Richard Cory
I've been studying a unit of poetry in my English course. A poet by the name of Edwin Arlington Robinson, wrote a poem entitled "Richard Cory" in "The Children of the Night." The poem is as followed:
Whenever Richard Cory went down town,
We people on the pavement looked at him:
He was a gentleman from sole to crown,
Clean favored, and imperially slim.
And he was always quietly arrayed,
And he was always human when he talked;
But still he fluttered pulses when he said,
"Good-morning," and he glittered when he walked.
And he was rich - yes, richer than a king -
And admirably schooled in every grace;
In fine we thought that he was everything
To make us wish that we were in his place.
So on we worked, and waited for the light,
And went without the meat, and cursed the bread;
And Richard Cory, one calm summer night,
Went home and put a bullet through his head.
Remind anyone of a certain masked hero? Mamoru, at first glance, seems to an image of perfection. When we first met him, Usagi comments on "what a flashy guy" he is. This, at once gives the impression that Mamoru isn't just another face in the crowd. When we later meet Asanuma in Volume 3 (re-printed edition), we can undoubtfully say that he isn't. He's an upper-classman. He is a person that Asanuma and his friends aspire to be.
Usagi, Makoto, Ami and Michiru all at one point, or another, commented on how handsome he is. Beryl had an obsession with him. Haruka was jealous of him. The Shitennou bows to him and calls him, "Master".
Without realizing it, the people around him had put him up on a pedestal. Without realizing it, they have isolated him more than he already is.
- He's a gentleman who's admirable
- He's has a nice and subtle fashion sense (manga)
- He's healthy, fit and good looking
- He's kind, genuine, and attractive to the girl population
- He's well off, if not wealthy
- He's insanely intelligent
- He's a role model
- He's perfect
Ideally, he has everything. But he doesn't have what all human beings need by instinct. People need other people. At a young age he was orphaned, as he grew up, he was singled out. And as time passed, he created an asshole persona for himself.
This is, perhaps, a contributing factor as to why Mamoru is so insecure and self-conscious, even after the whole superhero-ass-kicking-Usagi-as-a-girlfriend thing. This new found human-interaction is new to him; it scares him and at the same time, he's afraid of losing it. And along with this "superhero-ass-kicking-Usagi-as-a-girlfriend" shebang, he is revealed to be a prince, the Prince of Earth, at that. He feels as if he needs to live up to that title; thus once again, placing him back onto the pedestal.