Thomas Dixon Jr’s The Clansman: An Historical Romance of the Ku Klux Klan is a novel explores the Klansmen’s use of disguise by suggesting that it is utilized to enact vigilante justice on behalf of the victimized white people of the south. Chris Galaver’s “The Ku Klux Klan and the Birth of the Superhero” is an article that argues the modern superhero figure finds its roots in Dixon’s novel, however one can argue that the modern superhero is the very opposite of Dixon’s vigilante. It is important to note that Superman inverts the use of the mask, which Galaver argues is a key trait of the Klan in their pursuit of vigilante justice. The debut of Superman occurs four months after the Anschluss suggesting that a connection can be made between …show more content…
Because Superman is defending the innocent from their fellow men who are seeking justice on their own terms, he becomes a “[vigilante] who [battles], among other evils, vigilantism” (Galaver 199-200). Superman becomes a contradiction to himself because he is fighting against that which he has become. However Superman is offered some latitude within his contradiction because he is an alien with superhuman powers that he uses to protect the residents of earth. His enhancement makes it more difficult to find hypocrisy while confronting other vigilantes. Superman’s role as a vigilante fighting vigilantism suggests that a paradox is necessary to prevent men and women from taking the law into their own hands and his role also argues that regular men are not qualified to enact their own justice thus fighting back against the Klan origin that Galaver argues is Superman’s foundation. Superman’s powers give him a subtle qualification, which legitimizes his role as a crime fighter and continues to support the argument that Superman is not related to …show more content…
The mask is an important tool for the vigilante but Superman does not hide his face while pursuing justice. Superman also has ties to the Jewish community, which makes his connection to Dixon’s Klan vigilante even less likely. Superman’s superpowers also make it difficult to label him as a vigilante because they give him more credit as a crime fighting character. Finally Superman shares as stronger connection to detective fiction than he does to Dixon’s vigilante novel. All of these points support the argument that modern superheroes such as Superman are not modeled after Dixon’s Klan inspired
“ What makes Superman a hero is not that he has power, but that he has the wisdom and the maturity to use the power wisely…” This is saying that Hero’s serve the will of others while still maintaining their own individual personality, the example of Abraham Lincoln, and that heroism is not the idea of serving yourself first, and all heroes are people who are responsible to use there power for good. For example, Hero's are people who do there best to force change in a positive way. They can do this in large ways or small ways.
Gary Engle describes Superman as the ultimate American, “Superman is the greatest American hero” (Engle, 677). After reading three comic books I notice an occurring theme of wanting to protect what is good, even though the comic books chosen span over eleven years. Several distinct things to Superman’s personality are his cape, the respect he has for others, the respect others have for him, his intelligence, his protection of all life and what is right, his origin, and the sacrifices he makes. Superman is considered to be the greatest American hero of all time.
In the world of superheroes, there are numerous that believe they are heroes, while in actuality, they are merely vigilantes. This is demonstrated throughout the world of superheroes, but it is not as prominently demonstrated as in Batman. Batman presents himself as a hero, while he is only an over imaginative vigilante. He is more a vigilante than a hero since he has the ability to stop crime, but doesn’t, he only does deeds for his own benefit, and he helps the law but isn’t part of it. These are only a few ways Batman is a vigilante, rather than a hero. These are mainly based upon the idea of him trying to right his own past.
Heroes. From the timeless tale of Beowulf to the well-known chronicles of Superman, cultures all throughout the world have taken it upon themselves to weave a fabrication of a fantastic being, said being a hero of a sorts, that always makes it to defeat the bad guy and save the day. Even whence we as human beings always tend to have our political, social, economic and religious differences, at the end of the day we all have one thing in common that fills our dreams with hopes of the future, of safety, of a peaceful life; heroes. Helping to define who we are and what we want to be, giving us hope and inspire us to head in the right direction, showing us that good will always triumph over evil and that anything is possible if you set your
Hooded Americanism: The First Century of the Ku Klux Klan: 1865 to the Present by David Chalmers records the history of the Ku Klux Klan quite bluntly, all the way from its creation following the civil war, to the early 1960’s. The author starts the book quite strongly by discussing in detail many acts of violence and displays of hatred throughout the United States. He makes a point to show that the Klan rode robustly throughout all of the country, not just in the southern states. The first several chapters of the book focus on the Klan’s creation in 1865. He goes on to discuss the attitude of many Americans following the United State’s Civil War and how the war shaped a new nation. The bulk of the book is used to go through many of
Superhero movies have been on the rise lately. These movies are often looked at as entertainment for people who play Dungeons and Dragons and are simply mindless pleasure; however, this is not the case. The reason behind the popularity of superhero movies is more than just the want of the common comic book reader. The superhero movie industry has made a sharp incline in popularity; in fact there are more superhero movies now than ever before. A website called Fights, Tights and Movie Nights listed all of the superhero movies made since the 1980’s by year and these were their findings. In the 1980’s an average of three to four super movies came out a year. In the 1990’s these movies were made on average five to six times per year. In the 2000’s the movies doubled to 12-13 produced on average each year. Today, 2010’s, the average number of superhero movies has again doubled in size with it now resting at twenty-two to twenty-three superhero movies made on average each year. The drastic increase of the number of superhero movies leaves the average movie attendee wondering why they are seeing this spike of superhero movies. The increase of superhero movies can be contributed to a few key factors: the advances of technology in the movie industry, the movie genre’s adaption to be socially relevant, and the characters now possessing more humanistic qualities (Fights…).
