Beloved Is a Dragon

This is Drogon. He isn't the nicest dragon around.

     Toni Morrison's Beloved deals with the concept of ghosts and a haunted past, akin to the concept
of reincarnation and rejuvenated, yet destructive souls. HBO's Game of Thrones, being literally in a
different world, deals with extremely similar tropes, particularly in the line of House Targaryen that
now lies in the hands of a young Daenerys Targaryen.

     As she has stated many times. Dany has her dragons. Each of these three dragons are reincarnations of people in Daenerys' life that have had their spirits infused with the soul and fire of a dragon. The three people who died had extremely close connections to her, them being her husband and her two brothers. Her brother Rhaegar is now the dragon Rhaegal, her brother Viserys is now the dragon Viserion, and her moon and stars of a husband, Drogo, is now the fiercest dragon of them all, Drogon. The dragons personalities represent each of these people, Drogon being fiery, Rhaegal being stoic, and Viserys being lazy.

     According to here, "If a dragon is not claimed by a rider when its young, it becomes extremely difficult to bond with as an adult." Sounds like a certain Beloved. She is killed when she is young. She never gets the chance to bond with her mother. She is vengeful, fiery spirit who scares the hell out of anyone in her mother's domain, whether it be Paul D or Here Boy. She constantly draws the awe and attention of anyone around her. She is a spirit of the past transfixed into the present with a considerate power over people that allows her to manipulate them in order to get what she wants, whether it means having sex with Paul D or conniving the literal life force out of Sethe.

     They both are quite literally ghosts of their pasts. Dragons went extinct thousands of years back in the Targaryen Civil War known as the "Dance of Dragons". Now Drogon is alive, a haunting presence, and committer of infanticide, referenced in this article; "The winged shadow...Came from the sky...My girl...My little girl." (In hindsight thats a huge coincidence that it was a little girl that was killed), which further proves how this reincarnated monster has a mindset that revolves around fury and destruction; a vengeful spirit of sorts. Beloved, being killed from an act of infanticide, is also quite vengeful and manipulative.

     Sethe can't help but baby her to the point of Beloved's leeching of life from Sethe herself. Khal Drogo being smothered by Dany reflects this to the point where their stories are now parallel. Dany proclaims herself as the Mother of Dragons, proudly displaying them and flaunting her familial line. Sethe realizes her true attachment to Beloved, and devotes her full being to taking care of her deceased daughter.

     How does all of this tie together? Both Morrison and the show runners of Game of Thrones used these deaths as ways to characterize and prove a character's weaknesses, albeit for completely different reasons. They use ghosts to ground these characters to the past and make the past help guide their future, whether that future being them ruling the Iron Throne and taking over Westeros, or being free of a guilt ridden past that continues to haunt a person to this day. Sometimes their characterization of the past doesn't even help the main character themselves; it helps drive other to characters discover themselves and strive to be better people (Denver), or drives other characters to strive to cover their own pasts further (Ser Jorah Mormont). In the end, Beloved is in fact Drogon, and Drogon is a fiery being who don't need no Mother of Dragons telling him what to do.

Herd Instinct

"Herd Instinct"
Art and Story by Cameron Clow

(Was absent and we took down our show after school Monday, so the only picture of a piece I had was the picture I took of my own piece, that was in the show.)

The already exhausted herd hesitated. After six months of little to no rain, their water supply was dwindling, along with the flora. They were at more than one type of crossroad. Their matriarch, Echo, knew the area well. Her sixty year old demeanor relied upon more of her intellect versus her brute strength. Being a survivor of many lion ambushes (the scars of these feuds lined her body), she knew when and where a safe haven would appear, but she weighed her herd’s occupants against her instinct. One of the females has a four month old calf, another elderly member is on literally her last legs, because she stepped on a landmine a poacher had set out. Echo stilled, her heightened senses detecting a predator approaching .

