Dominant corporate messages are things or ideas that we see with in our daily lives that influenece the way we live. The dominant corporate messages can influence our lives by what we eat, the way we look, what we buy, how we shop, and how we live. Looking deeper in to these corporate messages we see that the way they want us to live is almost like some kind of brain wash the society has on the environment around us. These dominant corporate messages betray to be things we need in order to live a good and meaningful life, but in reality the pop culture is manipulating us to spend our money or alternate the way we want to live to keep up with today's society "hip" and "cool" things. I think that in our society today the dominant corporate messages are that materials will make you happy. We see several dominant messages being shown through television, magazines, commericals, and the internet.
While surfing the web I came across VH1.com, while looking through their website I felt as if VH1 had a main corporate message which is becoming famous, but at the same I noticed that several of these shows displayed on VH1 are reality shows. The reality shows contradicted the message because they were showing how becoming famous affected these individuals lives and showing how these famous people were acting irresponbile. The shows showed that we as the society should not act like these people but at the same time, the shows were making these people become some type of idolized figures, which made no sense.
I think that in our society today the dominant corporate messages are that materials will make you happy. For example in the commercial that says "Every kiss begins with a Kay". The commercial is for a jewelry store and basically what they are trying to tell the viewers is that the jewelry will make your girlfriend/ boyfriend happy and that their love for each other will become greater. People are relying on senseless items to strengthen their love relationship, instead of spending their hard earned money on their lover, they could be spending quality time with their lover which is price less.
The dominant message that materials will make one happy cause people to rely on the materials they want so that if they don't get what they want they are angry until they get that thing. I think it is sort of similar to a drug addiction. People who are addicted to heroin or cocaine try it and then their bodies rely on the drugs and the junkie must get the drug or they go into a different state where their body gets all messed up. Then to keep on getting the drugs for their system they do things like become prostitutes so they can get what they need. People who think that the materials will make them happy buy and buy then when they don't have enough money or can't get the material they rob banks and steal from people because they think they will be happy with the money.
Tuesday, December 30, 2008
Thanksgiving / Black Friday
-Thanksgiving was a good and meaningful experience because I got to get more in touch with my distant family that i havent seen or heard from in a long time. And all of us being their together felt real good, and made the night more enjoyable for all of us. We were able to catch up on important things that have occurred in our lives that we wanted to share with each other. Also each family member brought over their special dinner dishes that they knew everybody would want to eat. Before we ate thanksgiving dinner my family said a grace, and each person got a chance to say what they was thankful for and any other things that felt was apporpriate to share for grace. I felt this was meaningful because hearing what each family was thankful for in a way brought all of us more together, although we were here to enjoy dinner I found that very interesting.
-Black Friday was irrelevant to my life, didnt feel like I wanted or needed anything that was worth my money at the time. I felt like it was a regular day. I think the fact that several people can spend their entire day shopping or spending money on maybe worthless things is useless in my eyes. I feel as if that if somebody can have the engery to campout a store until opening hours, that can do something more meaningful that can be benefical to their ownlives. Most people just buy things that they dont even need, their jus shopping for fun, trying to catch deals on items that are only going to stimulate their happiness, until something of that same product comes out later just with one new feature.
-Black Friday was irrelevant to my life, didnt feel like I wanted or needed anything that was worth my money at the time. I felt like it was a regular day. I think the fact that several people can spend their entire day shopping or spending money on maybe worthless things is useless in my eyes. I feel as if that if somebody can have the engery to campout a store until opening hours, that can do something more meaningful that can be benefical to their ownlives. Most people just buy things that they dont even need, their jus shopping for fun, trying to catch deals on items that are only going to stimulate their happiness, until something of that same product comes out later just with one new feature.
Monday, December 22, 2008
Trample wal-mart employee
What I think about this situation that accured at Wal-Mart with the worker getting trampled, is carzy. People become savages when they find out that there is a big sale on things at any store. I understand that they want things a little cheaper but to run over a worker and trample enough to kill him, I think that is wrong. There were 2,000 people waiting since 7 in the morning to get into the store, and out of the 2,000 people that were there none of them had the ordasity to attempt to pick him up of the floor. This shows that at times people only think about themselves and careless for others, and when their mind is set on one thing that more important to them they don't care about anything else that happens around them. I also think they are selfish becasue when one of the employes told them that someone is dying they have to leave the store, one of the customers respond and said no I been here since 7 in the morning. I that shows how peole care more for their needs than someone dying in the store.
Monday, December 1, 2008
new / recent thoughts in class 12/1/08
-Why are customers such Assholes
Because they are bossed around throughout their whole life and it makes them feel more powerful
If you say a customer is wrong , their memory becomes less reliable
if you saytheir wrong and they say your right, then they are admitting that they are Assholes
Most People can be very confused on the difference of being highly stimilated with being happy
Because they are bossed around throughout their whole life and it makes them feel more powerful
If you say a customer is wrong , their memory becomes less reliable
if you saytheir wrong and they say your right, then they are admitting that they are Assholes
Most People can be very confused on the difference of being highly stimilated with being happy
Sunday, November 30, 2008
How to live a Good and Meaningful life Essay pt.2
What does living a good and meaningful life mean? Many people strive everyday by doing meaningful things to exceed in this goal, while others have a big misconception about what a meaningful life is. Many people get their perspectives from either their own experiences or what we see or are told by others. these ideas come from the larger pop culture, larger culture can be considered a combination of three major sources - corporate/commodified culture, folk culture, and big subcultures.
Our society has been affected or brain washed by what we see or hear from the pop culture. The marginal messages are things we rarely see shown by the pop culture. The dominant messages are things you always see commonly, almost seen as if they are enforcing one idea on society. The media tells us the things we need in life in order for us to be happy by making false meanings of things that dont really matter to our life. Most common pop culture messages we see are people must look good, wear nice clothes, have a big house, alot of money, and stay physically fit. These are just some of the corporate messages that can be found or as we call it Dominant messages.
Looking at several magazines to see what corporate messages are presented throughout different magazines, i wanted to see if exactly i could connect different messages. Ironically both magazines I looked at were incorporating the same message and also trying to presuade their audience / readers to buy or spend money. The first magazine is Titled- Oklist - Spotlight on the Arts (Fall Issue). I came to the conclusion of their pop cultures message was to influence others to buy expensive books / novels by giving brief analysis of several books that may or may not attract a great amount buyers. Although the corporate message is asking the society to spend money, the outcome of spending money will help or enhance our intellengence as well as reading levels. the second magazine i looked at was Titled - Bazzar. Nov 2008 issue, their overall pop culture message was to live a good and meaningful life you must require materialistic things in order to feel good about yourself as well as look good. From both magazines we see how pop culture is influencing the society to spend more money on useless self objects that would supposedly help us have a good and meaningful life. The products they are selling arent things that will help our society grow or expand, but things that are truly effecting our culture and bringing us down. The United States are viewed as having the most cusomers in the world, meaning several people are spending money on things that might not even importance to their life, in other words their just spending money to spend money. Several individuals fail to realize that the corporate media doesn't try to stop or help our society, but more of enforcing these messages on us. they sell us products to add an distraction to our life to stimulate our happiness, so we can forget about the miserable life we are truly living.
The "marginal messages of commodified culture" are those messages sold to us by advertisements, movies, tv, music videos, books, magazines, etc that define the good and meaningful life in a way which is unusual. These "marginal messages" expand the range of visions of a good and meaningful life both by offering new visions and also by (to some degree) contradicting the dominant corporate messages on the good and meaningful life. Marginal messages can be seen through movies, such as Foxfire, where roles of males and females are switched. The switching of roles is not as common as it may seem and sometimes the message the movie sends to the public is not as accepted by society as the main message corporate culture sends out. For example a scene from Foxfire is when there is a nude guy being photographed by a girl. In corproate culture you do not see the roles of males and females often switching. It has become part of our culture as Americans to believe that the man is stronger and the woman is weaker, the man is in control and the woman is helpless. But marginal messages often are about breaking this stereotype between men and women and giving women more power and showing that women can be a bit more masculine.
Our society has been affected or brain washed by what we see or hear from the pop culture. The marginal messages are things we rarely see shown by the pop culture. The dominant messages are things you always see commonly, almost seen as if they are enforcing one idea on society. The media tells us the things we need in life in order for us to be happy by making false meanings of things that dont really matter to our life. Most common pop culture messages we see are people must look good, wear nice clothes, have a big house, alot of money, and stay physically fit. These are just some of the corporate messages that can be found or as we call it Dominant messages.
Looking at several magazines to see what corporate messages are presented throughout different magazines, i wanted to see if exactly i could connect different messages. Ironically both magazines I looked at were incorporating the same message and also trying to presuade their audience / readers to buy or spend money. The first magazine is Titled- Oklist - Spotlight on the Arts (Fall Issue). I came to the conclusion of their pop cultures message was to influence others to buy expensive books / novels by giving brief analysis of several books that may or may not attract a great amount buyers. Although the corporate message is asking the society to spend money, the outcome of spending money will help or enhance our intellengence as well as reading levels. the second magazine i looked at was Titled - Bazzar. Nov 2008 issue, their overall pop culture message was to live a good and meaningful life you must require materialistic things in order to feel good about yourself as well as look good. From both magazines we see how pop culture is influencing the society to spend more money on useless self objects that would supposedly help us have a good and meaningful life. The products they are selling arent things that will help our society grow or expand, but things that are truly effecting our culture and bringing us down. The United States are viewed as having the most cusomers in the world, meaning several people are spending money on things that might not even importance to their life, in other words their just spending money to spend money. Several individuals fail to realize that the corporate media doesn't try to stop or help our society, but more of enforcing these messages on us. they sell us products to add an distraction to our life to stimulate our happiness, so we can forget about the miserable life we are truly living.
The "marginal messages of commodified culture" are those messages sold to us by advertisements, movies, tv, music videos, books, magazines, etc that define the good and meaningful life in a way which is unusual. These "marginal messages" expand the range of visions of a good and meaningful life both by offering new visions and also by (to some degree) contradicting the dominant corporate messages on the good and meaningful life. Marginal messages can be seen through movies, such as Foxfire, where roles of males and females are switched. The switching of roles is not as common as it may seem and sometimes the message the movie sends to the public is not as accepted by society as the main message corporate culture sends out. For example a scene from Foxfire is when there is a nude guy being photographed by a girl. In corproate culture you do not see the roles of males and females often switching. It has become part of our culture as Americans to believe that the man is stronger and the woman is weaker, the man is in control and the woman is helpless. But marginal messages often are about breaking this stereotype between men and women and giving women more power and showing that women can be a bit more masculine.
Monday, November 17, 2008
Corporate Messages
key points
Corporate Message- Doesn't show god, then they dont want to think about god
- something is there without, fully expressing the deeper meaning
- Ex. telephone calls (people leaves messages, and when the other
doesn't call back, they feel neglected allow the other hasnt truly
done anything wrong
Corporate Message- Doesn't show god, then they dont want to think about god
- something is there without, fully expressing the deeper meaning
- Ex. telephone calls (people leaves messages, and when the other
doesn't call back, they feel neglected allow the other hasnt truly
done anything wrong
Thursday, November 6, 2008
Election 08 - Barack For President
Chris Campbell
D-4
Election thoughts
I feel as if many people are overlooking the point that Barack Obama is black. I feel that its way past the point that Barack Obama is black and that he was elected president. Barack obama being black has nothing to do with the fact that he was elected president in my eyes, I feel that he was elected because he is an intelligent man that is bringing new ideas to help support the united states citizens, and help make some what of a change. As far as future views, I feel that many people will change on Obama because I see it as many people are going to be looking for a drastic change soon, not realizing that he only has four years of term as president, and if that long he will be beginning his first term in January of 09. As far as Barack Obama being a “Black President” then he has made history, but I think the real history will be made when he begins the process of bringing the United States back on its feet and back to the way things used to be.
In many of Baracks speeches he continues to mention the word “change”. Change is going to come reguardless, but it’s the fact that if its going to be a good or bad change. Obama mentioned several things that he would like to change, but I wonder how people will start to look at him if he isn’t able to make the changes he promised. Will people begin to turn their backs on him? Will people start to loss faith in him?
Barack Hussein Obama is the 44th president of the United States of America. As a supporter of Obama, personally I was very excited that he won the presidential race. While watching the news, there were a variety of different reactions. Obama supporters were excited, and McCain supporters were booing Obama because they did not believe he should have won. This shows although Barack has won the race, there is still a percentage of people in the world who see him as a bad representative for America, they also view him as a terrorist, and a horrible threat to Americans. Many people believe that just because Obama has won the election, that Americas issues will now disappear...but the truth is they wont. Being that America is going through one of its worst financial crisis, Obama will not be able to resolve all of the issues that we face as a country. People expect so much from Barack, that when he isn’t able to turn everyone’s life around, he than will be looked at as another president who promised Americans a better life, but didn’t live up to his promises. This will serve as a good chance for republicans to say that America made a big mistake, and should have voted for McCain, although that would not have been the right answer to the problem. This will also make democrats look as if they don’t have much control over political and social issues. Overall Obama will have a lot of pressure on him as the new president, and that pressure will come from a variety of people in various situations.
D-4
Election thoughts
I feel as if many people are overlooking the point that Barack Obama is black. I feel that its way past the point that Barack Obama is black and that he was elected president. Barack obama being black has nothing to do with the fact that he was elected president in my eyes, I feel that he was elected because he is an intelligent man that is bringing new ideas to help support the united states citizens, and help make some what of a change. As far as future views, I feel that many people will change on Obama because I see it as many people are going to be looking for a drastic change soon, not realizing that he only has four years of term as president, and if that long he will be beginning his first term in January of 09. As far as Barack Obama being a “Black President” then he has made history, but I think the real history will be made when he begins the process of bringing the United States back on its feet and back to the way things used to be.
In many of Baracks speeches he continues to mention the word “change”. Change is going to come reguardless, but it’s the fact that if its going to be a good or bad change. Obama mentioned several things that he would like to change, but I wonder how people will start to look at him if he isn’t able to make the changes he promised. Will people begin to turn their backs on him? Will people start to loss faith in him?
Barack Hussein Obama is the 44th president of the United States of America. As a supporter of Obama, personally I was very excited that he won the presidential race. While watching the news, there were a variety of different reactions. Obama supporters were excited, and McCain supporters were booing Obama because they did not believe he should have won. This shows although Barack has won the race, there is still a percentage of people in the world who see him as a bad representative for America, they also view him as a terrorist, and a horrible threat to Americans. Many people believe that just because Obama has won the election, that Americas issues will now disappear...but the truth is they wont. Being that America is going through one of its worst financial crisis, Obama will not be able to resolve all of the issues that we face as a country. People expect so much from Barack, that when he isn’t able to turn everyone’s life around, he than will be looked at as another president who promised Americans a better life, but didn’t live up to his promises. This will serve as a good chance for republicans to say that America made a big mistake, and should have voted for McCain, although that would not have been the right answer to the problem. This will also make democrats look as if they don’t have much control over political and social issues. Overall Obama will have a lot of pressure on him as the new president, and that pressure will come from a variety of people in various situations.
Tuesday, October 28, 2008
How to live a Good and Meaningful life Essay pt.1
What does living a good and meaningful life mean? Many people strive everyday by doing meaningful things to exceed in this goal, while others have a big misconception about what a meaningful life is. Many people get their perspectives from either their own experiences or what we see or are told by others. these ideas come from the larger pop culture, larger culture can be considered a combination of three major sources - corporate/commodified culture, folk culture, and big subcultures.
outline
-My ideas about a good & meaningful life 1
-Other peoples ideas about a good and meaningful life 1
-my ideas about others perspectives
-Defining corporate/commodified culture and raising the question of messages it sends (dominant, marginal, prohibited)
outline
-My ideas about a good & meaningful life 1
-Other peoples ideas about a good and meaningful life 1
-my ideas about others perspectives
-Defining corporate/commodified culture and raising the question of messages it sends (dominant, marginal, prohibited)
Tuesday, October 21, 2008
Pop Culture Comments
"THE GOOD LIFE" - Ian G.
Ian, i agree with you because this song repeats several times "welcome to the good life" and and other things about spending money, but he makes the comment of "good things in life come FREE" that maybe true but the things he expresses in this video will all know are not free.
"Lip Gloss" - Dylan
Dylan, I agree with your message you found in "Lip Gloss". this is a great example of pop culture because it is showing how someone needs a certain thing in order to feel a certain way. Way does she need Lip Gloss or any other materialistic thing in order to make herself feel good. this shows that she may have some sort of lack of confidence.
"All You Need Is Love -
Ian, i agree with you because this song repeats several times "welcome to the good life" and and other things about spending money, but he makes the comment of "good things in life come FREE" that maybe true but the things he expresses in this video will all know are not free.
"Lip Gloss" - Dylan
Dylan, I agree with your message you found in "Lip Gloss". this is a great example of pop culture because it is showing how someone needs a certain thing in order to feel a certain way. Way does she need Lip Gloss or any other materialistic thing in order to make herself feel good. this shows that she may have some sort of lack of confidence.
"All You Need Is Love -
Pop Culture - The Good Life
1. What is the song basically saying about how to live a good life? Paraphrase the main idea.
the song is basically saying that in order to have a good life is you need to have money, be famous, and "ENJOY" your life.
2. What lyrics particularly speak to that perspective? Use quotes as evidence.
"Welcome to the Good life"
"go ahead switch that style up and if they hate then let 'em hate and watch the money pile up"
"whether you broke or rich you gotta get the biz havin moneys the everything that having it is"
"they say the best things in life are free"
"i always had a passion for flashin before i had it i close my eyes and image, the good life"
3. How do the video images support, re-orient, or challenge the dominant theme of the lyrics? Analyze.
During the quote "the best things in life are free", shows Kanye splurging with money, smiling throughout the video, meaning having the money is what is making hime truley happy.
4. What else do you notice that's interesting? Look for internal contradictions, aspects of the message that resonate with other messages from the pop culture, points that connect to your own perspective, etc?
in good life Kanye shows that you need money and lots of cars, but then he contradicts himself by saying the best things in life are free because then he throws diamonds to the floor. So in general hes saying that you need everything he has to have a good life.
the song is basically saying that in order to have a good life is you need to have money, be famous, and "ENJOY" your life.
2. What lyrics particularly speak to that perspective? Use quotes as evidence.
"Welcome to the Good life"
"go ahead switch that style up and if they hate then let 'em hate and watch the money pile up"
"whether you broke or rich you gotta get the biz havin moneys the everything that having it is"
"they say the best things in life are free"
"i always had a passion for flashin before i had it i close my eyes and image, the good life"
3. How do the video images support, re-orient, or challenge the dominant theme of the lyrics? Analyze.
During the quote "the best things in life are free", shows Kanye splurging with money, smiling throughout the video, meaning having the money is what is making hime truley happy.
4. What else do you notice that's interesting? Look for internal contradictions, aspects of the message that resonate with other messages from the pop culture, points that connect to your own perspective, etc?
in good life Kanye shows that you need money and lots of cars, but then he contradicts himself by saying the best things in life are free because then he throws diamonds to the floor. So in general hes saying that you need everything he has to have a good life.
Monday, October 13, 2008
Understanding Others Around US Revised
Understanding Others Around US
For the past couple of weeks we have been trying to get a general understanding of what is meaning and is our own lives meaningful to us and or others. After going through this process we tired to figure out exactly how others felt about this same situation and see what their thoughts were. First we started out just asking random individuals on the street two questions, what is wisdom? And what are the most meaningful things in their lives? Several people gave regular standard answers, while others gave insightful definitions and meaningful aspects of their lives. Many people didn’t want to participate; several avoided the entire question which was kind of interesting as well.
