Revenge is warranted

     

     In a fantasy based on reality, there once lived a king who had three daughters that bore his family name. Their mother died when after giving birth to the youngest leaving their father to care for all three.

     When the daughters were young girls he would sit with them in chairs in front of the fireplace where the family crest lay above. One night, his youngest daughter asked “Father, what is that thing? I want it!” And her father answered, “The crest of our family, my dear. And with it comes many riches and an amazing amount of power. In time, you and your sisters shall receive it, but not at this age.”

     The daughter nodded back and smiled hopefully at the crest then looked back towards her father and said “I will get it one day! I will! And then I’ll be as powerful as you. And then I’ll say ‘I told you so! I told you so!’”

     “All right, that’s enough. Off to bed now,” her father commanded.

As the king grew older he realized that his daughters were becoming more distant every day. The two eldest had their own husbands as well as their own crests now and the king had been so sad to see them off, just like when he had lost his wife. In order to prevent anyone else from ever abandoning him again, he drew close the youngest daughter one evening and spoke to her.

     “Make me a promise,” he said. “Promise me that you will never leave me ever and stay here for all of time.”

     “But, father,” she replied. “I could never make a promise like that.”

     “But, why not?” the king cried.

     “Father, I love you so very much. But my future here does not lie with you. I need to grow up and go out and explore the world! And I need to discover who I truly am!”

      The king was silent for a minute and then yelled “Treachery! Guards, throw her out into the forest and rains! She’ll get no sympathy from me any further.”

      The guards did as they were told and, despite the princess’ objections, she was thrown out deep into the forest. She cried for serveral hours. Depressed and hopeless on her situation until she came across a young maid who had wondered too far from the castle. 

      The maid confessed to the princess that she was running away as the job had been too difficult to handle. The daughter agreed to trade clothes with the maid so the maid would be able to start a fresh new life. Then the daughter, disguised as the maid, slowly maid her way back into the castle.

       It was nearly dinner time now. The daughter entered the kitchen and noticed that the king’s meal had been prepared and was about to be delivered. She made her way over to the meal and placed a drop of poison serum she had always carried with her for self-defense in the food.

       Once she was finished she delivered it to her father, who did not recognize that she was his own daughter. As the king had his first bite he began to choke and spasm violently out of control.

     “What have you done to me?” the kind demanded.

       The daughter said nothing but smiled and then looked towards the family crest resting above the fireplace. The king followed her gaze and then looked back at her in sudden realization.

      “I told you so! I told you so!” the daughter cheerfully said.

       And then he perished.

The Expedition of a Lifetime

(This is a very symbolic picture. The shell represents nature and the sense of the unknown when we first arrived on this mysterious island. The carpet and cord as well as outlets however represent civilization, convenience and familiarity. We saw the shell when we first arrived but we knew in our hearts that we would survive on this island and possibly even create our own colony if things turned out especially well.) 

We made the decision to be peaceful with the natives rather than establish immediate dominance as other explorers often do. And it worked out. These natives soon came to treat us like friends and returned our kindness. At that point, no hostility arose. We had no bad weather for the first few months and it was actually a nice tropical climate. Grateful, we enjoyed it.
But just when things seemed like nothing could ruin the sweet tranquility we had acquired, things began to turn sour. Our leading captain came to the decision that we were being too friendly with the natives. Our resources were beginning to run out and if we wanted to return with more than what we came with. We needed to press the natives more so that we could receive more resources from this. And this was done with the cost of losing some of their friendly relations they held with us early on.
The following months we spent on the island were never quite as wonderful as the first few. Some months required us to be very harsh with the natives so they would give us what we needed. Or, wanted, I guess I should say, since this was technically their land. But in order to prevent an all out war from occurring we did not press the natives for more resources every month. It continued like this for a long time. But every time we did not press the natives felt less like we were gaining their loyalty and good side again. It instead felt more like we were preventing a kettle from boiling over.
And then the summer came, and we met a terrible series of events. The weather unexpectedly turned very rough and dangerous. Once, we had an entire tsunami. That did not do good for the resources we held nor the natives' attitudes. And even after the winds were finished blowing and we had all barely survived the impact of the storm, our captain required us to press the natives yet again for more resources. Many of us knew this was morally wrong, but it was better that we survive than they right?
The natives inner hatred of us continued to grow and grow and then began showing outwards. Though nothing violent had happened yet, they were far from the humble hosts they had portrayed themselves to be when we had first come across them. This continued through the fall where the weather was noticeably lighter. But we had another bad storm towards the end of the year, though it was nothing near the likes of the tsunami of the summer.
By the end of December, the natives were about to burst in anger at us over how unfair we had been to them. At this point we had only one option. We needed to return to the king by January and so we left. And that very morning we left was the same morning the natives decided to launch an all out attack on us. We barely got our boats together and sailed away in time, though I did end up with a spear in my shoulder.
Thankfully we had one more additional resource than what we came here with to take back to the king. It may not be much, but I wonder what he would have done if he had been in our position.

