Critical analysis of Calvin by Martine Leavitt. Term Paper

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Critical analysis of Calvin by Martine Leavitt
The novel Calvin by Martine Leavitt describes the struggles of a young boy named Calvin, in the book, Calvin mental illness alters his way of viewing things affecting his actions. The seventeen-year-old Calvin believes that his fate comes from the comic book by Bill Watterson. His name which is similar to the main character in the book, having a stuffed tiger called Hobbes, the fact that his best childhood friend is called Susie and having been born on the last date when the comic strip Calvin and Hobbes was published. Calvin is convinced that the solution to his mental illness lies with the author of the comic strip.
To understand Calvin’s struggles in trying to distinguish reality from his imagination, this paper will review the book using two approaches, the sociological and the psychological approach. From the sociological perspective, the paper will review the social attitudes, tendencies, and events to understand Calvin’s perception of his illness. From a psychological perspective, Jungian criticism is an effective method of analyzing the character Calvin because Jungian criticism explores the idea of collective unconsciousness.
Jungian criticism originates from Carl Gustav Jung, who believes that we live in a world where the unconscious mind controls humans whereby collective pattern, experiences and images influence our behavior. The basic idea of Jungian criticism is to understand the human conscious these include the desires, feelings, and impulses which humans are not aware of but influence their emotions and behavior. The psychological approach is an important aspect of understanding literature because it explores the motivation of the character and the symbolic meaning of the event in a literary work.
Jungian analytical psychology explores the difference between personal and collective unconsciousness which are expressed through 'archetypes' which are mental images which influence individual emotions and behavior (Fordham 27). The idea of archetypes is explored by Martine Leavitt when describing Calvin’s journey of finding what he believed would cure his mental illness. From a sociological perspective, the author’s perception about mental illness and Calvin situation is well articulated in a novel.
Sociologist critical approach
From a sociological point of view, the author looks at the society or the context in which the literature was written. Determining what is real is imagined is one of the common themes in Martine Leavitt‘s book Calvin. Martine introduces a boy with schizophrenia who is weighed down by imaginary ideas and people mostly from his childhood when he is diagnosed with schizophrenia. He explains the struggles experienced by adolescents struggle with their identities and how certain changes alters their lives .The story is about a teenage boy struggling to gain control of his own mind and destiny (Leavitt 69).
Calvin believed that his fate was associated with the comic book character Calvin and Hobbes since he was born on the last day the comic book was published. Calvin had a stuffed tiger named Hobbes and his childhood friend Susie (Leavitt 48). When he was young, Calvin used to play with his toy Hobbes that controlled most of his behavior and actions. When he was diagnosed with schizophrenia all the people in his real life becomes an illusion, therefore he cannot properly comprehend what is real and what is not real (Leavitt 71).
Calvin view reality form a different perspective when he says “Reality is just this game people play together, something their brain decides on, and the minute their brain gets iffy about reality, they realize everything they know about the world is just their own made-up version of it” (Leavitt 79).
Calvin believed that finding to the original author of the comic strip Bill Watterson, he would convince him to draw the final comic strip depicting a normal teenager and he will be cured. After being diagnosed with schizophrenic, Calvin wakes wake in hospital plagued with hallucination. He believed that he can only get well by taking an imaginative journey. He takes a walk across Lake Erie which turns out to be different from what he had imagined imagines (Leavitt 86). In his imagination, there were abandoned car, ice fishing strange psycho-killer snow beings, sea witch and man-eating tigers. One of his surprises comes from when he found out that he has been accompanied by Susie the girl of his one wonders at times if Susie is also part of his delusion (Leavitt 83).
Calvin treks through Lake Erie in the middle of winter in search for the creator of a comic book Calvin and Hobbes, Bill Watterson in order to regain his true identity. He imagined that he would find the author and persuade the author to write the last comic where he will be depicted to be a normal boy. In his imaginary journey, Calvin is joined by Susie, who insists on coming along with Calvin in his long journey (Leavitt 55).
Written as a dialogue between different character the story of Calvin as presented by the author, takes readers into the mind and the experiences of a young boy diagnosed with schizophrenia and cannot cope with reality. Susie plays an important role in enhancing the theme of identity. She is Calvin's childhood friend who accompanies him in the winter walk across the lake. What seems like an imaginary desire becomes a dangerous journey of survival and test. Calvin grapples with imaginary ideas and Susie reveals some of the hidden truth to Calvin. Calvin finds it difficult to determine reality and after several enc...