Golems

In The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay, Josef Kavalier (Later nicknamed Joe) is trying to escape to the United States from World War II Czechoslavakia. After being refused passage by train, he seeks help from Kornblum, an old master escapist that he once apprentinced under. Kornblum was tasked with shipping out a sacred golem to an area not taken over by the Nazis, so he decides to hide Joe in with the golem. This particular golem became a steady symbol throughout the story, as it became linked to other objects in purpose and traits.

A golem is an animate being created completely from an inanimate material, usually clay. They were created through Jewish folklore, where owning a golem servant was considered a sign of seasoned knowledge, or righteousness. A golem was kept animate by strong magic, and its purpose was to fulfill the demands of its master. They were characterized by their mindless obedience, and can be viewed as a large puppet in the sense that they are only manipulated to serve the purpose of its manipulator.

When first tasked with drawing a superhero for a job application, Joe drew a golem walking down an alleyway. This made clear his thought on illustrated characters, in that they, like golems, had no mind of their own, and only followed the whims of their creator. Joe moves on to write comic about he and Sam Clay's superhero, the Escapist. The hero himself had the abilities of a master escape artist. This mirrored Joe's struggle, as he also was adept in the art of escape, and he was trying to escape from the larger, more abstract concept that he was trapped within the futility of his efforts to affect anything. Joe never truly felt comfortable in New York, and he longed to see his family again, but he knew that this meeting was highly unlikely to ever occur, as his family was caught in the crossfire of the war.

The Escapist can be viewed as Joe's golem for both expressing himself, and trying to move the American public to take action. Throughout the comic, the Escapist fights against Nazi Germany, and on the cover of the first comic book, he is shown punching Hitler in the face. Joe shows in detail through his illustrations the horrors of the conditions the Germany places other countries in through military occupation. He hopes that the images in his comics will be enough to stir the American public to the point of taking action, and that this will allow him to see his family again if the Germans are defeated.