My Personal Philosophies

Ok. So my blog up till now has been an English assignment. I don't want it to fall/ stay in oblivion by letting it go to waste, so I've decided I will occasionally post things. These things will be related to philosophy or rather my views on different philosophies. Mostly because I really liked the philosophy class I took last year, and my professor tried to convince me to be a philosophy major. I said no, but really only because I'm already majoring in English and minoring in both Creative Writing and Art. Soooo... yeah that wasn't going to happen. However! I still love philosophy and call myself Socrates (don't ask). Ok that's all this post is. An explanation of the future of this blog.

...BYE.

Summarizing a Shadow

          Carl Jung describes the archetype of the shadow as a moral problem that defies the ego. Everyone has a shadow that consists of their inferiorities, or dark characteristics. It requires great moral effort to become conscious of one’s own shadow because it means seeing the dark aspects of their own personality as being real and current. It is for this reason that those shadows are projected onto others. It isn’t easy to see the issues and insecurities condensed into your shadow. When you aren’t conscious of it, it is projected onto those around you. It is impossible to consciously project your shadow on people because it is the unconscious that paints the façade.

Becoming aware of your dark characteristics means you see a problem you have not overcome. It is not something the average person wants to see in themselves. However, if you have some goodwill and insight you can recognize some of these aspects and incorporate them into positively into your personality. This is harder to do with some parts of the shadow. In fact, some aspects have such an unyielding resistance to this kind of moral control that they are nearly impossible to influence. These faults that we project on others that seems so invariably a fault of theirs that we do not even consider that it is actually our own fault. It takes a large amount of time and effort to become so aware of your own shadow. Consequently, this is something that is not commonly done.

            In most cases the shadow is projected onto others. Those faults which are so very hard for us to see in ourselves seem to be the easiest faults for us to see in others. When we project, we are isolated from our environment. This happens because we are placing a copy of our own unknown face on the world and this obscures our view of what is really in the world. It keeps us from knowing others. We cannot see someone when we are placing who we assume they are, which is actually part of who we are, in our view of them. That shadow represents the personal unconscious.

            Jung’s study of the shadow and psychology of the people who project them provides invaluable insight not only into the human psyche, but in literature as well. After all, a story is delving into the psyche of the characters that make it up and the author that creates them. We can better understand the actions of characters when we take into account this literary theory and apply it to what we read in books and see in movies. It can be seen everywhere from past literature to popular movies like Mean Girls. The “plastics” present a very clear example of people who cannot see their deep faults and insecurities. They project them most violently on all that surround them. The “Burn Book” is evidence of their severe projections. None of those girls come close to recognizing their problems until those around them turn on the girls and tell them their faults forcibly. Using the shadow archetype as a literary theory we can analyze plots and characters like this in literature.

How To Take "The Road Not Taken"

           Robert Frost’s poem “The Road Not Taken” At first it may seem to be about making hard decisions in life and traveling on less used paths. However, this is a very simplistic view that is only supported by the last stanza, and disregards the meaning found in the rest of the poem. The title itself places significance on the road (or decision) which the narrator did not choose. It was not named “The Road Less Traveled By,” which is the path he ended up taking. This would suggest the focus of the poem is the road the narrator did not travel, or the fact that he did not take it and is still thinking about it. That the roads themselves are representative of decisions made in life is a logical assumption and is supported throughout each of the five-line stanzas. The feeling of musing and dwelling on things long past resonates in every part of this poem. Not only in words, but in meter and rhyme as well. With this in mind, we can further analyze the specific use of words used and their placement in the work.

            To understand the importance of words and form in this poem, they must be observed first hand.

                        Two roads diverged in a yellow wood,

And sorry I could not travel both

And be one traveler, long I stood

And looked down one as far as I could

To where it bent in the undergrowth;

Then took the other, as just as fair,

 And having perhaps the better claim,

Because it was grassy and wanted wear;

Though as for that the passing there

Had worn them really about the same,

And both that morning equally lay

In leaves no step had trodden black.

Oh, I kept the first for another day!

Yet knowing how way leads on to way,

I doubted if I should ever come back.

I shall be telling this with a sigh

Somewhere ages and ages hence:

Two roads diverged in a wood, and I—

I took the one less traveled by,

And that has made all the difference. (Frost)

Above, words are marked that are significant due to their placement, specific meanings, and the sound they contribute to the reading of it. One of the first things that can be seen to have special meaning in certain places is the meter. It is written in iambic tetrameter, but does not strictly follow the iambic form. For example the first two words, “two roads” are both stressed. They are stressed again in line eighteen. They would be pronounced equally. This would support claims in the poem that the roads are equal, one is not better than the other. Anapests also occur in the piece. It shows most noticeably when the narrator muses on how there really was not a better choice between the two roads. However, it is also seen throughout the poem and breaks the basic rhythm of the iambs. When the words are spoken this way they force the reader to slow down and say those lines in a way that they are musing and seem to be going back and forth in their in their speech much as the text does.

