Character Analysis Of Calvin Vs. Hobbes

1265 Words6 Pages
published from 1985-1995. From the perspective of literary and cultural studies, it is a valuable postmodern text in terms of both its form and content. It pokes fun at the postmodern condition and the seemingly high-brow nonsensical expression (or babble) associated with it. It is itself presented as postmodern nonsense/babble or pomobabble (a portmanteau word) with its roots in American suburbia and the value –systems associated with the ‘Land of Stars and Stripes’. This paper addresses the depiction of Calvin (and his alter-ego Hobbes) as the child who exhibits all the characteristics of the modern ‘angry young man’. The kaleidoscopically fragmented and conflicted personality of the protagonist as represented by Calvin (and additionally represented by the stuffed toy Hobbes who embodies Calvin’s alter ego) serves as a representation of the typically middle-class, intelligent, aware, lonely misunderstood and frustrated man who rages against everything under the sun without making sustained attempts to change anything. With one foot in predestination and lofty ideals as embodied by the protagonist Calvin; and the other in the ruthless reality of competition as embodied by his stuffed toy Hobbes- Calvin and Hobbes is a pastiche of what it means to be an angry young man in an increasingly artificial world. ARTICLE Calvin and Hobbes has become a valuable mirror to and sculptor of popular postmodern literary culture. It combines literary techniques of text and stylistic