New Brunswick Business Daily

How does Superman represent 20th century American values?

The students in my sophomore English class at HCHS are researching mythological hero figures in order to deduce cultural values. We are beginning with an analysis of the Superman figure and analyzing how he represents 20th century American values. Please let us know your opinion on this topic.

Public Comments

1. The 20th century can largely be characterized by a change from more traditional values to modern lifestyles. Cars and other products started to become mass produced. Communication via radio, television, phone and eventually satellite, cell phone and internet flourished. Consumerism and the buying and selling of commodities vastly increased. At the same time, the world became full of dichotomies. Before the 20th century, most people didn’t have a very elaborate private life. People worked all the time, practically non-stop, and then went to bed and did it all over again. The 20th century gave birth to a new age of leisure and recreational activities. It was the new frontier of technology. There was a huge increase in plastic surgery, diverse fashion, tattoos and piercing. You could essentially re-create yourself any way you saw fit. You could be Joe working man during the day, and wild disco Stu at night. A man can work in an office during the day, and race motorcycles on the weekends. Superman symbolizes a living dualism, half working man, half superhero. He represents people's desire to be better than themselves, even if it’s only temporary. Superman also represents people’s desire to be strong, robust, independent, popular, admired, larger than life – all of which are American ideals. (This is just off the top of my head - I'm sure there is more to it than that. Hope this get's the ball moving in the right direction. You could look into Jungian archetypes for comparison also)
2. Superman certainly does NOT represent modern American values. He does represent modern fantasies. "The never ending battle for truth, justice, and the American way" has never been reality, especially during the time that superman comics were popular. During that time truth and justice were largely configured by financial and political needs and there was certainly little justice for the poor American worker.