#7: Book 4 Reflection

Intro: Watchmen by Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons is not only the book that changed how we view comics, but it’s a book that ponders ideology and how much a life truly is worth.

1.       The end of the book shows the “villain” killing off almost all of New York, declaring it a victory for the survival of mankind on the brink of Nuclear War. To avoid Nuclear war, Adrian van Viedt was able to create “artificial life from another dimension”, “killing” it in New York to set off a psychic shockwave that killed most of the city as a way to scare the nations of the world to stop fighting each other. It works, and ends up being justified in the same way that the atomic bombs in Japan were justified. In fact, Rorschach (the one who supported Truman’s decision during WWII) is disgusted by this plan, and ends up having Dr. Manhattan kill him when he realizes he can’t stay silent about what really happened.

2.       Towards the Climax, the almost-god Dr. Manhattan realizes that all life is miracle. Throughout the book, the reader sees this “living god” grow more and more disconnected from mankind. Only to realize at the end that even though he can see the strings that everyone dances to, that doesn’t mean it’s not a miracle. He cites the existence of his wife to be the example, claiming that out of all the possibilities, her egg was fertilized and grew up to be a living human being. A one-in-a-million chance, the same chance that happened to every single human being on the planet. He even remarks about this, saying that, “… The world is so full of people, so crowded with these miracles that they become commonplace and we forget… I forget. We gaze continually at the world and it grows dull in our perceptions. Yet seen from another’s vantage point, as if new, it may still take the breath away. Come… Dry your eyes, for you are life, rarer than a quark and unpredictable beyond the dreams of Heisenberg; the clay in which the forces that shape all things leave their fingerprints most clearly.”

3.       One of the main characters, Rorschach, declares society to be nothing but a debauchery, yet decides to save the world for the greater good of all. It’s stated continuously that Rorschach hates what the world has become. How people have trivialized love, drugs, crime and the American dream. At the end of the novel, and at the end of his life, he asks for Dr. Manhattan to kill him, saying, “Of course. Must protect Veidt’s new utopia. One more body amongst the foundations makes little difference. Well? What are you waiting for? Do it.”

4.       Characters often muse on the meaninglessness of life, especially when Rorschach claims that we have nothing in life except for the ability to help others. Mused upon heavily by others, especially the people that Rorschach talk to. In fact, his psychologist ends up trying to help break up a fighting couple over trying to work out his relationship with his wife. “Gloria, please. I have to. In a world like this… I mean, it’s all we can do, try to help each other. It’s all that means anything… Please. Please understand.”

5.       Characters constantly try to see if it’s “worth it” to help and save others, even at the cost of innocents or their own lives. Demonstrated continuously (this is a story about superheroes), even by people who try to break up fights before New York dies.

In conclusion? It matters. Humankind has always bickered about what the true meaning of what life and happiness is. If you read Watchmen, it may state that even though everything could be for nothing, you should help those two people. Especially since sometimes, it really is all that means anything. If not for you, then others.