A couple of months ago
I noticed that there was a shift in our friendship, a deadly one.Now I'm not blaming you.Well, not completely.You see, I am an extremely busy person and
some things are just more important than others.These key things include my grades and my
extracurricular activities.These things
are staples for a successful future, my future.The importance of these can sometimes overshadow the importance of our
friendship.I understand that you're
upset that I've been neglecting you.But
I am absolutely appalled that you think that I've been lying about my crazy
schedule all this time.I'm definitely
not lying to you on purpose.Trust me, I
know better than that.
What happened many
months ago was a huge slap in the face for me.I tried so incredibly hard to fit in and get along with your group of friends.It was the first time I was seeing this side
of you.I always knew it existed but I
had never witnessed it.You’re popular
and at first I thought it was cool because I knew you were yourself around me. Let’s face it; I’m the farthest from
popularity so there was no need to impress me.But when you’re with your other friends impressing them is the only
thing you’re concerned about.When one
of your friends started bullying me and then the other completed excluded me
from your little trio I was hurt.Not
because they were doing mean things; I’m not the type to worry about what
others think about me unlike you.It was
because you never stood up for me.You
never apologized either.All I could
think about was why I was even friends with you in the first place.You were always mad at me because you’re so
clingy and I was only your second choice; never the first.You don’t like my other friends and they don’t
like you.But the difference is, they at
least pretended.In the world we live
in, that’s what you have to do to avoid any drama.That’s why I’m so happy to have friends like
them.I don’t know why you’re jealous of
them either.I’d think you’d be happy
that I have such true friends that have my back no matter what.But I guess you’ve always known that loyalty
isn’t your best trait.
I’m sorry to say that I
don’t think you’ll ever change and even if you did, I don’t know if I’ll ever
be able to forgive you for all of what you’ve put me through.Again, I’m not blaming you completely.But the majority of our issues are your
entire fault.
Like I always
say, what goes around comes around.So
you better watch your back.Lord knows
your friends won’t have it.
Megan
My Sources:
The song, Domino by Jessie J, influenced
my title.
Has anyone ever done anything to you that perhaps put you out? Maybe they made you do all of the work for a project or they ate your last cookie? You were so mad at them that you couldn't wait to get them back so they could feel the same pain and suffering. You wanted revenge.
I think that everyone is seeks revenge at some point. Everyone at any age has issues with other people. If someone screws you over I think a person's first instinct is to hope something bad happens to them. A lot of people like to believe that karma will get them someday. Others like to take matters into their own hands.
Revenge is a recurring theme in the media.
In the song "Better than Revenge" by Taylor Swift, Taylor is plotting against someone who stole a guy she was interested in. Below is the song. Enjoy!
You can tell by her tone and the lyrics that Taylor is very vengeful. She really liked this guy and this girl just walked right in and stole him from her. I'd be pretty upset, too! Along with every other girl in the world!
Right before the song starts, Taylor says:
"Now go stand in the corner and think about what you did."
This shows that the girl who stole the guy was very aware that Taylor was interested in him. Also, the line is a way that Taylor is making every other girl who has done such a thing feel guilty. She is also preventing girls for committing the act. She doesn't want any other girl go through that same heartbreak.
"Soon she's gonna find
Stealing other people's toys
On the playground won't
Make you many friends
She should keep in mind
She should keep in mind
There is nothing I do better than revenge"
In these lines of the song, the listener gets an idea of how Taylor is going to get revenge. She is going to tell everyone what this girl did. This will cause the girl to lose a lot of friends and she'll end up being alone.
"But sophistication isn't what you wear or who you know
Or pushing people down to get you where you wanna go"
These lines are some of my favorite lyrics because it's teaching girls a lesson. Taylor Swift has so many fans and through this song she is teaching them a lot of morals. These lines are teaching girls that you're not going to succeed at anything if you hurt other people in the process. It's so true.
"You might have him but I always get the last word"
This line proves that Taylor Swift is definitely planning on getting revenge.
Songs aren't the only form of media that have revenge as a theme. Television shows do, too!
ABC's television show Revenge is an example. This show is all about revenge if you couldn't already tell by the title! The main character, Amanda Clarke, is seeking revenge for her father's murder. Her father was accused of being a terrorist and was sent to prison. There, he was murdered. Amanda later learns that her father was framed by a wealthy and powerful family, the Graysons. Members of this family made the mistakes causing the plane crash. Amanda's father left her a box of information on his case so she would know the true story. Using that information she moves back into her childhood home with a new identity, Emily Thorne, and a vengeance. She plans to ruin the lives of those involved in her father's case.
