Dear Bicycle, A bicycle at your most rudimentary and generic form, you are a mode of transportation nationally associated with youth. But, you are much, much more, you are a fledging sense of freedom that within its restraints allows for the juvenile development of reason and responsibility, as well as the repercussions that are associated with the lapses of. In a more materialistic sense you are something of great hierarchical significance, consuming the superficial thoughts of adolescence. Schwinn or Mongoose, mountain or road, all decisions that affect one’s social interaction and one’s place in their kernel of friends. In all aspects you are an object of vast significance in one’s childhood development. Something almost no kid can live without.
But, as time progresses and one grows in age, your necessity wanes. You shift from an object of great possibilities and something that facilitates one’s everyday thoughts, to something that only rarely takes presence, only when seeking a form of leisure. All priority surmised. All major implication on life lost. Something whom once habitual presence in thought is now a void, now filled with the fascination of the new possibility of four wheeled transportation.
A car, an object that has precedence in the thoughts of many teens alike. You are the gateway to an even more expansive set of freedoms only obtained through the standardized process of obtaining your license. Which is yet another auxiliary attribute associated with your highly praised nature amongst teens. These extensive freedoms you provide however are not without their implicating consequences that are associated with their abuse. Most of these in which are drastically greater in severity than those associated with the juvenile exposer presented by the previously revered bicycle. But, as stated by one of the more peculiar authors of history Albert Camus, “freedom is nothing but a chance to be better” and that is exactly what you present. These freedoms are but a milestone in teenage development further realizing the great capabilities in responsibility one possesses. In a physical sense you are something that provides an immense improvement in capability when compared to that of which are associated with the object that has prior been the source of unparalleled qualification. It allows for increased range and speed which all lend it’s broadening of the scope of possibilities. With your aid we are able to go places a bike simply would not permit. And as I press down the peddle I contemplate the location in which my weathered bike will find rest within my basement.
Revenge is an ubiquitous concept and action that has sustained a presence in human cognitive thought and has not only been a driving force behind the thoughts within the minds of real people, but also has been the focus of countless works of both contemporary and historic media.
One example of a series of contemporary compositions that feature plots in which revenge is a dominating feature is the “Taken” series of movies. In both Taken and Taken 2 the plot revolves around either the protagonist or the antagonist seeking revenge against one another. In the first movie “Taken” directed by Pierre Morel the protagonist, Bryan Mills, a retired CIA agent, is seeking revenge upon on the Albanian Mafia. The action for which he is attempting to obtain revenge for is the abduction of his daughter Kim, who had traveled to Europe with her best friend Amanda to follow the band U2’s tour around Europe. Bryan Mill’s sets off on a journey utilizing his past CIA contacts to track down his daughter and kill those who impede his progress. This revengeful quest consumes the remainder of the film with many falling in his path as he locates his daughter and regains control of her from the grasps of the Albanian Mafia. He acts in a reckless manner, attempting to achieve success at all cost. These actions stem directly from the inciting moment when he is on the cell phone with the people who had abducted his daughter and continue until the very end of the film when he finally achieves revenge, killing all of those that were directly involved with the captivity of his daughter. This is precisely shown by the trailer attached below.
Shown by both this modern film and the historic play Hamlet, revenge is an element that facilitates the protagonists actions of obtaining justice. This is although is not isolated to the actions of these fictional characters, with people seeking justice in beyond the extent of the law countless times on the news. Both in the play “Hamlet” and the movie taken the authors utilize the concept of revenge as a driving force behind the protagonists attempt to instill justice; Hamlet who is seeking revenge against King Claudius and Bryan Mils seeking revenge against the politically ingrained [in France] Albanian Mafia. In both these cases the protagonist is attempting to remediate actions completed by subjects that have relative sovereignty over legal prosecution in their respective areas. Thus, the protagonist is driven to carrying out acts of revenge as a necessity to obtain some extent of justice, but with this this somewhat ambiguous form of “justice” we must call into question its ethical and moral viability. From the eye of the law, it is not a justified means of reconciling one’s actions, and is viewed as belligerent action, overstepping one’s bounds according to societies restrictions. But, on the other hand people who have been involved in situations of grief that stem from a wrong that can not be remediated within the restrains of the accepted judicial system can condole with those who take matters into their own hands to obtain justice from a trauma that exists beyond the extent of the law. Thus revenge is an action that that is completed in either good hearted attempt to obtain justice or as a frivolous action the originates from impulses that are not rationally evaluated by the individual, and it’s criticism by society should pertain only to the confines of specific examples and not as a generalization of the concept as a whole.
