Graffiti Symbolism In Watchmen

“Out in street, inspected defaced building: silhouette picture in doorway, man and woman, possibly indulging in sexual foreplay.” (Watchmen, 5, 11, 5). As the main character Rorschach describe the graffities on the street. In Watchmen by Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons, these graffities are shown in the panels while the story develops Rorschach characteristic. The special bond between Rorschach and the graffities are mysterious and unusual. The paper will show the appearance of the graffities happens again and again like a curse for Rorschach’s tragedy life.

The graffities in Watchmen are painted by gangsters in black ink on different wall backgrounds which is shown in the 2nd panel of Watchmen chapter 5 page 11. All of them share the similar image

The next big appearances are at the climax of the story. On chapter 12 page 5, a graffiti of a couple appears on the wall that New York just had a massive disaster. People are dead on the street, blood are everywhere. But ironically, not only there are no blood that got splashed onto the graffiti, but the graffiti is the only image of human that still look alive. This might interpret that the graffities image are what Rorschach hate, but love might be the only way to save the world. The same exact graffiti shows again in page 7 of the same chapter twice and also on the last panel of page 8. The last panel of page 8 with the two panels before it create this dramatic scene. Dr. Manhattan is talking with Laurie, while Laurie is frightened by the bloody scene. Then Dr. Manhattan brings her away by teleporting and leave a bright light at the scene. At the last panel, at where Dr. Manhattan and Laurie were standing. The graffiti shows up again at the wall behind them. This reminds me from the earlier of the book. Dr. Malcolm describes the graffiti “On seventh avenue, someone had sprayed silhouette figures onto the wall. It reminded me of the people disintegrated at Hiroshima, leaving only their indelible shadows.” (Watchmen, 6, 16, 6). The scene is exactly reappears as what Dr. Malcolm. This make me feel very impressed

Although they are doing different action. But all of them are expressing an act of love. In the story, Watchmen are having trouble while fighting crime. But in fact, everything would be resolved by love. The graffities in the story are like the the back spine of the book. They bind the whole book together and become one of the key element for Rorschach’s characteristic. From his teenager memory, to living in this crime city, then get put into the jail by a setup trap, at last when he is about to die. The graffiti image appears around him again and again like a curse for his tragedy life. Not only they help build up this unusual and antisocial Rorschach character, they are use as one of the strong hint for the audiences to understand the story line. The usage of the graffities are very impressive. The book would never be this splendid without