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Le, Jennifer
English 114
Prof. Jackie
February 16, 2014
Word Count: 1681
Reality Between Good And Evil
Morals and ethics are the two aspects of humans that society talks about and claims that
they have. The truth is, everyone has morals and ethics. Everyone believes in their own morals
and not everyone follows societys ethics. One who follows societys ethics for praise, isnt
being him or herself. Conformity would be their best friend. They would just be a puppet of our
society. R. Kayne states, Morals define personal character, while ethics stress a social system in
which those morals are applied (1). They are both equally important, but ethics is one of the two
qualities that possess a vague definition. Both components are important in order to succeed to
be a hero or heroine. Heroism is a lot more than just two components combined. According to
Phillip Zimbardo heroism is defined as an activity with several parts. First, its performed in
service to others in needwhether thats a person, group, or communityor in defense of
certain ideals. Second, its engaged in voluntarily Third, a heroic act is one performed with
recognition of possible risks and costs... Finally, it is performed without external gain anticipated
at the time of the act (4,5). Its what many people want to have. Most people want to be the
good guy, but the title of hero does not always point to the protagonist like most believe. As a
matter of fact, a hero can have both positive and negative qualities. A good example of a hero
having ambiguous characteristics would be Rorschach from the famous graphic novel Watchmen
by Allan Moore and Dave Gibbons. Rorschach, one of the vigilantes is the only true hero in the
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story because he possesses ambiguous characteristics of heroism. When someone begins to read
the beginning of Watchmen, Rorschach seems like a cool guy with a secret identity and an
awesome inkblot mask, which was definitely related to psychology because thats a reference to
Rorschach inkblot tests. Then you keep on reading and according to his actions, the reader can
interpret Rorschach was a psychologically unstable guy who had believed he has been doing the
right things for the people of his city, but sometimes he expressed those actions in violent ways
which also meant he wasnt always assisting the public in a good way.
Some examples of his wrong doings would be something like in chapter two, when he
had busted into Molochs apartment, pinned him down and just twisted the old guys arm, almost
breaking it. Rorschach stated, Lying. Do it again, broken arm. Not Joking. (Moore and
Gibbons. Chapter 2, Pg.21.) That is not acceptable because that doesnt fit within good intentions
of heroism. Its understandable because he used to be a villain and all, but the guy is old for
Petes sake. Rorschach couldve been gentler to the old man. He stuffed the old man into a
fridge. Moloch would have reported Rorschach for breaking into his apartment and abusing him
like that. Throughout the beginning and middle of the graphic novel, Rorschach always roughly
invaded Molochs apartment for answers in which at first Rorschach thought were lies. Moloch
was actually telling the truth because he had nothing to lie about. Although he is rough with the
people that he visits, he does seem to show positive characteristic as well.
When you read about his past, it makes sense about why he acts all tough. Hes been a
broken man since childhood. One wouldve thought he wouldve fully become a villain based on
what he has been through throughout the years, but would be glad that he wasnt and he had
become the semi protagonist. Honestly, many perpetrators have had a rough childhood and have
lived their lives thinking of what it would be like to not have experienced those traumatic events
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and to live a normal life. They are troubled people and they choose to keep making their
mistakes after. Childhood is basically the make it or break it part of life. Rorschach saw his
mom and another man having sex and was beaten afterwards, leaving him traumatized for life.
