"Clark Kent is Superman's critique of mankind".
That sentiment has become, largely the prevailing wisdom in many sections of popular culture about the portrayal of Clark Kent. I think it's a mistake. I think it's also over looked that it's a homicidal sociopath that has popularized that notion. I feel that both personalities of Kal El's persona are critiques of mankind. Clark is in fact the flawed, average , humbled human who is stuck in a stream he cannot get out of. Superman is his critique of mankind when we are at our best. When we look at the personalities of great men we see a long list of character flaws that go hand in hand with their triumphs. Whether it be, Martin Luther King Jr. or Ghandi, Abraham Lincoln or Thomas Jefferson these men had their private lives, where each stumbled and skinned their knees but when presented with times larger than themselves and challenges large enough to confront they rose to the occasion and struck out in bold positive ways. I see Superman in the same manor. I think he's at an advantage in understanding human nature due to his life story. He isn't one of us. He has that part of him that is rarely displayed but ever present, that alien heritage. He is detached, no matter how much he doesn't wish to be. He is the immigrant and the orphan raised by two people who represented every aspect of mankind even the petty parts. I feel that the fact that Jonathan and Martha were not young and had so much life already lived when they found him alone in that field is one of the most important parts of his story. It is in fact a formative aspect. Between the two they must have lived through a lot. A rapidly shrinking world, wars, peace, economic hardships, personal hardships, deaths and births and a great deal of life lived between them. When Clark comes into their lives they have seen a lot and know a lot about the world and mankind in general. They are wise, which is why Clark through his life leans on them so much. He comes to them for advice on things even he cannot confront and more often than not they lead him in the right direction. Jonathan understands the darker motives and the masculine world better than most men. Martha understands the hopeful, brighter more feminine aspects better than most and both of those views on the world really impacts Clark as a character. In the same instance he is worldly. He has seen his own share by the time he has come to Metropolis, whether he's portrayed as is in the Donnerverse as having been fed the information by Jor El or as in Birthright as having sought it out himself in a young life of travels. He has seen death and the grimmer aspects of mankind and he has seen the joyous and brighter aspects for himself and knows, from a curious observers point of view, what we can be in every moment of our lives. We rarely surprise him which is why as Superman he is so confident. When he comes to Metropolis he is confronted with the synthesized fears and desperation of moving life in a major city and knows that he needs to in some way present an example in the busiest city in the world of how life should be enjoyed and how people should stop and care for one another. To look past the dregs of the daily beat and see the world as it is. Alive in wonder and glory as well as well as trodden and bleak. He wants to help because he can. He wants to guide us to the realization of the better angels of ourselves. At the same time he has a real fear of both doing too much and not doing enough. He doesn't want people to become overly reliant on him and he doesn't want them to suffer needlessly. There is a constant tension in him in this case that I don't think can or should ever be resolved. The great drama in his life is when it swings one way or the other.
As for Lex I think he is very much human. He represents the arrogance and the fear, that goes with that, in mankind. He has become the pinnacle of what ever ends he strives for, criminality or business or evil science even land accumulation. He is the top and see's himself as everything that man can achieve. He resents Superman, though he'd never admit it because he is more than human. He see's and vocalizes Superman's own fear of becoming a crutch. I see him as Machiavellian and not so much evil but rather a social Darwinist whose ends justify his own means. He is amoral but believes this makes him of a higher moral standard. There is a real superiority and his hatred of Superman is far more Freudian than simply being thwarted time and again. It's more of two opposing forces that will never, even begrudgingly, see the others side of the world, they may understand it but they both find it simultaneously repulsive.