The Wondrous Elements of Christ are more Common than One Thinks

     We all may regard Jesus Christ as being a single, unique entity. However, his traits can be found in many other people. In Chapter 14 of How to Read Literature Like a Professor, Foster reveals to us how many characters in literature can be seen as a sort of figure of Christ as well as lists some average characteristics of him that could be found in other characters. 

      Foster begins this chapter by clearly establishing that because we live in a culture founded on Christianity and still somewhat represented by that today, it should not come as a huge surprise to one that Christian allegories are present in literature and other media. He elaborates to say that not all of us are Christian, but that due to the prevalence of Christian themes in literature, it is something extremely important for one to know. Foster then creates a large list which contains possible elements of Jesus that the person may have. These elements however are more literal with Jesus. They do not necessarily represent the sides of light and dark or Christianity as a whole all together, but instead rather focus on Christ himself. These include traits such as being at least thirty-three or being a carpenter. It was intriguing to me that Foster was focusing on such literal parts of Christ rather than simple attributes like “being innocent or unselfish.” Continuing on, Foster is able to create a very clever analogy that I was not able to figure out the main idea of until the very end when he explained it. It follows an old man and his parables that represent Christ’s story. This later turns out to be similar to a book Ernest Hemingway wrote called The Old Man and the Sea, which is filled with Christian imagery, as Foster points out. Thankfully, he then elaborates on his viewpoint further to match what my prediction was. This common Christ figure in literature does not have to be male, thirty-three or unambiguous. The literal elements of Christ like turning water into wine are not usually found in literature. Nothing can ever be as pure and perfect as Christ without being Christ himself. And that is why he is so unique. Foster opened my eyes yet again with this chapter. It is a very odd and complicated concept. Christ and his death and resurrection is indeed quite a remarkable story, one that nearly everybody knows. But some people restrict that story into just happening in its story, not realizing that in happens in media all the time.

      I can easily relate this to a character in one of my favorite film franchises of all time, Star Wars. In Episode I, there is a character named Qui-Gon Jinn played by Liam Neeson. It was not until many times after I had seen this movie that I understood the Christian symbolism within him. First of all, he literally looks like Jesus with his hairstyle and looks. He is also a Jedi Master and the Jedi in Star Wars are very peaceful people who fight for the light side of the force and against the dark. Qui-Gon i very kind to everyone throughout there movie and never shows anger even towards the enemy. He works very well with children too, as evidenced with his relationship with Anakin. In addition, in the middle and near the end of the movie he has a duel with Darth Maul. Maul’s race is of the Zabrak, which have many black and red tattoos and horns. This gives him an appearance very reminiscent of the devil. And in the end, Qui-Gon sacrifices himself and is killed by Maul. You can almost feel the Christian symbolism in the air.

      It is true about what they say in church. You can see Christ in many people, especially when these people happen to be characters created by writers.  It all follow such a familiar story that we all know. And before you ask the question of if the character is supposed to be some sort of form of Christ, yes they are.

The Power of Flight Equals the Power of Freedom

Flight is a desirable action that we treat very highly but will never reach by the human body. In Chapter 15 of How to Read Literature Like a Professor, Thomas C. Foster discusses the common element of literature of the great ability of flying. This can be found in many pieces of work and is often seen as an immense feeling of freedom with a sense of majesty.

