Freedom is the Message

After reading Alan Moore’s V for Vendetta, I finished the graphic novel questioning my own concept of freedom. Freedom is a word we use often but do we understand it? And, is freedom something that can be forcibly taken away from us? Do we even deserve or want freedom? Moore’s graphic novel brings up all of these questions. It is obvious that Moore tackles the issue of political freedom in this graphic novel. In V for Vendetta, the citizens of London are strictly monitored and overlooked by agencies such as the eye, the finger, and the nose. These agencies inspect and report every human action to the head. Here, we see a lack of political freedom. London’s citizens do not have control over their own lives. Another more emotional and personal example of freedom can be noted with Rosemary’s character. I was fascinated by Rosemary’s character. Rosemary was the wife of a high ranking official. Her marriage to Derek was interesting, to say the least. At first, it seemed to be a loveless marriage and she seemed unhappy. When Derek died, however, rather than feeling relieved or freed from her husband, Rosemary began to feel worse. She realized that she had voluntarily surrendered her freedom to Derek. He had become her decision-maker, and now that he was gone, she had nothing. This voluntary surrender of freedom can be noted with Gordon as well. After the war, Gordon had lost his wife and son and so he surrendered his freedom to “Fate” as a way to cope and find comfort. I kept seeing this pattern where characters kept relinquishing their freedom voluntarily. And when the riots were occurring, the masses seemed uninterested. I felt as is V was fighting for a cause that most of the citizens did not either care for or even want. And yet, V’s fight was vital. Regardless of how a person’s freedom is lost, its return is necessary.  In other words, for me, Moore’s argument in V for Vendetta was that while it may be easy to give away your freedom, the process of regaining it is much much harder.

The methods Alan Moore used to convey his argument, were quite fascinating. In Understanding Comics: The Invisible Art, Scout McCloud discussed how the “message is the medium.” And with this in mind, Moore used a graphic novel to argue and explore a concept so complex as freedom. He used a sequence of images and word bubbles to argue the validity and necessity of freedom. This is impressive. By having individual storylines all dealing with different conflicts in terms of freedom intertwine and influence one another, Moore covered the complexity behind this idea of freedom. And, he created characters that his audience could easily relate to. The fact that V does not have a ‘face’ but rather a mask shows this. McCloud discussed how vague facial features allow the audience to envision themselves as that character. With a mask, anyone can envision themselves as V. The amount of energy/interaction graphic novels require from their readers, creates a more personal connection between the text and the reader. Thus, Moore’s message is somewhat personalized. His audience embeds his/her own ideas into his argument.