Misplaced Envy: Mike's Raison d'Etre
Nov. 16th, 2007 07:34 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
I noticed in this blast from the substandard past two strips that featured Mike confronting signs of maturity and envying Liz for not having to endure them. You'd think he'd have been happy his parents take him seriously enough to discipline but no; he wanted to get away with things like a toddler, like someone who's dismissed as not knowing what she's doing. This led him to do something no normal, healthy child would do: whine about being born first. We see him in today's piece of nonsense wanting to trade all his accomplishments, all the things to take pride in and trade them for the opportunity to be gushed over for giggling and belching. What he wanted and still wants is attention; working for it is another matter. He lives and dies by the amount of praise he receives, after all. The biblical notion of doing something difficult and not expecting public huzzahs, therefore making it a worthy deed, not wasting it on egoism, strikes him as strictly for suckers. He wants praise and he doesn't want to work for it so that makes someone who can do both, an Elizabeth, an enemy to be thwarted.