essay about waldo
Where is Waldo? Is he in your house, dream, workplace, school, classroom, nearest Dunkin' Donuts, or stuck in traffic in the car beside you? We don't know. Perhaps a better question is not "Where is Waldo?" but "What is Waldo?" or most importantly "Why are we looking for Waldo?" What does he represent? Why is he so special that the entire world must traverse through foreign countries in search of this one man? Why are we looking for Waldo? Maybe he doesn't want to be found. Maybe because we keep looking for him, he keeps hiding. But alas, human nature strikes again. Though we are consciously aware that he doesn't want to be found, we don't care about what he wants, do we? All we really want is that instant gratification of having spotted him amid the chaos he so desperately tries to blend in with to escape our reaches. That one moment of "AHA!" allows us to forgo all of his desires.
What is Waldo? Was he a figment of some lonely child psychiatrist's imagination or is he a well thought out concept that increases brain activity in children? I don't know, but I do know how the game is played. You get a photo of some chaotic nonsense and are asked to find the whereabouts of this scarce creature. So you look in all the places you would least expect him to be, and there he is, you've found him. Maybe that's what Waldo is: a concept. A concept that explains how it all happened, that when you look in the places you least expect to find something, that's where it usually is. Or, Waldo could be a symbol. A symbol for all those singular soles out there, simply looking for someone to love, looking for their Waldo. Or Waldo could just be a character in a game children like to play.