It is easy for one to find common themes in literature, so common in fact they have a name 'Universal Themes.' These days our entertainment tends to favor not only these themes in constant repetition but seems to downright plagiarize older works.
As an example I present three different pieces of art produced in different time periods, by completely unconnected creators and with completely different production methods. Star Wars was created by George Lucas from the seventies into the new millenium. The Matrix was produced by Andy and Larry Wachowski in 1999. The Lord of the Rings was written by J.R. Tolkein more than sixty years ago and only made it to film in the last ten years. All three are remarkably similar from a reasonably objective standpoint.
Star Wars centers around the character of Anakin Skywalker who is the true tragic hero. There is technology that borders on magic and if that weren't enough, there is actual magic. It is through an all powerful but mystical force dubbed, 'the force.' How original. The main character is messianic in nature since he must sacrifice himself to restore order, peace, and harmony to the galaxy. His order, the 'Jedi' all have lightsabers, a powerful weapon that can only be wielded by someone strong enough in the force. Yoda, the most powerful Jedi in the order has a wizards powers and is still a fierce warrior, despite being a sage who constantly counsels against anger. In the end Anakin casts his master Darth Sidious into a flaming pit to save the galaxy from his evil powermongering.
The Matrix centers around 'Neo.' After a great war between humanity and the newly spawned machine society humanity is taken prisoner in it's entirety and hooked up to the machines' power grid like batteries. They put us in artificial comas and plug our brains into an artificial world, "The Matrix" created just for us to keep us producing more power than truly comatose humans would. Neo must use his almost magical powers in the Matrix to assist his order, the humans who occupy the last human city called Zion. His mentor is a fierce warrior named Morpheus who wields a katana like an expert in the Matrix and helps Neo realize his full potential. In the end Neo is forced to sacrifice himself to broker a peace between the machines and humans and save the world from their evil powermongering.
In 'the Lord of the Rings' Frodo Baggins, a hobbit from the Shire, is forced to accept the burden of the One Ring. An insidious tool of power used by the Dark Lord Sauron to enslave the world. The Elves assist him in his journey with their ancient magic and their mystical weapons. Other fierce warriors accompany him, including the true king of Gondor and a sage wizard named Gandalf who is also a warrior of great power. Instead of dying, Frodo's sacrifice is his piece of mind, the ring begins to drive him insane with it's power and he almost becomes Saurons puppet. At the last minute he destroys the one ring and saves the world from Saurons Evil Powermongering.
When compared side by side in this fashion the similarities of these films and books jump off the page. The cookie cutter nature of these films is indicative of many pieces of contemporary art. The Samurai epic, or the Sci-Fi space opera, the whole Harry Potter series, most have a common thread running through them. All of this art seems to focus on the idea of one character with a terrible mission. They must give their own lives to rescue humanity from an awful fate at the hands of a despotic tyrant. A familiar story that has repeated in one form or another for the last five thousand years.
3 comments:
Compare this to the piece on the Christians who stiff the waitstaff--which is better?
The prompt was purely emotional, it came from down deep, whereas this was more of an intellectual exercise. The difference is definitely noticeable but I like this one. It reads easy and has subject matter I enjoy discussing. My intent was to express a conversation my wife and I were having spurred on by the prompt I wrote. We were discussing how many literary pieces have the same Messianic theme and that led to the discussion on the collective subconcious. I didn't want to write the same thing twice so I took a more objective tone. How do you think I could improve it?
I hate to sound like Johnny One-Note but I guess that's my fate. It is all the things you say and just the ticket for a lit course, but for my taste in 101 it needs a dash of MSL.
On the other hand, I won't really be helping you improve your writing if I insist on that dash because the result can only look like an essay whose author had an English teacher holding his feet to the fiery flames--the dash will always look like an add-on afterthought.
So, I'll take it as is.
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