Foster begins the chapter clearly stating who and what can or cannot fly by referencing physics with a powerful use of logos and ethos. Then, enumeration is used as he tells of the eight possible people who could fly and how they do, describing their presence in literature. Before Foster directly informs the audience of his belief that flight is freedom, he tells of the past uses of flight in Greek, African as well as Aztec tales and establishes a firm tone of Ethos. When he does eventually directly tells us of his opinion on flying, that being on how it symbolizes freedom, he delivers it with a one sentence paragraph as well as a colon, one of my favorite literary devices. Foster continues on and makes it clear that flight represents escapism, freedom from the ground and is very symbolic. What he eventually makes clear to the reader though, is that the flight does not have to be mentioned as jumping off the ground and staying in the air for a period of time. Flight occurs constantly, as Foster describes flight as figurative device. It is a huge metaphor to symbolize your independence from the ground which has held you down for all of your life. The ground represents our daily troubles and woes, whatever they may be, that tie us down. Thus flight is often shown as the escape and release of these problems. The character is high in the air and no one or nothing shall ever come near them again, quite literally as well as figuratively. If at anytime this flight happens to be interrupted, such as with Icarus, the weightless ones generally meet a terrible fate. However this is not always a horrendous end for the character as a sense of rebirth may meet them once they safely touch the ground, such with the case of Fay Weldon’s and Salman Rushdie’s works. The literal act of flying is not something that can be spoken about for a lengthy period of time. But, as said, the emotions one experiences while in flight truly are the important aspects of the experience. It's an incredible metaphor that I could never exactly put together but thanks to Foster's help now I have.

I can easily relate this feeling to the Disney Pixar movie Up. In the film, Carl Frederickson is an aging and widowed senior with strong attachments to his house and the memories it holds. Caught up in legal issues and wishing to live his life to the absolute fullest, he ties several balloons to his house and floats away. At this point in the film Carl is free from the many problems that were previously holding him down to the ground. He wishes to have true freedom in life while he still can do to his age and is able to.

The power of flight is an incredible unique experience. I'm certain any human has wished that power upon them at least once in their lives. The power of no longer being bound to the earth by any attachments is an unforgettable power.

Physically or Emotionally, Everything is a Journey

Thomas Foster’s How to Read Literature Like a Professor instantly enticed me into the book by its peculiar style and simple writing. Foster’s analysis and argument of Chapter 1, “Every Trip is a Quest (Except When It’s Not)”, captured my attention and made me experience many emotions. And emotions are exactly I am discussing as I use and relate to what I learned in this chapter to Pixar’s latest movie, Inside Out.

However, before I delve into that discussion, I must first explain how I feel about Foster’s argument. As an avid movie-goer, video game player, tv watcher and overall entertainment spectator, I had witnessed the elements earlier that Foster discussed in this chapter. But Foster was able to pinpoint exactly what I had analyzed and was able to organize those thoughts. Foster’s writing has a style where he always intends to outsmart you in some way and while it can be seen as somewhat humorous in a form, the humor is mainly only felt by him as the reader is left feeling dumb and unintelligent. I knew that every single story has a mission or a quest involved with similar recurring elements, as Foster demonstrated with his comparison of his made up narrative of “Kip” and a classic medieval tale. Check out tvtropes.com if you want a description of extremely common elements of entertainment and media like Foster did. Foster’s smug attitude can really just offend me at times. I recognized many of these things, but somehow he was always one step ahead of me. His somewhat subtle insult, “Your average sixteen-to-seventeen-year-old kid is like;y to have a long way to go in the self-knowledge department,” deeply hurt me emotionally and made me angry. But even after all of that, there is a style Foster posses that I truly admire. He seems very relatable, speaks in the second person quite frequently and the fact that he says “Still…” in one paragraph just seems charming and welcoming. And in truth, Foster just took me on a journey. My goal was to finish the chapter and try to act smarter than Foster. Nearly everything really is a quest no matter what as there is almost always someone and some form of an objective.

I am choosing Inside Out as a source that I can show Foster’s analysis in. There are two main stories in this film, a preteen’s emotional challenge of living in a new place and the struggles of her emotions personified inside her mind. This is a very unique case of Foster’s statement of everything being a quest most of the time. Without the emotions and there influence, as well as the journey they go on, there is no true story. The girl, Riley, is completely emotionless without her feelings so she has know personality or goal at all. It is due to the actions by her feelings, literally, that she is able to have any form of quest. This led to me to realize an important factor that I believe Foster neglected: the quest cannot happen without some form of emotion. An objective is something you desire. The constant want of your objective, when it may not be necessary can be defined as greed.  However without emotions there would be no greed and thus no objective.

Foster’s case in the chapter can best be described as clever. He establishes a narrative and then opens our eyes to how common plot elements can bene. The title fits this chapter perfectly as many things can be quests but some simply are not. Foster mentions near the end “Some days I just drive to work-no adventures, no growth.” This illustrates a situation where a quest has not taken place. Foster fails to identify the explanation of this, which is that no emotion has likely taken place at all. Quests and journeys occur all the time, as long as we always are emotionally active.