The second movie is “Taken 2”, directed by Oliver Megaton. Its plot is also consumed by the actions of revenge, with the head of the Albanian Mafia, Murad Hoxja and the antagonist in the film, seeking revenge against the protagonist, Bryan Mills for his actions in the first film. This is shown in the trailer attached below where the head of the Albanian Mafia vows to obtain revenge against Bryan Mills for the death of the members of the mafia, specifically his son. The remainder of the sequel is consumed with the head of the mafia targeting Bryan and his family while they are vacationing in Istanbul, Turkey. Although this task of obtaining revenge goes awry when the protagonist resists and ultimately kills the man attempting to revenge him.
This direct justification for revenge, are somewhat similar to that displayed by Hamlet within the play “Hamlet” by William Shakespeare, although the protagonist Hamlet shows a greater quantity of reluctance to execute the action of taking revenge. This difference which leads to the very different plot structures, can be derived from the backgrounds of those who are completing the task of revenge. Bryan and Murad are both people who have been perviously exposed to the task of committing a homicide. Bryan Mills previously being employed by the CIA, and Murad Hoxja being the head of a mafia that participates in many obscene deeds. In contrast Hamlet is a man of sovereign power and has no previous knowledge of the direct actions of seeking revenge. This idiosyncrasy leads to the divergence of their two general plot structures with the play Hamlet being composed of an extended period of deliberation on seeking revenge that spans multiple scenes. While in the “Taken” movies there is a general lack of this time uncertainty and an extended period in which the protagonist or antagonist completes their revengeful deeds. Although all of these works in some fashion show the clear progression of revengeful works with drawn out anticipations, confrontations, and completion of the tasks of revenge.
Throughout history revenge has also been present in the actions of many leading political officials and has proved the cause of many notable events. One example of an action of revenge shown in history during the time of the founding of the United States was the action of Aaron Burr shooting Alexander Hamilton in a duel. This event in American history originated from the defamation of the character of Aaron Burr during his race for the governor of New York, propagated by Alexander Hamilton who was the secretary of state at the time. Burr, enraged by these statements by Alexander Hamilton, sought revenge within the parameters of a duel in which he fatally injured Hamilton shown in the image below. (for more information in regards to this duel click here.)
All in all, there are countless examples of human actions that have revolved around revenge throughout history both in actual existence or within the pages and scenes of literary works some of which have a rightful justification and some of which are merely superfluous acts of exaggerated human emotions. Thus, in our everyday lives when we face adverse actions that draw us to partaking in revengeful acts we should mentally validate the necessity of these future actions.
Since the evolutionary arrival of homo sapiens about 200,000 years ago, the species has participated in many lapses of judgement that have faced ample criticism. One method through which people have condemned and criticized these mistakes is through the use of Satire. This literary element has taken residence in a myriad of genres and has been used to poke fun at everything from the practice of slavery to the results of the presidential election. Satire has endured the test of time maintaining a persistent presence in media for generations. In the case of the novel The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn the author Mark Twain used the novel as an element of satire placing ridicule on topics of human behavior ranging from the topic of slavery to the naiveness of religious followers of the time. These vices included in the work of Mark Twain were major characteristics pertaining to human behavior in the period in which it was written. In contemporary media, satire has been used by authors to parody or exaggerate various topics ranging from technological devices to politics.
