117 pages • 3 hours read
Michael ChabonA modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Summary
Background
Part 1, Chapters 1-4
Part 2, Chapters 1-6
Part 2, Chapters 7-12
Part 3, Chapters 1-4
Part 3, Chapters 5-11
Part 3, Chapters 12-15
Part 4, Chapters 1-4
Part 4, Chapters 5-6
Part 4, Chapters 7-10
Part 4, Chapters 11-14
Part 4, Chapters 15-17
Part 5, Chapters 1-7
Part 6, Chapters 1-4
Part 6, Chapters 5-9
Part 6, Chapters 10-14
Part 6, Chapters 15-20
Character Analysis
Themes
Symbols & Motifs
Important Quotes
Essay Topics
A climactic event in The Adventures of Kavalier and Clay is a 1954 Senate hearing overseen by the Subcommittee on Juvenile Delinquency, also known as the Senate Comic Book Hearings. These hearings did in fact take place, with psychiatrist Dr. Fredric Wertham serving as the chief witness against the burgeoning comic-book industry. Wertham had made a splash earlier that year with the publication of his book Seduction of the Innocent, which claimed that lurid images of violence in popular comic books were exerting a pernicious influence on American youth. In this period, comics depicting often violent clashes between superheroes and criminals were rapidly gaining popularity, and the rise of this new genre coincided with a rise in youth crime so that many parents and educators saw a causal link between the two phenomena (González). Wertham’s book became the flashpoint for a moral panic.
By Michael Chabon