TOW #2 - Calvin and Hobbes Comic Strip

A Calvin and Hobbes comic strip showing a phone conversation. This comic strip was produced by Bill Watterson and was found at http://i1.nyt.com/images/2014/04/13/education/413/413-articleLarge-v2.jpg (Watterson)

This comic strip is from Calvin and Hobbes, a comic strip produced by Bill Watterson, who had much success on a national level during the years he produced the comic strips (Editors). Within this text, a young boy named Calvin picks up his home telephone only to deny taking a message for his dad, claiming that he is not concerned with others’ wellbeing. This comic strip satirizes the polite way children are taught to talk on the phone, as Calvin is very upfront about having no interest in taking any message. As this comic was produced to be placed in a newspaper or in a dedicated Calvin and Hobbes book, Watterson’s primary audience is ordinary people who seek humor from comic strips. To effectively establish this scenario, Watterson uses three rhetorical devices: onomatopoeia, hypophora, and hyperbole. Via the alarming “RRIINGG RRINGG” (Watterson 1) in the first box, the situation is created as the reader becomes aware that the phone is ringing, establishing a sense of urgency to pick the phone up. Calvin then continued, politely, to answer the phone, letting the caller know that his father is unavailable to speak. Watterson then uses hypophora to continue a two-way conversation, even though the reader only views the event from Calvin’s perspective: “Will I take a message? I don’t know – what’s in it for me?” (Watterson 3). While it is understood that Calvin himself is not using hypophora in this situation, the writer Bill Watterson tactically provided the readers with this question for the conversation to move forward. If he were to remove this question from the text, the context of Calvin’s statements would be illogical and unintelligible, ruining the flow of the short comic strip. Lastly, hyperbole is used when Calvin says, “People always assume you’re some kind of altruist” (Watterson 4). Calvin takes the commonly known scenario of being asked to take a message and compares it to a humanitarian deed, largely exaggerating the scale by which he is helping the caller. Relatedly, Calvin claims that everyone “always” (Watterson 4) asks him for a favor, further satirizing the scale of this ordinary exchange via the use of a hyperbole. Watterson intended to make his audience laugh by having Calvin refuse to do a simple task that only poses a minor inconvenience; with the help of several rhetorical devices that contribute emotion and context, Watterson produced a humorous comic strip that contrasts the different scale of duties in childhood and adulthood.

Works Cited

Editors, Biography.com. "Bill Watterson Biography." The Biography.com Website. A&E Networks Television, 2 Jan. 2015. Web. 18 Sept. 2016.

Watterson, Bill. "Calvin and Hobbes." The New York Times. N.p., n.d. Web. 18 Sept. 2016.