Comic Strip 1: In the first panel, we see Calvin commenting on how nice it was to go on hikes and spend time with nature. I believe we can look at this from a Marxist perspective, in the sense that humans these days are so engrossed into the act of consumerism and are constantly destroying the environment in the name of development of trade, technology and inevitably, the world. Though industrialists talk about taking the world into the future, they only care about their monetary profit. They don't seem to understand how cutting down even one tree impacts the world in the larger picture. In this race of making as much money as possible and being as rich as possible, we are also losing connections with our friends and family. We seem to grow apart day by day and blame it on our jobs and the stress it causes. We see Calvin and Hobbes smiling and having a good time with each other amidst nature. This also could be a tribute to simpler times when technology was not on such a range and people actually spent time and built healthy relationships with each other. It could also in a way be a call to the audience to spend more time outside and enjoy the everyday magic instead of simply focusing on making money. This could also be proved by the fact that there in very little negative space in panel one and the author seems to draw attention to Calvin, Hobbes, the tree and the speech bubble. In the second panel, the focus is only on Calvin and Hobbes and the speech, whose purpose I think is to draw attention to relationships in general and their friendship in particular. Calvin and Hobbes have a fun, dynamic and close friendship and they seem more like brothers than simply friends. (We see that even though Hobbes was only supposed to be a stuffed toy, Calvin believes him to be alive and real and I believe this also depicts the innocence of children and how much better the world would be if adults would nurture a childish heart too.) Hobbes gets so scared that he seems to jump out of his skin when Calvin says that there was a tiger behind him. We see that Calvin was only teasing Hobbes who was ironically a (albeit stuffed) tiger himself. In continuation to the idea presented in panel 1, I believe this again puts an emphasis on the importance of relationships. We see that people don't really spend time with each other anymore and tend to satisfy the distance between them through the means of text or social media instead of actually meeting and spending time with them and blaming the fast paced world for the lack of communication instead of making an effort to maintain their relationship, also shedding light on how people are drifting apart to take part in the race of being the richest and most successful and not realizing how important relationships are. Hobbes' exclamation isn't put into a speech bubble because I think a speech bubble is pretty restrictive when it comes to expressing feelings of a greater magnitude. In the third panel, we notice the absence of a border. We see that Hobbes appears to be thinking or rather realizing Calvin's joke, while Calvin simply stands smiling and looking up at Hobbes as if he understands what was going on in his head. I think that this shows how close Calvin and Hobbes actually were to be able to establish a telepathic connection. I think the lack of a border around the panel represents how thoughts cannot be restricted and how easy it is for us to get lost in our own thoughts. it is also possible that the author is trying to tell us that we need to spend more time with our thoughts and ourselves and connect with ourselves before we connect with others, showing the necessity to spend time with ourselves and not just drown ourselves in our physical environment. In the last panel, we see that the focus is back on Calvin, Hobbes, the nature and the speech bubble (this time all these elements seem to get equal attention in the panel). Although it isn't obvious if Hobbes figured out the joke or not, Calvin is seen walking away with a teasing smile while Hobbes seems to appear indignant and not amused by Calvin's joke Throughout the comic strip, I believe there is an emphasis on maintaining a good relationship with both nature and the people around us. It is necessary that we do not forget about our loved ones while following the flow of a mechanical life. It is important we respect the relationship we build with our physical environment and stay connected to it as long as it's healthy for us and the people around us and not simply get lost in the greed of making more money which causes destruction not only to the environment but also to ourselves.
Comic Strip 2: In the second comic strip, Hobbes asks for a big field when Calvin asks him to wish for something. For Hobbes, a simple field was more than enough even when he had the liberty to ask for literally anything, because that was all he wanted and the field was what he was most satisfied with. Calvin is taken aback and questions Hobbes why he wouldn't ask for anything more materialistic. This to me shows the materialistic mindset that people have today. Most of us believe that only expensive and tangible materials have the ability of making us happy and in this process we slowly start to conform to someone else's idea of happiness and good life. We lose sight of what matters to us and pay more attention to being like others and trying to fit in with them. We get so consumed with the idea of having more things in our possession that lose track of the happiness we tried to chase in the first place. We forget ourselves in the greed for more power and money and constantly try to be better than someone else instead of being our own self and we eventually forget our own identity. This only leads to someone else dictating our lives. I think the question to be asked here is, "Is is really worth it?" Is the greed of consuming trends worth the loss of self? If at the end of the day, we are not able to recognize true happiness and self-satisfaction, is it worth the sacrifice of self-identity? In my opinion, these are some of the questions that the comic strip is asking us to consider. In the last panel, Calvin even realizes how happy Hobbes looks playing in the field. Even though Hobbes didn't ask for money or power or even to be really alive, he seems extremely content with what he has. He seems to know what truly makes him happy and he follows his instinct instead of asking for something Calvin expected him to.
