We're Over, Darling

Dear Reader (you’re not important enough to name),

     I hope you that you actually pay attention to me for once while reading this letter.  Hey, there’s a first time for everything!   You let a smart and beautiful girl slip through your grimy fingers.  This may be your first time but I doubt it’ll be your last in this case.

     Here I am at my volleyball game and I serve an ace. I look into the stands and don’t see you, because you’re playing football with your friends.  Here I am at my chorus concert singing the solo.  I look into the post-concert crowd and can’t find you, because you’re too busy eating junk-food and playing video games.  I look for you but never find you where I want you to be.  And why is that? You must be too busy being… too busy.

     Sweetie, did you really think that you could hold onto a girl acting like that?  Did you think that I would let you off the hook an infinite number of times? If you did, you are deeply mistaken, my friend, because that is no way to treat an important person in your life.

We used to be in love, or so I thought.  You were always there for me to catch me when I fell.  Then I suppose we grew apart when you went off college.  Maybe you changed, maybe it was me.  But one is for sure, that we did not change together.

     I can’t believe I ever let you call myself yours.  When I heard that you kissed that girl at one of your college parties I should have dumped you right then. But I thought I would let you off the hook because you were really drunk after exam week.  I really wasted my breath on you, honey.  That is indubitably the most terrible thing you could do to a person.

     Never again will I let something let that go.  Never again will I be treated without dignity.  Never again will I lose confidence because some guy cheated on me, because it’s his (and I mean your) loss.  Never again will I stand to be treated this way.

     You’re a jerk. A chauvinistic pervert. A scum. A stupid boy.  A waste of time.

     I don’t ever want to see you again.  I want you out of my life, forever.  Don’t call me.  Don’t text me.  Don’t even try to snap-chat or Facebook message me (you’re already blocked my darling). 

     The next girl that has this deal with you is unlucky indeed (ha, I speak as if you will get another girl)!

Sincerely,

                    

               Your EX girlfriend ;)

Amanda

Revenge! What does it mean to you?

            If a bully picks on your little sibling, you confront the bully and teach him a lesson by stealing his lunch money, right?  (I do not recommend this, but it is the way of elementary-aged children).  The behavior of these children is because of the innocent love they have for one another.  This type of love-fueled revenge can be seen in the movie Taken, the Shakespearean play, Hamlet, and in everyday life through bullied children and estranged lovers.

The movie Taken, released in two-thousand and eight, is a very popular movie centered on revenge.  The plot involves a father who made a career in the CIA, and his daughter, Kim, who gets kidnapped by human traffickers in Paris.  He promises to find and kill the people responsible in this scene.  The majority of the film shows the father trying to find the people responsible for his daughter’s kidnapping.  Along the way he injuries, tortures, and kills people in order to save his daughter. A dialogue between the father, Bryan, and a French police director shows his actions:   Jean Claude says, “Ok, first we should find the spotter.” Bryan says, “I found him, he's dead.” Jean Claude asks, “You found him that way?...”  Bryan sighs, and Jean continues, “Bryan, you can't just run around tearing down Paris...” Bryan exclaims, “Jean Claude, I'll tear down the Eiffel Tower if I have to!”  Bryan also shoots the man who ends up purchasing his daughter.  The man says “Please understand.  It was all business, nothing personal.”  Bryan replies “It was all personal to me,” before shooting him and saving his daughter.  Bryan’s revengeful actions are due to the obligation he feels to protect his daughter because he loves her.  His love is so strong that in getting his revenge he injuries and kills people, torturing some in the process.

            This type of revenge is very similar to Shakespeare’s in the play, Hamlet, which centers around revenge as well.  Near the beginning of the play, Hamlet is told by his father’s ghost that he was murdered by Hamlet’s uncle and that Hamlet must avenge him.  Hamlet loved and respected his father so much that he goes along with this plan and starts planning his revenge.  Another character who wants to take love-fueled revenge is Laertes after Hamlet accidentally kills his father, Polonius.  Therefore Laertes, out of love for his father, eagerly joins the King in plotting to end Hamlet’s life.

