When reading The Watchmen, the thing that jumped out at me was that Laurie (the Silk Spectre) was everywhere, both physically and emotionally. In the physical sense she was in various places. She was in New York, then she went to Mars with Jon (Mr. Manhattan). Emotionally, she could not keep herself together. She had just left Jon and she goes to Dan (Nite Owl) and sleeps with him then goes to Mars with Jon as soon as he shows up again. All the while trying to figure out what she wants. I think a reason why she is everywhere is because when she was growing up she could not be herself. She was groomed to follow her mother’s footsteps even though she did not want to.

Since Laurie was unable to choose want she wanted to do when she was growing up, she does almost anything she wants now that the Keene Act forced her to retire. She choose to stay with Jon. She choose to break up with him. She choose to go to Dan and many more choices thereafter. Even though she makes all these choices, they seem to lead her to trouble. To me it almost seems as if she can’t make a decision on her own without getting into some sort of emotional trouble. She’s a thirty-five year old woman and I see a teenager that thinks she can do anything but pays the price for it. As I said before I think the fact that she could not make her own decisions when she was younger effects the way she is now. Now she can make those decisions but they are immature decisions.

-Kimberly Stokes