Week Three

Calvin and Hobbs portrays an immature boy, Calvin, who has a big imagination.  He has a stuffed toy tiger called Hobbs, who he thinks can talk and listen to his thoughts and even go along with things that he does. In addition, Calvin also has a fear of monsters, and has fantasies of fighting monsters in different places in his house. In some panels we see the world of Calvin’s imagination and Hobbs is talking or monsters appear.  In others we see the world as it looks to his parents. In one panel we see what looks like a monster to Calvin but then we see the world as it looks normally and it turns out that the monster was his father. This shows that his imaginary world is more interesting and exciting to him than the real one.

            Calvin gets in trouble with his parents a lot, due to how difficult and obnoxious he is. In contrast, his parents are shown as unimaginative because they are older and have a lot more on their minds.  It’s even fair to say that his parents have lost their will to imagine creative things that would seem childish to them. What this says to me is that imagination and misbehavior are connected.  When he sees monsters, Calvin is using his strong imagination, to break the rules of nature. When he is misbehaving around his parents and imagining monsters, he is breaking the rules of how to act normally in society. Overall, Calvin’s wild behavior and creative imagination are signs of being different, but could mean having a creative spirit that adds a lot to his life.    

            In conclusion, I think Calvin and Hobbs sends a good message to readers. The overall message in my opinion is that an individual should never stop being creative and imaginative, or else that individual could end up living a very formal, plain, and boring life someday.