When approaching individuals about is there lives meaningful and what are the most meaningful things in your life, many gave standard responses while others gave insightful responses. When I asked an elderly man sitting on a park bench what are the most meaningful things in your life he told me “Women, Wine and Song.” At first I wasn’t to sure what exactly he meant, but when we did research on that, he actually had just told us a title of a song. So I looked at that statement as if that might be one of his most remember able song or he was just clowning us. I felt that him telling us this that the song had no real meaning to him. When I asked another individual handing out newspapers what is the most meaningful thing in you life he told me “Art”. I then ask why, he says “because I’m an artist and I love to draw.” This changed my whole perspective about the man because I thought he was and ordinary man but as he describe his art he changed the way I felt towards him. When first encountering the man, it seemed as if he would have had a normal boring thing to say, but when he said art, it makes you wonder how the man feels inside. Art is usually used to express ones feelings that cant be put into words
People often said "Family" was one of the most meaningful things in their life. When I asked one lady walking down the street on a scale of 1 - 10 how meaningful is her family she said "6", when i asked why 6 she said jokingly "sometimes they can be a pain". I thought that was a general answer of why anyone would say their family is meaningful. If she would have gave a more insightful response to why her family was meaningful, we would be able to get a better understanding of their relationship and how she feels toward her family. When i asked this homeless looking guy the same question he asked me " to me or to him" I replied "to you" and then he says a "10". this guy didn't fully explain why he felt this way, but from the look on his face i could tell he was serious. He wanted to get the point across that he really cared for his family even without giving any type of examples.
I feel this survey or experiment about asking people what is meaningful and is their lives meaningful doesn't really explain anything. Each person in this world can feel differently or have different ideas and thats because of the different expierence everyones encounters. Nobody can truley tell anyone how meaningful their life is because the the things they might use to explain why their life is meaningful, may not be as meaningful to others. therefore different prospectives and judgments effect how to truly identify how meaningful ones life is.
For the past couple of weeks we have been trying to get a general understanding of what is meaning and is our own lives meaningful to us and or others. After going through this process we tired to figure out exactly how others felt about this same situation and see what their thoughts were. First we started out just asking random individuals on the street two questions, what is wisdom? And what are the most meaningful things in their lives? Several people gave regular standard answers, while others gave insightful definitions and meaningful aspects of their lives. Many people didn’t want to participate; several avoided the entire question which was kind of interesting as well.
When approaching individuals about is there lives meaningful and what are the most meaningful things in your life, many gave standard responses while others gave insightful responses. When I asked an elderly man sitting on a park bench what are the most meaningful things in your life he told me “Women, Wine and Song.” At first I wasn’t to sure what exactly he meant, but when we did research on that, he actually had just told us a title of a song. So I looked at that statement as if that might be one of his most remember able song or he was just clowning us. I felt that him telling us this that the song had no real meaning to him. When I asked another individual handing out newspapers what is the most meaningful thing in you life he told me “Art”. I then ask why, he says “because I’m an artist and I love to draw.” This changed my whole perspective about the man because I thought he was and ordinary man but as he describe his art he changed the way I felt towards him. When first encountering the man, it seemed as if he would have had a normal boring thing to say, but when he said art, it makes you wonder how the man feels inside. Art is usually used to express ones feelings that cant be put into words
People often said "Family" was one of the most meaningful things in their life. When I asked one lady walking down the street on a scale of 1 - 10 how meaningful is her family she said "6", when i asked why 6 she said jokingly "sometimes they can be a pain". I thought that was a general answer of why anyone would say their family is meaningful. If she would have gave a more insightful response to why her family was meaningful, we would be able to get a better understanding of their relationship and how she feels toward her family. When i asked this homeless looking guy the same question he asked me " to me or to him" I replied "to you" and then he says a "10". this guy didn't fully explain why he felt this way, but from the look on his face i could tell he was serious. He wanted to get the point across that he really cared for his family even without giving any type of examples.
I feel this survey or experiment about asking people what is meaningful and is their lives meaningful doesn't really explain anything. Each person in this world can feel differently or have different ideas and thats because of the different expierence everyones encounters. Nobody can truley tell anyone how meaningful their life is because the the things they might use to explain why their life is meaningful, may not be as meaningful to others. therefore different prospectives and judgments effect how to truly identify how meaningful ones life is.
Thursday, October 9, 2008
understanding others around us
Chris Campbell October 9, 2008
D-4
Understanding Others Around US
For the past couple of weeks we have been trying to get a general understanding of what is meaning and is our own lives meaningful to us and or others. After going through this process we tired to figure out exactly how others felt about this same situation and see what their thoughts were. First we started out just asking random individuals on the street two questions, what is wisdom? And what are the most meaningful things in their lives? Several people gave regular standard answers, while others gave insightful definitions and meaningful aspects of their lives. Many people didn’t want to participate; several avoided the entire question which was kind of interesting as well.
When approaching individuals about is there lives meaningful and what are the most meaningful things in your life, many gave standard responses while others gave insightful responses. When I asked an elderly man sitting on a park bench what are the most meaningful things in your life he told me “Women, Wine and Song.” At first I wasn’t to sure what exactly he meant, but when we did research on that, he actually had just told as a title of a song. So I looked at that statement as if that might be one of his most remember able song or he was just clowning us. When I asked another individual handing out newspapers what is the most meaningful thing in you life he told me “Art”. I then ask why, he says “because I’m an artist and I love to draw.” This changed my whole perspective about the man because I thought he was and ordinary man but as he describe his art he changed the way I felt towards him.
People often said "Family" was one of the most meaningful things in their life. When I asked one lady walkin down the street on a scale of 1 - 10 how meaningful is her family she said "6", when i asked why 8 she said jokingly "sometimes they can be a pain". I thought that was a general answer of why anyone would say their family is meaningful. When i asked this homeless looking guy the same question he asked me " to me or to him" I replied "to you" and then he says a "10". this guy didn't fully explain why he felt this way, but from the look on his face i could tell he was serious.
D-4
Understanding Others Around US
For the past couple of weeks we have been trying to get a general understanding of what is meaning and is our own lives meaningful to us and or others. After going through this process we tired to figure out exactly how others felt about this same situation and see what their thoughts were. First we started out just asking random individuals on the street two questions, what is wisdom? And what are the most meaningful things in their lives? Several people gave regular standard answers, while others gave insightful definitions and meaningful aspects of their lives. Many people didn’t want to participate; several avoided the entire question which was kind of interesting as well.
When approaching individuals about is there lives meaningful and what are the most meaningful things in your life, many gave standard responses while others gave insightful responses. When I asked an elderly man sitting on a park bench what are the most meaningful things in your life he told me “Women, Wine and Song.” At first I wasn’t to sure what exactly he meant, but when we did research on that, he actually had just told as a title of a song. So I looked at that statement as if that might be one of his most remember able song or he was just clowning us. When I asked another individual handing out newspapers what is the most meaningful thing in you life he told me “Art”. I then ask why, he says “because I’m an artist and I love to draw.” This changed my whole perspective about the man because I thought he was and ordinary man but as he describe his art he changed the way I felt towards him.
People often said "Family" was one of the most meaningful things in their life. When I asked one lady walkin down the street on a scale of 1 - 10 how meaningful is her family she said "6", when i asked why 8 she said jokingly "sometimes they can be a pain". I thought that was a general answer of why anyone would say their family is meaningful. When i asked this homeless looking guy the same question he asked me " to me or to him" I replied "to you" and then he says a "10". this guy didn't fully explain why he felt this way, but from the look on his face i could tell he was serious.
Monday, September 15, 2008
Thursday, June 5, 2008
Christopher Campbell
6/6/08
Starr 4
Revelation
Concepts: What is Revelation? What is a trope / revelation trope?
A revelation is something that tries or attempts to reveal the unknown. It is also a disclosure or enlightening idea, or realization that helps you better understand the world. Within a revelation, there is a prophet and the revealer. We find ourselves watching the same movies or reading the same story lines over and over again which is known as a trope. A revelation Trope is a familiar thing you see / certain element used over and over again or something that occurs more than once in different things. Some crucial elements of the revelation trope are things that might be life changing, a revealer and prophet, crisis, something big happen to the revealer. Some key elements to a revelation trope are the prophet and the revealer try to share a message that connects the dots in a new way but the new message offers a vision of a redeemed world, but there is opposition to the message and then drama occurs. The revelation only works if the prophet is ready to take upon their responsibilities and take action for the good of others. It is the prophets choice whether or not they Each revelation or message that is being presented to the prophet might not be a world changing factor, but it can be either self life changing or a small percentage of the real world’s situation that can later on make a difference. In a revelation trope the revealer and prophet seems to be physically opposite or distinct from one another. Also there are certain scenes or descriptions from books and movies that can be seen in revelation tropes.
Descriptive
Tropes can play a major role in either a book or movie because the audience can identify the reoccurring scene and can connect it to other things to try and reveal its meaning. Elements of a revelation trope consist of the following: ignorant masses, an unacceptable situation, a prophet or revealer trying to share a message that presents things in a new way and that offers a new redeemed world, opposition to the messenger, and then drama occurs. A trope can be seen within movies, plays, and literature.
One example of a revelation trope is a famous childhood fable called “The Emperors New Clothes” by Han Christian Anderson. Two scoundrels accomplish to play a trick on the emperor in believing that they were tailors and have developed this way of making clothes that are invisible and that those who are too stupid and incompetent to appreciate its value. When the scoundrels presented the new clothing to the Emperor, he is too afraid of being viewed as stupid that he pretends that there is really a garment. Others within the kingdom also pretended that there was a garment because they were also afraid of being seen as stupid. The people of the town heard about this garment being made and were anxious for the Emperor to show them. The Emperor agreed to show them, even though when he looked in the mirror, he only saw himself naked, not a beautiful suit. As the Emperor paraded down the main square, the people all pretended to see something, in fear of letting their Emperor know they were too stupid. However, a child came forward and said “The Emperor is naked,” and soon everyone else in the crowd realized it was true. The Emperor knew they were right, but refused to admit to it, so he simply stood there on his carriage continuing on with the parade. The scoundrels in this story are the messengers, as they are trying to prove how vain the Emperor truly is. The unstable situation is the fact that the people are so ignorant and that the Emperor is so concerned with his clothes and how he looks. The ignorant masses are so afraid of being seen as something, that they try to ignore the truth, thus there is opposition to the message. In the end, the drama that occurs is the uproar of the crowd, and the Emperor as he continues to stand there naked before them.
Another prime example of the revelation trope is the movie The Matrix. In the matrix, Morpheus makes Neo realize that the world as he knows it is not reality and just a lie. It is simply fragments of a computer program. Morpheus brings Neo into what is the real world, believing that Neo is “the one”. While Morpheus is trying to convince Neo of the real world, the machines which are running this real world attempt to stop him from getting his message across. In this movie, Morpheus can be seen as the prophet. The message which he is attempting to reveal is that the world as Neo knows it is fake. The ignorant masses is almost the entirety of the human race, as they are simply living in a computer program with no idea that what they are living is not reality. The opposition occurs when the machines begin to fight against Neo. In order for Neo to realize that he “the one” he must first accept the message being presented by Morpheus, in which later on he does.
As seen in many other revelation tropes, the revealer can also be the prophet as well because they are usually presenting a message in which others can not see or are too afraid to realize what is really going on. They are usually the ones who are more out spoken and have stronger physical apparel then many others.
In An enemy of the People, there seems to be two types of ignorant masses which is a reoccurring element in a variety of sources. The first group is where people fully deny the revelation and will go to violent extremes to stop it (The general public/compact majority).The second group is people who are affected mentally by the revelation, but do not implemented the revelation in their lives(Petra, mr.stockmann's wife).
Compare/Contrast
In many situations, the prophet can find themselves having to sacrifice their own lives in order to save their disciples life. In this situation, this makes the disciple either realizes they are truly the chosen one or allow them to over come their fears and take control of their inner powers or force. In the movie Star Wars, in the scene when Obi-Wan, Luke, Han Solo, Chewbacca, R2-D2 and C3PO are aboard the enemies ship, trying to make their way back to their own ship, Obi-Wan makes it possible for them to return to their ship by beginning a fight. Obi-Wan begins a light saber duel between Darth Vader, which allows the rest of them to get back to their ship safely. Obi-Wan then allows Darth Vader to kill him as he warns him that he will become “more powerful than you can possibly imagine.” Obi-Wan sacrificed himself in order to help the rest of them make their way back to the ship. In The Matrix, Morpheus, who is the prophet and is teaching Neo, the disciple, tells the others to escape while he distracts the Agents by fighting them. He knows he will not be able to save himself, for the Agents are way too strong for him to fight alone. Despite knowing that he will most likely die, he chooses it is more important to let Neo get away then to save himself. Both sacrifices, by both Morpheus and Obi-Wan, became a much more impacting factor on the life of the disciple. When Morpheus allows himself to be captured by the Agents, it inspired Neo to take action. Early, Neo had been somewhat reluctant to completely take part in the Matrix. However, once they learn that Morpheus is in trouble, and has allowed himself to be captured, Neo becomes more willing to help, and he decides that he is going to return and save Morpheus from the Agents, despite how dangerous it may be. Just as Neo was inspired to rescue Morpheus, after Obi-Wan had sacrificed himself, Luke becomes more connected with the force. After the others escape and return to the Rebel Alliance, Luke agrees to join the assault team which is working to destroy the Death Star. While Luke is on his way to the center of the Death Star, it’s discovered that Darth Vader has sent out ships to destroy Luke on his way. Seconds before the Death Star is about to destroy the Rebel base, Luke hears Obi-Wans voice telling him to “use the force”. Luke then fires the shot that destroys the death star and saves the Rebel base. In both situations, it is not until something bad happens to the prophet that the disciple begins to truly take action and pursue the message they were given in the revelation. It was not until Morpheus was about to be killed, that Neo began to truly fight back in the Matrix. In Star Wars, it was not until Obi-Wan were killed, that Luke truly accepted to use the force, which is the message Obi-Wan wanted to get across. Something negative must happen to the Prophet that will then encourage the disciple to take action of the revelation on their own without the guidance of the prophet.
In the Matrix, Neo, a computer programmer, finds out that he is the chosen one to fight the agents that made the matrix. Morpheus told him that if he wanted to know and observe the matrix himself he would have to swallow the red pill. He told Neo that he must choose if he wants to eat the red pill or blue pill. He decides to pick the red pill, which entirely changes the way he looks at life. Once he takes the red pill, he’s in a red liquid pod where the machines unplug him and pushes him down a tube into a stream of water. This symbolizes his rebirth into the real world. This rebirth is also seen in the Feed where after the talk Titus had with Violet's dad, Titus went to the drop tube to his house. The drop tube signify rebirth. In these books, when the person is reborn, he/she does not fully understand the revelation. The person is an infant mentally because he/she is still ignorant and is only introduced to part of the revelation. There is a very long process that people need to undergo in order to come to a deep understanding of the revelation. This infant goes through many obstacles that may affect the way he/she may perceive the revelation. This process of rebirth into adulthood is seen in our lives and in other novels.
In the novel Feed, all the teens have feeds incorporated into their brains. The government has control over their minds by transmitting advertisements and giving them what they desire. The teens are taught in school how to use the feeds to buy items. However, in the book Violet is the only girl who resists the feed. She does this by not buying any items that are exposed to her. Because she doesn’t buy any items, her feed malfunctions to the point where she dies. Titus learns an important message from Violet that that the people are taken over by the government through the implementation of feeds into peoples brains. People are brainwashed by advertisements which intrigue them to buy clothes and accessories. As a result, people don't think for themselves and do not realize that the civilization crashing.- Stephanie Chiu. Violet expressed this message in a conversation she had with Titus. She told him that she was outraged that people who get feeds at an early age are “ ignorant self-centered idiots” because they are brainwashed by the government to value the lies. Titus at this point felt degraded because he did get his feed at an early age. Titus realizes this message when Violet will die in minutes. He tells her all the news he find out about the civilization and proves to Violet that he understands the truth about civilization. Feed is similar to An Enemy of the people because the ignorant masses understand the message to some degree when something tragic happens to the prophet. In Feed, when Violet dies, Titus gets the message. Similarly, in an Enemy of the people Mr. Stockmann’s wife only supports him when the whole town has turned their back on him.
In the movie “Foxfire” the revelation message is that one needs to stand up for themselves and others. The teacher was sexually harassing one of the students and Angelina’s character “Legs” gets a group of the female students and the beat up the teacher. The message that the students send to the teacher is that if you hurt one of us you hurt all of us. The way Legs stood up for the several other girls in the school is just the same way as Neo had to stand up to the evil agents in order to save Morpheus. Both Neo and Legs where in fact out powered because Legs is just a teenager and Neo feels as if he is just a normal human, they both find the faith and courage within them in order to stand up to what is most important to them, and that affect others lives as well.
In The Allegory of The Cave Socrates creates an unacceptable situation in which there are humans living in an underground cave, inwhich they have been living there since childhood and have their legs and necks chained so they cannot move, and can only see images that are being projected by a fire and a built wall that allows the images that are being projected to be seen.
Analysis/ Theory
While looking at many different Revelations / revelation tropes there are many new important aspects that are being presented to the audience that is more then seen by the naked eye. One theory I believe or came up with is “the disciple seems to always be denying that they are the one, but they are never against the actual message that is being presented to them by the prophet”. Throughout the movies “Star Wars” and “The Matrix”, both Neo and Luke have the feeling that they might be the chosen ones but they are both too afraid to take the responsibility. They must need someone to convince them and give them guidance that they have the powers and force and must figure out how to accept it.
Also I began to realize that the prophet is always much stronger than the disciple.Also in many situations of the revelation trope, there is a trader involved that is trying to stop the prophet from getting his message across to his disciple. This is usually known as the Judaist trope, which is the trader / betrays the good side and prefers the bad side. In Star wars, Dark Vader was the prophet until he became evil leader and tries to stop Luke from accepting the powers and defeating him. While in The Matrix, the trader felt as if his revelation was not the same as what he has been told by Morpheus and then gives up and tries to kill Neo and allows Morpheus to get killed.
In The Allegory of The Cave Socrates creates an unacceptable situation in which there are humans living in an underground cave, inwhich they have been living there since childhood and have their legs and necks chained so they cannot move, and can only see images that are being projected by a fire and a built wall that allows the images that are being projected to be seen. Here the fire projects the images that these prisoners can only see, and i feel as if this is a way to interpret as our brains giving off missleading images of what we want to see only. for these viticms or prisoners the cave and the shadow puppets is their real world or reality. What they see from the shadows is what they have been seeing or experiencing since childhood, this is how they believe the world truly is nothing beyhond what they know. This is basically saying these people are blind from the real society and cant see the truth as well as their are people today to ignorant to believe anything else but they know is right an accept nothing more. Connecting this to the real world movie theather projects images in which we as viewers tend to think are real and get distracted or misleaded about what is truly going on like not being able to find the message that is really being sent out.
In The Song " The Thieves of the Night" by Black Star i feel the message that is being presented is that we as people are not living our lives free and that we are too afraid to accept the truth about life so we are hiding from it. A line that Mos Def Had said in this song that stood out to me was "Still livin like MEntal Slaves" i feel this line means that we are allowing the media and other things to determine or alternate our true feelings and opinions. Also that we cannot think for oursleves and we allow the government to make decisions for us. Another line that stood out to me the most was "the life is temporary but the soul is eternal- Mos Def". i feel this line means that although the physical parts of our body are gone once we die, the soul our essense still lives on and continues its own journey. Also because we are hiding in the night afraid of life, this could also mean that because many are afraid to die, we need to understandstand that we still live on just not here on earth with others.
