Max Ernst Storyline

The story being depicted in "The Rooster's Laughter" is one heavy in symbology and metaphor. The story seems to start with a woman being buried in the presence of these overpowering men taking the forms of roosters. I get the sense that the men having rooster heads is to imply some sort of animalistic dominance in the story, as for the next few pages they are always in dominating poses and positions, while the women are lying passively on the ground, either injured or dead. In the panel where there is a man with a human head dancing, there is a rooster coming entering the room behind him. I feel like this is meant to symbolize the instinct of what is considered "masculinity" attempting to overpower the more restrained and cultured side of this man. A lot of the pages depict scenes of women hiding or being overpowered by these rooster-like creatures, and in some panels being confronted directly with symbols of death. In some scenes, the women are being carried away by other unrecognizable monsters, which leads me to believe there is some other agent of death involved, such as a plague of disease or famine. Towards the end, the women begin overtaking the roosters with violent force, and become what the rooster's represented.