            The rhyme scheme plays an important role as well in “The Road Not Taken.” Each of the four quintains follows the same pattern: ABAAB. The couplets in each stanza sound like a pause when read aloud. This makes the narrator sound as though they are musing in the middle of the each stanza. The rhyme scheme itself fits the strange back and forth uncertainty. They made a decision, but they can’t help but wonder if it was the right one.

            Often a repeated word has significance in a poem, so too do the words that begin a line. When the two combine it bears certain implications that should not be ignored. There is a clear case of this with the word “and” in Frost’s poem. In the beginning stanza written above, the first words of each line are made a different color to demonstrate the pointed commonality there. Not only is “and” repeated as the first word in the middle three lines, but they are also placed between “two” and “to”. This can easily be seen as more emphasis on “two”. Then to make sure you did not miss the significance of “and” the first three times, it is repeated as the first word in line seven, eleven, and twenty. The last two times “and” is used in the poem, it happens to appear at the beginning of the third stanza and the end of the fourth stanza. One noting the equality of the roads, the other claiming they were different. With “and” being a word that connects two others, it is no wonder why it plays such a role in this poem musing about two roads. The word “and” is also used repeatedly when trying to decide between different options and is repeated more often when the person is indecisive.

            Other words placed strategically within the lines of “The Road Not Taken” convey a deeper meaning and play further into the theme of wishy-washy past musings. In line five, “bent” is used as part of the description for the road the narrator did not take. This is, by itself, a fine description of a road. However when another meaning of the word is considered, like determined or resolved, it is given deeper meaning. The narrator is not resolved in his decision. He thinks back on it much later and wonders if perhaps he should have chosen different path. In this case, he has not chosen to be determined or resolved with other decisions. The “sigh” is another important moment in the thoughts of the narrator. It is where he decides that he will claim the path he chose was the better choice. It is where he masks his indecision. Without the sigh the last lines make no sense in conjunction with the rest of the poem. It would be illogical to say he chose one road over the other because it was supposedly less used and that it made a difference. He had previously stated multiple times the two roads were equal in their untred states. A sigh is often the result of prolonged musing and the over thinking of solitary subjects.

            The speaker tends to make multiple contradictions to himself in this thoughtful poem. It seems to start in the second stanza when he makes the decision to go down one road. First it is stated that the one that is chosen is not as worn a path. Then in the same stanza he admits that they are really worn the same amount. In fact, no one has even stepped on the leaves. Both were pristine. The next stanza starts with continuing this claim that they are equal, then the last stanza ends with the narrator claiming that he “took the one less traveled by” (19).  The narrator also makes claims that he left the other road to travel at a later date, then immediately states that he is sure he will not do that. This narrator seems to be rather dithering. The entire poem must happen in an internal monologue, for the narrator uses the last stanza to decide that he will tell others he chose the path based on its merits. He knows there was no reason to choose one road over the other. He knows that he did not stand there for so long weighing the options and come to a conclusion based on justified ideas. The narrator would like to make himself sound wise and content in his past decisions.

            Whether all of these details were completely intentional or the result of meanings and feelings coming together to naturally form a consistent pattern, the result is the same. Every line evokes both beautiful imagery and subtle tones. These images and tones evoke feelings of uncertainty and doubt. When read with consideration and attention to detail the meaning is made clear and cannot be mistaken. If read through speedily with no mind paid to the second and third stanza, the meaning is completely obscured. When read in this way, the reader only sees what the narrator would like them to see. He made a choice, they both seemed nice at the time, but he chose a less known way and he has had a better life because of it. In reality, he made a decision after thinking about it for a while and coming to a conclusion based on the imaginary advantages of one of the options. He later realized that his choice was no better than the alternative and became lost in wondering if perhaps he was wrong in his decision. Whatever the case, he at least wants others to think he made a sophisticated selection. If this poem is meant to send one message to its readers it can safely be assumed that it is one of being content in your decisions. What happened has happened and you cannot change that. There is no point in dithering and wondering if you made good decisions in the past. Those decisions have already been made.

The Unchangeable Huck Finn

           The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn is in essence a tale of growth from experience for its main character, Huck Finn. This is actually a trickier aspect to discern from the story than one might think. If one were to look at the beginning and the end right after the other, they might not see the change. Huck seems to be the same strange, adventurous, and oddly moral young boy. This is true in a way. However, in the ways that really count, Huck has been changed for life.