Towards the end of class we were able to create a new Redefinement of Revelation/tropes. we came up with the follwing:
ignornant folks
are in an unacceptable situation
when a prophet
shares a message
or redefinition
& redemption
despite opposition
and betrayal
people must choose status quo or revelation
and lives are changed as a result.
These were the major points or keys of the revelation but as i look on i realized their were other key points that could have been added to the list. I noticed that in many revelation stories the prophet as once or already encountered and had experienced the unacceptable situation. also the diciple needs to have or be conviced that they are the actual chosen one or have the feeling but are to scared to accept.
CONCLUSION
"There are thousands,or maybe millions of revelation messages out there. They're in books, movies, songs even in our daily life. That one thing that you thought was wrong but tried not to think twice about it because no one wants to be an outcast. People have all this access to so many messages basically screaming at them to wake up and fight the power, the "norm" and make a change. But most just sit by and do nothing, because they are afraid to take action for themselves.Since people really do lead our lives mostly like a heard of sheep, we need a leader. And while our "profits" and "renegades" keep getting killed and thrown in jail we really won't have one. - Another reason why no one has woken up is because our generation has lost its drive to try to make a change." Lilly Torres. Something that could happen is that we would have not one, but many people leading so there would be a group effort and not so much focus on one person to be the "prophet." this can be connected back to Andy's speech in class about engines, if one person or several people take action on one little situation or problem, this might not exactly stop the entire problem but it might slow down the progress the situation. Revelations and messages can be found at anytime or point of your life but the question is are you ready to accept the challenge.
Worked Cited
Derrick Jensen. The Culture of Make Believe. Vermont: Chelsea Green Publishing Company, 2004.
Foxfire. Dir. Annette Haywood-Carter. Perf. Hedy Burress and Angelina Jolie. Samuel Goldwyn Company, 1996.
Hans Christian Anderson. Emperor’s New Clothes. 2008.
Henrik Ibsen. Enemy of the People. New York: Oxford University Press Inc., 1999.
The Matrix. Dir. Andy and Larry Wachowski. Perf. Keanu Reeves, Laurence Fishburne, Carrie- Anne Moss, and Joe Pantoliano. Warner Bros, 1999.
The Allegory of the Cave (the Republic, Book VII) -Plato- 360 B.C.E- Excerpt 3
Thieves in the Night- Black Star- Rawkus Records. Rel.6/4/2002
6/6/08
Starr 4
Revelation
Concepts: What is Revelation? What is a trope / revelation trope?
A revelation is something that tries or attempts to reveal the unknown. It is also a disclosure or enlightening idea, or realization that helps you better understand the world. Within a revelation, there is a prophet and the revealer. We find ourselves watching the same movies or reading the same story lines over and over again which is known as a trope. A revelation Trope is a familiar thing you see / certain element used over and over again or something that occurs more than once in different things. Some crucial elements of the revelation trope are things that might be life changing, a revealer and prophet, crisis, something big happen to the revealer. Some key elements to a revelation trope are the prophet and the revealer try to share a message that connects the dots in a new way but the new message offers a vision of a redeemed world, but there is opposition to the message and then drama occurs. The revelation only works if the prophet is ready to take upon their responsibilities and take action for the good of others. It is the prophets choice whether or not they Each revelation or message that is being presented to the prophet might not be a world changing factor, but it can be either self life changing or a small percentage of the real world’s situation that can later on make a difference. In a revelation trope the revealer and prophet seems to be physically opposite or distinct from one another. Also there are certain scenes or descriptions from books and movies that can be seen in revelation tropes.
Descriptive
Tropes can play a major role in either a book or movie because the audience can identify the reoccurring scene and can connect it to other things to try and reveal its meaning. Elements of a revelation trope consist of the following: ignorant masses, an unacceptable situation, a prophet or revealer trying to share a message that presents things in a new way and that offers a new redeemed world, opposition to the messenger, and then drama occurs. A trope can be seen within movies, plays, and literature.
One example of a revelation trope is a famous childhood fable called “The Emperors New Clothes” by Han Christian Anderson. Two scoundrels accomplish to play a trick on the emperor in believing that they were tailors and have developed this way of making clothes that are invisible and that those who are too stupid and incompetent to appreciate its value. When the scoundrels presented the new clothing to the Emperor, he is too afraid of being viewed as stupid that he pretends that there is really a garment. Others within the kingdom also pretended that there was a garment because they were also afraid of being seen as stupid. The people of the town heard about this garment being made and were anxious for the Emperor to show them. The Emperor agreed to show them, even though when he looked in the mirror, he only saw himself naked, not a beautiful suit. As the Emperor paraded down the main square, the people all pretended to see something, in fear of letting their Emperor know they were too stupid. However, a child came forward and said “The Emperor is naked,” and soon everyone else in the crowd realized it was true. The Emperor knew they were right, but refused to admit to it, so he simply stood there on his carriage continuing on with the parade. The scoundrels in this story are the messengers, as they are trying to prove how vain the Emperor truly is. The unstable situation is the fact that the people are so ignorant and that the Emperor is so concerned with his clothes and how he looks. The ignorant masses are so afraid of being seen as something, that they try to ignore the truth, thus there is opposition to the message. In the end, the drama that occurs is the uproar of the crowd, and the Emperor as he continues to stand there naked before them.
Another prime example of the revelation trope is the movie The Matrix. In the matrix, Morpheus makes Neo realize that the world as he knows it is not reality and just a lie. It is simply fragments of a computer program. Morpheus brings Neo into what is the real world, believing that Neo is “the one”. While Morpheus is trying to convince Neo of the real world, the machines which are running this real world attempt to stop him from getting his message across. In this movie, Morpheus can be seen as the prophet. The message which he is attempting to reveal is that the world as Neo knows it is fake. The ignorant masses is almost the entirety of the human race, as they are simply living in a computer program with no idea that what they are living is not reality. The opposition occurs when the machines begin to fight against Neo. In order for Neo to realize that he “the one” he must first accept the message being presented by Morpheus, in which later on he does.
As seen in many other revelation tropes, the revealer can also be the prophet as well because they are usually presenting a message in which others can not see or are too afraid to realize what is really going on. They are usually the ones who are more out spoken and have stronger physical apparel then many others.
In An enemy of the People, there seems to be two types of ignorant masses which is a reoccurring element in a variety of sources. The first group is where people fully deny the revelation and will go to violent extremes to stop it (The general public/compact majority).The second group is people who are affected mentally by the revelation, but do not implemented the revelation in their lives(Petra, mr.stockmann's wife).
Compare/Contrast
In many situations, the prophet can find themselves having to sacrifice their own lives in order to save their disciples life. In this situation, this makes the disciple either realizes they are truly the chosen one or allow them to over come their fears and take control of their inner powers or force. In the movie Star Wars, in the scene when Obi-Wan, Luke, Han Solo, Chewbacca, R2-D2 and C3PO are aboard the enemies ship, trying to make their way back to their own ship, Obi-Wan makes it possible for them to return to their ship by beginning a fight. Obi-Wan begins a light saber duel between Darth Vader, which allows the rest of them to get back to their ship safely. Obi-Wan then allows Darth Vader to kill him as he warns him that he will become “more powerful than you can possibly imagine.” Obi-Wan sacrificed himself in order to help the rest of them make their way back to the ship. In The Matrix, Morpheus, who is the prophet and is teaching Neo, the disciple, tells the others to escape while he distracts the Agents by fighting them. He knows he will not be able to save himself, for the Agents are way too strong for him to fight alone. Despite knowing that he will most likely die, he chooses it is more important to let Neo get away then to save himself. Both sacrifices, by both Morpheus and Obi-Wan, became a much more impacting factor on the life of the disciple. When Morpheus allows himself to be captured by the Agents, it inspired Neo to take action. Early, Neo had been somewhat reluctant to completely take part in the Matrix. However, once they learn that Morpheus is in trouble, and has allowed himself to be captured, Neo becomes more willing to help, and he decides that he is going to return and save Morpheus from the Agents, despite how dangerous it may be. Just as Neo was inspired to rescue Morpheus, after Obi-Wan had sacrificed himself, Luke becomes more connected with the force. After the others escape and return to the Rebel Alliance, Luke agrees to join the assault team which is working to destroy the Death Star. While Luke is on his way to the center of the Death Star, it’s discovered that Darth Vader has sent out ships to destroy Luke on his way. Seconds before the Death Star is about to destroy the Rebel base, Luke hears Obi-Wans voice telling him to “use the force”. Luke then fires the shot that destroys the death star and saves the Rebel base. In both situations, it is not until something bad happens to the prophet that the disciple begins to truly take action and pursue the message they were given in the revelation. It was not until Morpheus was about to be killed, that Neo began to truly fight back in the Matrix. In Star Wars, it was not until Obi-Wan were killed, that Luke truly accepted to use the force, which is the message Obi-Wan wanted to get across. Something negative must happen to the Prophet that will then encourage the disciple to take action of the revelation on their own without the guidance of the prophet.
In the Matrix, Neo, a computer programmer, finds out that he is the chosen one to fight the agents that made the matrix. Morpheus told him that if he wanted to know and observe the matrix himself he would have to swallow the red pill. He told Neo that he must choose if he wants to eat the red pill or blue pill. He decides to pick the red pill, which entirely changes the way he looks at life. Once he takes the red pill, he’s in a red liquid pod where the machines unplug him and pushes him down a tube into a stream of water. This symbolizes his rebirth into the real world. This rebirth is also seen in the Feed where after the talk Titus had with Violet's dad, Titus went to the drop tube to his house. The drop tube signify rebirth. In these books, when the person is reborn, he/she does not fully understand the revelation. The person is an infant mentally because he/she is still ignorant and is only introduced to part of the revelation. There is a very long process that people need to undergo in order to come to a deep understanding of the revelation. This infant goes through many obstacles that may affect the way he/she may perceive the revelation. This process of rebirth into adulthood is seen in our lives and in other novels.
In the novel Feed, all the teens have feeds incorporated into their brains. The government has control over their minds by transmitting advertisements and giving them what they desire. The teens are taught in school how to use the feeds to buy items. However, in the book Violet is the only girl who resists the feed. She does this by not buying any items that are exposed to her. Because she doesn’t buy any items, her feed malfunctions to the point where she dies. Titus learns an important message from Violet that that the people are taken over by the government through the implementation of feeds into peoples brains. People are brainwashed by advertisements which intrigue them to buy clothes and accessories. As a result, people don't think for themselves and do not realize that the civilization crashing.- Stephanie Chiu. Violet expressed this message in a conversation she had with Titus. She told him that she was outraged that people who get feeds at an early age are “ ignorant self-centered idiots” because they are brainwashed by the government to value the lies. Titus at this point felt degraded because he did get his feed at an early age. Titus realizes this message when Violet will die in minutes. He tells her all the news he find out about the civilization and proves to Violet that he understands the truth about civilization. Feed is similar to An Enemy of the people because the ignorant masses understand the message to some degree when something tragic happens to the prophet. In Feed, when Violet dies, Titus gets the message. Similarly, in an Enemy of the people Mr. Stockmann’s wife only supports him when the whole town has turned their back on him.
In the movie “Foxfire” the revelation message is that one needs to stand up for themselves and others. The teacher was sexually harassing one of the students and Angelina’s character “Legs” gets a group of the female students and the beat up the teacher. The message that the students send to the teacher is that if you hurt one of us you hurt all of us. The way Legs stood up for the several other girls in the school is just the same way as Neo had to stand up to the evil agents in order to save Morpheus. Both Neo and Legs where in fact out powered because Legs is just a teenager and Neo feels as if he is just a normal human, they both find the faith and courage within them in order to stand up to what is most important to them, and that affect others lives as well.
In The Allegory of The Cave Socrates creates an unacceptable situation in which there are humans living in an underground cave, inwhich they have been living there since childhood and have their legs and necks chained so they cannot move, and can only see images that are being projected by a fire and a built wall that allows the images that are being projected to be seen.
Analysis/ Theory
While looking at many different Revelations / revelation tropes there are many new important aspects that are being presented to the audience that is more then seen by the naked eye. One theory I believe or came up with is “the disciple seems to always be denying that they are the one, but they are never against the actual message that is being presented to them by the prophet”. Throughout the movies “Star Wars” and “The Matrix”, both Neo and Luke have the feeling that they might be the chosen ones but they are both too afraid to take the responsibility. They must need someone to convince them and give them guidance that they have the powers and force and must figure out how to accept it.
Also I began to realize that the prophet is always much stronger than the disciple.Also in many situations of the revelation trope, there is a trader involved that is trying to stop the prophet from getting his message across to his disciple. This is usually known as the Judaist trope, which is the trader / betrays the good side and prefers the bad side. In Star wars, Dark Vader was the prophet until he became evil leader and tries to stop Luke from accepting the powers and defeating him. While in The Matrix, the trader felt as if his revelation was not the same as what he has been told by Morpheus and then gives up and tries to kill Neo and allows Morpheus to get killed.
In The Allegory of The Cave Socrates creates an unacceptable situation in which there are humans living in an underground cave, inwhich they have been living there since childhood and have their legs and necks chained so they cannot move, and can only see images that are being projected by a fire and a built wall that allows the images that are being projected to be seen. Here the fire projects the images that these prisoners can only see, and i feel as if this is a way to interpret as our brains giving off missleading images of what we want to see only. for these viticms or prisoners the cave and the shadow puppets is their real world or reality. What they see from the shadows is what they have been seeing or experiencing since childhood, this is how they believe the world truly is nothing beyhond what they know. This is basically saying these people are blind from the real society and cant see the truth as well as their are people today to ignorant to believe anything else but they know is right an accept nothing more. Connecting this to the real world movie theather projects images in which we as viewers tend to think are real and get distracted or misleaded about what is truly going on like not being able to find the message that is really being sent out.
In The Song " The Thieves of the Night" by Black Star i feel the message that is being presented is that we as people are not living our lives free and that we are too afraid to accept the truth about life so we are hiding from it. A line that Mos Def Had said in this song that stood out to me was "Still livin like MEntal Slaves" i feel this line means that we are allowing the media and other things to determine or alternate our true feelings and opinions. Also that we cannot think for oursleves and we allow the government to make decisions for us. Another line that stood out to me the most was "the life is temporary but the soul is eternal- Mos Def". i feel this line means that although the physical parts of our body are gone once we die, the soul our essense still lives on and continues its own journey. Also because we are hiding in the night afraid of life, this could also mean that because many are afraid to die, we need to understandstand that we still live on just not here on earth with others.
Towards the end of class we were able to create a new Redefinement of Revelation/tropes. we came up with the follwing:
ignornant folks
are in an unacceptable situation
when a prophet
shares a message
or redefinition
& redemption
despite opposition
and betrayal
people must choose status quo or revelation
and lives are changed as a result.
These were the major points or keys of the revelation but as i look on i realized their were other key points that could have been added to the list. I noticed that in many revelation stories the prophet as once or already encountered and had experienced the unacceptable situation. also the diciple needs to have or be conviced that they are the actual chosen one or have the feeling but are to scared to accept.
CONCLUSION
"There are thousands,or maybe millions of revelation messages out there. They're in books, movies, songs even in our daily life. That one thing that you thought was wrong but tried not to think twice about it because no one wants to be an outcast. People have all this access to so many messages basically screaming at them to wake up and fight the power, the "norm" and make a change. But most just sit by and do nothing, because they are afraid to take action for themselves.Since people really do lead our lives mostly like a heard of sheep, we need a leader. And while our "profits" and "renegades" keep getting killed and thrown in jail we really won't have one. - Another reason why no one has woken up is because our generation has lost its drive to try to make a change." Lilly Torres. Something that could happen is that we would have not one, but many people leading so there would be a group effort and not so much focus on one person to be the "prophet." this can be connected back to Andy's speech in class about engines, if one person or several people take action on one little situation or problem, this might not exactly stop the entire problem but it might slow down the progress the situation. Revelations and messages can be found at anytime or point of your life but the question is are you ready to accept the challenge.
Worked Cited
Derrick Jensen. The Culture of Make Believe. Vermont: Chelsea Green Publishing Company, 2004.
Foxfire. Dir. Annette Haywood-Carter. Perf. Hedy Burress and Angelina Jolie. Samuel Goldwyn Company, 1996.
Hans Christian Anderson. Emperor’s New Clothes. 2008.
Henrik Ibsen. Enemy of the People. New York: Oxford University Press Inc., 1999.
The Matrix. Dir. Andy and Larry Wachowski. Perf. Keanu Reeves, Laurence Fishburne, Carrie- Anne Moss, and Joe Pantoliano. Warner Bros, 1999.
The Allegory of the Cave (the Republic, Book VII) -Plato- 360 B.C.E- Excerpt 3
Thieves in the Night- Black Star- Rawkus Records. Rel.6/4/2002
Sunday, May 18, 2008
final draft part 6 Revelation
Christopher Campbell
5/18/08
Starr 4
Revelation
Concepts: What is Revelation? What is a trope / revelation trope?
A revelation is something that tries or attempts to reveal the unknown. It is also a disclosure or enlightening idea, or realization that helps you better understand the world. Within a revelation, there is a prophet and the revealer. We find ourselves watching the same movies or reading the same story lines over and over again which is known as a trope. A revelation Trope is a familiar thing you see / certain element used over and over again or something that occurs more than once in different things. Some crucial elements of the revelation trope are things that might be life changing, a revealer and prophet, crisis, something big happen to the revealer. Some key elements to a revelation trope are the prophet and the revealer try to share a message that connects the dots in a new way but the new message offers a vision of a redeemed world, but there is opposition to the message and then drama occurs. The revelation only works if the prophet is ready to take upon their responsibilities and take action for the good of others. It is the prophets choice whether or not they Each revelation or message that is being presented to the prophet might not be a world changing factor, but it can be either self life changing or a small percentage of the real world’s situation that can later on make a difference. In a revelation trope the revealer and prophet seems to be physically opposite or distinct from one another. Also there are certain scenes or descriptions from books and movies that can be seen in revelation tropes.
Descriptive
Tropes can play a major role in either a book or movie because the audience can identify the reoccurring scene and can connect it to other things to try and reveal its meaning. Elements of a revelation trope consist of the following: ignorant masses, an unacceptable situation, a prophet or revealer trying to share a message that presents things in a new way and that offers a new redeemed world, opposition to the messenger, and then drama occurs. A trope can be seen within movies, plays, and literature.
One example of a revelation trope is a famous childhood fable called “The Emperors New Clothes” by Han Christian Anderson. Two scoundrels accomplish to play a trick on the emperor in believing that they were tailors and have developed this way of making clothes that are invisible and that those who are too stupid and incompetent to appreciate its value. When the scoundrels presented the new clothing to the Emperor, he is too afraid of being viewed as stupid that he pretends that there is really a garment. Others within the kingdom also pretended that there was a garment because they were also afraid of being seen as stupid. The people of the town heard about this garment being made and were anxious for the Emperor to show them. The Emperor agreed to show them, even though when he looked in the mirror, he only saw himself naked, not a beautiful suit. As the Emperor paraded down the main square, the people all pretended to see something, in fear of letting their Emperor know they were too stupid. However, a child came forward and said “The Emperor is naked,” and soon everyone else in the crowd realized it was true. The Emperor knew they were right, but refused to admit to it, so he simply stood there on his carriage continuing on with the parade. The scoundrels in this story are the messengers, as they are trying to prove how vain the Emperor truly is. The unstable situation is the fact that the people are so ignorant and that the Emperor is so concerned with his clothes and how he looks. The ignorant masses are so afraid of being seen as something, that they try to ignore the truth, thus there is opposition to the message. In the end, the drama that occurs is the uproar of the crowd, and the Emperor as he continues to stand there naked before them.
