Chapter VII

Chapter Summary
In this chapter the main characters are Dan Dreiberg (Nite Owl) and Laurie Juspeczyk (Silk Spectre). Dan and Laurie have been spending more time together since Dr. Manhattan exiled himself to Mars. The chapter starts off with Laurie exploring around Dan's old ship from when they fought crime. She accidentally starts a fire in Dan's basement and Dan rushes down to help put it out. After the fire is put out Dan and Laurie start to talk about their days as crime fighters and they feel closer to each other and sexual tension starts to build. Eventually Dan and Laurie begin have sex but Dan just isn't into it. They decide to take out Dan's ship for a cruise around the city when they see a housing complex in flames. They decide to go and help the people from the burning buildings, just like they used to. The excitement of being heroes again stirs up their emotions and they have intimate relations in the ship yet again, but Dan is more passionate this time. Afterwards Dan is more passionate about fighting crime, and doesn't think of it as he used to. Laurie then says she feels they have an obligation to their fraternity, referring to the group of ex-crime fighters and suggests that they break Rorschach out of jail. There was not a lot of action in this chapter, but there were a lot of events which set things up for later. When Dr. Manhattan left Earth he and Laurie were in a relationship, so if he comes back and finds her with Dan that could potentially cause even more problems. Dan finds a renewed passion for crime fighting, which could mean one more hero to help solve the problem at hand. Laurie, who has been known to hate Rorschach actually suggests that they break him out of prison. This all sets up possible events for later chapters, and they could all be very interesting.

Character Analysis
Dan Dreiberg is the second Nite Owl, a crime fighter who worked with the people that attempted to put together the Crimebusters. Dan has no superpowers, but can fight and he has an airship in the shape of an owl head which has many useful features. Dan Dreiberg was mentored by the original Nite Owl; Hollis Mason. Dan believes in justice and he decided that he'll help in keeping the peace. We like Dan Dreiberg because he is a real hero. He thinks of others, cares for justice and isn't selfish. He's smart, logical (sane), and very likable.

Symbols & Themes
In chapter 7 of Watchmen, one symbol that we found was the crimefighters' costumes. Their costumes represent a better time when they were all friends, and were appreciated by society. At the beginning of the chapter Dan walks down naked to look at his costume, which relates to the dream he had in which he peeled off his and Laurie's skin to reveal their costumes beneath. This could mean that their costumes are their true identities; it's who they truly are. At the end of the chapter when Dan and Laurie have sex Laurie asks Dan if the costumes made it better, and Dan said that it did. The costumes represent a better time, one which the ex-crimefighters wish they still lived in.

Page Analysis
We chose to analyze page 25 of Chapter 7. On this page Dan and Laurie save the residents of a burning tenement building. The colours used on this page stuck out to us because of the layout. All of the panels except for the one in the middle had red, yellow and orange colours to show the intensityof the situation. The middle panel is cooler colours which could represent that they're safe from the danger, thanks to Dan and Laurie (Or Nite Owl and Silk Spectre). At the bottom of the page Dan plays a song to calm the passengers, and one line from the song is "You're my thrill. You do something to me. You send chills right through me. When I look at you, 'cos you're my thrill." This could be about Dan and Laurie's relationship, or it could be about the way they feel about being masked heroes.