Will Eisner: A Contract With God " A look at Story 3, THE SUPER

            While all four of the stories that encompass Will Eisner’s A Contract With God, are unsettling in some way, it is perhaps the third story, “The Super” that was most disturbing to me. At different points of the story one finds themselves sympathizing and/or being disgusted with each of the main characters. The story is an amazing depiction of what life in the tenement style housing of the 1930’s in the Bronx was like; crowded, everyone struggling and everyone knowing each and every neighbor’s business. The story shows the struggle between the rich and the poor, those with power and those without and how these groups can be pitted against each other. At the most basic level, this is a story of a German Super, who is lonely and poor and tired of the complaints of the tenants that reside in the building for which he is in charge, and a Jewish household who simply wants some hot water. It is difficult to discern exactly what Eisner was hoping his readers would get out of this story, is there a message or is he simply telling a tale of something he witnessed?

            The reader is clearly not meant to care too deeply for the Super, he is depicted as somewhat of an Ogre, an angry man who curses his tenants and clings to pornography to cure his loneliness. However, it is important to note that the Super really does nothing wrong until he is propositioned by a tenant, a 10 year old Jewish girl, to “take a peak” for a nickel. The gut reaction of the reader is to hate the Super, how could he do this with a 10 year old girl? However, this is not your average 10 year old girl. Eisner depicts her from the very beginning as seemingly old for her age and very sly. In fact, it is the young girl who tempts the Super, then kills his dog (his only companion), steals his money box and runs, accusing him of wrong doing, knowing very well that no one will believe him over her. In the end, the Super kills himself and the young girl sits greedily counting the money she stole from him. So, if this story is telling us something, what is it exactly? Are we to infer that the young girl is evil, or the Super? We discussed this in class and I got the impression that most found the Super to be a bad man for sure, but the young girl was the one most declared “evil.” Personally, I think the moral of the story is that the times these people lived in were hard, that lonely people will do unthinkable things given the right circumstances, and that even the young can be capable of terrible acts of cruelty in the face of poverty. I don’t believe that the author wants us to take either of the characters’ sides. I believe Eisner was just providing an example of life in this setting which he describes more than once as a “ship anchored in concrete” as well as its residents whom he describes in the introduction as being “imprisoned.” The image of the “crowded and tight ship” along with the idea of being “imprisoned” even if only economic bonds are the ones doing the shackling, gives me a sense that Eisner is simply trying to convey that seemingly inhumane acts can become the every day norm, when living in such conditions.