A Hobbit's Journey

For this week, I read the “Hobbit” by J.R.R. Tolkien. There are many aspects in the Hobbit that reflect many elements of the classic hero’s journey. I found it interesting how some details in the book were not present in the movie adaptation.

The hero’s journey is introduced through the eyes of Bilbo Baggins, the story’s protagonist, in his homeland, The Shire. The journey begins by describing the hero’s lifestyle and his main flaws. Unlike most protagonists, Bilbo is portrayed as an antisocial and withdrawn hobbit where he prefers to be in his own comfort zone away from the other hobbits.

Bilbo was content with his current life until he received a visit from a very well-known wizard, Gandalf. This sudden visit altered his whole life; a group of Dwarves started to appear in Bilbo’s home. The intrusion of the dwarves placed Bilbo out off his comfort zone. Later on, he learned the reason for their visit; the dwarves wanted to recruit him as their “burglar” for their journey towards the Lonely Mountain. The purpose of this journey was for Bilbo to follow the dwarves to reclaim their land by sneaking into the mountain and taking back the dwarves’ sacred stone from the dragon. Bilbo rejected the mission multiple times, until he was finally convinced to join them. He decided to leave his comfort area in order to learn more from the outside world. Bilbo’s adventure follows the elements of a classic hero’s journey where he first had an ordinary life, but after the arrival of Gandalf and the dwarves, he was called to an adventure.

As the story progressed, there are signs of Bilbo’s character development where he went through some behavior changes. He started to reform his bad habits in order to adapt to any conflict the party might encounter. He also used his wittiness to help the group from many sticky situations. Bilbo’s growths and acquired new skills emphasize on the element of a classic hero’s journey.

Throughout the journey, Bilbo also managed to acquire two magical items that had helped him throughout his adventure. The first item, Sting is an elven short sword that glows whenever any orcs are approaching. This sword had the ability to alert the group of danger. The second item is a magical ring that allows Bilbo to turn invisible whenever he puts it on. The presence of these two items helped Bilbo and the dwarves defeat and overcome challenges throughout the classic journey of a hero.

At the end, Bilbo was able to reclaim the dwarves land and return home. The entire journey had shaped and transformed Bilbo into a hero. Bilbo returns to the Shire, but with a different attitude than the one he had before his journey which made his life in the Shire more enjoyable. To conclude, the change in Bilbo’s character reflects the elements of a classic hero’s journey where he transformed from an antisocial, withdrawn hobbit into a heroic protagonist. He is no longer the same person he was before he left.

Hexing Witches in Literature

For this past week, I read the book Aunt Maria by Diana Wynne Jones. I found the story disturbingly creepy but with a lot of personality coming from the characters’ actions which enriches the story. The character, Aunt Maria, may seem to appear as a rude bossy old lady, but in all actuality she happens to be a powerful manipulative witch; making her the main antagonist of the story. In my opinion, Aunt Maria’s rude, stubborn, bossy and cranky personality are just stereotypes of a grumpy old lady. Most of her behavior and outdated opinions mainly reflect the past experience of an old lady. Maria’s personality trait was influenced by her witch-like manipulative nature, where she kept using reverse psychology on the protagonist's mother to do all of the housework for her. Aunt Maria embodies the powerful stereotypical image of an old wicked witch. She uses her magic powers to influence and completely control the town she lives in.

I really find it interesting how the story revolves around a pair of siblings that must defeat the evil witch that threatens their family. This reminded me of the fairytale Hansel and Gretel with the content of two children having to confront a witch. In my opinion, I do not think that all witches are evil since it mainly depends on how they decide to use their power; either to help or get corrupted. A witch mainly refers to a female spellcaster, however a warlock is referred to as a male witch.

Our culture models women with power as independent, strong and intimidating. However, Aunt Maria is needy and dependent on the people around her. The only way she manages to get things done is by using her powers of magic without really questioning her actions and circumstances. This also plays around with the idea of hierarchy in our society today where people use or even abuse the power they have to manipulate or demand things from others in order to accomplish their goal.