Here is Emily's first act of vengeance in the television series. She has told Victoria Grayson that her husband had been cheating on her with her best friend, Lydia Davis. Emily told Victoria this information so Lydia would be publicly humiliated. Lydia knew that Amanda's father was framed and never spoke up for him.
How scandalous!!
The main character in this show isn't the only one in the media seeking revenge for her father's murder. Hamlet, the main character in the play, Hamlet (how creative) by William Shakespeare, is doing the same.
Hamlet's father, King Hamlet, was murdered by his brother, Claudius. Claudius wanted the throne so he poisoned King Hamlet. Later on, King Hamlet's ghost visits Hamlet and tells him that he was murdered and that Hamlet needs to avenge him. Throughout the play Hamlet struggles with the decision of vengeance. Hamlet is constantly in conflict. He wants to honor his father's wishes but he also doesn't want to hurt his mother, Gertrude, who is now married to Claudius. He also doesn't know if what he saw was real or not. The following quote captures his confusion.
"The spirit that I have seen
May be the devil: and the devil hath power
To assume a pleasing shape; yea, and perhaps
Out of my weakness and my melancholy,
As he is very potent with such spirits,
Abuses me to damn me: I'll have grounds
More relative than this: the play 's the thing
Wherein I'll catch the conscience of the king."
(2.2.58)
Hamlet decides to put on a play about murder to see how Claudius reacts so he can be sure if he murdered Hamlet's father or not. The play confirms it and now Hamlet knows he must seek revenge. Also, Claudius realizes that Hamlet is aware of what he did.
"Now might I do it pat, now he is praying;
And now I'll do't. And so he goes to heaven;
And so am I revenged. That would be scann'd:
A villain kills my father; and for that,
I, his sole son, do this same villain send
To heaven."
(3.3.1)
The quote above exemplifies Hamlet's thought process on the murder. He gets very close to murdering Claudius but when he sees that he is praying he stops. He decides to wait until Claudius is sinning so then he'll definitely go to hell.
Hamlet confronts his mother about Claudius' actions and while he is doing so he accidentally kills Polonius, the father of Laertes and Ophelia, Hamlet's girlfriend. Later on, Ophelia drowns and Laertes believes Hamlet is the reason. Laertes teams up with Claudius who both plan to kill Hamlet in a fencing match with a poisoned sword. As a backup plan Claudius poisons a drink which Gertrude accidentally drinks. Hamlet is stabbed but before he dies from the poison, he kills Laertes with the same sword. Hamlet also kills Claudius by stabbing him with the sword and making him drink the poisonous drink that killed his mother.
This play shows that although revenge can be carefully thought out, it doesn't always work out the way you want it to. In Hamlet's case, he got his revenge but he also died. Karma maybe?
Revenge is a very effective theme and it definitely keeps viewers, listeners, and/or readers interested and on their toes!
My Sources:
Taylor Swift's "Better Than Revenge"
YouTube for letting me share the song
ABC's Revenge
abc.go.com for allowing me to share a clip from an episode
William Shakespeare's Hamlet
Satire is pretty much the definition of my life. I say sarcastic things very frequently because a lot of times, let's face it, society can just be overwhelmingly dumb. Sometimes you just want to be really mean and then you think to yourself 'hmm...better not."
Anyways, satire is always around us. It is commonly used in literature, advertisements, television, and even social networking sites. Its main purpose is to essentially make fun of things, like human habits, that are common in society.
I personally am a huge fan of satire because it allows me to get my point across in a humorous way without sounding rude. I'm a very straight-forward person when it comes to everything. Sometimes you just can't hold your opinions in so you just have to tell it like it is and satire is a great way to express your feelings and thoughts.
I religiously watch Saturday Night Live every Saturday evening. (Duh.) Recently, one of my favorite skits was the Long Island Medium parody. Obviously, this parody is based off one of the many TLC reality shows, Long Island Medium. (In case you didn't catch that one!) I also watch this religiously so I understood every satirical example of the show and found it hilarious because every bit of it was true!
This parody allowed the comedians and writers of the skit to be completely blunt about their thoughts and opinions and I think that's very important.
Essentially, the actual show is about a woman who claims to be medium. On a daily basis she helps her clients, and often times just people she meets everywhere she goes, communicate with their deceased loved ones.
