A Bodily Code Analysis Used in Revealing an Imaginary Character in Calvin and Hobbes

Abstract

The study entitled “A Bodily Codes Analysis Used in Revealing an Imaginary Friend Character in Bill Watterson’s Comic Strip: Calvin and Hobbes” seeks to discover the representation of imaginary character of Hobbes based on his bodily codes occurred in the 5 selected strips purposively. To obtain deeper understanding, this study applies four basic premises of experientialism proposed by Buckland (2004) towards 9 bodily codes proposed by Chandler (2002). This study uses a qualitative method in order to describe the premises in a narrative way. It discovered that Hobbes makes 76 bodily codes. There are 14 appearances as a real tiger (18.42%), 14 gestures (18.42%), 12 postures (15.79%), 9 proximities (11.84%), 9 physical orientations (11.84%), 8 facial expressions (10.53%), 7 gazes (9.21%), 3 bodily contacts (3.95%), and 0 head-nods (0%). Furthermore, this study also discovered 5 representations of Hobbes. The first is Hobbes as a cloning of Calvin. The second representation is Hobbes as a friend of Calvin. Third, Hobbes is represented as a pet. The forth representation is Hobbes as an opponent of Calvin. Lastly, Hobbes is represented as a real tiger which has instincts as a wild animal. Therefore, in Bill Watterson’s Calvin and Hobbes, Hobbes is visualized as something very close to very distant for Calvin.

Keywords: Bodily Codes, Basic Premises of Experientialism, Representation, Comic Strip.