His mother had abused him physically and psychologically for a good while. He was also bullied
and harassed by the school bullies because they knew his mother was a prostitute. He was so
messed up from all of that, but Rorschach had made it through. He had solved many crimes and
killed many heartless men. He just approaches everyone in a not so friendly manner. One of
many examples of his heroism would be in chapter six, the first crime he had ever walked into. It
was when the little girl got raped, murdered and fed to the dogs. Rorschach did a very good deed
of making the guy suffer pain and burning him because he was not a man, he was a dog. That
guy felt no guilt in what he had done to the little girl, so of course Rorschach chose the correct
punishment for a dog, which was dying a death as painful as the pain he had inflicted towards the
little girl. His spirit was with his real dogs after that. While he was watching the flames burst, he
said, Felt cleansed. Felt dark planet turn under my feet and knew what cats know that makes
them scream like babies in night (Moore and Gibbons Chapter 5, Pg. 26). Respect should be
shown towards him for saying that because it truly is cleansing to see one of many dark elements
of this world shrivel. He is a good guy and he has a heart because of this quote. Another example
was when he had gone to his old apartment complex right after Laurie and Dan had broken him
out of jail. He had the choice to talk to the landlord about that situation of her telling the press
that he allegedly sexually assaulted her or just dropping the situation after getting what was
needed. Of course, he couldve chosen not to care about the children listening to the conversation
and talk to her about it, but he made the right choice. Its as if seeing the children made him think
back to his situation of seeing his mom having sex with that man. Well he didnt know what
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being a whore or prostitution meant at that time, but he sure did learn fairly quickly. He didnt
want the landlords children to hear the vulgar words he had prepared to say. He didnt want
them feeling the way he did back then. He felt compassion towards the children. He cared about
them more than his reputation of being Rorschach, one of the masked vigilantes. Rorschach
seems to constantly abruptly make choices and believe that they are always right. In reality, his
choices are not always accurate.
Rorschach sometimes thinks before he acts, but most of the time he doesnt. One great
example would be in chapter five, when he actually walked into Molochs apartment instead of
busting himself in. Moloch didnt speak for a while, which Rorschach shouldve seen as a hint
that something was definitely off. Moloch wouldve never have given him a note and Moloch
wouldve been on his guard because he wouldve known it would be Rorschach visiting him.
Rorschach didnt think about all that before staying in the apartment a bit longer. If he had
thought about the clues, then he wouldve known it was a frame all along. He wouldnt have
been arrested and have gotten harassed daily by those inmates of his during his time in prison.
Rorschach is one interesting vigilante and man in general.
Malcolm, Walters evaluator, had described Walter as compelled by injustice. He is
correct about Rorschach because Rorschach even said it himself. He said that the little girls rape
case had turned him into Rorschach. He wasnt soft anymore, meaning he wasnt Kovacs
anymore; he was officially Rorschach. He was trying to cut off every evildoer in New York,
because he felt that if they are committing those crimes and feel no remorse, then they shouldnt
feel at all. Rorschach gets the luxury of choosing the harsh punishments for them. These actions
of Rorschach have both positive and negative effects on people and himself. Out of all the
Watchmen or vigilantes, Rorschach has done much more than any of the others have recently
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done. Because hes compelled by all the injustice, he keeps going and going. Its a bittersweet
thing that keeps him going. It literally keeps him sane. Without it, he would just be thinking
about all the horrible, disgusting crimes that are being committed every day and no one doing a
single thing about them. Theyre all bystanders, experiencing the bystander effect. Rorschach is
definitely no bystander. When theres trouble, he lets nothing get in the way of him solving the
crime.
The guy certainly has positive and negative personality traits and he has his own ethics to
follow. He has more positive moral characteristics than negative, but both are enough to call him
a hero. The changing inkblot mask makes him who he is. Thats his face and that is what keeps
Rorschach sane as well. Without the mask, he isnt going to have positive characteristics, but
more negative characteristics, because he wont feel like a hero, but just a regular person, like he
used to be. Rorschachs ambiguous personalities are what make him a hero. His mask is just his
unique way of telling himself he can show propriety in this cruel world that we live in. Every
hero can be good or bad, its up to us to decide whether their morals and ethnics are wrong or
right, but truly there isnt truly a correct answer. Its all up to us. Good and beauty is in the eye of
the beholder.







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Works Cited
Moore, Allan, Dave Gibbons. Watchmen. New York: DC Comics, 1986. Print.
Wisegeek.org, Sparks, NV: Conjecture Corporation, 2003. Web.
Zimbardo, Phillip. What Makes A Hero? Berkeley.edu, 18, Jan. 2011. Web. 22 Feb. 2014.

















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