Big Essay Due saturday

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 reoccurring image that can be seen anywhere. An example of a trope is the way that a lot 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 every time people just don’t 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 an 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. Throughout the semester we were looking at films and books trying to recognize this trope and learn as much about the world around us by looking at it through this trope.

When looking at this trope throughout different movies we noticed things that kept repeating. the trope in the movies always start with an issue seen by the viewer but not seen but other characters in the actual film. Then there is always a character which fills the role of a revealer. This character is known to be smarter and wiser than everyone else but isn’t always 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 him. 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 paid 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 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 there’s 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 approximately 23 minutes into the film neo finds Morpheus and is encountered 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 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 human’s 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 try’s 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 revelation 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 this 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 Skywalker's 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 pedophile teacher in the act of being a pervert, and end up physically abusing him. When the prophet fights the opposition and passes on their 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 cipher knows the revelation, has heard it over and over again, but still believes that it is bullshit. He totally disregards the idea that neo can be the one and thinks its ridiculous. Cipher ends up being the “Judas” of the film and giving up Morpheus to agents. A part I found interesting about 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 cipher, and saved Neo's 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 film they live. The main character that 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 revelation 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 saying the same thing. One revelation message 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. It’s 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 always walk along this stage and interact, but the people strapped to the chairs can only see there shadows. If that’s all they saw their whole life then they would believe that people look like shadows, and that’s 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 reoccurring 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 are always being kept down by the rich people in the society. This is easily comparable to the real American life, but in the movie to make it more dreamful 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 aren’t even these power hungry zombies protecting what they think is right, when it’s truly 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 I'm really trying to show is that there are different ways to convey the revelation messages, and the messages are all different. There are always re occurring messages being sent, like the wake up message, but that’s not the only message in every revelation story. The reason I only discussed the wake type of message is because I feel as if it’s the most easy to recognize, and it is also a very deep message easily connectable 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 didn’t 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 pieces of work. I went to Bonnie’s blog to see how she compared the different 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 lavish 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 thought while reading this part it was an excellent example of how I can analyze 2 characters from 2 totally different 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 their government. Both pieces have different messages, but still the 2 main characters need to do the same thing to have there message become a reality. Just because these 2 characters compare doesn’t 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 their 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 settings, 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 were also based on a government just like Americas, capitalist systems. With these settings in place both movies had a lot of drama, because with a government like Americas and with a society like Americas, there is always constant wrong, being done, and always something bad and entertaining that would happen. Also I think that this setting based of America was chosen because of the way that the viewer can instantly connect what happens in the films to themselves in real life. Also these movies both have very deep messages, which I believe the director also wants the viewer to take home with them, and actually use the revelations in real life. While comparing these settings of these two films, and also to other films I have come to a conclusion that most films are set in a world based on ours so that the films revelation can be learned easily and also can connect to the viewer. If the movies were set in some magical world, where everything we know is wrong, and ants can talk I dought the viewer would take the movie as serious and take in as much of the insight that they receive when watching a movie that they can relate to.

After analyzing the setting of the films now I want to look at the drama that ensues while the revelation is being revealed. In the both movies I found that there was a “Judas” figure. A Judas figure is pretty much a traitor. It gets its name from the bible because Judas was the guy who betrayed Jesus and gave him up. In the matrix the Judas figure was cipher as I had mentioned earlier. He betrayed everyone and tried to get Morpheus and neo killed. In They live the Judas figure was the blonde girl that the main character kidnapped. (I don’t remember her name, I believe it was Polly, but I’m not sure.) She ended killing the supporting main character and trying to kill the main character at the end of the film. In both films I noticed that the Judas figure was not successful in killing the prophets, and also they are the ones trying to stop the revelation from being shown to everybody. Also I notice that when these drama full parts occur in the movie it is usually during a very important part, where the prophet does something life changing or makes a very important decision. If it doesn’t occur during that part it influences it. In the end this piece of a betrayal scene influences the story. In they live it happened at the end of the film when the main character was doing the most important thing of his life. In the matrix this betrayal trope occurred and influenced neo to make his most important decision, which was to go in and save Morpheus, and accept his role in the revelation.

After we discovered and explored the revelation trope in whole, our teacher Andy helped us learn the art of deconstruction. Deconstruction is something very hard to understand, and equally hard to explain. It’s also especially hard to master. I don’t think that I can explain it greatly but I can try my best. Deconstruction is pretty much taking a sentence, or any combination of words, and finding other meanings then what it directly means. When we hear something as humans we automatically have in our head an opposition to what we hear. For example when we hear black, we see the opposition and know it’s not that meaning. We sat in class and thought of as many binary oppositions as we could. Just a few of the ones we came up with were:
Black-white
Good-bad
Wrong-right
Normal-weird
Interesting-Boring
Cooked-Raw
With all of these binary oppositions we looked at, we tried to deconstruct them. For example a really easy binary opposition to deconstruct is normal and weird. When asked the question what’s normal, everybody has there own answers. When you think of the idea of normality there are all these oppositions to what’s normal to each person. All of these oppositions can go under the idea of being different. So If I were deconstructing that binary opposition I would ask what is normal, and what us different. Also what is the definition of being normal, and who gets to come up with this idea of being normal. Are there rules behind normality? All of these questions deconstruct the idea of being normal and different. With these questions asked then it takes away these oppositions and shows that there really is not one meaning to anything.

In class one day Andy had asked us to deconstruct the old jack and Jill nursery rhyme. If you don’t know how it goes, it sounds like this:
Jack and Jill,
Went up the hill,
to fetch a pail of water,
Jack fell down,
and broke his crown,
Then Jill came tumbling after.
Throughout my whole life I had heard this nursery rhyme and had no problem with it. When asked to deconstruct I found that this rhyme can have a lot more than just one meaning. At first I took line in which they went to fetch a pail of water. When I hear that then I see that maybe at the time period this is in water was not easy to obtain. I then ponder if jack and Jill were poor, and had problems affording running water. I also question jack and Jill’s relationship, I don’t know if they are brother and sister, husband and wife, cousins, or maybe even just friends. Then it says that jack fell down and broke his crown. If he had a crown to break then he may have been royalty. He also may have been a powerful person in society. After that they say Jill came tumbling after, there fore implying that the female has to follow the male throughout everything no matter what the problem may be. In that this nursery rhyme can easily be considered a sexist story that shows how the man has the power and the women just follow. This may not be true, but instead of the rhyme saying that Jill chassed after, or Jill came after, instead it said tumbling. When the word tumbling is used it may imply that she fell and felt the same pain as he would have felt. In the end we had learned what deconstruction was and we tried our best to apply this art to our world.

In conclusion we had a very productive revelations class this year. I feel that I learned a lot through films that I have viewed prior to this class. I learned what a trope was and learned one of the most common tropes ever. Now I even find myself joking about revelations. Once these ideas of a trope and of the revelation trope are learned, they can barely ever be forgotten because they are everywhere. I can predict that in over 90 % of films in the world have some sort of revelation in it, and some aspect of the revelation trope in it. Once understood it’s much easier to observe. Also with the idea of deconstruction now, we take common things we see every day and open them up and explore so many more aspects than what we see on the outside when we first see it. The best connection to that idea is something we were shown in class. When you see a guitar, you see it, and know in your head what’s around it and how it looks three dimensionally, but you don’t really see the whole guitar. You only see your perception of the guitar. That’s why this idea of deconstruction is a way to explore the guitar, and see things from every different aspect. So in the end this class rocked.