I recently read a visual novel called Watchmen, written by Allen Moore and I was honestly greatly surprised. When I think of visual novels I generally don't think of very intullectially based pieces how work. However Watchmen, Continually surprised me with it's constant use of symbolism. The anti-hero Rorschach always had a mask on which had no other colors besides black and white. The blobs of black would constantly change in shape and in position. This could mean numerous things but I saw it as Rorschach's view on the world black and white with no grey and it is constantly changing for every situation. This was only one of many different ways the writter impressed me with clever use of symbolism and other literary elements.
This visual novel was about multiple things but it mainly focuses on a group of vigilanties known as the watchmen. They however, are forced to retire after public unrest at how they are above the law and they go thier seperate ways. After they retired from thier band of heroes goes their sepereate ways until some of the watchmen start being killed. Rorschach is depicted as a paranoid character and because of this suspects that a conspiracy is going on when one of the former watchmen, The Comedian is murdered in his apartment. I really cant say much on the matter for fear of spoiling something but this storyline is not the only one happening. There are two watchmen who developed a relationship and ended up living together. One is a character who after becoming involved in a horrible incident gained the powers of being able to alter the world at will, he is known as Dr.Manhatten. After being accused of causing others around him to become terminally ill, he teleports to mars and starts living there. Rorschach thinks this is also the plan of the "masked killer," who is trying to kill the watchmen. There is going to be a giant blobbed out part highlight it with the warning of spoilers ahead. Rorschach does in fact turn out to be right, partly. The masked killer was not trying to kill all of the watchmen because HE HIMSELF WAS ONE. Adrian Veidt was a former watchmen and is believed to be the smartest man in the world. He as a child admired alexerander the great's conquest of the world and was inspired to model his life after his. But when he got older he started to believe that there was only one way to unite the world. That was to fake and alien invasion of sorts to cause mass hysteria and the unification of the human race to fight the unearthly creature. However when his plot is found out by the remaining watchmen they try to stop him because in order for his plan to suceed, he must kill half of New York City. This brings up the issue of morals again, is the lives of millions of people worth world Peace? This is a grey area to most and Dr.Manhatten convinces the other watchmen what Adrian is doing is right. But Rorschach is not convinced since he sees the world in black and white he believes that the act is no better that mass murder. And thats all I'm willing to say.
Overall I liked the book and would recommend it to readers willing to think. If you read this book and only read and not reflect upon what you are reading, you will miss half of the meaning of the book. I also caution those with weak moral standings because if you don't know much about morals or if you choose not to think about them then this book will not be pleasing for you to read. It constanly puts the reader in situations where you are left to decide whether something is right or wrong and a character like Rorschach is the must basic character in the whole book. He sees the world in black and white while the other characters believe there is some grey. Great read, better if you know someone else who has also read it. Its one of those books where everytime you read it you notice something new. So having someone to talk to can help you understand what you just read.
