I came across this comic strip of Calvin and Hobbes when randomly surfing the internet and found that it is a perfect metaphor of American Exceptionalism because Calvin, a typical boy in a typical American family, believes that he and his "snow fort [are] invincible."Only when his tiger friend, Hobbes, smacks a snowball in his face does he realize that there is a lot of air behind his words. This is quite a blunt awakening for Calvin.
American Exceptionalism, or the idea that America and its culture is better than other nations and their cultures, is summed up in this short comic because for a long time America has believed that it is a place like none else (symbolized by Calvin's long rant on how awesome his fort is) and has recently been coming to the new conclusion that it is not as awesome as it is thought to be (symbolized by Hobbes's snowball). America too, is coming to the same blunt conclusion that Calvin came too.
I find it interesting that the fort is not proven useless from the outside, but from the inside, because Hobbes is in the fort and throws the snowball at Calvin. This echoes the troubles of America existing inside America itself, problems like economy, racism, and gender inequality, among many other things. American exceptionalism is flawed from both sides of the spectrum.
ReplyDeleteI agree that this strip can be used as an effective representation of American exceptionalism and the American attitude. Calvin spends the whole comic bragging about how amazing and indestructible his fort is while he had problems on the inside the entire time. America acts in a somewhat similar fashion. American media often portrays America a lot more favorably than they portray other nations. This gives the impression that no other country can compare to America while in reality America is having a great deal of internal and other problems.
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