            I believe at least one reason that we cannot see the change in Huck in the end, is that this story is realistic in that way. What adolescent male seems to go through all of life’s changes in about a year? I can think of no suitable examples. Even if life changing experiences happen to us while we are young, we seem to adapt to them so quickly that there might seem to be no change in our character at all. However, that change shows in us when we mature. Those experiences all work together to set us on a different path than we were traveling on previously. They make us who we are and affect our lives forever whether we like it or not.

            So too is the case with Huckleberry Finn and his adventures. The question now is if there were any particular adventures that pushed Huck in another life direction? The short answer is yes and no. This answer, for obvious reasons, is unacceptable. Well we could say no because all of his experiences work together and in the end act as one to form his character. However, we may be able to see how some lend more to this task than others. Larger or sometimes just more powerful events have a stronger effect on our character.

            One such event in Huck’s known story may be the experience with the family of girls that the “king” and the “duke” attempted to swindle. For one, he certainly did not approve of these con-men or think them so glorious when he saw them at work. However, if we look at the men’s easy way with lying, we may easily be reminded of Huck. He seems at times to be a better deceiver than them. Why is it not possible that Huck could end up doing what they do? Well it very well have happened had he not met them and seen for himself what rotten men they really are and how unsuitable that life is for him. One moment in particular stood out to me in that episode. When Mary Jane leaves at his bidding, thanking him and saying she’ll pray for him, Huck says he never forgot her and actually thought of her often in his life.

Was it just the novelty of her saying she’d pray for him when he didn’t think she could ever pray enough, or even her beauty? I believe it has much more to do with the kind of person she was and that she reminded him of the kind of person he would never want to be. Those con-men nearly ruined her life and that of her sisters. He saw that eventuality and his path was set away from it from that moment on. He grew from that experience and many others like it. Huck is the kind of character that will continue to learn and grow with no one being the wiser.

Fan of FANBOYS?

         “The Saga’s Biggest Fans on the Galaxy’s Greatest Mission” is the headline for the 2008 release. This is basically the premise for the whole movie. Playing on at least 99% sci-fi fan humor, “Fanboys” surprisingly enough, can be enjoyed more than one fandom. With cameos by William Shatner (Captain Kirk), Carrie Fisher (Princess Leia), and Billy Dee Williams (Lando Calrissian), there is something for Star Trek and Star Wars fans alike. There are also enough geeks in funny costumes embarrassing themselves for everyone else to laugh at.

            The movie starts out by introducing the four main characters and conflict in one blow. Taking place in 1998, only months before Star Wars Episode One releases, four old friends, diehard fans of the Star Wars saga, find themselves grown apart. One of the friends, Eric (Sam Huntington), seems to be over Star Wars and moving on with his life while the other three, Linus (Chris Marquette), Hutch (Dan Fogler), and Windows (Jay Baruchel) are determined to hold on to their lifelong fantasies. They drunkenly propose to drive from their home in Ohio to Lucas Mansion in California to steal an early viewing of the anxiously awaited prequel to the series. Eric thinks the idea is ridiculous, but when he finds out Linus is dying of cancer, he decides the journey is the only thing he can do to mend their friendship. After many adventures on the way, filled with Trekkie bashing (literally), and other delays, they arrive at the mansion and have their own flight from white-helmeted guards. Friends bond, love is found, and a dying man gets his dying wish.

            Actors played their roles well and were cast based on their stereotypical nerdy images. Seth Rogan’s appearance as multiple antagonists actually gave the film a more unified feel. There was only one villain. Though his head “Trekker” felt a little over-the-top, this was very possibly done purposefully. Kristen Bell as the just-one-of-the-guys Zoe, left something to be desired. This was certainly not her best role, though she was still quite likable as a character. 

            Overall, the movie was enjoyable. The characters were likable and entertaining, if not completely endearing. Time spent on misadventures left little room for those characters’ development. There is of course sympathy for their plight, mostly Linus’s , and you can see that these men are old friends with a deep rooted love for… well, Star Wars. There seems to be no other point to their lives, unless you count the vaguely mentioned career plans a couple of them have. The plot is fairly simple and has few twists (though there are some fun ones). Though there may be too much time spent on the side adventures, it never feels slow. As a heart-felt tale of friends and personal growth, it falls a little short. However, as a fun, reference-filled movie it succeeds. If you have any feelings for Star Wars, Star Trek, or anything starting with “Star” for that matter, this is a movie worth watching.