The American Flag

I found the series of plates about the American flag at the top of page 7 very thought-provoking. Spiegelman begins by discussing the unity in America in the days and months after 9/11. It seemed that everyone wanted to express their solidarity with and pride in the country; American flags were hanging outside of every house and store window and almost every political figure wore a flag pin on his lapel. This patriotic fervor extended to the US invasion of Afghanistan to overthrow the al Qaeda-supporting Taliban less than a month after 9/11 - this war was met with overwhelming support from the country. A year and a half later, though, when Spiegelman created this comic strip, the highly controversial war in Iraq was destroying the post-9/11 sense of unity in the country. Spiegelman notes, though, that the nation had never truly been united, as almost 50% of the country had voted for Al Gore in the 2000 election. He claims that America was more like a "nation under two flags" - the blue stars and the red stripes - and calls the flood of flags after 9/11 "provincial." Like Katha Pollitt, Spiegelman feels that we should have rallied around the globe, not the flag, after the attacks. He does not feel safer under the flag because he "can't see a thing." For Spiegelman, the American flag is nothing more than a symbol of blind faith in a government that half of the country never supported.