Masks In The Cloudburst

In the graphic novel, The Private Eye by Brian K. Vaughan, Marcos Martin, and Muntsa Vicente, a society has their information released in an event known as the ‘CloudBurst.’ The ‘CloudBurst’ is an event in which information that was stored in the Internet cloud leaked. Due to this event, everybody’s private information was released and which left the people without protection. All personal information have been released to the public. Therefore, secrets no longer exist and privacy has been severely threatened. The people decided to protect their identities with the use of masks. The irony of masks is that they are not human faces, but the faces of animals; the longer the people lived with distrust, the more they began to resemble the masks.

In The Private Eye, the interactions between two people symbolize the actions that an animal would take. Just like an animal, the people in this society have a hard time trusting those that are not closely related to them. For example, in the story, the Private Investigator is going to interview a library worker. The two people have met multiple times, but the way they greet each other is reminiscent of the way animals interact with different species, cold. The worker is at home having a relaxing meal with his family, but once he hears the doorbell, he has to put on his mask (See figure 1). The library worker is not leaving his own front doorstep, and yet he believes he must wear a mask. It is evident that the protection of their identity is everything and the slightest chance of having it exposed instigates fear. These masks were supposed to protect one’s face in public, but it becomes a vital point of protection at all times. Trust has become nonexistent in this society, and in this case those two people are no better than

This can be similar to animals because in this society the people only know the faces of those that they live with and animals generally only trust those that are directly related to. With the use of masks, stealing someone’s identity would be a fairly simple task. One scientist thought he was meeting with a friend, but the antagonist actually stole the friend’s mask and used it to kidnap the scientist. The scientist did not realise that he was not in the presence of his friend until it was too late, “You’re not Taj… Are you?” (Vaughan, et al. 47). Masks are unsafe considering that it is easier to steal someone’s identity. In the story, the only time the people are unmasked is with their families. Similarly, most animals travel in packs, but when they are faced with a dangerous situation, they might have to decide between the pack and their family. More often than not, the animal chooses their own family because family is generally the ones that they truly trust. A family unit is stronger than a community. Similar to animals in a pack, the people are unable to trust those who are not in their own