Watchmen

Named one of the 100 greatest novels of the past century by Time Magazine, the Watchmen by Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons, the comic book, 20 years after its publishing, is still a huge hit as a subject for essays. The variety of characters in this book is one of the major factors that brings all the depth and is what makes it one written for «adults». The multitude of characters found in this masterpiece is very realistic in the way they reflect on things; therefore, making it a book that is with endless possibilities of analysis of the characters. I will talk only about Dr. Manhattan, because I find that he represents more the movement of society and a guideline that one of the most powerful countries in the world, the United States, seems to adopt to keep its position in the world.

Dr. Manhattan is a character that is represented as a God like figure after the changes he suffered; therefore, leaving him with powers, after surviving or should I say, resurrecting after receiving a very big dose of radiation . He plays an important role helping and representing the Americans during the Cold War. Actually, his name (Dr. Manhattan) is not his real name, but the name that was chosen as an economic or mostly a marketing tool to make sure that everyone knew that he was an American. A little bit like the competition that the US had with Russia, to know who would go to the moon first, they had this «super guy» from their country. This was the first thing that makes me think about what his character stands for. He is like an object, very important for the United States of America, because he is very powerful so if a country decided to start a war with them, they should be ready and scared because they have him. Politically, the Americans still seem to have that same mentality, they hold on to what makes them powerful and use their strength to make sure that nobody even dares to touch them because watch out, they are going to bite back hard.

At one time, Dr. Manhattan talks with his ex-girlfriend while they were on Mars. She asks him to save the world, because he would have the power to do some major things to prevent many future killings, he responds, why should he do something if the only thing that made him connected to the other normal humans was her, his ex. I find that this is something, it’s a mentality that we can find in a majority of people. Our instincts seem to be, if the cause does not speak to us directly, just that, we tend to not feel the necessity to get our hands dirty and we just close our eyes. It is the case with all the injustices in our present world! In the book, Dr. Manhattan shows it to us very clearly, because it is so big and absurd that he refuses to save the world when he could do something about it and just doesn’t see the point.