Another prime example of the revelation trope is the movie The Matrix. In the matrix, Morpheus makes Neo realize that the world as he knows it is not reality and just a lie. It is simply fragments of a computer program. Morpheus brings Neo into what is the real world, believing that Neo is “the one”. While Morpheus is trying to convince Neo of the real world, the machines which are running this real world attempt to stop him from getting his message across. In this movie, Morpheus can be seen as the prophet. The message which he is attempting to reveal is that the world as Neo knows it is fake. The ignorant masses is almost the entirety of the human race, as they are simply living in a computer program with no idea that what they are living is not reality. The opposition occurs when the machines begin to fight against Neo. In order for Neo to realize that he “the one” he must first accept the message being presented by Morpheus, in which later on he does.
As seen in many other revelation tropes, the revealer can also be the prophet as well because they are usually presenting a message in which others can not see or are too afraid to realize what is really going on. They are usually the ones who are more out spoken and have stronger physical apparel then many others.
In An enemy of the People, there seems to be two types of ignorant masses which is a reoccurring element in a variety of sources. The first group is where people fully deny the revelation and will go to violent extremes to stop it (The general public/compact majority).The second group is people who are affected mentally by the revelation, but do not implemented the revelation in their lives(Petra, mr.stockmann's wife).
Compare/Contrast
In many situations, the prophet can find themselves having to sacrifice their own lives in order to save their disciples life. In this situation, this makes the disciple either realizes they are truly the chosen one or allow them to over come their fears and take control of their inner powers or force. In the movie Star Wars, in the scene when Obi-Wan, Luke, Han Solo, Chewbacca, R2-D2 and C3PO are aboard the enemies ship, trying to make their way back to their own ship, Obi-Wan makes it possible for them to return to their ship by beginning a fight. Obi-Wan begins a light saber duel between Darth Vader, which allows the rest of them to get back to their ship safely. Obi-Wan then allows Darth Vader to kill him as he warns him that he will become “more powerful than you can possibly imagine.” Obi-Wan sacrificed himself in order to help the rest of them make their way back to the ship. In The Matrix, Morpheus, who is the prophet and is teaching Neo, the disciple, tells the others to escape while he distracts the Agents by fighting them. He knows he will not be able to save himself, for the Agents are way too strong for him to fight alone. Despite knowing that he will most likely die, he chooses it is more important to let Neo get away then to save himself. Both sacrifices, by both Morpheus and Obi-Wan, became a much more impacting factor on the life of the disciple. When Morpheus allows himself to be captured by the Agents, it inspired Neo to take action. Early, Neo had been somewhat reluctant to completely take part in the Matrix. However, once they learn that Morpheus is in trouble, and has allowed himself to be captured, Neo becomes more willing to help, and he decides that he is going to return and save Morpheus from the Agents, despite how dangerous it may be. Just as Neo was inspired to rescue Morpheus, after Obi-Wan had sacrificed himself, Luke becomes more connected with the force. After the others escape and return to the Rebel Alliance, Luke agrees to join the assault team which is working to destroy the Death Star. While Luke is on his way to the center of the Death Star, it’s discovered that Darth Vader has sent out ships to destroy Luke on his way. Seconds before the Death Star is about to destroy the Rebel base, Luke hears Obi-Wans voice telling him to “use the force”. Luke then fires the shot that destroys the death star and saves the Rebel base. In both situations, it is not until something bad happens to the prophet that the disciple begins to truly take action and pursue the message they were given in the revelation. It was not until Morpheus was about to be killed, that Neo began to truly fight back in the Matrix. In Star Wars, it was not until Obi-Wan were killed, that Luke truly accepted to use the force, which is the message Obi-Wan wanted to get across. Something negative must happen to the Prophet that will then encourage the disciple to take action of the revelation on their own without the guidance of the prophet.
In the Matrix, Neo, a computer programmer, finds out that he is the chosen one to fight the agents that made the matrix. Morpheus told him that if he wanted to know and observe the matrix himself he would have to swallow the red pill. He told Neo that he must choose if he wants to eat the red pill or blue pill. He decides to pick the red pill, which entirely changes the way he looks at life. Once he takes the red pill, he’s in a red liquid pod where the machines unplug him and pushes him down a tube into a stream of water. This symbolizes his rebirth into the real world. This rebirth is also seen in the Feed where after the talk Titus had with Violet's dad, Titus went to the drop tube to his house. The drop tube signify rebirth. In these books, when the person is reborn, he/she does not fully understand the revelation. The person is an infant mentally because he/she is still ignorant and is only introduced to part of the revelation. There is a very long process that people need to undergo in order to come to a deep understanding of the revelation. This infant goes through many obstacles that may affect the way he/she may perceive the revelation. This process of rebirth into adulthood is seen in our lives and in other novels.
In the novel Feed, all the teens have feeds incorporated into their brains. The government has control over their minds by transmitting advertisements and giving them what they desire. The teens are taught in school how to use the feeds to buy items. However, in the book Violet is the only girl who resists the feed. She does this by not buying any items that are exposed to her. Because she doesn’t buy any items, her feed malfunctions to the point where she dies. Titus learns an important message from Violet that that the people are taken over by the government through the implementation of feeds into peoples brains. People are brainwashed by advertisements which intrigue them to buy clothes and accessories. As a result, people don't think for themselves and do not realize that the civilization crashing.- Stephanie Chiu. Violet expressed this message in a conversation she had with Titus. She told him that she was outraged that people who get feeds at an early age are “ ignorant self-centered idiots” because they are brainwashed by the government to value the lies. Titus at this point felt degraded because he did get his feed at an early age. Titus realizes this message when Violet will die in minutes. He tells her all the news he find out about the civilization and proves to Violet that he understands the truth about civilization. Feed is similar to An Enemy of the people because the ignorant masses understand the message to some degree when something tragic happens to the prophet. In Feed, when Violet dies, Titus gets the message. Similarly, in an Enemy of the people Mr. Stockmann’s wife only supports him when the whole town has turned their back on him.
In the movie “Foxfire” the revelation message is that one needs to stand up for themselves and others. The teacher was sexually harassing one of the students and Angelina’s character “Legs” gets a group of the female students and the beat up the teacher. The message that the students send to the teacher is that if you hurt one of us you hurt all of us. The way Legs stood up for the several other girls in the school is just the same way as Neo had to stand up to the evil agents in order to save Morpheus. Both Neo and Legs where in fact out powered because Legs is just a teenager and Neo feels as if he is just a normal human, they both find the faith and courage within them in order to stand up to what is most important to them, and that affect others lives as well.
In The Allegory of The Cave Socrates creates an unacceptable situation in which there are humans living in an underground cave, inwhich they have been living there since childhood and have their legs and necks chained so they cannot move, and can only see images that are being projected by a fire and a built wall that allows the images that are being projected to be seen.
Analysis/ Theory
While looking at many different Revelations / revelation tropes there are many new important aspects that are being presented to the audience that is more then seen by the naked eye. One theory I believe or came up with is “the disciple seems to always be denying that they are the one, but they are never against the actual message that is being presented to them by the prophet”. Throughout the movies “Star Wars” and “The Matrix”, both Neo and Luke have the feeling that they might be the chosen ones but they are both too afraid to take the responsibility. They must need someone to convince them and give them guidance that they have the powers and force and must figure out how to accept it.
Also I began to realize that the prophet is always much stronger than the disciple.Also in many situations of the revelation trope, there is a trader involved that is trying to stop the prophet from getting his message across to his disciple. This is usually known as the Judaist trope, which is the trader / betrays the good side and prefers the bad side. In Star wars, Dark Vader was the prophet until he became evil leader and tries to stop Luke from accepting the powers and defeating him. While in The Matrix, the trader felt as if his revelation was not the same as what he has been told by Morpheus and then gives up and tries to kill Neo and allows Morpheus to get killed.
In The Allegory of The Cave Socrates creates an unacceptable situation in which there are humans living in an underground cave, inwhich they have been living there since childhood and have their legs and necks chained so they cannot move, and can only see images that are being projected by a fire and a built wall that allows the images that are being projected to be seen. Here the fire projects the images that these prisoners can only see, and i feel as if this is a way to interpret as our brains giving off missleading images of what we want to see only. for these viticms or prisoners the cave and the shadow puppets is their real world or reality. What they see from the shadows is what they have been seeing or experiencing since childhood, this is how they believe the world truly is nothing beyhond what they know. This is basically saying these people are blind from the real society and cant see the truth as well as their are people today to ignorant to believe anything else but they know is right an accept nothing more. Connecting this to the real world movie theather projects images in which we as viewers tend to think are real and get distracted or misleaded about what is truly going on like not being able to find the message that is really being sent out.
In The Song " The Thieves of the Night" by Black Star i feel the message that is being presented is that we as people are not living our lives free and that we are too afraid to accept the truth about life so we are hiding from it. A line that Mos Def Had said in this song that stood out to me was "Still livin like MEntal Slaves" i feel this line means that we are allowing the media and other things to determine or alternate our true feelings and opinions. Also that we cannot think for oursleves and we allow the government to make decisions for us. Another line that stood out to me the most was "the life is temporary but the soul is eternal- Mos Def". i feel this line means that although the physical parts of our body are gone once we die, the soul our essense still lives on and continues its own journey. Also because we are hiding in the night afraid of life, this could also mean that because many are afraid to die, we need to understandstand that we still live on just not here on earth with others.
CONCLUSION
"There are thousands,or maybe millions of revelation messages out there. They're in books, movies, songs even in our daily life. That one thing that you thought was wrong but tried not to think twice about it because no one wants to be an outcast. People have all this access to so many messages basically screaming at them to wake up and fight the power, the "norm" and make a change. But most just sit by and do nothing, because they are afraid to take action for themselves.Since people really do lead our lives mostly like a heard of sheep, we need a leader. And while our "profits" and "renegades" keep getting killed and thrown in jail we really won't have one. - Another reason why no one has woken up is because our generation has lost its drive to try to make a change." Lilly Torres. Something that could happen is that we would have not one, but many people leading so there would be a group effort and not so much focus on one person to be the "prophet." this can be connected back to Andy's speech in class about engines, if one person or several people take action on one little situation or problem, this might not exactly stop the entire problem but it might slow down the progress the situation. Revelations and messages can be found at anytime or point of your life but the question is are you ready to accept the challenge.
Worked Cited
Derrick Jensen. The Culture of Make Believe. Vermont: Chelsea Green Publishing Company, 2004.
Foxfire. Dir. Annette Haywood-Carter. Perf. Hedy Burress and Angelina Jolie. Samuel Goldwyn Company, 1996.
Hans Christian Anderson. Emperor’s New Clothes. 2008.
Henrik Ibsen. Enemy of the People. New York: Oxford University Press Inc., 1999.
The Matrix. Dir. Andy and Larry Wachowski. Perf. Keanu Reeves, Laurence Fishburne, Carrie- Anne Moss, and Joe Pantoliano. Warner Bros, 1999.
The Allegory of the Cave (the Republic, Book VII) -Plato- 360 B.C.E- Excerpt 3
Thieves in the Night- Black Star- Rawkus Records. Rel.6/4/2002
5/18/08
Starr 4
Revelation
Concepts: What is Revelation? What is a trope / revelation trope?
A revelation is something that tries or attempts to reveal the unknown. It is also a disclosure or enlightening idea, or realization that helps you better understand the world. Within a revelation, there is a prophet and the revealer. We find ourselves watching the same movies or reading the same story lines over and over again which is known as a trope. A revelation Trope is a familiar thing you see / certain element used over and over again or something that occurs more than once in different things. Some crucial elements of the revelation trope are things that might be life changing, a revealer and prophet, crisis, something big happen to the revealer. Some key elements to a revelation trope are the prophet and the revealer try to share a message that connects the dots in a new way but the new message offers a vision of a redeemed world, but there is opposition to the message and then drama occurs. The revelation only works if the prophet is ready to take upon their responsibilities and take action for the good of others. It is the prophets choice whether or not they Each revelation or message that is being presented to the prophet might not be a world changing factor, but it can be either self life changing or a small percentage of the real world’s situation that can later on make a difference. In a revelation trope the revealer and prophet seems to be physically opposite or distinct from one another. Also there are certain scenes or descriptions from books and movies that can be seen in revelation tropes.
Descriptive
Tropes can play a major role in either a book or movie because the audience can identify the reoccurring scene and can connect it to other things to try and reveal its meaning. Elements of a revelation trope consist of the following: ignorant masses, an unacceptable situation, a prophet or revealer trying to share a message that presents things in a new way and that offers a new redeemed world, opposition to the messenger, and then drama occurs. A trope can be seen within movies, plays, and literature.
One example of a revelation trope is a famous childhood fable called “The Emperors New Clothes” by Han Christian Anderson. Two scoundrels accomplish to play a trick on the emperor in believing that they were tailors and have developed this way of making clothes that are invisible and that those who are too stupid and incompetent to appreciate its value. When the scoundrels presented the new clothing to the Emperor, he is too afraid of being viewed as stupid that he pretends that there is really a garment. Others within the kingdom also pretended that there was a garment because they were also afraid of being seen as stupid. The people of the town heard about this garment being made and were anxious for the Emperor to show them. The Emperor agreed to show them, even though when he looked in the mirror, he only saw himself naked, not a beautiful suit. As the Emperor paraded down the main square, the people all pretended to see something, in fear of letting their Emperor know they were too stupid. However, a child came forward and said “The Emperor is naked,” and soon everyone else in the crowd realized it was true. The Emperor knew they were right, but refused to admit to it, so he simply stood there on his carriage continuing on with the parade. The scoundrels in this story are the messengers, as they are trying to prove how vain the Emperor truly is. The unstable situation is the fact that the people are so ignorant and that the Emperor is so concerned with his clothes and how he looks. The ignorant masses are so afraid of being seen as something, that they try to ignore the truth, thus there is opposition to the message. In the end, the drama that occurs is the uproar of the crowd, and the Emperor as he continues to stand there naked before them.
Another prime example of the revelation trope is the movie The Matrix. In the matrix, Morpheus makes Neo realize that the world as he knows it is not reality and just a lie. It is simply fragments of a computer program. Morpheus brings Neo into what is the real world, believing that Neo is “the one”. While Morpheus is trying to convince Neo of the real world, the machines which are running this real world attempt to stop him from getting his message across. In this movie, Morpheus can be seen as the prophet. The message which he is attempting to reveal is that the world as Neo knows it is fake. The ignorant masses is almost the entirety of the human race, as they are simply living in a computer program with no idea that what they are living is not reality. The opposition occurs when the machines begin to fight against Neo. In order for Neo to realize that he “the one” he must first accept the message being presented by Morpheus, in which later on he does.
As seen in many other revelation tropes, the revealer can also be the prophet as well because they are usually presenting a message in which others can not see or are too afraid to realize what is really going on. They are usually the ones who are more out spoken and have stronger physical apparel then many others.
In An enemy of the People, there seems to be two types of ignorant masses which is a reoccurring element in a variety of sources. The first group is where people fully deny the revelation and will go to violent extremes to stop it (The general public/compact majority).The second group is people who are affected mentally by the revelation, but do not implemented the revelation in their lives(Petra, mr.stockmann's wife).
Compare/Contrast
In many situations, the prophet can find themselves having to sacrifice their own lives in order to save their disciples life. In this situation, this makes the disciple either realizes they are truly the chosen one or allow them to over come their fears and take control of their inner powers or force. In the movie Star Wars, in the scene when Obi-Wan, Luke, Han Solo, Chewbacca, R2-D2 and C3PO are aboard the enemies ship, trying to make their way back to their own ship, Obi-Wan makes it possible for them to return to their ship by beginning a fight. Obi-Wan begins a light saber duel between Darth Vader, which allows the rest of them to get back to their ship safely. Obi-Wan then allows Darth Vader to kill him as he warns him that he will become “more powerful than you can possibly imagine.” Obi-Wan sacrificed himself in order to help the rest of them make their way back to the ship. In The Matrix, Morpheus, who is the prophet and is teaching Neo, the disciple, tells the others to escape while he distracts the Agents by fighting them. He knows he will not be able to save himself, for the Agents are way too strong for him to fight alone. Despite knowing that he will most likely die, he chooses it is more important to let Neo get away then to save himself. Both sacrifices, by both Morpheus and Obi-Wan, became a much more impacting factor on the life of the disciple. When Morpheus allows himself to be captured by the Agents, it inspired Neo to take action. Early, Neo had been somewhat reluctant to completely take part in the Matrix. However, once they learn that Morpheus is in trouble, and has allowed himself to be captured, Neo becomes more willing to help, and he decides that he is going to return and save Morpheus from the Agents, despite how dangerous it may be. Just as Neo was inspired to rescue Morpheus, after Obi-Wan had sacrificed himself, Luke becomes more connected with the force. After the others escape and return to the Rebel Alliance, Luke agrees to join the assault team which is working to destroy the Death Star. While Luke is on his way to the center of the Death Star, it’s discovered that Darth Vader has sent out ships to destroy Luke on his way. Seconds before the Death Star is about to destroy the Rebel base, Luke hears Obi-Wans voice telling him to “use the force”. Luke then fires the shot that destroys the death star and saves the Rebel base. In both situations, it is not until something bad happens to the prophet that the disciple begins to truly take action and pursue the message they were given in the revelation. It was not until Morpheus was about to be killed, that Neo began to truly fight back in the Matrix. In Star Wars, it was not until Obi-Wan were killed, that Luke truly accepted to use the force, which is the message Obi-Wan wanted to get across. Something negative must happen to the Prophet that will then encourage the disciple to take action of the revelation on their own without the guidance of the prophet.
In the Matrix, Neo, a computer programmer, finds out that he is the chosen one to fight the agents that made the matrix. Morpheus told him that if he wanted to know and observe the matrix himself he would have to swallow the red pill. He told Neo that he must choose if he wants to eat the red pill or blue pill. He decides to pick the red pill, which entirely changes the way he looks at life. Once he takes the red pill, he’s in a red liquid pod where the machines unplug him and pushes him down a tube into a stream of water. This symbolizes his rebirth into the real world. This rebirth is also seen in the Feed where after the talk Titus had with Violet's dad, Titus went to the drop tube to his house. The drop tube signify rebirth. In these books, when the person is reborn, he/she does not fully understand the revelation. The person is an infant mentally because he/she is still ignorant and is only introduced to part of the revelation. There is a very long process that people need to undergo in order to come to a deep understanding of the revelation. This infant goes through many obstacles that may affect the way he/she may perceive the revelation. This process of rebirth into adulthood is seen in our lives and in other novels.
