camp to compare the rape to because Dachau was primarily meant for political prisoners and anyone who was not Jewish but still opposed to the Nazi regime. This connects to Blake, the man who tried to rape Laurie’s mother. Blake was politically active and the connection to a political prison camp shows Moore’s distaste for Blake’s political beliefs and for Dachau’s existence.
Works Cited: United States Holocaust Memorial Museum. "Dachau." Holocaust Encyclopedia. 19 Feb. 2009 <http://www.ushmm.org/wlc/article.php?lang=en&ModuleId=10005214>.
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“Laetril. Phony medication made from apricot pits. Outlawed three years ago. Illegal.” (Chapter 2, Page 24, Panel 4).
Laetril (correctly spelled Laetrile) is an alternative medicine used to treat cancer. It is a compound that contains a chemical, amygdalin, which is found in the pits of many fruits, such as apricots, as Rorschach mentions here. Amygdalin was first isolated in 1830, and first used to treat cancer in Russia as early as 1845. Laetrile is a partly synthetic version of amygdalin that was patented in the United States in the 1950s. Laetrile’s relevance to Watchmen takes several forms. The first connection is to the time period that Laetrile became popular: the 1970s. Watchmen takes place during the 80s, just after the 70s when Laetrile gained popularity. By 1978 an estimated 70,000 people had reportedly been treated with Laetrile. The second form of relevance is to the motif of cancer. Moloch’s mention of cancer is one of the first in the novel; later in the novel it is learned that cancer is Veidt’s method of removing his past acquaintances so they cannot prevent him from his task of saving humanity. Moore uses the drug Laetrile, because it actually exists so that readers familiar with the time period of Watchmen might have knowledge about the drug. This gives the readers a greater sense of the reality of the novel, so they are more likely to believe that the events in Watchmen could truly take place.
Works Cited: "Laetrile/Amygdalin." National Cancer Institute. U.S. National Institutes of Health. 20 Feb. 2009 http://www.cancer.gov/cancertopics/pdq/cam/laetrile/Patient/page2.
Image Credit: http://www.cytopharma.com/
“See, everything’s connected.” (Chapter 3, Page 2, Panel 4)
Bernard, the newsvendor, makes one of the most obvious, yet most profound statements of the novel. Bernard sees and hears everything that goes on in New York City, the United States, and the rest of the world through his job as a newsvendor. This allows him to reflect and comment on the society, including the connectivity of everyone. Most of the characters in Watchmen have some type of connection to Bernard’s newsstand, whether it is obvious or not. The connections to the newsstand brings all of the characters together without their awareness. Moore uses Bernard’s character and his newsstand to show the connections between the characters because Bernard is the most human of all the characters in Watchmen. Bernard sees life the way it is and he doesn’t try to make it out to be better than it really is, while the other characters have corrupt views of life. Moore uses Bernard’s reflections to keep the readers in tune with the truths of the novel.
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“This world, the real world, to him, it’s like walking through mist, and all the people are like shadows…” (Chapter 3, Page 9, Panel 2).
Laurie’s explanation that to Jon, people are like shadows, foreshadows the images of silhouettes that appear many times throughout the novel. The silhouettes are similar to those found in Hiroshima after the atomic bombing in 1945, except the ones in Watchmen are spray-painted around New York City by groups of boys. Seeing people as shadows shows Jon’s detachment from humanity, just like the detachment the bombers had from the Japanese when they released the atomic bomb. Moore uses Laurie’s description of Jon to indirectly characterize him and by doing so foreshadows some of Jon’s actions later in the novel.
Image credit: http://maasmedia.files.wordpress.com/2008/08/hiroshima_shadow.jpg
