Where is Waldo?

November 29^th, 2012

In Class Essay-Where is Waldo? (UofC prompt #6)

Mr. Garrioch / English Composition

11b4 111150 Ho InHee

On the crowded Broadway of New York, people dinning and bustling, cars whizzing and hooting, I looked around, visited shops, watched the ‘Broadway musical’, and ate foods from at least three countries of the world. Shops were big, the musical was splendid, and the foods werew all so unique. But what was really in my favor was none of these fancies. It was the Disney shop.

I hesitated a little before entering this colorful shop, expecting all the babies and their parents shooting wondering looks; ‘why is that teenage girl here?’ But why, I wasn’t the only teen; people from simply all ages were in the Disney shop. Some, maybe about one third, were there to actually buy Disney goods for them or for their children. But what about the rest?

Waldo always wears a red-stripe T-shirt and blue jeans. No matter where he is- at the beach, in the street, at the mall, park, soccer field, anywhere- he always wears this ‘Waldo clothing’, making a smiley face. He holds a brown cane in one hand, and with red-white beanie and white glasses, he waits. With this same pose, same clothes, and same face, he waits in any place, waiting for kids to find him. Similar with green-clothed Peter Pan, red-shirt Pooh, and red-pants Mickey Mouse. They have this consistency in character that never changes, that represents them, that makes us recognize them.

Of course this consistency in character doesn’t exist so often in the real world. People change. They update themselves in a way of adapting to switching environments. With college admission officers, we become a decent, diligent student with burning ambition. With friends, we get more humorous and rebellious. And adaptation to certain environment doesn’t necessarily have to be done consciously. As a member of certain society, and as an individual belonging to several different societies at once, human form new identities, willingly or unwillingly. Like the protagonists in numerous literatures of Confessional period, people, after living busy lives conforming themselves to whatever societies they are involved, commonly confront with identity issues.

It is natural for us to have our identities changed. As one professor at Harvard University once said, to belong is to understand the tacit codes of the people you live with. We not only have to follow the explicit rules but accurately imply the unspoken ones as well. This may sound very toady and hypocritical, but at the same time very obvious.

Then doesn’t the concept of ‘finding Waldo’ sound meaningless? There is no such person with a consistent character like Waldo. Waldo doesn’t teach children anything. ‘Finding Waldo’ merely serves as giving adults some spare time while their kids earnestly seek for the most unrealistic character named Waldo.

We need to know why ‘Waldo’ and all the other Disney characters exist, and even more, why they are still widely beloved. Those characters are emblems of our childhood. Looking at thousands of Disney character dolls displayed, we recall a young ‘us’, sitting on a couch and watching a Disney film. We reminisce our sixth birthday when we coaxed our mothers to buy one extra toy. We are able to recall such memories because those Disney characters remain the unchanged. Same for Waldo. Waldo, wearing a red-striped T shirt and blue jeans, makes a happy face no matter where he is, or where we are. And looking at his eternal, friendly appearance, we let ourselves take a few minutes finding Waldo just as we did in our childhood, though we are aware of how time wasting this activity is. Waldo was with our parents in their childhood, with us in our own childhood, and will be together as well with our children. He was, is, and will remain same in any cases.

Reminiscing our vague childhood through Waldo takes us to the most pure, unmodified images of us. His unchanging character lets us ponder on how we were initially.