You do know your stuff, better than you admit. I like this line the best: "And even then, in our twisted society, Clark Kent lives a sad, lonely shell of a life." The raw truth to that is palpable, and I couldn't have put it any better. In both his forms, as Clark and as Superman, he is alone, because in both lives he is living a lie. As Clark, he acts as a bumbling geek. A hard working, kind-hearted bumbling geek, but still the least heroic individual imaginable. As Superman, he is a larger than life, god-like messianic archetype, hardly relatable to any mere human; indeed, an ideal to strive towards. So which one is the real guy? Much critical debate has been lent over the years to identifying which is the "true" personality, and which is the "mask," with regards to any Superhero with a secret identity. Is Clark Kent or Superman the real personality for this individual? In my mind, neither is. I propose that there is a third personality at work here, the personality that only he knows, the personality that only he exposes when he is in his Fortress of Solitude. This is Kal-El, not Clark or Superman, but Kal-El, a man torn between two worlds. A man with an alien biology, and an alien heritage and an alien name, trying to find his way in the world, and finding himself living a split personality. I realized this when I couldn't classify the character we saw in Man of Steel with either Clark Kent or Superman. He was not bumbling, geeky or timid, nor was he larger than life, messianic, superheroic or idealistic. He was a lost man, a man who literally walked the earth trying to find his place in it. This is who Superman really is at his core, Kal-El, a man with no direction, so he invents two different personalities. Kal-El is only allowed out in his most private moments: "Character is who you are when no one is looking," and what better place to ensure no one is looking then the Fortress of Solitude? The Fortress is the only place where Superman can truly reflect and meditate surrounded by his own culture and heritage, and is also the only place where he is neither god-like Superman, or bumbling Clark Kent. He is simply Kal-El, his true name and his true self, alone in a world that he masks himself with not one, but two secret identities.