Hobbes (Calvin and Hobbes) - Relationship With Calvin

Relationship With Calvin

For the most part, Calvin and Hobbes converse and play together, reveling in what is ultimately a deep friendship. Hobbes acts as a philosophical foil to Calvin; where Calvin is preoccupied with predestination and dreams of grandeur, Hobbes is a much more realistic thinker; he is much more focused on the present and the simple pleasant things in life (a prime example being a strip in which the two talk about what they would do with a wish; Calvin makes it clear that he'd want material things, while Hobbes wishes for a simple tuna sandwich- adding that he got his wish.) They also frequently argue or even fight with each other, though their disagreements are generally short-lived. Hobbes often beats up Calvin with an energetic pounce-and-tackle attack, which leaves Calvin bruised and scraped up but not seriously harmed. Hobbes takes great pleasure in his demonstrations of feline prowess, while Calvin expresses keen frustration at his inability to stop the attacks or explain his injuries to his skeptical parents. Hobbes is proud to be an animal and seems to have a low opinion of humans in general (when Calvin is wondering why people exist, Hobbes simply responds "tiger food"), and Calvin claims that he once ate a kid in his school named Tommy Chesnutt for making fun of Calvin bringing Hobbes to school ("Ugh! He needed a bath, too" was Hobbes' comment).

Hobbes is shown to be an enthusiastic, if not particularly talented, artist, a trait which he shares with Calvin, though to a lesser degree, sometimes supplying the (often unnecessary) artwork for Calvin's school projects, such as a letterhead featuring a "Calvin shield" surrounded by "lance-toting tigers". Hobbes also appears to be more enthusiastic about knowledge than Calvin since Hobbes likes reading more than he and sometimes does Calvin's homework.

Hobbes is almost always willing to finish Calvin's homework when Calvin gets lazy, despite that Hobbes' motive for doing so is usually only to boast of the academic knowledge and skill of tigers while solving the problems (according to Hobbes tigers need to learn physics, biology and artistic expression to hunt). While he explains the homework to Calvin in a seemingly scientific and advanced method, the answer that he provides is usually completely incorrect, even though most times the problem only involves simple addition or subtraction. When Hobbes is not trying to explain the homework to him, Calvin is usually reading comics or otherwise doing anything but work.

Calvin often yells, "I'M HOME!" when he gets home, making him an easy target for Hobbes. Sometimes, though, Calvin realizes that this is not a good idea, and manages to thwart his tiger, although this sometimes leads to more trouble. Calvin once managed to go through his back door to sneak up on Hobbes, yelled "I'M HOME!" before opening the door (causing Hobbes to leap into the door, or in one occasion, startling him into attacking Calvin anyway), and locked the door after Hobbes left the house (accidentally locking out his mother as well). Calvin also sometimes creates decoys wearing his clothes using pieces of wood, paper bags of leaves with the face on it, or makeshift snowmen, also in his clothes. Hobbes, however, usually sees through Calvin's decoy and either spots him or uses the decoy to his advantage. In one strip, Calvin's fear and expectation of this attack is used as humor; Calvin opens the door as usual, but is not attacked; he then goes upstairs to find Hobbes reading comic books, relatively unconcerned.

Hobbes is also "President-and-First Tiger" of the G.R.O.S.S. (Get Rid Of Slimy GirlS) club. The club headquarters are located in a treehouse (although in one strip an emergency meeting was held in a cardboard box called the "Box of Secrecy"), which Hobbes can get into without needing the rope ladder. Therefore, he is in charge of granting Calvin access, which involves Calvin reciting the password, which is eight verses of a poem extolling tigers. It can also be much more than this. In one strip Hobbes remarked "You're not doing the dance."