PAGE 27
Panel 1: The
man selling Rolex watches, who curses at Dr. Long, will be seen again. Having a watch seller in this panel is a
call-back to Dr. Manhattan, who has been absent in these past two chapters, but
could also be seen as a symbolic emphasis upon Rorschach’s thoughts on God –
Rorschach says that “God [does not] kill the children … it’s us,” which falls
in line with the Watchmaker theory of
God, a divine being who created the world, set things in motion, and then
stepped away to allow events to transpire of their own accord.
Panel 3: Once again, Moore & Gibbons infuse the
narrative with irony and symbolism as they juxtapose the words – a recounting
of what to do with dead family members in the case of a nuclear attack (they should be wrapped in plastic garbage
bags and placed outside for collection) – with the pictures – that of the
Hiroshima lovers graffiti (an image that
reminds us of the devastation wrought by the United States nuclear attack on
Japan during WWII) just behind a trash can, where the young boy reading the
pirate comic at the newsstand is throwing away a mmmeltdowns
wrapper.
The
juxtaposition of a minor, disposable candy wrapper with the thought of doing
the same to one’s family is ironic, while the use of the Hiroshima lovers graffiti accentuates the message of a nuclear
holocaust that may be raining down on America any minute, within this alternate
world – a literal meltdown.
And
the image of the Hiroshima lovers facing one another as they embrace
transitions directly into
Panel 4: where we have Dr. Long and his
wife in a reversal of the graffiti, as they get dressed with their backs to
each other. The curtains in the
background, which separate directly between the couple, emphasize this symbolic
“breaking” of their marriage.
Panel 7: Here we see the finalized metamorphosis of
Dr. Long into someone akin to Rorschach.
Asked a titillating and immature question, he does not shy away from the
stated query and answers his dinner guests directly with simple statements that
do not hide the true “black and white” nature of the incident. Typically, in such company, one might
consider glossing over the facts because society expects that. But Dr. Long now sees the world in a manner
similar to Rorschach and seems unable to do that.
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