            Examples in movies, plays, and everyday life show us that love can often be fuel for revenge.  In movies like Taken, characters get revenge on each other for killing of hurting someone they love.  This also occurs in plays like Hamlet.  To us humans, it may be second nature for us to feel these revengeful urges, but maybe we should sit back and think first.  Is revengeful always necessary?  Is revenge always effective?   Is it ever justified?  And is revenge always worth the struggle, in the end?  Some may argue that Kim’s father had every right to do whatever he did to all of those people to get his daughter back.  Others, including myself, may argue that a lot of the deaths could have been avoided, and even though the man he tortured in the electric chair was a bad man, he didn’t deserve to be tortured like that.  Then again, I’m not a parent, so I am definitely not in a position to criticize Kim’s father’s actions.  In Hamlet, many deaths occur to avenge dead loved ones.  Is this revenge justified?  And because so many deaths occur, was the revenge completely effective or worth it if like in many of Shakespeare’s plays, almost everyone ends up dead?  I don’t think it’s justified or worth it because so many deaths occur and some of them are accidents.  If Hamlet had never decided to get revenge on Claudius, Claudius wouldn’t be trying to kill him, Hamlet wouldn’t have accidentally killed Polonius, and therefore Laertes wouldn’t want revenge on Hamlet!  Revenge almost always comes full circle like this in Shakespeare’s plays.  Also, most people in everyday life wouldn’t murder someone to get revenge over a killed loved one, but it still happens.  There are people behind bars for killing ex- boyfriends and girlfriends, or their new significant other like in this story  Society sees these crimes as unjustified, but the murderers clearly see their actions justified or they won’t have done them.  Do these inmates truly believe the revenge was effective if they kill whom they wanted but end up in jail for the reminder of their lives?  These questions and the previous ones are all questions that I cannot answer.  It is up to each individual person, and his/her moral and ethical beliefs, whether revenge is necessary, justified, effective, or worth it.  Each person must evaluate the actions of the characters and people mentioned for himself/herself.  If everyone asked themselves these questions, we probably would have fewer deaths and wars.

            Revenge can be fueled by many things, including love.  Characters in plays and movies, and people in everyday life often get revenge for the death or injury of a loved one.  Kim’s father kills and injures many people in search for his kidnapped daughter in the movie Taken.  Revenge causes many deaths in the Shakespearean play, Hamlet.  People are murdered in today’s society for cheating on others, breaking up, or other kinds of lost love.  There are many questions you should ask yourself while reviewing these examples.  Is revenge always necessary?  When or when isn’t revenge justified?  Is revenge truly effective?  And is revenge worth it, in the end?  If every person on Earth was asked these questions we could prevent deaths and possibly even wars.  Be the change in that cycle. Ask yourself these questions, and think twice next time before stealing that bully’s lunch money.



Sources:

b8warlorI88.  Youtube.com. Google.com.  7 Jan 2011.  Web. 13 Jan 2013. <http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KgmO32IdwuE>

Livonia, Mich.  "Teen murdered ex girlfriend's  new boyfriend and mom before killing himself, police say."  FoxNews.com.  Google.com.  Web. 13 Jan 2013.  <http://www.foxnews.com/us/2012/04/05/teen-murders-ex-girlfriends-mom-and-new-boyfriend-with-axe-before-killing/#ixzz2Ht1kRyc2>

N/A.  "Memorable Quotes for Taken."  IMDb.com.  Google.com.  After 2008.  Web. 13 Jan 2013. <http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0936501/quotes>

Satire in "Scary Movie 3"