In the novel Feed, all the teens have feeds incorporated into their brains. The government has control over their minds by transmitting advertisements and giving them what they desire. The teens are taught in school how to use the feeds to buy items. However, in the book Violet is the only girl who resists the feed. She does this by not buying any items that are exposed to her. Because she doesn’t buy any items, her feed malfunctions to the point where she dies. Titus learns an important message from Violet that that the people are taken over by the government through the implementation of feeds into peoples brains. People are brainwashed by advertisements which intrigue them to buy clothes and accessories. As a result, people don't think for themselves and do not realize that the civilization crashing.- Stephanie Chiu. Violet expressed this message in a conversation she had with Titus. She told him that she was outraged that people who get feeds at an early age are “ ignorant self-centered idiots” because they are brainwashed by the government to value the lies. Titus at this point felt degraded because he did get his feed at an early age. Titus realizes this message when Violet will die in minutes. He tells her all the news he find out about the civilization and proves to Violet that he understands the truth about civilization. Feed is similar to An Enemy of the people because the ignorant masses understand the message to some degree when something tragic happens to the prophet. In Feed, when Violet dies, Titus gets the message. Similarly, in an Enemy of the people Mr. Stockmann’s wife only supports him when the whole town has turned their back on him.
In the movie “Foxfire” the revelation message is that one needs to stand up for themselves and others. The teacher was sexually harassing one of the students and Angelina’s character “Legs” gets a group of the female students and the beat up the teacher. The message that the students send to the teacher is that if you hurt one of us you hurt all of us. The way Legs stood up for the several other girls in the school is just the same way as Neo had to stand up to the evil agents in order to save Morpheus. Both Neo and Legs where in fact out powered because Legs is just a teenager and Neo feels as if he is just a normal human, they both find the faith and courage within them in order to stand up to what is most important to them, and that affect others lives as well.
In The Allegory of The Cave Socrates creates an unacceptable situation in which there are humans living in an underground cave, inwhich they have been living there since childhood and have their legs and necks chained so they cannot move, and can only see images that are being projected by a fire and a built wall that allows the images that are being projected to be seen.
Analysis/ Theory
While looking at many different Revelations / revelation tropes there are many new important aspects that are being presented to the audience that is more then seen by the naked eye. One theory I believe or came up with is “the disciple seems to always be denying that they are the one, but they are never against the actual message that is being presented to them by the prophet”. Throughout the movies “Star Wars” and “The Matrix”, both Neo and Luke have the feeling that they might be the chosen ones but they are both too afraid to take the responsibility. They must need someone to convince them and give them guidance that they have the powers and force and must figure out how to accept it.
Also I began to realize that the prophet is always much stronger than the disciple.Also in many situations of the revelation trope, there is a trader involved that is trying to stop the prophet from getting his message across to his disciple. This is usually known as the Judaist trope, which is the trader / betrays the good side and prefers the bad side. In Star wars, Dark Vader was the prophet until he became evil leader and tries to stop Luke from accepting the powers and defeating him. While in The Matrix, the trader felt as if his revelation was not the same as what he has been told by Morpheus and then gives up and tries to kill Neo and allows Morpheus to get killed.
In The Allegory of The Cave Socrates creates an unacceptable situation in which there are humans living in an underground cave, inwhich they have been living there since childhood and have their legs and necks chained so they cannot move, and can only see images that are being projected by a fire and a built wall that allows the images that are being projected to be seen. Here the fire projects the images that these prisoners can only see, and i feel as if this is a way to interpret as our brains giving off missleading images of what we want to see only. for these viticms or prisoners the cave and the shadow puppets is their real world or reality. What they see from the shadows is what they have been seeing or experiencing since childhood, this is how they believe the world truly is nothing beyhond what they know. This is basically saying these people are blind from the real society and cant see the truth as well as their are people today to ignorant to believe anything else but they know is right an accept nothing more. Connecting this to the real world movie theather projects images in which we as viewers tend to think are real and get distracted or misleaded about what is truly going on like not being able to find the message that is really being sent out.
In The Song " The Thieves of the Night" by Black Star i feel the message that is being presented is that we as people are not living our lives free and that we are too afraid to accept the truth about life so we are hiding from it. A line that Mos Def Had said in this song that stood out to me was "Still livin like MEntal Slaves" i feel this line means that we are allowing the media and other things to determine or alternate our true feelings and opinions. Also that we cannot think for oursleves and we allow the government to make decisions for us. Another line that stood out to me the most was "the life is temporary but the soul is eternal- Mos Def". i feel this line means that although the physical parts of our body are gone once we die, the soul our essense still lives on and continues its own journey. Also because we are hiding in the night afraid of life, this could also mean that because many are afraid to die, we need to understandstand that we still live on just not here on earth with others.
CONCLUSION
"There are thousands,or maybe millions of revelation messages out there. They're in books, movies, songs even in our daily life. That one thing that you thought was wrong but tried not to think twice about it because no one wants to be an outcast. People have all this access to so many messages basically screaming at them to wake up and fight the power, the "norm" and make a change. But most just sit by and do nothing, because they are afraid to take action for themselves.Since people really do lead our lives mostly like a heard of sheep, we need a leader. And while our "profits" and "renegades" keep getting killed and thrown in jail we really won't have one. - Another reason why no one has woken up is because our generation has lost its drive to try to make a change." Lilly Torres. Something that could happen is that we would have not one, but many people leading so there would be a group effort and not so much focus on one person to be the "prophet." this can be connected back to Andy's speech in class about engines, if one person or several people take action on one little situation or problem, this might not exactly stop the entire problem but it might slow down the progress the situation. Revelations and messages can be found at anytime or point of your life but the question is are you ready to accept the challenge.
Worked Cited
Derrick Jensen. The Culture of Make Believe. Vermont: Chelsea Green Publishing Company, 2004.
Foxfire. Dir. Annette Haywood-Carter. Perf. Hedy Burress and Angelina Jolie. Samuel Goldwyn Company, 1996.
Hans Christian Anderson. Emperor’s New Clothes. 2008.
Henrik Ibsen. Enemy of the People. New York: Oxford University Press Inc., 1999.
The Matrix. Dir. Andy and Larry Wachowski. Perf. Keanu Reeves, Laurence Fishburne, Carrie- Anne Moss, and Joe Pantoliano. Warner Bros, 1999.
The Allegory of the Cave (the Republic, Book VII) -Plato- 360 B.C.E- Excerpt 3
Thieves in the Night- Black Star- Rawkus Records. Rel.6/4/2002
Personal Revelation
Christopher Campbell May 17, 2008
Revelation Personal Revelation
One personal revelation I have been offered throughout the process of actually learning how to identify revelations I believe is the message my coach James tries to get across to the players is that time and life are both too short to waste and we as people need to take the initiative to better ourselves in order to have a successful life. I feel as if before I had met my coach James, I always wasted time or never took anything as serious as I do now. I needed someone to open my eyes to the real world and I feel the only reason why I have accepted this revelation is because my coach and I can relate on the basketball level in which my interest are in the most. He presented this revelation to me in a nice slow way in which it took me time to fully get his message and be able to understand it.
The things that have changed my life since I have encountered this new revelation is I think I have been taking life in general more seriously than as before just going with the flow not actually learning anything but to just get by. Now I feel as if I am taking more time out to get something out of life that I know can later on better me in the future. I don’t want to cheat my self out of anything that I know I can achieve later on only if I apply my self now, and not waste any time and try to do my best.
I feel my coach had presented him self to me as in a way that I might want to change my life because I seen where he has came from and where he is now and I can connect to that. I think I can connect to him because he acts as the same person around everybody never changes who he truly is, or changes himself in order to impress anybody and I feel as if that him being real and authentic person. I’m still in the process of changing ma ways in order to be able to fully accept the revelation. But at the same time I feel as if I don’t need to change my whole self in general because I like who I am but there are little things that I can change about me that can and will help me be a more successful person later on in life. I think I can take the revelation that is being presented to me by my coach and take the parts of his message that relate to me or that I feel I want to change and use that. I think as a revelation or as a message in general it is ones personal choice whether or not they want to accept the full message or take things that they can relate to or just fully ignore the message and continue living the life how ever that is.
Within writing this paper if I haven’t accepted this message from my coach I probably wouldn’t be doing this paper, but because I feel that this can effect my grade or even my future I must get it done so I can enjoy my life in the long run. I just want to be able to carry my self as a more better person and the message I got helped me be able to realize that the life I was living before wasn’t my full potential that it could be once I applied my self.
Revelation Personal Revelation
One personal revelation I have been offered throughout the process of actually learning how to identify revelations I believe is the message my coach James tries to get across to the players is that time and life are both too short to waste and we as people need to take the initiative to better ourselves in order to have a successful life. I feel as if before I had met my coach James, I always wasted time or never took anything as serious as I do now. I needed someone to open my eyes to the real world and I feel the only reason why I have accepted this revelation is because my coach and I can relate on the basketball level in which my interest are in the most. He presented this revelation to me in a nice slow way in which it took me time to fully get his message and be able to understand it.
The things that have changed my life since I have encountered this new revelation is I think I have been taking life in general more seriously than as before just going with the flow not actually learning anything but to just get by. Now I feel as if I am taking more time out to get something out of life that I know can later on better me in the future. I don’t want to cheat my self out of anything that I know I can achieve later on only if I apply my self now, and not waste any time and try to do my best.
I feel my coach had presented him self to me as in a way that I might want to change my life because I seen where he has came from and where he is now and I can connect to that. I think I can connect to him because he acts as the same person around everybody never changes who he truly is, or changes himself in order to impress anybody and I feel as if that him being real and authentic person. I’m still in the process of changing ma ways in order to be able to fully accept the revelation. But at the same time I feel as if I don’t need to change my whole self in general because I like who I am but there are little things that I can change about me that can and will help me be a more successful person later on in life. I think I can take the revelation that is being presented to me by my coach and take the parts of his message that relate to me or that I feel I want to change and use that. I think as a revelation or as a message in general it is ones personal choice whether or not they want to accept the full message or take things that they can relate to or just fully ignore the message and continue living the life how ever that is.
Within writing this paper if I haven’t accepted this message from my coach I probably wouldn’t be doing this paper, but because I feel that this can effect my grade or even my future I must get it done so I can enjoy my life in the long run. I just want to be able to carry my self as a more better person and the message I got helped me be able to realize that the life I was living before wasn’t my full potential that it could be once I applied my self.
Tuesday, May 13, 2008
final draft big trope essay part 5
Christopher Campbell
5/5/08
Starr 4
Revelation
Concepts: What is Revelation? What is a trope / revelation trope?
A revelation is something that tries or attempts to reveal the unknown. It is also a disclosure or enlightening idea, or realization that helps you better understand the world. Within a revelation, there is a prophet and the revealer. We find ourselves watching the same movies or reading the same story lines over and over again which is known as a trope. A revelation Trope is a familiar thing you see / certain element used over and over again or something that occurs more than once in different things. Some crucial elements of the revelation trope are things that might be life changing, a revealer and prophet, crisis, something big happen to the revealer. Some key elements to a revelation trope are the prophet and the revealer try to share a message that connects the dots in a new way but the new message offers a vision of a redeemed world, but there is opposition to the message and then drama occurs. The revelation only works if the prophet is ready to take upon their responsibilities and take action for the good of others. It is the prophets choice whether or not they Each revelation or message that is being presented to the prophet might not be a world changing factor, but it can be either self life changing or a small percentage of the real world’s situation that can later on make a difference. In a revelation trope the revealer and prophet seems to be physically opposite or distinct from one another. Also there are certain scenes or descriptions from books and movies that can be seen in revelation tropes.
Descriptive
Tropes can play a major role in either a book or movie because the audience can identify the reoccurring scene and can connect it to other things to try and reveal its meaning. Elements of a revelation trope consist of the following: ignorant masses, an unacceptable situation, a prophet or revealer trying to share a message that presents things in a new way and that offers a new redeemed world, opposition to the messenger, and then drama occurs. A trope can be seen within movies, plays, and literature.
One example of a revelation trope is a famous childhood fable called “The Emperors New Clothes” by Han Christian Anderson. Two scoundrels accomplish to play a trick on the emperor in believing that they were tailors and have developed this way of making clothes that are invisible and that those who are too stupid and incompetent to appreciate its value. When the scoundrels presented the new clothing to the Emperor, he is too afraid of being viewed as stupid that he pretends that there is really a garment. Others within the kingdom also pretended that there was a garment because they were also afraid of being seen as stupid. The people of the town heard about this garment being made and were anxious for the Emperor to show them. The Emperor agreed to show them, even though when he looked in the mirror, he only saw himself naked, not a beautiful suit. As the Emperor paraded down the main square, the people all pretended to see something, in fear of letting their Emperor know they were too stupid. However, a child came forward and said “The Emperor is naked,” and soon everyone else in the crowd realized it was true. The Emperor knew they were right, but refused to admit to it, so he simply stood there on his carriage continuing on with the parade. The scoundrels in this story are the messengers, as they are trying to prove how vain the Emperor truly is. The unstable situation is the fact that the people are so ignorant and that the Emperor is so concerned with his clothes and how he looks. The ignorant masses are so afraid of being seen as something, that they try to ignore the truth, thus there is opposition to the message. In the end, the drama that occurs is the uproar of the crowd, and the Emperor as he continues to stand there naked before them.
Another prime example of the revelation trope is the movie The Matrix. In the matrix, Morpheus makes Neo realize that the world as he knows it is not reality and just a lie. It is simply fragments of a computer program. Morpheus brings Neo into what is the real world, believing that Neo is “the one”. While Morpheus is trying to convince Neo of the real world, the machines which are running this real world attempt to stop him from getting his message across. In this movie, Morpheus can be seen as the prophet. The message which he is attempting to reveal is that the world as Neo knows it is fake. The ignorant masses is almost the entirety of the human race, as they are simply living in a computer program with no idea that what they are living is not reality. The opposition occurs when the machines begin to fight against Neo. In order for Neo to realize that he “the one” he must first accept the message being presented by Morpheus, in which later on he does.
As seen in many other revelation tropes, the revealer can also be the prophet as well because they are usually presenting a message in which others can not see or are too afraid to realize what is really going on. They are usually the ones who are more out spoken and have stronger physical apparel then many others.
In An enemy of the People, there seems to be two types of ignorant masses which is a reoccurring element in a variety of sources. The first group is where people fully deny the revelation and will go to violent extremes to stop it (The general public/compact majority).The second group is people who are affected mentally by the revelation, but do not implemented the revelation in their lives(Petra, mr.stockmann's wife).
Compare/Contrast
In many situations, the prophet can find themselves having to sacrifice their own lives in order to save their disciples life. In this situation, this makes the disciple either realizes they are truly the chosen one or allow them to over come their fears and take control of their inner powers or force. In the movie Star Wars, in the scene when Obi-Wan, Luke, Han Solo, Chewbacca, R2-D2 and C3PO are aboard the enemies ship, trying to make their way back to their own ship, Obi-Wan makes it possible for them to return to their ship by beginning a fight. Obi-Wan begins a light saber duel between Darth Vader, which allows the rest of them to get back to their ship safely. Obi-Wan then allows Darth Vader to kill him as he warns him that he will become “more powerful than you can possibly imagine.” Obi-Wan sacrificed himself in order to help the rest of them make their way back to the ship. In The Matrix, Morpheus, who is the prophet and is teaching Neo, the disciple, tells the others to escape while he distracts the Agents by fighting them. He knows he will not be able to save himself, for the Agents are way too strong for him to fight alone. Despite knowing that he will most likely die, he chooses it is more important to let Neo get away then to save himself. Both sacrifices, by both Morpheus and Obi-Wan, became a much more impacting factor on the life of the disciple. When Morpheus allows himself to be captured by the Agents, it inspired Neo to take action. Early, Neo had been somewhat reluctant to completely take part in the Matrix. However, once they learn that Morpheus is in trouble, and has allowed himself to be captured, Neo becomes more willing to help, and he decides that he is going to return and save Morpheus from the Agents, despite how dangerous it may be. Just as Neo was inspired to rescue Morpheus, after Obi-Wan had sacrificed himself, Luke becomes more connected with the force. After the others escape and return to the Rebel Alliance, Luke agrees to join the assault team which is working to destroy the Death Star. While Luke is on his way to the center of the Death Star, it’s discovered that Darth Vader has sent out ships to destroy Luke on his way. Seconds before the Death Star is about to destroy the Rebel base, Luke hears Obi-Wans voice telling him to “use the force”. Luke then fires the shot that destroys the death star and saves the Rebel base. In both situations, it is not until something bad happens to the prophet that the disciple begins to truly take action and pursue the message they were given in the revelation. It was not until Morpheus was about to be killed, that Neo began to truly fight back in the Matrix. In Star Wars, it was not until Obi-Wan were killed, that Luke truly accepted to use the force, which is the message Obi-Wan wanted to get across. Something negative must happen to the Prophet that will then encourage the disciple to take action of the revelation on their own without the guidance of the prophet.
In the Matrix, Neo, a computer programmer, finds out that he is the chosen one to fight the agents that made the matrix. Morpheus told him that if he wanted to know and observe the matrix himself he would have to swallow the red pill. He told Neo that he must choose if he wants to eat the red pill or blue pill. He decides to pick the red pill, which entirely changes the way he looks at life. Once he takes the red pill, he’s in a red liquid pod where the machines unplug him and pushes him down a tube into a stream of water. This symbolizes his rebirth into the real world. This rebirth is also seen in the Feed where after the talk Titus had with Violet's dad, Titus went to the drop tube to his house. The drop tube signify rebirth. In these books, when the person is reborn, he/she does not fully understand the revelation. The person is an infant mentally because he/she is still ignorant and is only introduced to part of the revelation. There is a very long process that people need to undergo in order to come to a deep understanding of the revelation. This infant goes through many obstacles that may affect the way he/she may perceive the revelation. This process of rebirth into adulthood is seen in our lives and in other novels.
In the novel Feed, all the teens have feeds incorporated into their brains. The government has control over their minds by transmitting advertisements and giving them what they desire. The teens are taught in school how to use the feeds to buy items. However, in the book Violet is the only girl who resists the feed. She does this by not buying any items that are exposed to her. Because she doesn’t buy any items, her feed malfunctions to the point where she dies. Titus learns an important message from Violet that that the people are taken over by the government through the implementation of feeds into peoples brains. People are brainwashed by advertisements which intrigue them to buy clothes and accessories. As a result, people don't think for themselves and do not realize that the civilization crashing.- Stephanie Chiu. Violet expressed this message in a conversation she had with Titus. She told him that she was outraged that people who get feeds at an early age are “ ignorant self-centered idiots” because they are brainwashed by the government to value the lies. Titus at this point felt degraded because he did get his feed at an early age. Titus realizes this message when Violet will die in minutes. He tells her all the news he find out about the civilization and proves to Violet that he understands the truth about civilization. Feed is similar to An Enemy of the people because the ignorant masses understand the message to some degree when something tragic happens to the prophet. In Feed, when Violet dies, Titus gets the message. Similarly, in an Enemy of the people Mr. Stockmann’s wife only supports him when the whole town has turned their back on him.
In the movie “Foxfire” the revelation message is that one needs to stand up for themselves and others. The teacher was sexually harassing one of the students and Angelina’s character “Legs” gets a group of the female students and the beat up the teacher. The message that the students send to the teacher is that if you hurt one of us you hurt all of us. The way Legs stood up for the several other girls in the school is just the same way as Neo had to stand up to the evil agents in order to save Morpheus. Both Neo and Legs where in fact out powered because Legs is just a teenager and Neo feels as if he is just a normal human, they both find the faith and courage within them in order to stand up to what is most important to them, and that affect others lives as well.