Below is an episode of the show I found on YouTube. It's about 20 minutes long... I know what you're thinking... Who has time for that these days!? I think the first 3 or 4 minutes should be sufficient enough to give you a bit of a background on the show.
She's crazy, right? But that's why people love her. Some believe she's just one big phony. They say that she researches beforehand and that it's all scripted. They shouldn't be talking!
At the same time, this can be a feel-good show. It can be very uplifting and let others feel at ease about death. And besides, some people are superstitious and believe in spirits and things of the kind. (Hold on to that superstition thought for later)
Saturday Night Live's parody of this show depicts Theresa perfectly.
Here is the parody I found on Saturday Night Live's website. It's only a couple minutes and it is absolutely necessary to watch! Enjoy!
In this parody, they capture how ridiculous it is that this woman just goes up to complete strangers based off of the most specific and random things that "spirits" say to her. It's just unreal.
For example, an innocent person is just sitting on his couch and BAM! There's Theresa making him sob uncontrollably because some dead guy remembered the sauce. IT'S SAUCE PEOPLE. WHO CARES? NO ONE.
Group sessions? Everything she says is very generic and everyone can relate a dead person to it in some way. "Whose favorite color was in the rainbow? Anyone? Oh hey everyone knew this guy!"
Satire on satire on satire here people!!
Satire isn't only found in comedy skits. It can be found in literature as well as I explained earlier.
One of the greatest American novels, The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn written by Mark Twain, is also chock full of satire.
Twain used satire in his writing to mock people's views and actions during that time period. For example, throughout the entire novel he criticizes the naivety of society.
"That's why they're invited here this evenin'; but we want ALL to
come—everybody; for he respected everybody, he liked everybody, and so
it's fitten that his funeral orgies sh'd be public." - The King (pg. 168)
During the part where this quote appears, the King and the Dauphin are both pretending to be a dead man's English brothers. Quite a few people completely believed them even with their thick southern accents. It wasn't until the dead man's fortune was stolen that they realized the two were frauds. People back then put way too much trust in strangers.
"The people most killed themselves laughing; and when the king got done
capering and capered off behind the scenes, they roared and clapped and
stormed and till he come back and done it over again, and after that
they made him do it another time." - Huck
(pg. 151)
Once again, the King and the Dauphin were cheating the people out of their money. This time with a play that consisted of the King walking out naked and painted a bunch of different colors. The people who saw the show had never heard of it yet they still paid so much to see it. Regardless, they found it quite comical which exhibits how immature people were back then. Clearly, Twain was criticizing this with a funny comedy portion.
"The
Widow Douglas she took me for her son, and allowed she would sivilize
me; but it was rough living in the house all the time, considering
how dismal regular and decent the widow was in all her ways; and
so when I couldn’t stand it no longer I lit out. I got into my old
rags and my sugar-hogshead again, and was free and satisfied. But
Tom Sawyer he hunted me up and said he was going to start a band
of robbers, and I might join if I would go back to the widow and
be respectable. So I went back." - Huck (pg. 1)
Twain also satirized the idea of being civilized. I think that Twain thought that as long as you were happy, it didn't matter what your status was. The quote above shows this and you can tell that it irritates Huck. It gets a lot of laughs from readers because we know the feeling of when we've been told what to do.
So remember how I told you to keep superstitious beliefs in the back of your mind? You forgot, didn't you? Hey! You remember now! Welcome back. Don't worry; I know the affects Theresa can have on some people.
"Then
Miss Watson she took me in the closet and prayed, but nothing come of
it. She told me to pray every day, and whatever I asked for I would get
it. But it warn't so. I tried it. Once I got a fish-line, but no hooks.
It warn't any good to me without hooks. I tried for the hooks three or
four times, but somehow I couldn't make it work. By and by, one day, I
asked Miss Watson to try for me, but she said I was a fool. She never
told me why, and I couldn't make it out no way." - Huck (pg. 11)
Twain criticized religion throughout the novel as well. This quote is pretty self-explanatory. We all remember those days when our parents would tell us to keep wishing for what we wanted. Let's be real here, we usually didn't get them! Huck was more superstitious than religious. He and Theresa would've gotten along great!
Mark Twain and the creators of Saturday Night Live are both very clever in inserting satire to get their points across.
And obviously I am, too. Just look at this great blog post about it! Gotcha Again!