     The first scary movie I saw as a child seemed scary at the time, but I now realize it wasn't meant to be scary at all!  Rather, it was a parody to other scary movies that really frighten people.  This movie is Scary Movie 3.  The writers Craig Mazin and Pat Proft incorporated a lot of satire in the film by creating a parody of The Ring, Signs, and 8 Mile (not a scary movie).  This provides a sense of comic relief and humor by making fun of some of the events in other movies that are unsettling to people.  The writers also incorporated irony in some of the scenes to make the film more humorous.  Needless to say, Mazin and Profit had many similar ideas to Mark Twain in his novel Huckleberry Finn, which is full of satire as well.
     The Ring is a movie in which everyone who watches a videotape is killed by a dead little girl named Samara seven days later.  Scary Movie 3 makes fun of this in so many ways!  Her name is changed to Tabatha, who communicates with the characters by phone and is quite humorous.  When the main character, Cindy, won't let her talk to her son, the second time she pretends to be a caller from "Reader's Digest with a spectacular offer for Cody."  She also has to explain to Cindy that she is wrong in counting the number of days she has to live because she is only counting the business days, and have an argument over whether Martin Luther King day counts as a day.  You can watch that scene here.  She is also made fun of in the big fight with Cindy's best friend Brenda, whose seven days are up.  Brenda is a pretty good match for Tabatha, and actually gets some punches in, holding her by the head saying, "Is that all you got?" which can be seen here.  She is almost made fun of in another scene when a woman who is trying to help Cindy reaches her hand into the television where Tabatha comes from, and rips a chunk of her hair out saying, "Whatchu gonna brush now?" in this scene.  You can't help but laugh!
     Signs is another scary movie in which a family who lives on a farm discovers crop circles in their fields, suggesting an alien invasion.  You guessed it, Mazin and Proft had fun with this one!  This family is two brothers, one who's wife had recently died and the other who falls in love with Cindy.  The one who falls for Cindy's name is George. He lives on a farm with his brother, but has a dream to become a rapper. As all of this is happening, Cindy is struggling as a news reporting covering the story of the crop circles and trying to tell everyone about the killer video tape before she is cut off.  After preparing for an evil alien invasion, the aliens turn out to be quite friendly!  They are quite different though, and this is where the satire comes in where they are made fun of.  They choke each other to say hello, kick each other in the groin to say goodbye, and urinate out of their pointer fingers.  Also, their only motive for coming to Earth was to stop Tabatha, who was wreaking havoc on their race as well.  They watched it when their satellite picked it up when it was supposed to pick of the movie "Poodie Tang," which is how the tape got mixed in on Earth in the first place.  Click here to view the alien scene, but start the video 25 seconds after it begins.
     A third movie that Scary Movie 3 parodies is 8 Mile, which is about a young rapper going through many struggles through his life.  This is done through the character of George who lives on his brother's farm, but has a dream to be a wrapper.  The only problem lies in his identity:  he's a farmer!  He struggles to blend in with the black community, one time mindlessly wearing white hood and getting thrown out of a rap battle.  You can watch the rap battle (note some vulgar language) here or watch it from 1:30 to 2:00 to see the short part when George flips his white hood on.
     Mark Twain uses the family feud between the Sherperdsons and the Grangerfords to parody the real family feud between the Hatfields and the McCoys in the nineteenth century.  The Hatfields and McCoys' fight all started over a woman, which is exactly how the the big fight between the Sherperdsons and the Grangerfords broke out.  Mark Twain's purpose in using this satire (parody) to show the flaws in humans and how we sometimes fight for reasons that may not be just.  It also brings out the inhumanity and darkness of man, which we often don't like to think about.  Twain is trying to open our eyes to reveal our past, so we learn a lesson and it is not repeated.  Twain also uses satire in the form of exaggeration in the camp meeting.  The people in the meeting willingly give up all their money to an "ex-pirate" (the King) so he can help other pirates.  They are totally gullible in thinking that he was a pirate and also in thinking that he was an newly honest man.  Twain uses this exaggeration to point out out how humans can be very naive and foolish.
     Craig Mazin, Pat Profit, and Mark Twain certainly had the same skill of adding satire to writing.  Scary Movie 3 parodies many movies including The Ring, Signs, and 8 Mile.  This is to create humor and comic relief to the film.  Mark Twain uses satire in his feud between the Sherperdsons and the Grangerfords and the camp meeting.  The feud, a parody of the fight between the Hatfields and McCoys is supposed to teach us a lesson.  The camp meeting exaggerates the real camp meetings that took place during the Second Great Awakening.  So next time you read a book or watch a movie (especially one of the Scary Movies), pay closer attention, and keep your brain peeled for some satire.  You're sure to be in for a long-lasting lesson or a good laugh!