CHAPTER VIII:
OLD GHOSTS
A quick note: In Chapter
VI, I identified the character of Rorschach according to how he looked
physically within any given scene – whether in his civilian guise of Walter
Kovacs or his costumed identity of Rorschach.
I had considered identifying him in that chapter according to his
psychology within a given scene, as Kovacs related to Dr. Long: for
many of the early years of his career he was only Kovacs pretending to be
Rorschach. But I felt that would be
too confusing.
As I
continue with this project, I realize that to call Rorschach anything other
than his true name, regardless of the different speech pattern we see from the
unmasked Rorschach, is not only confusing, but wrong. So, with this chapter, I will identify him as
Rorschach, despite the fact that he is without his mask. This may seem a little thing, but I do not
wish there to be any confusion for those who have been reading along as I have
been writing these notes on Watchmen.
Eventually, I expect to go back and revise the notes for Chapter VI to better reflect a continuity
of thought that must be present within such an endeavor. But for now, I will keep them as is.
Thanks,
chris
Thematic Overview:
The
main theme for Chapter VIII is
liberation. After the calm before the
storm that was the previous chapter, we now see that storm bearing down on our
heroes, and our heroes must unshackle themselves in order to confront it. Derf’s misremembered comment, “like the
spirit of ’76,” on the recent return of these outlawed adventurers sums things
up nicely. It is a reaction to these
heroes while it also evokes a sense of patriotism that is also appropriate to
these vigilantes coming out of the shadows.
On its
surface, this chapter concerns the liberation of Rorschach from prison – a plan
put forth by Dan Dreiberg at the end of Chapter
VII. Over the course of this
chapter, the main narrative moves back and forth between Dan and Laurie’s preparations
and Rorschach’s own actions to effect his personal independence and
survival. These threads come together in
the latter half of the chapter, resulting in Rorschach’s liberation, which is the
first step in this final act of Watchmen.
Less
obvious, but equally important, is the liberation of Dan and Laurie from their
self-imposed shackles. For too long,
these two have denied their “true” identities – their heroic identities – a
result of the Keene Act of 1977. Despite
arguments to the contrary – that Laurie’s mother, the first Silk Spectre,
forced her into costumed adventuring or that all of Dan’s gadgets seem childish,
in retrospect – both are more comfortable, and more alive, when in their
costumes, helping others. With the
previous chapter’s tenement fire rescue, Dan and Laurie finally tested those waters. But it seemed Laurie only saw that as a
one-time thing, not a return to adventuring.
Dan’s point of view was decidedly different, born from the confidence
and relative ease he felt after finally putting the costume back on. And, with this chapter, Dan and Laurie
release those shackles and embark upon a new age of costumed adventuring.
And
finally, the saddest part of this chapter acts as an exclamation point for its
theme of liberation. Hollis Mason –
known for being Nite Owl and mistakenly believed to have saved the residents in
the tenement fire last chapter – is beaten to death by a small group of
Knot-Tops. Thrown into a fury by the
sense of impending doom, emphasized by Russia’s march into Pakistan, these
young punks race to Mason’s home with an unreasonable rage in their
hearts. The leader, Derf, is beyond reason
and uses the statue given to Mason in 1962, as a commemoration of his service
as Nite Owl, to kill this kind, old man.
In a sense, Derf “liberates” Mason from this mortal coil, leaving a pall
hanging over the story that parallels that which hangs over the citizenry of
this alternate Earth.
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