Weirdness... of the Dead

For this blog post, I watched the movie Shaun of the Dead, a comedy based fantasy horror zombie apocalypse, that I found both funny and disturbing. Even though it is a parody of Dawn of the Dead, it did not hold back with visual violence and gore unlike other parodies that usually imply that something violent is happening. The movie is about a british man called Shaun, whose life was falling apart when his girlfriend broke up with him, and lost his present for his mother’s birthday. However, the outbreak of a zombie apocalypse allowed Shaun to take advantage of the situation by redeeming himself, using his wits to fight off the zombies with his childhood best friend to rescue his mother and girlfriend. I have noticed that Shaun’s action is similar to other zombie apocalypse films where either the main character or other secondary support always try to redeem themselves by using their wits and abilities towards the situation.

In this movie, the appearance of zombies happened at a slow pace; it started with people suddenly getting sick and progressively turned into zombies. The main character was unaware of the spreading sickness, and did not notice the zombies acting weird. He just casually passed by them. I found the main character’s unawareness very weird since usually in these types of movies, the main characters are aware and prepared to fight the zombies since they turn into zombies at such a quick pace.

There were some parts of the movie that I found it very weird and funny. For example, in the scene where the two main protagonists were attacking the zombies with record disks, their reactions were weird and unusual. Shaun was being picky on selecting which record disk he or his best friend should throw at the zombies approaching them rather than throwing anything and everything at the zombies. Another scene that I found weird was when the actors decided to cross through a hoard of zombies by acting like them and actually succeeding on the attempt for a while.

I also found that the movie was weird because I was not expecting to see such intense and serious scenes in a humorous comedy. For example, when Shaun’s step-father was bitten by a zombie, he explained to Shaun why he was hard on him all these years and told him that he loves him. This was a hard scene for Shaun after knowing the truth and having to leave him behind. Another example was when Shaun’s mother revealed that she was bitten by a zombie on their way to the bar. It was difficult for Shaun to decide whether he should kill his mother before she turns into a zombie and attacks them.

To conclude, the unusual reactions of the characters and the unexpected intense scenes in a humorous comedy emphasized the weirdness of the movie as a whole.

Japanese Folktales and Horror

This week I read the book “Kwaidan” by Lafcadio Hearn, a compilation of Japanese ghost stories that were translated from old Japanese text. The existence of the creatures in the Japanese legendary folktales reflect a difference than that expressed in western horror or the gothic. Japanese horror tends to focus more on curses, involving the themes of revenge and grudges. The stories often involve haunted houses and spirits of an Onryou (wrathful ghost). In exchange, western horror are more aggressive and violent with regards to killers and monsters.

I have always enjoyed learning about legendary, mythical, and supernatural creatures. I believe that these creatures are essential and are what make the story interesting. When someone first thinks about a fictional creature or monster, most people think of European legends since many people in the world are familiar with Norse, Celtic, Slavic, and the most popular, Greek legends. There are many interesting legends around the world, but in my opinion most of them are overshadowed by the ones from Europe.

There are many legends and folktales in Asia, but Japan seems to have the most unique types of supernatural folktales. When I first became interested in myths and legends of Japan, I was surprised to find out the amount of creatures, monsters, and phantoms that were created in legends. I found it exciting and refreshing how each tale had a different story to tell. All creatures were categorized under the term “Youkai”, which means “apparition”. These creatures came in a variety of forms and behaviors; they ranged from harmless pranksters to ferocious monsters. I was already familiar with some of the creatures that the book mentioned including the famous Yuki Onna (snow woman), the Rokuro Kubi (the long necked woman), Jikininki (tree with human-faced fruits), and Mujina (Badger). Being familiar with these creatures helped me relate to the stories in the book easier.

While reading the book, I felt that the author found inspiration from an ancient traditional ceremony performed in the old times of Japan where the locals would gather around in a large circle, each holding their lit candle and telling a ghost story. After a person tells his or her story, the person would blow out the candle and this process would continue until the last person’s turn. The room would progressively get darker as each person blew out their candle, leaving the room in complete darkness. Traditions like this reflect the difference between the Western and Japanese cultures.

Vampires: Love & Pain

This week I read “Interview With A Vampire” by Anne Rice, and watched “Nosferatu” directed by F.W Murnau and “Vampire Academy” directed by Mark Waters. I enjoyed all three of them. In the discussion below I will write about the important relationship in the story and movies.

