A Balance of Characters Santina Conte 10th Grade

In Alan Moore’s Watchmen, character Nite Owl is surrounded by the intense personas of his fellow costumed vigilantes. He does not handle situations in either Rorschach’s or Manhattan’s opposing fashions, but has a simple ideology in his viewing of the world. In terms of how he brought himself to be a hero, Nite Owl did not share the same motives as Ozymandias, who strived to follow in the footsteps of Alexander of Macedonia, or Rorschach, who began fighting due to his disgust for the world. Finally, Nite Owl is the middle ground between Ozymandias’s ego and Manhattan’s nonchalant persona. Nite Owl can therefore be thought of as the balance between the extremes found in the other characters.

Too much violence can never be a good thing, but too little does have its negative effects as well. Conflicting ideologies are often at the root of many issues, whether big or small. Retributivism, the ideology that rationally punishes people because they deserve it, is Rorschach’s philosophy. The extent to which Rorschach exercises retributivism is, however, at the detriment of many of the tertiary characters of the graphic novel. Upon hearing the kidnapping of a young girl not being dealt with, Rorschach knows he has to step in and act as...