Skip to main content

Does Class Effect How We View Comics?

I think that the social class we are in effects how we view comics, depending on the society that people are brought up in differs on how things are viewed. One of these is comics, many comics are about the super hero that does good for the community, no matter what their class is he/she is there to help. However the super hero's past may be present in the story and by what class he/she derives from will impact how the reader views the super hero. Some super hero's are born in the wealthy class of society, and for the people he/she ends up doing good for all. The most common route of comic, is when the super hero comes from a poor family that does not have much, makes some dramatic change, becomes the super hero and does good for all man-kind. One story of this type is Clark Kent a.k.a. Superman. Clark Kent was a middle class farm child that decided to leave his home and move to the city. In the city is where Clark Kent becomes "Superman" and rids the city of evil. Now, this relates to a lot of people from that time that were moving to the city from the frontier and needed something that was supportive in their life. Moving to the city was what an average American at that time was doing, and that Superman was doing the same thing gave residents hope that it would happen in the real world. The story is of an average American that can do amazing things. In the reading, one that stood out to me was Jack Dempsey, who we talked about in class as well, and the story of how an average well Irish-American can do something amazing. Starting from the little bar fights, to being on the big stage. These stories stand very strong to me when thinking about comics and class. Classes make how we view things, the lower class is not going to view a comic the same way as the upper class. Meaning in the comics will hit home to different classes in different ways. So, class is definitely a factor to when it comes to interpreting comics today.

Comments

J Chambliss said…
The shift in perception associated with class can greatly affect how a character is understood. The appeal of Superman rest in an "everyman" quality. Like Jack Dempsey, he represents a positive story of hard work and contributing to the community.
September 17, 2011 at 10:15 AM
Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Were comics at the forefront of social transformation or lagging behind in the 1960’s?

Throughout the 60’s, comics were at the forefront of social transformation. Possibly the best example of this is through comics reflection of the public’s view of the Vietnam War. At the beginning of the war a majority of Americans fully supported the cause. The idea that communism, the most evil idea conceived, could spread first through South-East Asia and eventually to the US lead Americans to accept the need to occupy Vietnam. However as the war progressed it became more obvious that it was less to defend democracy and actually just a proxy war against Russia. As support for the war diminished, comics greatly altered their position on the war to question the causes of the war, and whether the US should actually be there. The comic Iron Man accurately represented this shift in support as he stopped dealing arms, and took a moral stand against their use. As well as Vietnam War culture, comics also accurately portrayed youth culture in the US throughout the 60’s. Comics suc...
Post a Comment
Read more

Why blame comics for societal failure?

Why blame comics for societal failure? Society blamed comics for the societal failures because it was a fairly new industry, and as things seemed to go “wrong” they figured it must be comic books. When a child grew up during the war, his father was probably killing people and the military and his mother was probably making things in factories to help kill the opposition. The only things kids had to “babysit” them was comic books, and they read many different kinds. So when kids starting acting differently in this new generation the figured it must be the comic books. Society didn’t want to believe it may have been the internal and external scars war causes on the soldiers and their families. Also the fact that young unattended children are reading these comics may not be able to differentiate between fantasy and reality. When society fails it always needs a scapegoat then it was comic books next it was rock and roll. Society naturally resist change.
2 comments
Read more

The 1950s are often portrayed as a period of social cohesion. Why is this misleading?

When we think of the 1950's, most people think of similar things such as "Leave it to Beaver", very conservative and cliched pop music, and high patriotism. Our view of that time is one of social conformity to conservative values, with a traditional nuclear family where the father worked and the mother stayed home, where a majority of people attended church, where crime was relatively low, where a majority of American citizens were extremely patriotic, and where entertainment media emphasized these same conservative values and were subjected to censorship if they did not conform. This is misleading because while these things were all true to a certain extent, the world was obviously not perfect and not everyone was conforming or upholding traditional values, even if it seemed like they were. The 1950's were actually a very tumultuous time period, with the end of World War II leaving Europe war torn and in debt, the outbreak of the Korean War and the clashes of opinion...
1 comment
Read more