The lions stood in the way of the pachyderms good fortune. The predator’s territory bordered the elephant’s migratory destination, because the great kings of the plains knew that each year Echo’s family would bring along a lion’s favorite prey; a young elephant calf. The cats proceeded in the shadowy brush, bodies low to the ground to avoid detection, but it was futile. Echo’s trumpet blared along the African bush, and the family group stampeded through the dense undergrowth.

The young calf was scatterbrained. She had lost her mother when the group had dispersed, losing her bearings and wit. She scurried to the nearest adult, one of her aunts, perhaps. The pride leader noticed this, and proceeded with caution. The adult trumpeted and vanished from the young one’s side. The lion approached the frightened orphan, alone in a hungry world. The calf accepted her fate, and succumbed to darkness as a shrill trumpeting echoed through her mind.

The elderly female was done. She had basically blown off her leg when she had foolishly stepped on a human’s explosive trap; she now lags behind her remaining family constantly. But today was a different day. When the lions attacked, her maternal instincts took over. She saw that the youngest member of the group had been abandoned by her new mother, whom had little to no maternal feelings for her newborn. She saw the calf slumbered over on the ground, and tried to amble over to the baby as fast as her three good legs could take her. She made a valiant effort to save her from the predatory mob surrounding her.

Echo gazed upon the fertile grasslands around her. The rains had come, and washed away the gory aftermath that had ravaged her herd. Echo locked trunks with the vulnerable survivor of the attack, and continued on with her family.

This is How Queen Elsa is Like Shakespeare

Seriously, what does shape have to do with anything, how does the literal shape of a poem structure effect anything? Songs. Songs are basically poems sung to music. When you think of songs, you can usually imagine some sort of structure, kind of like how a sonnet is usually a square. When I think of songs, I usually see a pretty recognizable hourglass like shape.  Each >< part of the hourglass means a chorus that usually pertains to the title of the song. Each <> part shows of the lines that do not rhyme, those that you do not memorize as fast, but usually hold the most meaning and sense behind each song, unlike the catchy chorus.

As overdone as it is now, "Let It Go" from Disney's Frozen is ingrained into the heart and minds of millions around the globe. In Frozen, Elsa, the Snow Queen, is tormented by herself and her own, hidden power. Her flaws and struggles from having to hide herself from her beloved sister (post parent death) has not contributed positively to her being. In the song, in the <> part, Elsa sings about not being the perfect girl her parents expected her to be, not concealing herself, and building up to letting it go. Weird as it might seem, this is how Frozen can, in a way, be connected to the poets and epic ballads of old. The catchy, drawing lines in the obvious parts always draw you in, but whether it is "Sonnet 18", or "For The First Time In Forever", it is the thought-bending, contributing lines of the song or poem that holds the most meaning, and that is how the literal layout and shape of the piece contributes.

Because in Sonnet 18, it may seem to be Shakespeare flirting with some lover or other being, at first glance. But once again, when you get into the good dark meat of the sonnet, can look at it as an even distribution, it adds more depth and more feeling. By comparing this person to both the hot and the cloudy, the perfect and imperfect, it shows how his words are not just seeming to be the general cliche that poets of his age tended to use. But since Shakespeare never refers to the being as a woman or man, and how he states that as long as people can see, this poem will speak the truth about a specific person. This makes it relate able to everyone, just like how Let It Go's message of casting out the expected and being yourself can also be true to a specific person. So Mr. Lindsey, next time you see a song, and think, "Oh, this overplayed annoying piece of trash is on again", think about the message this artist may be trying to pursue to an audience through a song, or poem, or story, or ballad. Even though Poker Face seems to be about some really intense poker game, its really about Gaga's lesbian activities. And even though Frozen seems to be another Disney movie empowering young women and making misogynistic men weep their hopes and dreams of putting down women, its a movie about how someone can be their self. 

P.S.- Also, if you want the key to someone's heart, write a poem saying how they are at best average, but of course, average is perfect.

Down The Rabbit Hole and Out Of Oz

    All characters are connected in the great circle of life. The Lion King and Hamlet, Alice in Wonderland and The Wizard Of Oz. Alice and Dorothy both came out of the same era, emerging from the same viewpoint, and were based off of girls that Carroll and Baum both knew, so that archetype of female characters exploroing the world they live in that seems to be "out of this world" was copied, processed , and published in a multitude of movies and books that continue into today.

