True Grit and Mythology

Mythology is a term used to describe the beliefs or various collected stories for a group of people. Similar to Greek mythology, our Western society has a sort of mythology based on the Old West times. Mythology is often used to describe events that happen or how one's morals shall be based. This is true for the Old Western society as well. To examine these, we take a look at True Grit.

True Grit is about a girl, named Maddie, who seeks revenge against the man who killed her father, Tom Chaney. She seeks out the employ of Marshall Cogburn in order to see justice down. However, what exactly is justice? In True Grit, justice seems to be determined by the marshalls and the court in relation to how the public views it. This shows a distinct difference between the ones with power and the ones who lack it. We see this translated today with our own police forces, wherein they act as the law of the land. In the novel we see countless people killed, but it was only just when our heroes did it. Our society reflects this, where police can kill someone, in order to save others and bring villains to justice.

On the topic of morality, the novel displays quite a lot of incidents that we might find immoral, however we see most of these acts done by the bad guys, like it's saying that you could end up losing your life if you do these things. Which is true. However, there are several immoral things that the Marshall does, but is viewed as moral because he did it. One particular example is near the end of the novel, where the horse finally collapses. Ultimately, Cogburn ends up killing the creature which we would normally view as immoral, but because he did it and he had a good reason to do it, then it's fine. This highlights how things are viewed in today's society (such as humanely killing something). If someone kills someone else, then they're a murderer (unless there are special circumstances), but if a cop kills someone, then they're a hero because they saved you and countless others.

On a closing note, mythology is typically used by people to explain circumstances and act as a moral guide. True Grit, which is based on the western mythology, achieves much of the same. It tells you when it's proper to kill someone, or what to do if you seek justice. The opposite exists there as well, if you kill unlawfully and are a bad person, then death awaits you (or jail time). It even shows someone who was bad for being involved, but redeems himself by helping our heroes, even if he still dies.

I watched the 2010 version of the movie, and while there are notable differences, I believe it holds up to the novel. It still gets the point the novel was trying to show. Overall, True Grit is a novel on human nature and the virtues one should uphold, much like most mythologies in the world.

Pride and Prejudice

Seeing as this was a title I haven't read before, I thought I'd try out something differently that I don't normally do. I decided I would have this be read digitally via audio rather than manual reading. It was quite interesting, and it was a little more calming than i initially thought it'd be. Overall, I quite enjoyed the story, and I especially liked how the book viewed marriage. We are given that standard female protagonist we've come to know today who wishes to marry someone out of love, rather than need or wealth. Early in the story, Lizzie is proposed to by Mr. Collins and she rejects him because he wouldn't be able to make her happy and vice versa. However, Collins later proposes to Lizzie's best friend, Charlotte, who accepts. We are presented with two different situations that reveals one's intentions for marrying, whether it be for one's own happiness or for one's security. I really like how the novel displays them, showing the way Lizzie's thinks and realizes that one might not marry for love, but rather to stay safe.

The love of our two main leads seemed so unlikely in the beginning, to the point I didn't believe that two of them would get together. However, I think the novel handled the progression fairly well, but there were points where one could predict what the next interaction would entail. They do get together in the end, but I felt that the conflict with Catherine in the end was needless drama added in, even if it had convinced me that the story could've ended there. I do have my doubts and questions about their love, but I'm inclined to just chalk it up to me not really understanding the concept. Regardless, they did end up together and it did feel rewarding and deserved, so who am I to judge?

I'm not sure if it's just me, but the one character I couldn't stand half the time was the mother. She had some redeeming moments, but most of the time she was forcing her daughters to marry. It did lead to my favorite part in the story. When Lizzie is being confronted into marrying Mr. Collins, Mrs. Bennet pressures Mr. Bennet to giving a response, and I absolutely loved it when he countered Mrs. Bennet's saying that she would never see Lizzie again if she refused, and Mr. Bennet said Lizzie would never see him again if she accepted.

I also watched the 2005 version of the movie, and I thought it held up quite nicely. There were areas in the book in which things were more clarified than in the movie. However the movie was able to convey more feeling into the scenes without drowning us in more text. Of course, this is true for most movies. I thought the performances were quite nice and the actors played their parts very well.

Overall, I did quite enjoy Pride and Prejudice. I loved how the title represented the main character's flaws in the beginning. Lizzie was prideful in the fact that she wouldn't lower herself to marry someone based on wealth, and she formed an unfair prejudice against Mr. Darcy upon meeting him, thinking he was arrogant and obnoxious. She was able to later resolved these and admit her love for him. It was quite a lovely story with a fitting title.

Oh, here's the link to the audio I listened to: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eVHu5-n69qQ
The one issue is that it was sometimes hard to distinguish which character was talking, but overall it was very helpful.

Prologue

        The first thing I'd like to mention is that I have a major interest in video games, and will typically try to relate the things I work on to be more game-related. One example would be how I retained information in history classes back in middle/high school. Back in my old history classes, we'd go over key world history events, such as the life of Cleopatra, and I would interpret these events as the sort of cutscenes one would see in old Fire Emblem games.

        Haven't you ever played a video game while a show was playing on the T.V. in the background? Sometimes I'll watch something required for school at the same time as drawing a sketch or playing a video game, and when I look back at the sketch or a particular moment in the game, I remember details about the video I had in the background. So even if it appears that I'm not paying attention, I'm actually subconsciously linking the information absorbed into visually imagery, to better remember it. The more interest I have in a subject I tend to be more attentive and make more of an effort to remember them, such as: math, video games, strategy, movies, or more informational subjects like greek mythology, politics, or sexuality.

       When I go forward with writing responses to the reading, I will gravitate more to what I viewed as the most memorable moments, and will also try to link something in the reading to a video game or some other related form of media. And on a last note, I would consider myself rather liberal and I typically address things from a "logical" point of view, or rather how I view logic. I tend to be stubborn when confronted with opposing views, and they may prove to be more difficult to write about. I do sincerely believe that I try to act as fairly as I can.With that said, this will conclude my prologue and should contain the key information about me in order to understand why I might write about topics in a particular manner.