One topic that has faced extensive satirization in media over the past few weeks due to it’s imminent proximity is the idea of reaching the “Fiscal Cliff” at the end of the year 2012. This concept has perplexed the American population with a great amount of discrepancies and uncertainty to what the actual implications that the Fiscal Cliff” entail. To communicate these implications in a method that generates fear in the American public, elements of popular contemporary media have turned to satire to describe the predicament that is faced by the United States of America.The “Fiscal Cliff” can be accurately described as the term used to define the ends to the tax cuts that were set in place by the Bush administration and the beginning of the Budget Control Acts that were set in place by the Obama administration. This transition to the policies of the Budget Control Acts was first intended to be a method of lowering the countries vast deficit at the expense of slight tax increases and spending cuts. But, this prospected transition has struck fear in the eyes of economists who predict that if the transition was to occur it would pose a major detriment to the American economy causing a great rise in unemployment. Although, economic predictions are also bleak if the current system was to continue due to the continual increase of national deficit. Thus, people are perplexed on what decision to make, especially with the further complication due to party affiliation and the gridlock among the Senate and the House of Representatives because of this.(for further exploration of this topic, additional information can be obtained here)
This upcoming event has been satirized in a variety of media expositions, exploiting the uncertainty of the American public and exaggerating the negative effects that the will be endured by America if it was to occur. One example of a piece of media that satirizes this upcoming issue is a skit that was performed on the popular late night comedy show Saturday Night Live. This skit is a humorous parody of an interview between a news castor and someone impersonating President Obama that consists of a variety of typical questions that place inquiry into the plan and feelings of the newly reelected President. The actor who is playing President Obama in this parody when discussing the “Fiscal Cliff” uses the satirical technique of exaggeration to describe the bargaining techniques that he, representing the Democrats, results to when attempting to form a compromise with the persistent Republican opposition in congress. The Republicans in congress have been stubborn in accepting terms of compromise. In the skit the person portraying the President utilizes exaggeration when he states that he would dissipate the United States Army if the Republicans will not act rationally when forming a compromise with the Democratic party. Although this would not happen in reality, it shows how unreasonable the Republicans, who are in majority in the House, are being when working to form a compromise between the two economic plans.
This satirical use of a parody is not just limited to contemporary digital forms of media. This is shown by the satirical method’s residence in the pages of the classic literary work The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain. In this novel Huckleberry Finn, while traveling down the Mississippi River, comes in contact with the Grangerford family, who are in a relentless feud with the neighboring Sheperdson family. These families partake in a feud that has been in existence for decades, spanning such a vast expansion of time that the rudimentary cause of the feud is unknown to the participants. Although the cause of the feud is unknown, the bloodshed is persistent and is greatly increased through the agitation caused by Sophia and Harney, members of both families running off together. This feud incorporated into the novel functions as a parody to the feud between the Hatfield and McCoy families of the South. This is a situation similar to that of the book that was endured by two Southern families. Mark Twain incorporates this into his novel to poke fun at this folly in human behavior of participating in a altercation with no understanding of why it was formed and why they are participating.
Another element of contemporary literature that utilizes satirical methods to poke humor at the “Fiscal Cliff” is a news article in the form of a list published on the humorous news site The Onion. This article is composed of a list of actions that will subsequently be endured if an agreement is not reached by the end of the year. This list of prospected problems that will occur utilizes the satirical technique of exaggeration to place humor on the extremely detrimental problems that would follow the supposed falling off of the cliff. Some of the exaggerations that are utilized in the article include, “National Park Service forced to cut Old Faithful eruptions down to once per week”, “Historic bridges such as the Brooklyn and Golden Gate will be folded up and put away for safekeeping”, and “At the stroke of midnight, every government office, place of work, center of commerce, and piece of infrastructure will simultaneously explode”. Although events following an inability to form an agreement will not incorporate problems of this magnitude, these exaggerations incorporate the basic predicted complications like that of a vast increase to the percentage of unemployed Americans. The author utilizes this form of satire in this literary work to place humor against both congress and the governments inability to visualize the many detrimental outcomes that would damage the well being of the American population and reach an agreement to avoid this situation. As well as to grasp the attention of the American population, who are mostly ignorant, to place interest and comprehend the imminent danger that the actual “Fiscal Cliff” will instill.
All in all, satire has become an ingrained literary element that has been used by authors both in contemporary and classical literature to place humor on human behavior. And, as the “Fiscal Cliff” approaches and Congress sustains it’s inability to formulate a solution to the problem, the accumulation of satirical media pertaining to the “Fiscal Cliff” will continue, intruding into the lives of both you and me. Attached below are just two of the countless other works of media the utilize satire in regards to the "Fiscal Cliff".