Superman is associated with strength, bravery, and heroism; the speaker, Eli, introduced himself to Lexi, the protagonist, with these ideals.
In summary, the book talks vividly about the rise and reasoning of the Ku Klux Klan in 1915 and a brief background about the founder, William Joseph Simmons. It also focused on members of the Ku Klux Klan in Clarke County, Georgia. This revival of the original KKK, that formed after the Civil War, now hated everyone that wasn’t one of them, a WASP or White Anglo-Saxon Protestant. A majority of their hatred was directed to
Directions: The BIG TIDE has been marked for you. Highlight the small tide in each paragraph using the following color code: topic sentence, important evidence, detailed explanation, ending/concluding sentence. Prompt: In Sherman Alexie’s essay “Superman and Me,” Alexie uses an extended metaphor to explain the connection between himself and the fictional character Superman.
The Ku Klux Klan is fundamentally a white supremacist group that believes the Caucasian race is inherently above all others in the eyes of God. They are well organized, to the point that they use the “Kloran” as a sort of guideline for their rituals and practices. As a primary source of knowledge, the “Kloran” Both socially and politically, the Ku Klux Klan has inspired racism and civic divide in the United states. The Kloran was even copyrighted in 1917 (Jackson, 6). The Clansman works to justify this divide by claiming white racial superiority. Since “The Clansman” there has been historical evidence of the Klan’s influence on politics and society.
It cannot be disputed; there are certain allusions to religion in comic books. However; the argument comes when we look at the purpose of these allusions. All Star Superman and Thor are both excellent examples of religion intermixing with the world of comics. The religious symbols and language used in All Star Superman and Thor are meant to grab the attention of their audiences, not claim that superheroes are gods.
Spider-Man and Wonder Woman are not similar to the stereotypical heroes at the time, but they still had the attributes of a true hero. In the past, Stan Lee had thought of a superhero that would be similar to teenagers. Stan Lee wanted to construct a hero that people could relate to, and in the end he created Spider-Man. Spider-Man simply had the same abilities as a spider. Then in 1941, Wonder Woman made her first appearance from the mind of William Moulton Marston. William supported women's rights since his college days, and he wanted to have equality for each gender in all human activities. In addition, people believed that comics were bad for kids, but William believed not. Wonder Woman’s set of skills is that she could fly, had immense speed, strength, and smarts. Additionally, Wonder Woman also wielded a lasso that could make anyone tell the truth if caught by it, and this lasso is inspired from William’s polygraph, which was able to detect lies. Three ways that Wonder Woman and Spiderman were different from other superheroes of the time is that people could relate to them, there purposes of being created, and
Batman is one of the many fictional superheroes which appears in the “American comic books” that is published by the DC comics. The character is a secret identity for Bruce Wayne, the only heir to Wayne Enterprises. Bruce Wayne swore an oath of vengeance when he witnessed the death of his parents;Thomas Wayne and Martha Wayne (Diamond, 2015). Bat man combats criminals in Gotham: a fictional city, with assistance from various characters, for example, his butler Alfred and Gordon; Gotham city police commissioner. Unlike many of the superheroes characters, Batman possesses no powers .Bruce Wayne trained himself intellectually and physically .it is from dedication to training he possessed the useful traits of physical prowess, martial arts skills, detective skills and indomitable will to fight for justice. Though his motive is to combat crime and protect people of Gotham city from criminals, the justice system in most of the times views Batman as a villain and vigilante. He can inflict fear to Gotham city criminals thereby bringing calmness to the city. I identify myself with the Batman character through his selfless will for justice, his strong determination to do good
Superman has powers like flying, x-rays, and heat vision. With his power Superman faces responsibilities and difficulties in calm and adequate ways. The opposite of Batman is that he is more aggressive and very impulsive in the moment to attack. They are very easily distinguished either in a comic book or a movie for their customs in different colors. Batman outfit is gray with black and a mask which anyone could determine the evil and dark he represents by the outside. Superman is in a brightest outfit representing America and the kind a hero they will choose definitely to fight crime. Frank Miller only wanted to bring Batman a little bit different with other perceptions including his principal rival Superman to make the story interesting and give the opportunity for many readers to notice wrong actions from our comic heroes.
My dear child, I have a very important mission for you. You are going to be super hero who will save the world. Our planet is on the edge right now, soon we will be faced with very serious crisis. Energy crisis. We use energy every day and it’s very hard to imagine our world with out of electricity. Can you imagine, that one-day electricity may become as expensive as gold and we won’t be able to use it on regular basis, like we do now. And this day might be coming soon. So let’s imagine that we are on a freeway. Just a few miles over the horizon lies the ultimate exhaustion of our planet’s fossil fuel supply. However, before we reach that otherwise inevitable destination, there are several exits at which we can turn off to evade the unquestionably chaotic and potentially economically ruinous position of losing the energy source upon which we primarily rely. According to the Institute of Mechanical Engineers of MIT, there are 1.3 trillion barrels of proven oil reserve left in the world 's major fields, which at present rates of consumption should last 40 years. Same time the organization also emphasizes that by 2040, production levels may be down to 15 million barrels per day – just 20% of what we currently consume. By that time, it is probable that the world 's population will be double what it is today and much more industrialized, and therefore oil dependent (3).Do you understand how scary it is?!