Expressive Paper 2

A theme that resonates throughout “The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay” is escapism. With little on their plates, Samuel Klayman and Joe Kavalier both delve into the world on comic books as their main form of escape, whether or not it might have been intentional on their part, I can say without a doubt that they say this comic book as their chance to correct the wrongs of their lives. The ‘escapes’ took many forms in the book, physical forms, like Joe managing to get out of Prague, or psychological forms, when as a way of dealing with the problems they faced in real life, Sam and Joe drew their heroes overcoming related dilemmas.

The first big appearance of this theme was when Joe started to train as an escape artist under the renowned Kornblum, and later used the skills he had acquired to escape with the golem out of Prague and eventually into the bed of Samuel.

This physical form of escape can also be found in Samuel’s relationship with his parents. While on one of many walks with his father, The Molecule, Sam asked his father to take him away the next time his father left. He wanted to escape his relationship with his mother.

Barely settled into his physical world, Joe goes with Sam to see Anapol about coming up with their own Superman. What they come up with is the comic character, “The Escapist”. As if the name was not enough, the character’s super powers are given to him through a golden key, meant for unlocking the iron shackles of those tyrannized and held in bondage.

“The Escapist” embodies elements of both Sam and Joe in him. The Escapist and the comic strip he is in is where Sam and Joe escaped into their own world, and where they were god.

With his father having abandoned him again, leaving him with his mother, and eventually dying during one of his acts, Sam deals with his grief by writing that into the story of The Escapist. Tom Mayflower, future super hero, watches as Max Mayflower, keeper of Golden Key, dies. Max had passed on the key to Tom, imbuing him with the super powers that the key carried with it. This psychological form of escape, Sam’s way of dealing with his father’s death, is apparent throughout the novel. Whether it was consciously or subconsciously, he wanted to be with his father, and wanted to walk in his father’s footsteps as a worker in the circus.

The similarities between Tom and Sam do not end there. Tom walks around on crutches, which he needs because of his weak legs. Sam suffered from Polio as a kid, and found out that his father is the one that constantly forced him to walk, eventually giving him back to ability to walk without the need for any aid, as Max had done when he gave the Golden key to Tom.

The biggest escape for Sam was the part just when Tom receives the key, and is told to go out and perform. When asked to go out to stage and perform the coffin escape, Tom responds with “My leg,” followed with a “How am I supposed to?” Tom’s uncle’s belief in him is exactly what Sam had hoped from his father when Sam told his father he could be in the circus too. The Molecule told Sam that although Sam had a good upper body, his legs left something to be desired. Max’s confidence was what Sam had hoped for; his own father’s doubt was what he had gotten.

Although Sam was the chief writer for the comic strip, Joe was the chief artist. He held the pencil, and The Escapist was his character too.

Powerless to stop the Germans and Hitler, “The Escapist” is the one that does the fighting for Joe. Right from the start, with the cover of the first issue, Attila Haxoff (Hitler) is seen to be the main enemy of The Escapist, and is being punched in the mouth by The Escapist. It is clear that Joe used the comic book as his escape from reality, his inability to do anything to stop the tyranny of the Germans. Also, as time goes by, and his efforts at getting his family out of Prague are frustrated, the comics begin to get more and more violent. In this world of his own, Joe subdues Hitler when The Escapist brings Haxoff before a tribunal and Haxoff is sentenced to death for his crimes against humanity.

            With all the daily stress in life, everyone needs some form of escape. Be it going to the movies, watching television, listening to music, or as in the book, reading comics, all these are forms of escape. Perhaps for most, reading Kavalier & Clay was a form of escape for them. Just as one protects something dear to him, Joe refused to budge on the theme of The Escapist. The imaginary world that people create to escape from reality sometimes are held more dear that what is real, perhaps because perception is reality for most.