The Watchman (Essay Sample)

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THE WATCHMAN
The watchmen are a series of books that were collected in 1987. The book was written by Allan Mooren, John Higgins, and Dave Gibbons. Allan Moore produced the main ideas in the stories. In the novel, there is a murder investigation of Edward Blake (Moore et al.). The police do not have any leads, making Rorschach involve himself to search for the evidence. Edward Blake “the comedian” was a costumed hero who had been employed by the government. Rorschach describes Edward as a funny character. On finding the Edwards’s costume and a smiley face on the bridge, Rorschach has every reason to believe that the other custom heroes; Manhattan, Veidt, Dreibeg, and Manhattan girlfriend; Laurice that they were in danger, and he sets out to warn them. The government frames Manhattan for cancer affecting his friend, which causes him to flee to Mars. With the departure of Manhattan, the Soviet attack Afghanistan to exploit the American weakness. In the same period, there is an attempt to assassinate Veidt, and Rorschach is falsely accused of Moloch's murder, supervillain. Upon his arrest, Rorschach is unmasked.
Due to the godlike powers that prevented Manhattan from being engaged in the human's everyday relationship, Laurice feels abandoned and moves in with Dreiberg. They get into a romantic relationship, give up their masked life, and start living as civilians. The two believe in Rorschach's story and plan to break him out of prison. After breaking Rorschach ,Manhattan takes Laurice to mars for an emotional conversation. In their argument, Laurice realized that Blake, who had raped his mother, was one of the superheroes. These complexities in the human relationship make Manhattan believe in humanity once again.
Left behind, Dreiberg and Rorschach conduct their investigation to determine if Veidt was behind all that was happening. On confronting him, Veidt admitted that he had to frame Manhattan for cancer, killed Moloch, made people believe it was Rorschach, and murdered Edward on the bridge. In his defense, he said that he did all this to protect the human race as he yearned for unity between the superpower. The two could not stop him as he had already launched his plan on getting to earth Manhattan and Laurice finds destruction of Newyork city. On being confronted by Manhattan and Laurice, Veidt makes them see that the superpowers had united in the face f a new threat; they all agree that keeping Veidt action from the rest of the world was the best course of action to take. Rorschach disagrees and insists on exposing Veidt, Manhattan tries to stop him, but he refuses, which makes Manhattan kill him. The team disperses with Laurice and Dreiberg, keeping a low profile using new identities. The novel ends with the New York editor from News request his assistant to find filler material from the files that had been rejected but had not been reviewed. The assistance finds Rorschach's novel.
The central theme of the novel is the deconstruction of superheroes in society. The characters in the watchmen are not flawless. They do evil things in the name of protecting the community. For example, Veidt destroyed Newyork and killed the comedian with the hope of bringing the superpowers together. Doctor Manhattan kills Rorschach to safeguard the public from knowing the work Veidt’s had done. The lack of respect for human life shown by the characters' characters questions their integrity in protecting human life.
The author uses symbolism.The smiley face and the bloodstain on its eye throughout the novel, for instance, when Black is beaten, the blood falls when he is thrown out of the window, the smiley face fall and is collected by Rorschach, who gave it to it to Dreiberg. He wipes the blood off the badge, but it falls Edwin's coffin. The symbols are used at the beginning of a significant issue that is to be addressed. The bloodstain on the smiley face looks like a pointer, more like the hour hand in a clock. This is intended to show impending doom or falsehood in the way people act happy. The comedian's badge is usually worn by people who fight evil in society. The bloodstain that falls on the badge after Blake is thrown out through the window tarnished the badge. This showed that the heroes had very different natures, some being very evil, raising the question of whether they were heroes. The tossing of the badge in the grave, while it was still bloody, signified the end of faultless heroes. The heroes were a mask; these symbolize that they hid who they are from the society such that the people do not get to know their real nature, whether they are good or not.
Moore tries to make us imagine a situation where they are superheroes in the real world. He raises the question; the watchmen watch over us, who watches over them (BUILD Series). Bradford Wright placing the argument in modern-day context warn the people against putting their trust in the hand of the politicians who can build or destroy the world provided that they deem it fit. Moore says that his ideas while writing the book were anti-Regann since people were not afraid because the president had formed, which made America equal to the Soviets. He does not directly address the issue as very few people would watch. Therefore, the novel attempts to deconstruct the heroes by saying that the people should not completely trust the politicians at face value, but they should question the heroes' idea. The heroes seem to share no particular belief from the novel as they see as life is useless, Manhattan, or example abandons Laurice. Veidt kills many people in the name of the unity of the Soviets. Thom