Power Vs. Authority: A Thing By Me

It's been a good run this year in my AP Literature class. Good times. Now I'm only a few days away from graduating high school. It's bittersweet to think about it, but I'm ready to move on to the next level.

Before I do that, I created a sketch in honor of William Shakespeare's play "The Tempest", which was the first piece of literature we read last semester. My favorite character is Ariel, who I admire for his wit, charm and loyalty. Even Grady Harp believes that "Taymor and Shakespeare together make the important character of Ariel, Prospera's obedient sprite, a thing of magic." Ariel, a magical being of great power, was saved from a tree by Prospero, the castaway Duke of Milan who claims to be a sorcerer. To repay Prospero for his rescue, Ariel is in debt to him until he has completed his servitude. Although Ariel has a good relationship with Prospero, he has outgrown his service and does everything in his power to be free from service. Personally, I relate to Ariel on an emotional level.

It's interesting how Ariel has all the power in the world to create whatever he wants, even the tempest that brought Ferdinand's crew to the uncharted, mythical Island where Prospero and his daughter reside. He respects Prospero, to an extent, and doesn't disagree with his terms, no matter how deceiving. It isn't because that Prospero has a greater power than Ariel—in fact, Prospero is probably not a "sorcerer" at all. His true power comes from his sense of leadership and a great knowledge of his studies, which makes him the authority of Ariel.

"Power Vs. Authority" by myself. (You can see my self-insert in the upper left corner. Ariel from "The Tempest" is in bottom right corner.)

So I made this sketch as a visual of power vs. authority. No matter how much power Ariel had, his abilities are overshadowed by Prospero's authority. I also drew out the parallels between Ariel and myself—his respect for the duke, and mine for my parents. We have to power to create what we desire, but we still have a certain respect for our respective authority figures.

Ariel has done his job and is free to be his own leader, as I am ready to graduate and go off to college to be my own individual. It's good to be accountable for your own being. So with that mind, have a great summer!



Grady Harp's review of "The Tempest": http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1274300/reviews

Beloved and Animatronics: Vengeful Spirits

In Toni Morrison's "Beloved", an African-American runaway slave named Sethe kills one of her children in order to prevent them from living life as a slave. Now alone with her daughter Denver, they live in a house on 124 Bluestone Road in Cincinnati, Ohio. Paul D has come to visit them regularly, but has drawn out the ghost of Sethe's murdered daughter, who calls herself Beloved, and seeks revenge on her mother. Sethe, out of guilt, is consumed into a life of serving Beloved, to the point where her other daughter Denver seeks help from the local community to drive out the spirit. 

Similarly in Scott Cawthon's game trilogy "Five Nights at Freddy's", a man dressed in a animatronic costume lures five children from a family pizza diner and murders them. However, the spirits returns as hosts in the other animatronic suits, and corner their killer into a dangerously disassembled animatronic suit, which crushes and kills him. Later in the 90's, a man named Mike Schmidt works the night shift at Freddy Fazbear's Pizza for very little payment, and is haunted by the five animatronics. With the help of a phone recording of the previous night watch guard, Mike is able to outsmart the animatronics and survive five nights in the diner until he is released from his job. 

Toni Morrison's "Beloved" (book/movie cover)

Original FNAF Cover by Scott Cawthon

There are many similarities between the two horror stories. Beloved is depicted as the reincarnation  of a vengeful baby, and saps away everything Sethe ever wanted-freedom. Beloved torments and sucks the life out of Sethe to the point where she becomes frail and on the verge of death, which Denver takes note of. Even Paul D, who reunites with Sethe after Beloved disappears, is afraid that she will give up on life and die just like Baby Suggs. In Brendon Priestley’s article “The return of the dead and the repressed in Toni Morrison’s Beloved” (published 2002), it is said that Beloved is based off the hardships of slavery to  “represent a return of the repressed on an even grander and more resonant level; the rekindling of the memory of a forgotten and ignored people.” Many theories swirling around the Five Nights at Freddy’s series also suggest the vengeance of the forgotten murdered children. In the game itself, the company owner of Freddy’s sweeps the murder incident under the rug in order to stay in business, ignoring the harsh truth for thirty years. The murdered children are assumed to seek vengeance on their unknown killer, and are provoked to attack adults. Nadia Oxford writes in “Murder, Ghosts, and revenge: The Larger Story Behind the Five Night’s at Freddy’s Games” (published Feb. 11, 2015) that “when Phone Guy brings up the investigation in FNAF 2, he also says the animatronics have taken a sudden dislike to adults, even though they're still fine with kids. If the suits really are possessed by the spirits of the murdered children, they certainly have reason to take issue with grown-ups.”

Although though Sethe had some reason as to killing her daughter, she and the mysterious man both murdered the children out of their own will. The five spirits and Beloved come back to haunt their killers, even if it means taking vengeance on the innocent as well. Paul D and the guy on the phone are similar in the way that they bring a sense of reality to the haunted estates. Finally, Denver and Mike Schmidt fall victim to their respective ghosts, and overcome the haunting by searching for a resource of aid, drawing them from the crossfire and saving their own lives.

References:

"Beloved" by Toni Morrison (1987)

"Five Nights at Freddy's" by Scott Cawthon (2014-2015)

http://www.brentonpriestley.com/writing/beloved.htm

http://www.usgamer.net/articles/murder-ghosts-and-revenge-the-larger-story-behind-the-five-nights-at-freddys-games