A main theme that appeared in the book was companionship and it was first used when the vampire Lestat ask Louis if he wanted to become a vampire to keep him company. This implied that Lestat was feeling lonely. The theme of companionship was present again when Lestat decided to turn a young girl, who was named Claudia, into a vampire in order to keep Louis from leaving. Furthermore, this vampires seem to cherish companionship since they do not like the idea of being left alone. For example, when Claudia started suspecting that Louis would leave her for a vampire friend he made in Paris, she asked Louis to turn a doll maker she knew into a vampire in case Louis leaves her.

A vampire’s immortal life is the reason why this theme is continuously used throughout the story. Many people crave for the power of immortality in order to cheat death, however not many know the price that they will have to pay. When someone becomes immortal, it grants them an indestructible body, meaning that as time moves forward, people around them pass away one by one. As the cycle is repeated over and over again it leaves the person alone, desiring to have a companion. That is how a famous quote came to be used, “Immortality is not a gift… But a curse.” In the case involving vampires, they can create new companions with immortality to keep them company by turning them into one of their own. In the story, it is indicated that the vampires can decide which of their victims will revive as one of them or not, which differs from the most well-known believe if you die by the hands of a vampire you will automatically become one of them.

Towards the end of the story, the theme of companionship was twisted when Lestat’s arrived to get revenge on Louis and Claudia. Lestat trapped Louis in a locked coffin so he would starve to death and locked both Claudia and the doll maker outside so the sun would destroy them. After Louis was rescued by his friend Armand, he rushed to save the other two but it was too late. After the incident, Louis was able to escape from Lestat, however he was hunted by the thought of not being able to save Claudia.  He decided to return to New Orleans to live a life of solitude and vowed to not create another companion. This final moments from the book reveal the true darker side of immortality. Louis will never be able to forget this tragic past and will forever be dealing with the fear of encountering Lestat. I found it really annoying how the boy interviewing Louis, who after finishing his tragic tale, did not learn a thing about the truth of immortality and pestered Louis to turn him into a vampire.

With regards to the movies, I watched Nosferatu and Vampire Academy, which were very interesting to watch. I was really surprised to find out that Nosferatu was a silent movie, even though it was a spin-off of the original Dracula. The story was basically the same as Dracula, except there was an absence of a character with a role similar to Van Helsing and a completely different vampire whose name is Count Orlok.

The story is based in a main town located in Germany instead of England, which meant that the main character traveled directly to Transylvania by land. The story’s main characters ware a carefree man named Hutter and his loving wife; they could not get enough of each other and might as well have been glued together. The vampire Count Orlok was not like Dracula. He was careless at trying to hide his identity, and was not able to control his vampire instincts.

The film has many symbolisms including pain and love. Orlok is being represented as the symbol of the Black Death because people around him are either killed by illness or by the vampire himself. In addition, everywhere he goes there are rats following him which evokes the symbol of pain. The symbol of love is also represented during the movie. The couple seems to have a deep connection with each other to the point that when Orlok was about to attack the husband, the wife immediately responded to the threat from all the way home and protected him. In my opinion, I found that the method used to defeat Orlok at the end of the film was extremely ironic; Orlok was defeated by the rising sun after getting too distracted drinking the wife's blood until morning.

The movie Vampire Academy had a good storyline that I enjoyed watching. The story is set in a school academy where the entire faculty and student body are vampires. It was interesting to see the way they divided the vampire race into three kinds and the references they used to identify them. The three kinds are Moroi, Dhampirs and Strigoi. The Moroi vampires are friendly vampires. They reminded me of a variation of vampires called the Day Walkers. The Dhampirs are basically the offspring between a vampire and a human. Lastly, the Strigoi are the evil ones. I really liked the idea of identifying them by using the slavic name for vampires. In the movie the dhampirs protect the morois from the strigois and the main plot revolves around the lives of teenage vampires, which also includes supernatural mystery and action themes.

I found a connection between the two main protagonists, Rose, the trouble making Dhampir, and Lissa, the kind hearted Moroi. Together they have an enlightening relationship and companionship; even though they are very different, they depend on each other. Furthermore their bond is strong enough to the point that they can telekinetically share the same dream.

To conclude, the themes of companionship, love and pain are presented uniquely in each of the characters throughout the book and both films.