Essays, Movies, and a Way of Seeing

We all see different things when we go about our lives. We may share the same experience, same situation, but come out very different people afterward. This could go very deep and say people need to do this thing or that thing and we will all be happy, but that's not what this thought is. Fooled you, didn't I?

Probably not.

I had a friend over the other day, a non-English major (not that there is anything wrong with those people. :P ) who didn't spend all of her time in college thinking about thesis' and essay/the proper way to write an essay with an intro, thesis, three paragraphs/subjects for the body, and a nice wrapped up conclusion for the ending. She wasn't one who spent lots of time thinking about particular book analysis of characters, setting, dialogue, and plot points. I think a lot of the most important parts of my college career was learning to look at the little details. We were told to study this essay, read this book and diagnose the character as this type or that type of person, and make sure you look at each word in your essay to make sure it is the right one. Draft after draft after draft. Watch the word and the context to be in the just right place for your voice and your thesis. Overall it felt like I was being pulled through the same mud puddle for five years.

But I'm really happy to say that, unlike math, I've been able to use my English Major and the things I learned in my class in real life applications. WHAT!?! Yeah, awesome right?

My career is Mother and all that it entails (which is an incredibly long list of responsibilities and awesomeness). So, one would think that I wouldn't use it much, but I surprisingly do. Finding the little things in movies that I can talk about with my child to hopefully better him (as well as myself), being able to be articulate when talking (which is funny because I had a hard time finding the right word for that. :D ) to my neighbors or friends, and hopefully being able to slow my children the love of reading and thinking for yourself.

Back to my friend, she was visiting me as my son was watching Dreamworks Kung Fu Panda 3. We got talking about it a little and the Kai came on scene with his amazing theme music. I said, "Oh, I love this part, the music plays along with his knives/sword things and sets the mood for the battle they are going to have, but then when Po interrupts the monologue it brings so much of the personality..." etc. She looked at me and smiled, because she a very smiley lady who makes my day, and said "I've never thought about it that way. I've seen it a bunch of times, but never thought of that." I'd loved it the second time his theme song come on in the movie theater.

Had my view changed so much? Did I pay attention to movies and books and the interpretations that can come from them a few years ago? It wasn't so long ago when I just enjoyed movies for movies sake.

Now that I think about it, when the Warner Brother's movie Sucker Punch came out in 2011, I loved it. To me, it was a live action anime where girls could kickbutt and blow crap up. It was a good blowy-uppy movie when I needed one. And that was before I even saw it in the movie theater with my friends. After seeing it, and being enveloped in the metaphors and story-inside-story-inside-story motif like in the classic Frankenstein. I thought it was an ingenious way to display something that happened in an all female asylums with male staff and present it in a way that was artistic and not.....risque? It showed a way that some patients coped with being in there and kind of made them crazy. I loved Sucker Punch far more than my other friends because I was fascinated by the metaphor that flowed throughout the whole piece. It was beautiful. They didn't see it that way.

And again recently, I commented on Facebook how much I loved Ellen Parr (AKA Elasta Girl) on Pixar's Incredibles. I mentioned just how awesome she was and how she is set up to be the stereotypical mom who has to be stretched in  so many different directions and is often stretched super thin (pun intended) to take care of her family. (Much like the way Mr. Incredible is the strong father, Violet is the invisible daughter, Dash is a little boy who never stops running, and Jak Jak is a monster baby where he changes mood/skin? in an instant.) A few people commented on how they hadn't seen that and wouldn't have if I hadn't have said anything.

Am I just really weird in that I analyze many of the stories around me? I look at the setting and characters, dialogue and plot and see more than other people. I know I don't get all of it. Sometimes I'm actually very slow when it comes to things foreshadowed three chapters earlier. Or some of my friends, my husband especially, see a twist in a book or movie miles before I do.

Am I weird? Yes. But in my weirdness I find so much more than other people do. I find a bit more beauty in the things I surround myself in.

My way of seeing is different than yours and that's great. For both of us. For all of us.

Embrace your inner weirdo. Love your inner nerd.





Sucker Punch: http://www.warnerbros.com/sucker-punch
Kung Fu Panda 3: https://fanart.tv/movie/140300/kung-fu-panda-3/
The Incredibles : https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Incredibles