what is a trope? when encountered with this question in class one day i had no idea what the answer could be. At first i thought it was some type of item, but when it was explained to me i understood. A trope is a common reoccuring image that can be seen anywhere. An example of a trope is the way that alot of rich people buy huge gold jesus crosses to show how religious they are. (Even though jesus would probably not approve of it.) Tropes are seen everywhere at everytime people just dont notice it but we know what it is. In the movie firefox staring angelina jolie there is a common trope which is used in many movies. The trope would be the man teacher asserting his power over students to get them to do what he wants, and then the students must overpower the authority to create an environment that is better for everyone else. That is a trope seen in many films and books, but it’s a only a smaller trope inside of a bigger trope. The main trope that we looked at this semester was the revelation trope. This trope is seen almost everywhere and once understood is easily recognizable. throuought the semester we were looking at films and books trying to recognize this trope and learn as much abnout the world around us by looking at it through this trope.
when looking at this trope throught different movies we noticed things that kept repeating. the trope in the movies allways start with an issue seen by the viewer but not seenm but other characters in the actual film. Then there is allways a character which fills the role of a revealer. This character is known to be smarter and wiser than everyone else but isnt allways the main character. this character tries to reveal his knowledge of whatever the subject of the film is. When trying to reveal this message the receiver of the revelation often resists the revelation at first until the receiver sees or experiences the revelation for himself. Then through acts and learning the receiver ends up taking the revelation and doing something about it, with help from his/her "supporting cast".
The first and main movie we payed attention to was the matrix. This movie is the best example of a revelation movie that you can get. It follows almost every rule that occurs with this trope. I had previously seen this movie and enjoyed it, but I never saw it the way that I saw it while paying attention to this trope, and to other tropes also. This movie was not only a revelation movie, but also had many religious aspects in it which gets the viewer thinking, and searching for a deeper message while watching the movie. It starts by having the viewer enter this futuristic science fiction world, by entering through what may be perceived as a birth canal, leading to the idea that you are being born into this computer world. It starts out with an unknown character named trinity in a room, where she is about about to be arrested but then does some fighting moves and acrobatics thought which are normally thought to be impossible. Having this occur in the beginning of the film it shows the viewer the rules of this world, which are that there are none. It then starts with the story of neo. Neo is the main character of the movie. He is a hacker who knows theres something else to the world but has no idea what it is. He assumes the role as the receiver of the revelation. He has heard of a hacker/ internet terrorist named morpheus. In search for this man named morpheus he comes up with a question which is “what is the matrix?” Then aproxamately 23 mionutes into the film neo finds morpheus and is encounted with what would be the biggest and most life changing choice of his life. Morpheus asks neo if he would like to take a blue pill, which would bring back to his life as it is, or would he take a red pill which will lead him to the truth that he seeks. Of course neo chooses the red pill and and is led to the first part of his revelation. He learns that the world was taken over by man made robots which learned that they could use humans brainpower as a battery. Neo also learns that he is predicted to fulfill a prophecy and become “the one”.
While continuing on his journey he learns martial arts, and learns how to bend the rules of what he thought was reality. While learning his new role on earth he constantly resists. Everything that happens to him he resists. There is a scene in which morpheus trys to teach neo to bend the laws of gravity, and jump from one building to another building about 30 feet away. Morpheus jumps the building no problem but neo still doesn’t accept this reve;ation of a world where anything is possible so he fails and falls off the building. To make this faster in the end Neo has to accept the revelation taught to him by neo in order to survive and save the human race.
One of the main things to pay attention to while looking at this trope is the different pieces of the trope so that when you notice these pieces while looking at literature you can easily find the revelation trope. One basic thing with the revelation trope Is that it starts with an unacceptable situation. This situation can be whatever you want it to be, but mostly appeals to the viewer as something they would dislike. An example of an unacceptable situation is in the movie the Matrix, like I had mentioned earlier. The situation in that movie is the whole idea of humans being used as batteries for robots. The viewer sees tthis and knows that this has to change and has to be fixed but sees the receiver of this revelation learning and eventually changing this situation to be fixed. Following the unacceptable situation being presented there has to be a solution to it. The solution is often created and known by the prophet. An example of this part of the revelation trope can be seen in star wars. Obi Wan knows almost everything about Luke skywalkers past and knows the only way to overthrow the Empire is to train and give luke the confidence to become a great jedi. Obi Wan carries the revelation of luke being the one to change everything, but doesn’t reveal everything to him at once. Obi Wan is definantly the prophet in that revelation story.
The next step in portraying the revelation trope is for the prophet to offer a new definition of reality, or to pretty much come up with the master plan and share with everyone the way they will change this unacceptable situation. It also consists of them doing and showing these actions, and new “reality” to everyone else. An example of this is in the film firefox. In that movie the strong willed character played by Angelina jolie, comes up with a plan to catch there pedofile teacher in the act of being a pervert, and end up physically abusing him. When the prophet fights the opposition and passes on theire message there is often misinterpreted or just has a problem getting people to follow and believe his message. It is pretty much just more opposition to the revelation. An example that I think is good for this part of the revelation trope is from the matrix. In the matrix a character name sypher knows the revelation, has heard it over and over again, but still believes that it is bullshit. He tottaly disregards the idea that neo can be the one and thinks its ridiculous. Sypher ends up being the “judas” of the film and giving up morpheus to agents. A part I found interesting aabout his opposition of the revelation is a part when he was about to kill neo by unplugging him from the computer world. He was talking about if he was really the one then there would have to be some sort of miracle to stop him from killing neo, and all of a sudden a guy in which he thought was dead, came back and killed sypher, and saved neos life.
