This image, as it is repeated, becomes associated with Hiroshima and nuclear disaster.
The image of two lovers embracing is a significant one in Rorschach's own trauma, or "nuclear disaster." It follows him, appearing again on page 405 in the face of his own iconic mask moments before his death.
As a timepiece, the repeating image of the watch-face, sometimes broken and sometimes repaired, also emphasizes Jon's broken chronology.
Amazing parallels. Nothing in this novel is a coincidence or happens by chance.
While fragmented chronology is one way to present Jon's very serious traumatic symptoms, the repetition of images is another.
Both appear in the actual moment of Jon's disintegration/trauma on page 118, where he pictures his first encounter with Janey, including her handing him "a glass of very cold beer." The image is a repeated one.
Moore and Gibbons's decision to isolate him through physical representation, both in particular images and in his new physical characteristics, emphasizes his emotional state of separation.
Facial expressions are a crucial tool we use to connect to other humans. While the normal people look terrified in the above panel, with twisted, heavily lined faces, Jon's face is entirely smooth and blank. He has even lost key components of his eyes, a feature long associated with humanity and the concept of "souls."
Emotional impact, repetition compulsion, states of helplessness, and other symptoms of trauma can all be delivered through visual clues, such as color, panel size, and repetitive imagery.
The panel-by-panel collapse of the tower on page 305 is one example. It does a particularly good job of illustrating Laurie's trauma and the eventual emotional breakdown she experiences.
The characters conceive of this unity in relation to an absent Other – the deeper pattern that will reveal the killer and the alien race whose difference arouses a fear that forces people to see the need for finding a commonality.
Another instance of human nature being to seek patterns, repetition, and familiarity where it may not exist?
Noticing the layout probably takes a second reading of the issue or reading outside annotations that explain the relationship between Blake's poem and the issue proper.
So much planning that I didn't even notice went into the creation of this novel. It seems that literally nothing happens by chance. Honestly, it sounds exhausting.
search endlessly for a pattern that will reveal the killer of the Comedian and bring meaning to the seemingly random acts of violence punctuating the entire series.
The search for meaning in patterns is paralleled by the reappearance of images from the Rorschach test, a projective psychological test wherein the participant is meant to project meaning onto ambiguous stimuli. Is there a powerful human impulse to search for meaning where there is none?