During thanksgiving not only did I enjoy good food but I also had the chance to enjoy some good television. I watched the movie "Easy A", which I found entertaining. As I was watching the movie I couldn not believe how the main character, Olive, bravely was able to take the school against her. It just seemed as if she did not care of what other thought of her as long as she stayed right to what she believed. Of course, in the end she realised that she made a mistake because she took it too far but her courage was quite amazing. She did not care because it did not make a difference in reality.
Eventually it turned out that what she was doing was a bad thing. The message I got from the movie was that even if you do not agree with some norms of society and even if you do not respect them it is not a good idea to openly disrespect them because doing this is either, literally or figuratively, commiting suicide. This happened to some noteable people in history were ostracized because of their views. So, it's a good idea to not openly disrespect society.
I think this is the difference between Buffy and Faith, or any other characters that can be considered heroes/heroines vs villains. Buffy wants to be a part of society and she is aware that she is fighting to protect society. Faith forgets her cause for fighting and she thinks she is doing it for the thrill and this makes her think little of society and humans. The deal with many villains is that they think little of the human society so they try to do something in the lines of killing them which is similar to how Olive is acting up against society. In the end she realizes she doesn't want to live like that, which is similar to what Spike feels because he doesn't want to be discriminated against any more. He just wants to be taken as a normal individual with a soul.
If you know something is completely right you can stick to it and be ostracized or even worse, or you can stay in the norms and continue a regular life.
It's interesting that you compare Spike with Olive but I feel as though their circumstances are different. Spike kills people because he is a vampire and the only reason he changes is because a chip is put into his head. He is not really acting up against society but is doing what his brain tells him to do.
ReplyDeleteI think that Olive in this movie is similar to Buffy in the sense that they both fight for their causes: Olive to challenge the "norms" of society, and Buffy to save the world. I think that in the end of "Easy A" Olive realizes that what she did was wrong because it ultimately did the opposite of what she was trying to achieve. She wanted to stand up to society, while really all she was doing was causing problems with her friends and giving people a false image.
ReplyDeleteI also think it is interesting to compare these two very strong and stable super heroines' home lives: Buffy comes from a broken home, while Olive comes from a very strong and secure family. Any comments?
I mean, in response to that, Buffy has a "found family" that's comparable to Olive's hilarious and awesome family. Even though Olive has the parents that everyone would love to have, the Scooby Gang plays the "family" role undeniably well in Buffy by filling in many of the voids in Buffy's life. I think that because both Olive and Buffy have a strong support network to fall back on, they are willing to take risks and persevere even if the world seems like it's about to end.
ReplyDeleteI totally agree the support group of both heroines and their unwavering support allow them to tackle obstacles and take up against societal norms because they will always have someone to back them up.
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