In The Allegory of The Cave Socrates creates an unacceptable situation in which
Analysis/ Theory
While looking at many different Revelations / revelation tropes there are many new important aspects that are being presented to the audience that is more then seen by the naked eye. One theory I believe or came up with is “the disciple seems to always be denying that they are the one, but they are never against the actual message that is being presented to them by the prophet”. Throughout the movies “Star Wars” and “The Matrix”, both Neo and Luke have the feeling that they might be the chosen ones but they are both too afraid to take the responsibility. They must need someone to convince them and give them guidance that they have the powers and force and must figure out how to accept it.
Also I began to realize that the prophet is always much stronger than the disciple.Also in many situations of the revelation trope, there is a trader involved that is trying to stop the prophet from getting his message across to his disciple. This is usually known as the Judaist trope, which is the trader / betrays the good side and prefers the bad side. In Star wars, Dark Vader was the prophet until he became evil leader and tries to stop Luke from accepting the powers and defeating him. While in The Matrix, the trader felt as if his revelation was not the same as what he has been told by Morpheus and then gives up and tries to kill Neo and allows Morpheus to get killed.
CONCLUSION
"There are thousands,or maybe millions of revelation messages out there. They're in books, movies, songs even in our daily life. That one thing that you thought was wrong but tried not to think twice about it because no one wants to be an outcast. People have all this access to so many messages basically screaming at them to wake up and fight the power, the "norm" and make a change. But most just sit by and do nothing, because they are afraid to take action for themselves.Since people really do lead our lives mostly like a heard of sheep, we need a leader. And while our "profits" and "renegades" keep getting killed and thrown in jail we really won't have one. - Another reason why no one has woken up is because our generation has lost its drive to try to make a change." Lilly Torres. Something that could happen is that we would have not one, but many people leading so there would be a group effort and not so much focus on one person to be the "prophet." this can be connected back to Andy's speech in class about engines, if one person or several people take action on one little situation or problem, this might not exactly stop the entire problem but it might slow down the progress the situation. Revelations and messages can be found at anytime or point of your life but the question is are you ready to accept the challenge.
Worked Cited
Derrick Jensen. The Culture of Make Believe. Vermont: Chelsea Green Publishing Company, 2004.
Foxfire. Dir. Annette Haywood-Carter. Perf. Hedy Burress and Angelina Jolie. Samuel Goldwyn Company, 1996.
Hans Christian Anderson. Emperor’s New Clothes. 2008.
Henrik Ibsen. Enemy of the People. New York: Oxford University Press Inc., 1999.
The Matrix. Dir. Andy and Larry Wachowski. Perf. Keanu Reeves, Laurence Fishburne, Carrie- Anne Moss, and Joe Pantoliano. Warner Bros, 1999.
The Allegory of the Cave (the Republic, Book VII) -Plato- 360 B.C.E- Excerpt 3
5/5/08
Starr 4
Revelation
Concepts: What is Revelation? What is a trope / revelation trope?
A revelation is something that tries or attempts to reveal the unknown. It is also a disclosure or enlightening idea, or realization that helps you better understand the world. Within a revelation, there is a prophet and the revealer. We find ourselves watching the same movies or reading the same story lines over and over again which is known as a trope. A revelation Trope is a familiar thing you see / certain element used over and over again or something that occurs more than once in different things. Some crucial elements of the revelation trope are things that might be life changing, a revealer and prophet, crisis, something big happen to the revealer. Some key elements to a revelation trope are the prophet and the revealer try to share a message that connects the dots in a new way but the new message offers a vision of a redeemed world, but there is opposition to the message and then drama occurs. The revelation only works if the prophet is ready to take upon their responsibilities and take action for the good of others. It is the prophets choice whether or not they Each revelation or message that is being presented to the prophet might not be a world changing factor, but it can be either self life changing or a small percentage of the real world’s situation that can later on make a difference. In a revelation trope the revealer and prophet seems to be physically opposite or distinct from one another. Also there are certain scenes or descriptions from books and movies that can be seen in revelation tropes.
Descriptive
Tropes can play a major role in either a book or movie because the audience can identify the reoccurring scene and can connect it to other things to try and reveal its meaning. Elements of a revelation trope consist of the following: ignorant masses, an unacceptable situation, a prophet or revealer trying to share a message that presents things in a new way and that offers a new redeemed world, opposition to the messenger, and then drama occurs. A trope can be seen within movies, plays, and literature.
One example of a revelation trope is a famous childhood fable called “The Emperors New Clothes” by Han Christian Anderson. Two scoundrels accomplish to play a trick on the emperor in believing that they were tailors and have developed this way of making clothes that are invisible and that those who are too stupid and incompetent to appreciate its value. When the scoundrels presented the new clothing to the Emperor, he is too afraid of being viewed as stupid that he pretends that there is really a garment. Others within the kingdom also pretended that there was a garment because they were also afraid of being seen as stupid. The people of the town heard about this garment being made and were anxious for the Emperor to show them. The Emperor agreed to show them, even though when he looked in the mirror, he only saw himself naked, not a beautiful suit. As the Emperor paraded down the main square, the people all pretended to see something, in fear of letting their Emperor know they were too stupid. However, a child came forward and said “The Emperor is naked,” and soon everyone else in the crowd realized it was true. The Emperor knew they were right, but refused to admit to it, so he simply stood there on his carriage continuing on with the parade. The scoundrels in this story are the messengers, as they are trying to prove how vain the Emperor truly is. The unstable situation is the fact that the people are so ignorant and that the Emperor is so concerned with his clothes and how he looks. The ignorant masses are so afraid of being seen as something, that they try to ignore the truth, thus there is opposition to the message. In the end, the drama that occurs is the uproar of the crowd, and the Emperor as he continues to stand there naked before them.
Another prime example of the revelation trope is the movie The Matrix. In the matrix, Morpheus makes Neo realize that the world as he knows it is not reality and just a lie. It is simply fragments of a computer program. Morpheus brings Neo into what is the real world, believing that Neo is “the one”. While Morpheus is trying to convince Neo of the real world, the machines which are running this real world attempt to stop him from getting his message across. In this movie, Morpheus can be seen as the prophet. The message which he is attempting to reveal is that the world as Neo knows it is fake. The ignorant masses is almost the entirety of the human race, as they are simply living in a computer program with no idea that what they are living is not reality. The opposition occurs when the machines begin to fight against Neo. In order for Neo to realize that he “the one” he must first accept the message being presented by Morpheus, in which later on he does.
As seen in many other revelation tropes, the revealer can also be the prophet as well because they are usually presenting a message in which others can not see or are too afraid to realize what is really going on. They are usually the ones who are more out spoken and have stronger physical apparel then many others.
In An enemy of the People, there seems to be two types of ignorant masses which is a reoccurring element in a variety of sources. The first group is where people fully deny the revelation and will go to violent extremes to stop it (The general public/compact majority).The second group is people who are affected mentally by the revelation, but do not implemented the revelation in their lives(Petra, mr.stockmann's wife).
Compare/Contrast
In many situations, the prophet can find themselves having to sacrifice their own lives in order to save their disciples life. In this situation, this makes the disciple either realizes they are truly the chosen one or allow them to over come their fears and take control of their inner powers or force. In the movie Star Wars, in the scene when Obi-Wan, Luke, Han Solo, Chewbacca, R2-D2 and C3PO are aboard the enemies ship, trying to make their way back to their own ship, Obi-Wan makes it possible for them to return to their ship by beginning a fight. Obi-Wan begins a light saber duel between Darth Vader, which allows the rest of them to get back to their ship safely. Obi-Wan then allows Darth Vader to kill him as he warns him that he will become “more powerful than you can possibly imagine.” Obi-Wan sacrificed himself in order to help the rest of them make their way back to the ship. In The Matrix, Morpheus, who is the prophet and is teaching Neo, the disciple, tells the others to escape while he distracts the Agents by fighting them. He knows he will not be able to save himself, for the Agents are way too strong for him to fight alone. Despite knowing that he will most likely die, he chooses it is more important to let Neo get away then to save himself. Both sacrifices, by both Morpheus and Obi-Wan, became a much more impacting factor on the life of the disciple. When Morpheus allows himself to be captured by the Agents, it inspired Neo to take action. Early, Neo had been somewhat reluctant to completely take part in the Matrix. However, once they learn that Morpheus is in trouble, and has allowed himself to be captured, Neo becomes more willing to help, and he decides that he is going to return and save Morpheus from the Agents, despite how dangerous it may be. Just as Neo was inspired to rescue Morpheus, after Obi-Wan had sacrificed himself, Luke becomes more connected with the force. After the others escape and return to the Rebel Alliance, Luke agrees to join the assault team which is working to destroy the Death Star. While Luke is on his way to the center of the Death Star, it’s discovered that Darth Vader has sent out ships to destroy Luke on his way. Seconds before the Death Star is about to destroy the Rebel base, Luke hears Obi-Wans voice telling him to “use the force”. Luke then fires the shot that destroys the death star and saves the Rebel base. In both situations, it is not until something bad happens to the prophet that the disciple begins to truly take action and pursue the message they were given in the revelation. It was not until Morpheus was about to be killed, that Neo began to truly fight back in the Matrix. In Star Wars, it was not until Obi-Wan were killed, that Luke truly accepted to use the force, which is the message Obi-Wan wanted to get across. Something negative must happen to the Prophet that will then encourage the disciple to take action of the revelation on their own without the guidance of the prophet.
In the Matrix, Neo, a computer programmer, finds out that he is the chosen one to fight the agents that made the matrix. Morpheus told him that if he wanted to know and observe the matrix himself he would have to swallow the red pill. He told Neo that he must choose if he wants to eat the red pill or blue pill. He decides to pick the red pill, which entirely changes the way he looks at life. Once he takes the red pill, he’s in a red liquid pod where the machines unplug him and pushes him down a tube into a stream of water. This symbolizes his rebirth into the real world. This rebirth is also seen in the Feed where after the talk Titus had with Violet's dad, Titus went to the drop tube to his house. The drop tube signify rebirth. In these books, when the person is reborn, he/she does not fully understand the revelation. The person is an infant mentally because he/she is still ignorant and is only introduced to part of the revelation. There is a very long process that people need to undergo in order to come to a deep understanding of the revelation. This infant goes through many obstacles that may affect the way he/she may perceive the revelation. This process of rebirth into adulthood is seen in our lives and in other novels.
In the novel Feed, all the teens have feeds incorporated into their brains. The government has control over their minds by transmitting advertisements and giving them what they desire. The teens are taught in school how to use the feeds to buy items. However, in the book Violet is the only girl who resists the feed. She does this by not buying any items that are exposed to her. Because she doesn’t buy any items, her feed malfunctions to the point where she dies. Titus learns an important message from Violet that that the people are taken over by the government through the implementation of feeds into peoples brains. People are brainwashed by advertisements which intrigue them to buy clothes and accessories. As a result, people don't think for themselves and do not realize that the civilization crashing.- Stephanie Chiu. Violet expressed this message in a conversation she had with Titus. She told him that she was outraged that people who get feeds at an early age are “ ignorant self-centered idiots” because they are brainwashed by the government to value the lies. Titus at this point felt degraded because he did get his feed at an early age. Titus realizes this message when Violet will die in minutes. He tells her all the news he find out about the civilization and proves to Violet that he understands the truth about civilization. Feed is similar to An Enemy of the people because the ignorant masses understand the message to some degree when something tragic happens to the prophet. In Feed, when Violet dies, Titus gets the message. Similarly, in an Enemy of the people Mr. Stockmann’s wife only supports him when the whole town has turned their back on him.
In the movie “Foxfire” the revelation message is that one needs to stand up for themselves and others. The teacher was sexually harassing one of the students and Angelina’s character “Legs” gets a group of the female students and the beat up the teacher. The message that the students send to the teacher is that if you hurt one of us you hurt all of us. The way Legs stood up for the several other girls in the school is just the same way as Neo had to stand up to the evil agents in order to save Morpheus. Both Neo and Legs where in fact out powered because Legs is just a teenager and Neo feels as if he is just a normal human, they both find the faith and courage within them in order to stand up to what is most important to them, and that affect others lives as well.
In The Allegory of The Cave Socrates creates an unacceptable situation in which
Analysis/ Theory
While looking at many different Revelations / revelation tropes there are many new important aspects that are being presented to the audience that is more then seen by the naked eye. One theory I believe or came up with is “the disciple seems to always be denying that they are the one, but they are never against the actual message that is being presented to them by the prophet”. Throughout the movies “Star Wars” and “The Matrix”, both Neo and Luke have the feeling that they might be the chosen ones but they are both too afraid to take the responsibility. They must need someone to convince them and give them guidance that they have the powers and force and must figure out how to accept it.
Also I began to realize that the prophet is always much stronger than the disciple.Also in many situations of the revelation trope, there is a trader involved that is trying to stop the prophet from getting his message across to his disciple. This is usually known as the Judaist trope, which is the trader / betrays the good side and prefers the bad side. In Star wars, Dark Vader was the prophet until he became evil leader and tries to stop Luke from accepting the powers and defeating him. While in The Matrix, the trader felt as if his revelation was not the same as what he has been told by Morpheus and then gives up and tries to kill Neo and allows Morpheus to get killed.
CONCLUSION
"There are thousands,or maybe millions of revelation messages out there. They're in books, movies, songs even in our daily life. That one thing that you thought was wrong but tried not to think twice about it because no one wants to be an outcast. People have all this access to so many messages basically screaming at them to wake up and fight the power, the "norm" and make a change. But most just sit by and do nothing, because they are afraid to take action for themselves.Since people really do lead our lives mostly like a heard of sheep, we need a leader. And while our "profits" and "renegades" keep getting killed and thrown in jail we really won't have one. - Another reason why no one has woken up is because our generation has lost its drive to try to make a change." Lilly Torres. Something that could happen is that we would have not one, but many people leading so there would be a group effort and not so much focus on one person to be the "prophet." this can be connected back to Andy's speech in class about engines, if one person or several people take action on one little situation or problem, this might not exactly stop the entire problem but it might slow down the progress the situation. Revelations and messages can be found at anytime or point of your life but the question is are you ready to accept the challenge.
Worked Cited
Derrick Jensen. The Culture of Make Believe. Vermont: Chelsea Green Publishing Company, 2004.
Foxfire. Dir. Annette Haywood-Carter. Perf. Hedy Burress and Angelina Jolie. Samuel Goldwyn Company, 1996.
Hans Christian Anderson. Emperor’s New Clothes. 2008.
Henrik Ibsen. Enemy of the People. New York: Oxford University Press Inc., 1999.
The Matrix. Dir. Andy and Larry Wachowski. Perf. Keanu Reeves, Laurence Fishburne, Carrie- Anne Moss, and Joe Pantoliano. Warner Bros, 1999.
The Allegory of the Cave (the Republic, Book VII) -Plato- 360 B.C.E- Excerpt 3
Sunday, May 4, 2008
final draft part 4 Revelation
Christopher Campbell 5/5/08
Starr 4
Revelation
Concepts: What is Revelation? What is a trope / revelation trope?
A revelation is something that tries or attempts to reveal the unknown. It is also a disclosure or enlightening idea, or realization that helps you better understand the world. Within a revelation, there is a prophet and the revealer. We find ourselves watching the same movies or reading the same story lines over and over again which is known as a trope. A revelation Trope is a familiar thing you see / certain element used over and over again or something that occurs more than once in different things. Some crucial elements of the revelation trope are things that might be life changing, a revealer and prophet, crisis, something big happen to the revealer. Some key elements to a revelation trope are the prophet and the revealer try to share a message that connects the dots in a new way but the new message offers a vision of a redeemed world, but there is opposition to the message and then drama occurs. The revelation only works if the prophet is ready to take upon their responsibilities and take action for the good of others. It is the prophets choice whether or not they Each revelation or message that is being presented to the prophet might not be a world changing factor, but it can be either self life changing or a small percentage of the real world’s situation that can later on make a difference. In a revelation trope the revealer and prophet seems to be physically opposite or distinct from one another. Also there are certain scenes or descriptions from books and movies that can be seen in revelation tropes.
Descriptive
Tropes can play a major role in either a book or movie because the audience can identify the reoccurring scene and can connect it to other things to try and reveal its meaning. Elements of a revelation trope consist of the following: ignorant masses, an unacceptable situation, a prophet or revealer trying to share a message that presents things in a new way and that offers a new redeemed world, opposition to the messenger, and then drama occurs. A trope can be seen within movies, plays, and literature.
One example of a revelation trope is a famous childhood fable called “The Emperors New Clothes” by Han Christian Anderson. Two scoundrels accomplish to play a trick on the emperor in believing that they were tailors and have developed this way of making clothes that are invisible and that those who are too stupid and incompetent to appreciate its value. When the scoundrels presented the new clothing to the Emperor, he is too afraid of being viewed as stupid that he pretends that there is really a garment. Others within the kingdom also pretended that there was a garment because they were also afraid of being seen as stupid. The people of the town heard about this garment being made and were anxious for the Emperor to show them. The Emperor agreed to show them, even though when he looked in the mirror, he only saw himself naked, not a beautiful suit. As the Emperor paraded down the main square, the people all pretended to see something, in fear of letting their Emperor know they were too stupid. However, a child came forward and said “The Emperor is naked,” and soon everyone else in the crowd realized it was true. The Emperor knew they were right, but refused to admit to it, so he simply stood there on his carriage continuing on with the parade. The scoundrels in this story are the messengers, as they are trying to prove how vain the Emperor truly is. The unstable situation is the fact that the people are so ignorant and that the Emperor is so concerned with his clothes and how he looks. The ignorant masses are so afraid of being seen as something, that they try to ignore the truth, thus there is opposition to the message. In the end, the drama that occurs is the uproar of the crowd, and the Emperor as he continues to stand there naked before them.
Another prime example of the revelation trope is the movie The Matrix. In the matrix, Morpheus makes Neo realize that the world as he knows it is not reality and just a lie. It is simply fragments of a computer program. Morpheus brings Neo into what is the real world, believing that Neo is “the one”. While Morpheus is trying to convince Neo of the real world, the machines which are running this real world attempt to stop him from getting his message across. In this movie, Morpheus can be seen as the prophet. The message which he is attempting to reveal is that the world as Neo knows it is fake. The ignorant masses is almost the entirety of the human race, as they are simply living in a computer program with no idea that what they are living is not reality. The opposition occurs when the machines begin to fight against Neo. In order for Neo to realize that he “the one” he must first accept the message being presented by Morpheus, in which later on he does.
As seen in many other revelation tropes, the revealer can also be the prophet as well because they are usually presenting a message in which others can not see or are too afraid to realize what is really going on. They are usually the ones who are more out spoken and have stronger physical apparel then many others.
In An enemy of the People, there seems to be two types of ignorant masses which is a reoccurring element in a variety of sources. The first group is where people fully deny the revelation and will go to violent extremes to stop it (The general public/compact majority).The second group is people who are affected mentally by the revelation, but do not implemented the revelation in their lives(Petra, mr.stockmann's wife).