The next part of the revelation trope is that the prophet gets in trouble with the authorities or the masses for challenging the existing structure. An excellent film that showed this part of the revelation trope is the the film they live. The main character who goes through the film with no name, learns the revelation that all the rich and high class people are not actually human, but some zombie alien creatures. He challenges the existing structure by going on a shooting spree, killing most of the zombies he sees. Then he gets in huge trouble and is trying to be tracked down by them. Also in the same film the first people who challenge the structure are the people from the church, and they also become pursued by the zombies, and get in trouble with the authority figures of this structure. Also in the matrix neo had gotten in trouble for trying o override the structure of the matrix and save mankind from the robots. By doing this he got in trouble with the authority figures of the matrix, and had to have a fight with agent smith. The way the director of the films chooses to portray this part of the revelation trope is often different but pretty much consists of a lot of drama and action. In the matrix leading up to this final battle with agent neo there was plenty of drama, which in all showed the part of the revelation trope.
After learning the basics of the rope and comparing the trope through films, we analyzed the trope through the different messages every movie had a certain revlation but in that they all had to do with a different situation. the different situations influenced the viewer to enjoy the revelation in a different way. Though each film had a different revelation message i felt as if most of them were say ing the same thing. One revelation messag i thought i saw the most is the wake up message. In this message it pretty much means to stop thinking every thing you see is true, and real, and wake up from your delusional world. When exploring this message we heard a small example of this. Its a situation in which people were strapped down to a chair where they could not move in a cave. About 2 feet above there heads is a stage with fire on it. People would allways walk along this stage and interact, but the people strapped to the chairs can only see there shadows. If thats all they saw there whole life then they woulod beleive that people look like shadows and thats what they would think was real and normal. If these people who were strapped into the chairs were to get up (wake up) and see everything for what it really is they would learn and the truth would be revealed. That is just only one example of this reoccuring wake up message. Another film i saw this in was the movie they live. In this movie the "average american man" was constantly trying to live the "american dream" but this never happens for them because they aare allways being kept down by the rich people in the society. This is easilly comparable to the real american life, but in the movie to make it more dramfull and entertaining they decided to make these rich greedy people into zombies. The only way you can see the truth about everything is if you where some special sunglasses.throughout the movie you see people who arent even these power hungry zombies protecting what they think is right, when its truely wrong. The whole movie the main character is trying to wake everybody up and show the world the truth behind what they think is real. In the end what im really trying to show is that there are different ways to convey the revelation messages, and the messages are all different. There are allways re occuring messages being sent, like the wake up message, but thats not the only message in every revelation story. The reason i only discussed the wake type of message is becaus i feel as if its the most easy to recognize, and it is also a very deep message easilly conectable to american culture. Any other message can be whatever you want but it just has to reveal something, or have someone become enlightened on a certain situation or conflict.
After analyzing different messages shown in different revelations we then began analyzing the different prophets in the films we saw. When trying to figure out how to analyze these different characters i stumbled and didnt know what to exactly write to compare them. Once i noticed i had no idea to write i turned to one of my fellow classmates peices of work. I went to bonnies blog to see how she compared the dofferent character in the books and films we saw. she uses the main character named Legs from the movie Foxfire, and compares her to the main character in the book Enemy of the People. she said:
" In both the movie Foxfire and the play Enemy of The People, the revealer wants to help people join together and rise up against those in power. However, Legs is the only one that succeeds, while the Doctor becomes rejected by the society. Through these revelations, it becomes clear that people are more willing to accept a message or revelation that will empower them along with others, rather than one that requires them to change the comfortable lavvish life they are used to. Legs offered a message of empowerment and sisterhood, while the Doctor offered a message that required the town to give up their tourist appeal, which meant a loss of money, and money needed in order to save the water. Those that were offered the message of empowerment that would help them rise against those in power, chose to act on the revelation, while those who were offered the message that required a change in their lavish economic lifestyle, resisted the message."
I thoguht while reading this part it was an excelent example of how i can analyze 2 characters from 2 tottally diferent stories and still find some thing in common. As she had mentioned, the movie is about people rising up to overthrow a teacher, while in enemy of the people its a doctor trying to get a whole society to raise up and over throw theire government. Both peices have different messages, but still the 2 main characters need to do the same tyhing to have there message become a reality. Just because these 2 characters compare doesnt mean that all of the prophets need to be the same. The only thing that may compare is what they need to overcome in order to share theire revelation. In the end i learned and understood how different characters from different revelation messages can all compare based on what they need to overcome, and sometimes even how they convey there message to the masses.
The last that we had compared and analyzed in our class was the settiings, and drama that occurs in each revelation story. To talk about this i decided to compare and analyze the two films the matrix and they live. The matrix took place in a world based on our world. They live was also
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