Watchmen Literary Elements

Comic books

The action takes place in the beginning of the 1985 in New York.

The story in the comic books is told from the perspective of a first-person subjective point of view, namely from Rorschach's perspective.

The tone and mood in the comic books is a violent and disturbing one.

The protagonist is Rorschach and the other vigilante who form the Watchmen and the antagonists are the ones who hunt down the former vigilantes and try to kill them.

The major conflict is a political one and is between the United States and the Soviet Union. The conflict is seen as the result of each country's need for dominance and power.

The comic books reach the climax when Rorschach is killed by Manhattan.

The comic books start with a gruesome picture of a dead man left to rot in an alley, being discovered by Rorschach. This image has the purpose of setting the tone for the action in the comic books while also foreshadowing the later violent events which will take place.

From the beginning of the comic books, the general idea is that truth will always win and will always be revealed to the whole world, no matter what. This is proven to be an understatement at the end of the books when the reader sees that even those who were supposed to fight to reveal the truth had to conform to what society dictated them to do and had to go against their better judgement for sake of the greater good.

One of the main allusions which we find in the comic books is the idea that in the fictional world where the action takes place, the vigilantes were the ones who had the power to hold the world together and to stop it from plugging into chaos. Because of this, we see that when vigilantes retire and refuse to take care of the crime on the streets or even leave the earth, society is pushed on the brink of collapse and nothing can appear to be able to save it.

One important imagery is presented at the end when the reader is able to see Rorschach's dead body. This image is important because it has the purpose of transmitting the idea that at times, truth does not prevail.

One of the paradoxical ideas presented in comic books is the way in which many characters continue to have romantic relationships with the people who hurt them or even abused them. One such example is Silk Spectre who was almost raped in the past by Blake ended up being involved with him in a long term relationship and even having a child together.

A parallelism can be drawn between Manhattan and the rest of the members from the Watchmen. Manhattan is an alien-like creature who is unable to fully understand human nature. His colleagues, on the other hand, let themselves be ruled by emotions and what they think is right, often leading to catastrophic turns of events. This parallelism is used here to show that at times, being human does not mean taking the best decisions but rather letting oneself be influenced by emotions which in the long run can lead to catastrophic consequences.

The streets are used as a general term to make reference to the corruption which affects every person living in a modern-day society.

We have a personification in the sentence "This city is afraid of me".