Compare/Contrast
In many situations, the prophet can find themselves having to sacrifice their own lives in order to save their disciples life. In this situation, this makes the disciple either realizes they are truly the chosen one or allow them to over come their fears and take control of their inner powers or force. In the movie Star Wars, in the scene when Obi-Wan, Luke, Han Solo, Chewbacca, R2-D2 and C3PO are aboard the enemies ship, trying to make their way back to their own ship, Obi-Wan makes it possible for them to return to their ship by beginning a fight. Obi-Wan begins a light saber duel between Darth Vader, which allows the rest of them to get back to their ship safely. Obi-Wan then allows Darth Vader to kill him as he warns him that he will become “more powerful than you can possibly imagine.” Obi-Wan sacrificed himself in order to help the rest of them make their way back to the ship. In The Matrix, Morpheus, who is the prophet and is teaching Neo, the disciple, tells the others to escape while he distracts the Agents by fighting them. He knows he will not be able to save himself, for the Agents are way too strong for him to fight alone. Despite knowing that he will most likely die, he chooses it is more important to let Neo get away then to save himself. Both sacrifices, by both Morpheus and Obi-Wan, became a much more impacting factor on the life of the disciple. When Morpheus allows himself to be captured by the Agents, it inspired Neo to take action. Early, Neo had been somewhat reluctant to completely take part in the Matrix. However, once they learn that Morpheus is in trouble, and has allowed himself to be captured, Neo becomes more willing to help, and he decides that he is going to return and save Morpheus from the Agents, despite how dangerous it may be. Just as Neo was inspired to rescue Morpheus, after Obi-Wan had sacrificed himself, Luke becomes more connected with the force. After the others escape and return to the Rebel Alliance, Luke agrees to join the assault team which is working to destroy the Death Star. While Luke is on his way to the center of the Death Star, it’s discovered that Darth Vader has sent out ships to destroy Luke on his way. Seconds before the Death Star is about to destroy the Rebel base, Luke hears Obi-Wans voice telling him to “use the force”. Luke then fires the shot that destroys the death star and saves the Rebel base. In both situations, it is not until something bad happens to the prophet that the disciple begins to truly take action and pursue the message they were given in the revelation. It was not until Morpheus was about to be killed, that Neo began to truly fight back in the Matrix. In Star Wars, it was not until Obi-Wan were killed, that Luke truly accepted to use the force, which is the message Obi-Wan wanted to get across. Something negative must happen to the Prophet that will then encourage the disciple to take action of the revelation on their own without the guidance of the prophet.
In the Matrix, Neo, a computer programmer, finds out that he is the chosen one to fight the agents that made the matrix. Morpheus told him that if he wanted to know and observe the matrix himself he would have to swallow the red pill. He told Neo that he must choose if he wants to eat the red pill or blue pill. He decides to pick the red pill, which entirely changes the way he looks at life. Once he takes the red pill, he’s in a red liquid pod where the machines unplug him and pushes him down a tube into a stream of water. This symbolizes his rebirth into the real world. This rebirth is also seen in the Feed where after the talk Titus had with Violet's dad, Titus went to the drop tube to his house. The drop tube signify rebirth. In these books, when the person is reborn, he/she does not fully understand the revelation. The person is an infant mentally because he/she is still ignorant and is only introduced to part of the revelation. There is a very long process that people need to undergo in order to come to a deep understanding of the revelation. This infant goes through many obstacles that may affect the way he/she may perceive the revelation. This process of rebirth into adulthood is seen in our lives and in other novels.
In the novel Feed, all the teens have feeds incorporated into their brains. The government has control over their minds by transmitting advertisements and giving them what they desire. The teens are taught in school how to use the feeds to buy items. However, in the book Violet is the only girl who resists the feed. She does this by not buying any items that are exposed to her. Because she doesn’t buy any items, her feed malfunctions to the point where she dies. Titus learns an important message from Violet that that the people are taken over by the government through the implementation of feeds into peoples brains. People are brainwashed by advertisements which intrigue them to buy clothes and accessories. As a result, people don't think for themselves and do not realize that the civilization crashing. Violet expressed this message in a conversation she had with Titus. She told him that she was outraged that people who get feeds at an early age are “ ignorant self-centered idiots” because they are brainwashed by the government to value the lies. Titus at this point felt degraded because he did get his feed at an early age. Titus realizes this message when Violet will die in minutes. He tells her all the news he find out about the civilization and proves to Violet that he understands the truth about civilization. Feed is similar to An Enemy of the people because the ignorant masses understand the message to some degree when something tragic happens to the prophet. In Feed, when Violet dies, Titus gets the message. Similarly, in an Enemy of the people Mr. Stockmann’s wife only supports him when the whole town has turned their back on him.
In the movie “Foxfire” the revelation message is that one needs to stand up for themselves and others. The teacher was sexually harassing one of the students and Angelina’s character “Legs” gets a group of the female students and the beat up the teacher. The message that the students send to the teacher is that if you hurt one of us you hurt all of us. The way Legs stood up for the several other girls in the school is just the same way as Neo had to stand up to the evil agents in order to save Morpheus. Both Neo and Legs where in fact out powered because Legs is just a teenager and Neo feels as if he is just a normal human, they both find the faith and courage within them in order to stand up to what is most important to them, and that affect others lives as well.
Analysis/ Theory
While looking at many different Revelations / revelation tropes there are many new important aspects that are being presented to the audience that is more then seen by the naked eye. One theory I believe or came up with is “the disciple seems to always be denying that they are the one, but they are never against the actual message that is being presented to them by the prophet”. Throughout the movies “Star Wars” and “The Matrix”, both Neo and Luke have the feeling that they might be the chosen ones but they are both too afraid to take the responsibility. They must need someone to convince them and give them guidance that they have the powers and force and must figure out how to accept it.
Also I began to realize that the prophet is always much stronger than the disciple.Also in many situations of the revelation trope, there is a trader involved that is trying to stop the prophet from getting his message across to his disciple. This is usually known as the Judaist trope, which is the trader / betrays the good side and prefers the bad side. In Star wars, Dark Vader was the prophet until he became evil leader and tries to stop Luke from accepting the powers and defeating him. While in The Matrix, the trader felt as if his revelation was not the same as what he has been told by Morpheus and then gives up and tries to kill Neo and allows Morpheus to get killed.
CONCLUSION
There are thousands,or maybe millions of revelation messages out there. They're in books, movies, songs even in our daily life. That one thing that you thought was wrong but tried not to think twice about it because no one wants to be an outcast. People have all this access to so many messages basically screaming at them to wake up and fight the power, the "norm" and make a change. But most just sit by and do nothing, because they are afraid to take action for themselves.Since people really do lead our lives mostly like a heard of sheep, we need a leader. And while our "profits" and "renegades" keep getting killed and thrown in jail we really won't have one. - Another reason why no one has woken up is because our generation has lost its drive to try to make a change.Something that could happen is that we would have not one, but many people leading so there would be a group effort and not so much focus on one person to be the "prophet." this can be connected back to Andy's speech in class about engines, if one person or several people take action on one little situation or problem, this might not exactly stop the entire problem but it might slow down the progress the situation. Revelations and messages can be found at abytime or point of your life but the question is are you ready to accept the challenge.
Worked Cited
Derrick Jensen. The Culture of Make Believe. Vermont: Chelsea Green Publishing Company, 2004.
Foxfire. Dir. Annette Haywood-Carter. Perf. Hedy Burress and Angelina Jolie. Samuel Goldwyn Company, 1996.
Hans Christian Anderson. Emperor’s New Clothes. 2008.
Henrik Ibsen. Enemy of the People. New York: Oxford University Press Inc., 1999.
Starr 4
Revelation
Concepts: What is Revelation? What is a trope / revelation trope?
A revelation is something that tries or attempts to reveal the unknown. It is also a disclosure or enlightening idea, or realization that helps you better understand the world. Within a revelation, there is a prophet and the revealer. We find ourselves watching the same movies or reading the same story lines over and over again which is known as a trope. A revelation Trope is a familiar thing you see / certain element used over and over again or something that occurs more than once in different things. Some crucial elements of the revelation trope are things that might be life changing, a revealer and prophet, crisis, something big happen to the revealer. Some key elements to a revelation trope are the prophet and the revealer try to share a message that connects the dots in a new way but the new message offers a vision of a redeemed world, but there is opposition to the message and then drama occurs. The revelation only works if the prophet is ready to take upon their responsibilities and take action for the good of others. It is the prophets choice whether or not they Each revelation or message that is being presented to the prophet might not be a world changing factor, but it can be either self life changing or a small percentage of the real world’s situation that can later on make a difference. In a revelation trope the revealer and prophet seems to be physically opposite or distinct from one another. Also there are certain scenes or descriptions from books and movies that can be seen in revelation tropes.
Descriptive
Tropes can play a major role in either a book or movie because the audience can identify the reoccurring scene and can connect it to other things to try and reveal its meaning. Elements of a revelation trope consist of the following: ignorant masses, an unacceptable situation, a prophet or revealer trying to share a message that presents things in a new way and that offers a new redeemed world, opposition to the messenger, and then drama occurs. A trope can be seen within movies, plays, and literature.
One example of a revelation trope is a famous childhood fable called “The Emperors New Clothes” by Han Christian Anderson. Two scoundrels accomplish to play a trick on the emperor in believing that they were tailors and have developed this way of making clothes that are invisible and that those who are too stupid and incompetent to appreciate its value. When the scoundrels presented the new clothing to the Emperor, he is too afraid of being viewed as stupid that he pretends that there is really a garment. Others within the kingdom also pretended that there was a garment because they were also afraid of being seen as stupid. The people of the town heard about this garment being made and were anxious for the Emperor to show them. The Emperor agreed to show them, even though when he looked in the mirror, he only saw himself naked, not a beautiful suit. As the Emperor paraded down the main square, the people all pretended to see something, in fear of letting their Emperor know they were too stupid. However, a child came forward and said “The Emperor is naked,” and soon everyone else in the crowd realized it was true. The Emperor knew they were right, but refused to admit to it, so he simply stood there on his carriage continuing on with the parade. The scoundrels in this story are the messengers, as they are trying to prove how vain the Emperor truly is. The unstable situation is the fact that the people are so ignorant and that the Emperor is so concerned with his clothes and how he looks. The ignorant masses are so afraid of being seen as something, that they try to ignore the truth, thus there is opposition to the message. In the end, the drama that occurs is the uproar of the crowd, and the Emperor as he continues to stand there naked before them.
Another prime example of the revelation trope is the movie The Matrix. In the matrix, Morpheus makes Neo realize that the world as he knows it is not reality and just a lie. It is simply fragments of a computer program. Morpheus brings Neo into what is the real world, believing that Neo is “the one”. While Morpheus is trying to convince Neo of the real world, the machines which are running this real world attempt to stop him from getting his message across. In this movie, Morpheus can be seen as the prophet. The message which he is attempting to reveal is that the world as Neo knows it is fake. The ignorant masses is almost the entirety of the human race, as they are simply living in a computer program with no idea that what they are living is not reality. The opposition occurs when the machines begin to fight against Neo. In order for Neo to realize that he “the one” he must first accept the message being presented by Morpheus, in which later on he does.
As seen in many other revelation tropes, the revealer can also be the prophet as well because they are usually presenting a message in which others can not see or are too afraid to realize what is really going on. They are usually the ones who are more out spoken and have stronger physical apparel then many others.
In An enemy of the People, there seems to be two types of ignorant masses which is a reoccurring element in a variety of sources. The first group is where people fully deny the revelation and will go to violent extremes to stop it (The general public/compact majority).The second group is people who are affected mentally by the revelation, but do not implemented the revelation in their lives(Petra, mr.stockmann's wife).
Compare/Contrast
In many situations, the prophet can find themselves having to sacrifice their own lives in order to save their disciples life. In this situation, this makes the disciple either realizes they are truly the chosen one or allow them to over come their fears and take control of their inner powers or force. In the movie Star Wars, in the scene when Obi-Wan, Luke, Han Solo, Chewbacca, R2-D2 and C3PO are aboard the enemies ship, trying to make their way back to their own ship, Obi-Wan makes it possible for them to return to their ship by beginning a fight. Obi-Wan begins a light saber duel between Darth Vader, which allows the rest of them to get back to their ship safely. Obi-Wan then allows Darth Vader to kill him as he warns him that he will become “more powerful than you can possibly imagine.” Obi-Wan sacrificed himself in order to help the rest of them make their way back to the ship. In The Matrix, Morpheus, who is the prophet and is teaching Neo, the disciple, tells the others to escape while he distracts the Agents by fighting them. He knows he will not be able to save himself, for the Agents are way too strong for him to fight alone. Despite knowing that he will most likely die, he chooses it is more important to let Neo get away then to save himself. Both sacrifices, by both Morpheus and Obi-Wan, became a much more impacting factor on the life of the disciple. When Morpheus allows himself to be captured by the Agents, it inspired Neo to take action. Early, Neo had been somewhat reluctant to completely take part in the Matrix. However, once they learn that Morpheus is in trouble, and has allowed himself to be captured, Neo becomes more willing to help, and he decides that he is going to return and save Morpheus from the Agents, despite how dangerous it may be. Just as Neo was inspired to rescue Morpheus, after Obi-Wan had sacrificed himself, Luke becomes more connected with the force. After the others escape and return to the Rebel Alliance, Luke agrees to join the assault team which is working to destroy the Death Star. While Luke is on his way to the center of the Death Star, it’s discovered that Darth Vader has sent out ships to destroy Luke on his way. Seconds before the Death Star is about to destroy the Rebel base, Luke hears Obi-Wans voice telling him to “use the force”. Luke then fires the shot that destroys the death star and saves the Rebel base. In both situations, it is not until something bad happens to the prophet that the disciple begins to truly take action and pursue the message they were given in the revelation. It was not until Morpheus was about to be killed, that Neo began to truly fight back in the Matrix. In Star Wars, it was not until Obi-Wan were killed, that Luke truly accepted to use the force, which is the message Obi-Wan wanted to get across. Something negative must happen to the Prophet that will then encourage the disciple to take action of the revelation on their own without the guidance of the prophet.
In the Matrix, Neo, a computer programmer, finds out that he is the chosen one to fight the agents that made the matrix. Morpheus told him that if he wanted to know and observe the matrix himself he would have to swallow the red pill. He told Neo that he must choose if he wants to eat the red pill or blue pill. He decides to pick the red pill, which entirely changes the way he looks at life. Once he takes the red pill, he’s in a red liquid pod where the machines unplug him and pushes him down a tube into a stream of water. This symbolizes his rebirth into the real world. This rebirth is also seen in the Feed where after the talk Titus had with Violet's dad, Titus went to the drop tube to his house. The drop tube signify rebirth. In these books, when the person is reborn, he/she does not fully understand the revelation. The person is an infant mentally because he/she is still ignorant and is only introduced to part of the revelation. There is a very long process that people need to undergo in order to come to a deep understanding of the revelation. This infant goes through many obstacles that may affect the way he/she may perceive the revelation. This process of rebirth into adulthood is seen in our lives and in other novels.
In the novel Feed, all the teens have feeds incorporated into their brains. The government has control over their minds by transmitting advertisements and giving them what they desire. The teens are taught in school how to use the feeds to buy items. However, in the book Violet is the only girl who resists the feed. She does this by not buying any items that are exposed to her. Because she doesn’t buy any items, her feed malfunctions to the point where she dies. Titus learns an important message from Violet that that the people are taken over by the government through the implementation of feeds into peoples brains. People are brainwashed by advertisements which intrigue them to buy clothes and accessories. As a result, people don't think for themselves and do not realize that the civilization crashing. Violet expressed this message in a conversation she had with Titus. She told him that she was outraged that people who get feeds at an early age are “ ignorant self-centered idiots” because they are brainwashed by the government to value the lies. Titus at this point felt degraded because he did get his feed at an early age. Titus realizes this message when Violet will die in minutes. He tells her all the news he find out about the civilization and proves to Violet that he understands the truth about civilization. Feed is similar to An Enemy of the people because the ignorant masses understand the message to some degree when something tragic happens to the prophet. In Feed, when Violet dies, Titus gets the message. Similarly, in an Enemy of the people Mr. Stockmann’s wife only supports him when the whole town has turned their back on him.
In the movie “Foxfire” the revelation message is that one needs to stand up for themselves and others. The teacher was sexually harassing one of the students and Angelina’s character “Legs” gets a group of the female students and the beat up the teacher. The message that the students send to the teacher is that if you hurt one of us you hurt all of us. The way Legs stood up for the several other girls in the school is just the same way as Neo had to stand up to the evil agents in order to save Morpheus. Both Neo and Legs where in fact out powered because Legs is just a teenager and Neo feels as if he is just a normal human, they both find the faith and courage within them in order to stand up to what is most important to them, and that affect others lives as well.
Analysis/ Theory
While looking at many different Revelations / revelation tropes there are many new important aspects that are being presented to the audience that is more then seen by the naked eye. One theory I believe or came up with is “the disciple seems to always be denying that they are the one, but they are never against the actual message that is being presented to them by the prophet”. Throughout the movies “Star Wars” and “The Matrix”, both Neo and Luke have the feeling that they might be the chosen ones but they are both too afraid to take the responsibility. They must need someone to convince them and give them guidance that they have the powers and force and must figure out how to accept it.
Also I began to realize that the prophet is always much stronger than the disciple.Also in many situations of the revelation trope, there is a trader involved that is trying to stop the prophet from getting his message across to his disciple. This is usually known as the Judaist trope, which is the trader / betrays the good side and prefers the bad side. In Star wars, Dark Vader was the prophet until he became evil leader and tries to stop Luke from accepting the powers and defeating him. While in The Matrix, the trader felt as if his revelation was not the same as what he has been told by Morpheus and then gives up and tries to kill Neo and allows Morpheus to get killed.
CONCLUSION
There are thousands,or maybe millions of revelation messages out there. They're in books, movies, songs even in our daily life. That one thing that you thought was wrong but tried not to think twice about it because no one wants to be an outcast. People have all this access to so many messages basically screaming at them to wake up and fight the power, the "norm" and make a change. But most just sit by and do nothing, because they are afraid to take action for themselves.Since people really do lead our lives mostly like a heard of sheep, we need a leader. And while our "profits" and "renegades" keep getting killed and thrown in jail we really won't have one. - Another reason why no one has woken up is because our generation has lost its drive to try to make a change.Something that could happen is that we would have not one, but many people leading so there would be a group effort and not so much focus on one person to be the "prophet." this can be connected back to Andy's speech in class about engines, if one person or several people take action on one little situation or problem, this might not exactly stop the entire problem but it might slow down the progress the situation. Revelations and messages can be found at abytime or point of your life but the question is are you ready to accept the challenge.
Worked Cited
Derrick Jensen. The Culture of Make Believe. Vermont: Chelsea Green Publishing Company, 2004.
Foxfire. Dir. Annette Haywood-Carter. Perf. Hedy Burress and Angelina Jolie. Samuel Goldwyn Company, 1996.
Hans Christian Anderson. Emperor’s New Clothes. 2008.
Henrik Ibsen. Enemy of the People. New York: Oxford University Press Inc., 1999.
New Draft Of REVELATION part 3
Christopher Campbell 5/5/08
Starr 4
Revelation
Concepts: What is Revelation? What is a trope / revelation trope?
A revelation is something that tries or attempts to reveal the unknown. It is also a disclosure or enlightening idea, or realization that helps you better understand the world. Within a revelation, there is a prophet and the revealer. We find ourselves watching the same movies or reading the same story lines over and over again which is known as a trope. A revelation Trope is a familiar thing you see / certain element used over and over again or something that occurs more than once in different things. Some crucial elements of the revelation trope are things that might be life changing, a revealer and prophet, crisis, something big happen to the revealer. Some key elements to a revelation trope are the prophet and the revealer try to share a message that connects the dots in a new way but the new message offers a vision of a redeemed world, but there is opposition to the message and then drama occurs. The revelation only works if the prophet is ready to take upon their responsibilities and take action for the good of others. It is the prophets choice whether or not they Each revelation or message that is being presented to the prophet might not be a world changing factor, but it can be either self life changing or a small percentage of the real world’s situation that can later on make a difference. In a revelation trope the revealer and prophet seems to be physically opposite or distinct from one another. Also there are certain scenes or descriptions from books and movies that can be seen in revelation tropes.