  So the question is, can these characters, that all seem new and inviting and glowing with hope, be considered original? Yes, because all of these common characters were seemingly established as archetypes. There will always be the misunderstood teenager, strict mother, and annoying little brother. The creativity in a story comes from the way a story is written, not in the way that the characters were formed. James Cameron's Avatar is a Pocahontas carbon copy, but that's okay because of its insanely hypercritical movements, creatures, and even the world, because the movie literally is meant for you to marvel at the beautiful art and effort put into creating an entire world out of mutated horses and cat people, built into a computer on another planet. Pocahontas is just another whitewashed Disney film, but nevertheless, the "colors of the wind" are painted into the heads of kids everywhere, who now view American history in a colored palette of racist native history.

  So what does that mean for us intellectuals that can see where the story is going in the first five minutes of the book or movie? Keep reading. It might change. Just because the powerful feminist Mockingjay seems to radiate an era of confidence and positivism, she will not win everything. The love triangle is deeper than it seems. Keep reading, and do not fall into the "rabbit hole" of assuming you know better.

No Good Deed Goes Unpunished, Unless it is Made by the Good Guys.

When you think of the Wicked Witch of the West, you normally think of "Ill get you my pretty, and your little dog too!", not necessarily a misunderstood teenager. In the book (and now Broadway hit), Wicked, the classic quest story gets thrown around and ultimately smashed to pieces...sort of. You have the archetypes regarding the pieces of a quest, the knight (Elphaba), the dangerous road (terrible, messed up life), in a sense, a goal of being normal, the princess (well in this case the prince, Fiyero) and the evil knight and the dragon are the Wizard and Madame Morrible. It looks like everything is according to plan. Wicked is a retelling of the Wizard of Oz, whose protagonist is Elphaba Thropp, destined to be the Wicked Witch of the West. In her mind, her "holy grail" is just to be a normal girl. Her quest does not seem to be following any of the baselines. So that is the question; is Wicked a quest or not?

A quest is some sort of journey leading to a conclusion, with some classic character plot lines that seem to be repeated constantly: the evil cheerleader, the handsome football captain, the snarky best friend, and the normal white protagonist. That is why Wicked seems to "Defy Gravity"; it throws the traditional sense of a quest into the wind. The lead is a girl of a different color, her best friend is the popular girl who is the best a person can be, and the popular jock chooses the lead over the pretty, preppy, popular girl. In the story, she has always envied the Wizard and all things that come with him. She eventually figures out that he is in fact the evil knight, and rebels against him, ostracizing herself to a life of pain and sadness as a wicked witch. She tries to save her sister, her sister gets killed. She trys to save Fiyero and friend, Boq, and ends up turning them into the Scarecrow and the Tinman to save their lives.  In turn, all of her good deeds end up hurting her, making herself think she is wicked through and through. If she was considered a good person, which was her dream, she would not have gotten punished for her deeds, so her quest might have seemed to failed. Classically, quests usually turn out to a happy ending; the girl gets the football jock, vice versa. In the book of Wicked, she gets killed accidentally by Dorothy Gale, who trys to save her by throwing water on her flaming cape. In the show, she gets pseudo-killed, by citizens thinking that the whole water allergy thing is true. She in turn runs off with Fiyero and leaves Oz for good. In either situation,the plot is a quest. 

But how is that? According to How to Read Literature Like a Professor (by Thomas C. Foster) a quest is defined as stated above. Wicked conforms to those archetypes, just in a different manner. She has her quest, but it does not end up with the "holy grail" she originally intended. She runs off with Fiyero in order to save her friend, the Good Witch, Glinda. So in her quest, her motives shift from establishing her self worth to saving her friendship and her various relationships.  So is she wicked, or just a very faithful family member and friend? According to a quest storyline, she is a hero, and a wicked one at that.