day 2 big paper work

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. 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.