Descriptive
Tropes can play a major role in either a book or movie because the audience can identify the reoccurring scene and can connect it to other things to try and reveal its meaning. Elements of a revelation trope consist of the following: ignorant masses, an unacceptable situation, a prophet or revealer trying to share a message that presents things in a new way and that offers a new redeemed world, opposition to the messenger, and then drama occurs. A trope can be seen within movies, plays, and literature.
One example of a revelation trope is a famous childhood fable called “The Emperors New Clothes” by Han Christian Anderson. Two scoundrels accomplish to play a trick on the emperor in believing that they were tailors and have developed this way of making clothes that are invisible and that those who are too stupid and incompetent to appreciate its value. When the scoundrels presented the new clothing to the Emperor, he is too afraid of being viewed as stupid that he pretends that there is really a garment. Others within the kingdom also pretended that there was a garment because they were also afraid of being seen as stupid. The people of the town heard about this garment being made and were anxious for the Emperor to show them. The Emperor agreed to show them, even though when he looked in the mirror, he only saw himself naked, not a beautiful suit. As the Emperor paraded down the main square, the people all pretended to see something, in fear of letting their Emperor know they were too stupid. However, a child came forward and said “The Emperor is naked,” and soon everyone else in the crowd realized it was true. The Emperor knew they were right, but refused to admit to it, so he simply stood there on his carriage continuing on with the parade. The scoundrels in this story are the messengers, as they are trying to prove how vain the Emperor truly is. The unstable situation is the fact that the people are so ignorant and that the Emperor is so concerned with his clothes and how he looks. The ignorant masses are so afraid of being seen as something, that they try to ignore the truth, thus there is opposition to the message. In the end, the drama that occurs is the uproar of the crowd, and the Emperor as he continues to stand there naked before them.
Another prime example of the revelation trope is the movie The Matrix. In the matrix, Morpheus makes Neo realize that the world as he knows it is not reality and just a lie. It is simply fragments of a computer program. Morpheus brings Neo into what is the real world, believing that Neo is “the one”. While Morpheus is trying to convince Neo of the real world, the machines which are running this real world attempt to stop him from getting his message across. In this movie, Morpheus can be seen as the prophet. The message which he is attempting to reveal is that the world as Neo knows it is fake. The ignorant masses is almost the entirety of the human race, as they are simply living in a computer program with no idea that what they are living is not reality. The opposition occurs when the machines begin to fight against Neo. In order for Neo to realize that he “the one” he must first accept the message being presented by Morpheus, in which later on he does.
As seen in many other revelation tropes, the revealer can also be the prophet as well because they are usually presenting a message in which others can not see or are too afraid to realize what is really going on. They are usually the ones who are more out spoken and have stronger physical apparel then many others.
In An enemy of the People, there seems to be two types of ignorant masses which is a reoccurring element in a variety of sources. The first group is where people fully deny the revelation and will go to violent extremes to stop it (The general public/compact majority).The second group is people who are affected mentally by the revelation, but do not implemented the revelation in their lives(Petra, mr.stockmann's wife).
Compare/Contrast
In many situations, the prophet can find themselves having to sacrifice their own lives in order to save their disciples life. In this situation, this makes the disciple either realizes they are truly the chosen one or allow them to over come their fears and take control of their inner powers or force. In the movie Star Wars, in the scene when Obi-Wan, Luke, Han Solo, Chewbacca, R2-D2 and C3PO are aboard the enemies ship, trying to make their way back to their own ship, Obi-Wan makes it possible for them to return to their ship by beginning a fight. Obi-Wan begins a light saber duel between Darth Vader, which allows the rest of them to get back to their ship safely. Obi-Wan then allows Darth Vader to kill him as he warns him that he will become “more powerful than you can possibly imagine.” Obi-Wan sacrificed himself in order to help the rest of them make their way back to the ship. In The Matrix, Morpheus, who is the prophet and is teaching Neo, the disciple, tells the others to escape while he distracts the Agents by fighting them. He knows he will not be able to save himself, for the Agents are way too strong for him to fight alone. Despite knowing that he will most likely die, he chooses it is more important to let Neo get away then to save himself. Both sacrifices, by both Morpheus and Obi-Wan, became a much more impacting factor on the life of the disciple. When Morpheus allows himself to be captured by the Agents, it inspired Neo to take action. Early, Neo had been somewhat reluctant to completely take part in the Matrix. However, once they learn that Morpheus is in trouble, and has allowed himself to be captured, Neo becomes more willing to help, and he decides that he is going to return and save Morpheus from the Agents, despite how dangerous it may be. Just as Neo was inspired to rescue Morpheus, after Obi-Wan had sacrificed himself, Luke becomes more connected with the force. After the others escape and return to the Rebel Alliance, Luke agrees to join the assault team which is working to destroy the Death Star. While Luke is on his way to the center of the Death Star, it’s discovered that Darth Vader has sent out ships to destroy Luke on his way. Seconds before the Death Star is about to destroy the Rebel base, Luke hears Obi-Wans voice telling him to “use the force”. Luke then fires the shot that destroys the death star and saves the Rebel base. In both situations, it is not until something bad happens to the prophet that the disciple begins to truly take action and pursue the message they were given in the revelation. It was not until Morpheus was about to be killed, that Neo began to truly fight back in the Matrix. In Star Wars, it was not until Obi-Wan were killed, that Luke truly accepted to use the force, which is the message Obi-Wan wanted to get across. Something negative must happen to the Prophet that will then encourage the disciple to take action of the revelation on their own without the guidance of the prophet.
In the Matrix, Neo, a computer programmer, finds out that he is the chosen one to fight the agents that made the matrix. Morpheus told him that if he wanted to know and observe the matrix himself he would have to swallow the red pill. He told Neo that he must choose if he wants to eat the red pill or blue pill. He decides to pick the red pill, which entirely changes the way he looks at life. Once he takes the red pill, he’s in a red liquid pod where the machines unplug him and pushes him down a tube into a stream of water. This symbolizes his rebirth into the real world. This rebirth is also seen in the Feed where after the talk Titus had with Violet's dad, Titus went to the drop tube to his house. The drop tube signify rebirth. In these books, when the person is reborn, he/she does not fully understand the revelation. The person is an infant mentally because he/she is still ignorant and is only introduced to part of the revelation. There is a very long process that people need to undergo in order to come to a deep understanding of the revelation. This infant goes through many obstacles that may affect the way he/she may perceive the revelation. This process of rebirth into adulthood is seen in our lives and in other novels.
In the novel Feed, all the teens have feeds incorporated into their brains. The government has control over their minds by transmitting advertisements and giving them what they desire. The teens are taught in school how to use the feeds to buy items. However, in the book Violet is the only girl who resists the feed. She does this by not buying any items that are exposed to her. Because she doesn’t buy any items, her feed malfunctions to the point where she dies. Titus learns an important message from Violet that that the people are taken over by the government through the implementation of feeds into peoples brains. People are brainwashed by advertisements which intrigue them to buy clothes and accessories. As a result, people don't think for themselves and do not realize that the civilization crashing. Violet expressed this message in a conversation she had with Titus. She told him that she was outraged that people who get feeds at an early age are “ ignorant self-centered idiots” because they are brainwashed by the government to value the lies. Titus at this point felt degraded because he did get his feed at an early age. Titus realizes this message when Violet will die in minutes. He tells her all the news he find out about the civilization and proves to Violet that he understands the truth about civilization. Feed is similar to An Enemy of the people because the ignorant masses understand the message to some degree when something tragic happens to the prophet. In Feed, when Violet dies, Titus gets the message. Similarly, in an Enemy of the people Mr. Stockmann’s wife only supports him when the whole town has turned their back on him.
In the movie “Foxfire” the revelation message is that one needs to stand up for themselves and others. The teacher was sexually harassing one of the students and Angelina’s character “Legs” gets a group of the female students and the beat up the teacher. The message that the students send to the teacher is that if you hurt one of us you hurt all of us. The way Legs stood up for the several other girls in the school is just the same way as Neo had to stand up to the evil agents in order to save Morpheus. Both Neo and Legs where in fact out powered because Legs is just a teenager and Neo feels as if he is just a normal human, they both find the faith and courage within them in order to stand up to what is most important to them, and that affect others lives as well.
Analysis/ Theory
While looking at many different Revelations / revelation tropes there are many new important aspects that are being presented to the audience that is more then seen by the naked eye. One theory I believe or came up with is “the disciple seems to always be denying that they are the one, but they are never against the actual message that is being presented to them by the prophet”. Throughout the movies “Star Wars” and “The Matrix”, both Neo and Luke have the feeling that they might be the chosen ones but they are both too afraid to take the responsibility. They must need someone to convince them and give them guidance that they have the powers and force and must figure out how to accept it.
Also I began to realize that the prophet is always much stronger than the disciple.Also in many situations of the revelation trope, there is a trader involved that is trying to stop the prophet from getting his message across to his disciple. This is usually known as the Judaist trope, which is the trader / betrays the good side and prefers the bad side. In Star wars, Dark Vader was the prophet until he became evil leader and tries to stop Luke from accepting the powers and defeating him. While in The Matrix, the trader felt as if his revelation was not the same as what he has been told by Morpheus and then gives up and tries to kill Neo and allows Morpheus to get killed.
Starr 4
Revelation
Concepts: What is Revelation? What is a trope / revelation trope?
A revelation is something that tries or attempts to reveal the unknown. It is also a disclosure or enlightening idea, or realization that helps you better understand the world. Within a revelation, there is a prophet and the revealer. We find ourselves watching the same movies or reading the same story lines over and over again which is known as a trope. A revelation Trope is a familiar thing you see / certain element used over and over again or something that occurs more than once in different things. Some crucial elements of the revelation trope are things that might be life changing, a revealer and prophet, crisis, something big happen to the revealer. Some key elements to a revelation trope are the prophet and the revealer try to share a message that connects the dots in a new way but the new message offers a vision of a redeemed world, but there is opposition to the message and then drama occurs. The revelation only works if the prophet is ready to take upon their responsibilities and take action for the good of others. It is the prophets choice whether or not they Each revelation or message that is being presented to the prophet might not be a world changing factor, but it can be either self life changing or a small percentage of the real world’s situation that can later on make a difference. In a revelation trope the revealer and prophet seems to be physically opposite or distinct from one another. Also there are certain scenes or descriptions from books and movies that can be seen in revelation tropes.
Descriptive
Tropes can play a major role in either a book or movie because the audience can identify the reoccurring scene and can connect it to other things to try and reveal its meaning. Elements of a revelation trope consist of the following: ignorant masses, an unacceptable situation, a prophet or revealer trying to share a message that presents things in a new way and that offers a new redeemed world, opposition to the messenger, and then drama occurs. A trope can be seen within movies, plays, and literature.
One example of a revelation trope is a famous childhood fable called “The Emperors New Clothes” by Han Christian Anderson. Two scoundrels accomplish to play a trick on the emperor in believing that they were tailors and have developed this way of making clothes that are invisible and that those who are too stupid and incompetent to appreciate its value. When the scoundrels presented the new clothing to the Emperor, he is too afraid of being viewed as stupid that he pretends that there is really a garment. Others within the kingdom also pretended that there was a garment because they were also afraid of being seen as stupid. The people of the town heard about this garment being made and were anxious for the Emperor to show them. The Emperor agreed to show them, even though when he looked in the mirror, he only saw himself naked, not a beautiful suit. As the Emperor paraded down the main square, the people all pretended to see something, in fear of letting their Emperor know they were too stupid. However, a child came forward and said “The Emperor is naked,” and soon everyone else in the crowd realized it was true. The Emperor knew they were right, but refused to admit to it, so he simply stood there on his carriage continuing on with the parade. The scoundrels in this story are the messengers, as they are trying to prove how vain the Emperor truly is. The unstable situation is the fact that the people are so ignorant and that the Emperor is so concerned with his clothes and how he looks. The ignorant masses are so afraid of being seen as something, that they try to ignore the truth, thus there is opposition to the message. In the end, the drama that occurs is the uproar of the crowd, and the Emperor as he continues to stand there naked before them.
Another prime example of the revelation trope is the movie The Matrix. In the matrix, Morpheus makes Neo realize that the world as he knows it is not reality and just a lie. It is simply fragments of a computer program. Morpheus brings Neo into what is the real world, believing that Neo is “the one”. While Morpheus is trying to convince Neo of the real world, the machines which are running this real world attempt to stop him from getting his message across. In this movie, Morpheus can be seen as the prophet. The message which he is attempting to reveal is that the world as Neo knows it is fake. The ignorant masses is almost the entirety of the human race, as they are simply living in a computer program with no idea that what they are living is not reality. The opposition occurs when the machines begin to fight against Neo. In order for Neo to realize that he “the one” he must first accept the message being presented by Morpheus, in which later on he does.
As seen in many other revelation tropes, the revealer can also be the prophet as well because they are usually presenting a message in which others can not see or are too afraid to realize what is really going on. They are usually the ones who are more out spoken and have stronger physical apparel then many others.
In An enemy of the People, there seems to be two types of ignorant masses which is a reoccurring element in a variety of sources. The first group is where people fully deny the revelation and will go to violent extremes to stop it (The general public/compact majority).The second group is people who are affected mentally by the revelation, but do not implemented the revelation in their lives(Petra, mr.stockmann's wife).
Compare/Contrast
In many situations, the prophet can find themselves having to sacrifice their own lives in order to save their disciples life. In this situation, this makes the disciple either realizes they are truly the chosen one or allow them to over come their fears and take control of their inner powers or force. In the movie Star Wars, in the scene when Obi-Wan, Luke, Han Solo, Chewbacca, R2-D2 and C3PO are aboard the enemies ship, trying to make their way back to their own ship, Obi-Wan makes it possible for them to return to their ship by beginning a fight. Obi-Wan begins a light saber duel between Darth Vader, which allows the rest of them to get back to their ship safely. Obi-Wan then allows Darth Vader to kill him as he warns him that he will become “more powerful than you can possibly imagine.” Obi-Wan sacrificed himself in order to help the rest of them make their way back to the ship. In The Matrix, Morpheus, who is the prophet and is teaching Neo, the disciple, tells the others to escape while he distracts the Agents by fighting them. He knows he will not be able to save himself, for the Agents are way too strong for him to fight alone. Despite knowing that he will most likely die, he chooses it is more important to let Neo get away then to save himself. Both sacrifices, by both Morpheus and Obi-Wan, became a much more impacting factor on the life of the disciple. When Morpheus allows himself to be captured by the Agents, it inspired Neo to take action. Early, Neo had been somewhat reluctant to completely take part in the Matrix. However, once they learn that Morpheus is in trouble, and has allowed himself to be captured, Neo becomes more willing to help, and he decides that he is going to return and save Morpheus from the Agents, despite how dangerous it may be. Just as Neo was inspired to rescue Morpheus, after Obi-Wan had sacrificed himself, Luke becomes more connected with the force. After the others escape and return to the Rebel Alliance, Luke agrees to join the assault team which is working to destroy the Death Star. While Luke is on his way to the center of the Death Star, it’s discovered that Darth Vader has sent out ships to destroy Luke on his way. Seconds before the Death Star is about to destroy the Rebel base, Luke hears Obi-Wans voice telling him to “use the force”. Luke then fires the shot that destroys the death star and saves the Rebel base. In both situations, it is not until something bad happens to the prophet that the disciple begins to truly take action and pursue the message they were given in the revelation. It was not until Morpheus was about to be killed, that Neo began to truly fight back in the Matrix. In Star Wars, it was not until Obi-Wan were killed, that Luke truly accepted to use the force, which is the message Obi-Wan wanted to get across. Something negative must happen to the Prophet that will then encourage the disciple to take action of the revelation on their own without the guidance of the prophet.
In the Matrix, Neo, a computer programmer, finds out that he is the chosen one to fight the agents that made the matrix. Morpheus told him that if he wanted to know and observe the matrix himself he would have to swallow the red pill. He told Neo that he must choose if he wants to eat the red pill or blue pill. He decides to pick the red pill, which entirely changes the way he looks at life. Once he takes the red pill, he’s in a red liquid pod where the machines unplug him and pushes him down a tube into a stream of water. This symbolizes his rebirth into the real world. This rebirth is also seen in the Feed where after the talk Titus had with Violet's dad, Titus went to the drop tube to his house. The drop tube signify rebirth. In these books, when the person is reborn, he/she does not fully understand the revelation. The person is an infant mentally because he/she is still ignorant and is only introduced to part of the revelation. There is a very long process that people need to undergo in order to come to a deep understanding of the revelation. This infant goes through many obstacles that may affect the way he/she may perceive the revelation. This process of rebirth into adulthood is seen in our lives and in other novels.
In the novel Feed, all the teens have feeds incorporated into their brains. The government has control over their minds by transmitting advertisements and giving them what they desire. The teens are taught in school how to use the feeds to buy items. However, in the book Violet is the only girl who resists the feed. She does this by not buying any items that are exposed to her. Because she doesn’t buy any items, her feed malfunctions to the point where she dies. Titus learns an important message from Violet that that the people are taken over by the government through the implementation of feeds into peoples brains. People are brainwashed by advertisements which intrigue them to buy clothes and accessories. As a result, people don't think for themselves and do not realize that the civilization crashing. Violet expressed this message in a conversation she had with Titus. She told him that she was outraged that people who get feeds at an early age are “ ignorant self-centered idiots” because they are brainwashed by the government to value the lies. Titus at this point felt degraded because he did get his feed at an early age. Titus realizes this message when Violet will die in minutes. He tells her all the news he find out about the civilization and proves to Violet that he understands the truth about civilization. Feed is similar to An Enemy of the people because the ignorant masses understand the message to some degree when something tragic happens to the prophet. In Feed, when Violet dies, Titus gets the message. Similarly, in an Enemy of the people Mr. Stockmann’s wife only supports him when the whole town has turned their back on him.
In the movie “Foxfire” the revelation message is that one needs to stand up for themselves and others. The teacher was sexually harassing one of the students and Angelina’s character “Legs” gets a group of the female students and the beat up the teacher. The message that the students send to the teacher is that if you hurt one of us you hurt all of us. The way Legs stood up for the several other girls in the school is just the same way as Neo had to stand up to the evil agents in order to save Morpheus. Both Neo and Legs where in fact out powered because Legs is just a teenager and Neo feels as if he is just a normal human, they both find the faith and courage within them in order to stand up to what is most important to them, and that affect others lives as well.
Analysis/ Theory
While looking at many different Revelations / revelation tropes there are many new important aspects that are being presented to the audience that is more then seen by the naked eye. One theory I believe or came up with is “the disciple seems to always be denying that they are the one, but they are never against the actual message that is being presented to them by the prophet”. Throughout the movies “Star Wars” and “The Matrix”, both Neo and Luke have the feeling that they might be the chosen ones but they are both too afraid to take the responsibility. They must need someone to convince them and give them guidance that they have the powers and force and must figure out how to accept it.
Also I began to realize that the prophet is always much stronger than the disciple.Also in many situations of the revelation trope, there is a trader involved that is trying to stop the prophet from getting his message across to his disciple. This is usually known as the Judaist trope, which is the trader / betrays the good side and prefers the bad side. In Star wars, Dark Vader was the prophet until he became evil leader and tries to stop Luke from accepting the powers and defeating him. While in The Matrix, the trader felt as if his revelation was not the same as what he has been told by Morpheus and then gives up and tries to kill Neo and allows Morpheus to get killed.
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