![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
timeasmymeasure
Response to the comic strips
Date: 2019-08-02 07:21 pm (UTC)In the first panel, we see Calvin commenting on how nice it was to go on hikes and spend time with nature. I believe we can look at this from a Marxist perspective, in the sense that humans these days are so engrossed into the act of consumerism and are constantly destroying the environment in the name of development of trade, technology and inevitably, the world. Though industrialists talk about taking the world into the future, they only care about their monetary profit. They don't seem to understand how cutting down even one tree impacts the world in the larger picture. In this race of making as much money as possible and being as rich as possible, we are also losing connections with our friends and family. We seem to grow apart day by day and blame it on our jobs and the stress it causes. We see Calvin and Hobbes smiling and having a good time with each other amidst nature. This also could be a tribute to simpler times when technology was not on such a range and people actually spent time and built healthy relationships with each other. It could also in a way be a call to the audience to spend more time outside and enjoy the everyday magic instead of simply focusing on making money. This could also be proved by the fact that there in very little negative space in panel one and the author seems to draw attention to Calvin, Hobbes, the tree and the speech bubble.
In the second panel, the focus is only on Calvin and Hobbes and the speech, whose purpose I think is to draw attention to relationships in general and their friendship in particular. Calvin and Hobbes have a fun, dynamic and close friendship and they seem more like brothers than simply friends. (We see that even though Hobbes was only supposed to be a stuffed toy, Calvin believes him to be alive and real and I believe this also depicts the innocence of children and how much better the world would be if adults would nurture a childish heart too.) Hobbes gets so scared that he seems to jump out of his skin when Calvin says that there was a tiger behind him. We see that Calvin was only teasing Hobbes who was ironically a (albeit stuffed) tiger himself. In continuation to the idea presented in panel 1, I believe this again puts an emphasis on the importance of relationships. We see that people don't really spend time with each other anymore and tend to satisfy the distance between them through the means of text or social media instead of actually meeting and spending time with them and blaming the fast paced world for the lack of communication instead of making an effort to maintain their relationship, also shedding light on how people are drifting apart to take part in the race of being the richest and most successful and not realizing how important relationships are. Hobbes' exclamation isn't put into a speech bubble because I think a speech bubble is pretty restrictive when it comes to expressing feelings of a greater magnitude.
In the third panel, we notice the absence of a border. We see that Hobbes appears to be thinking or rather realizing Calvin's joke, while Calvin simply stands smiling and looking up at Hobbes as if he understands what was going on in his head. I think that this shows how close Calvin and Hobbes actually were to be able to establish a telepathic connection. I think the lack of a border around the panel represents how thoughts cannot be restricted and how easy it is for us to get lost in our own thoughts. it is also possible that the author is trying to tell us that we need to spend more time with our thoughts and ourselves and connect with ourselves before we connect with others, showing the necessity to spend time with ourselves and not just drown ourselves in our physical environment.
In the last panel, we see that the focus is back on Calvin, Hobbes, the nature and the speech bubble (this time all these elements seem to get equal attention in the panel). Although it isn't obvious if Hobbes figured out the joke or not, Calvin is seen walking away with a teasing smile while Hobbes seems to appear indignant and not amused by Calvin's joke
Throughout the comic strip, I believe there is an emphasis on maintaining a good relationship with both nature and the people around us. It is necessary that we do not forget about our loved ones while following the flow of a mechanical life. It is important we respect the relationship we build with our physical environment and stay connected to it as long as it's healthy for us and the people around us and not simply get lost in the greed of making more money which causes destruction not only to the environment but also to ourselves.
Comic Strip 2:
In the second comic strip, Hobbes asks for a big field when Calvin asks him to wish for something. For Hobbes, a simple field was more than enough even when he had the liberty to ask for literally anything, because that was all he wanted and the field was what he was most satisfied with. Calvin is taken aback and questions Hobbes why he wouldn't ask for anything more materialistic. This to me shows the materialistic mindset that people have today. Most of us believe that only expensive and tangible materials have the ability of making us happy and in this process we slowly start to conform to someone else's idea of happiness and good life. We lose sight of what matters to us and pay more attention to being like others and trying to fit in with them. We get so consumed with the idea of having more things in our possession that lose track of the happiness we tried to chase in the first place. We forget ourselves in the greed for more power and money and constantly try to be better than someone else instead of being our own self and we eventually forget our own identity. This only leads to someone else dictating our lives. I think the question to be asked here is, "Is is really worth it?" Is the greed of consuming trends worth the loss of self? If at the end of the day, we are not able to recognize true happiness and self-satisfaction, is it worth the sacrifice of self-identity? In my opinion, these are some of the questions that the comic strip is asking us to consider. In the last panel, Calvin even realizes how happy Hobbes looks playing in the field. Even though Hobbes didn't ask for money or power or even to be really alive, he seems extremely content with what he has. He seems to know what truly makes him happy and he follows his instinct instead of asking for something Calvin expected him to.