Draft 3

Revelations happen to everyone. A revelation is to realize some great truth about the world, to come to your senses so to speak. There are many kinds of revelations, you can have a slow personal revelation, which means you slowly relize something over a period of time, or you can have a spontaneous revelation which is a fast world view changing event. One repeated type of revelation is the trope revelation. A trope is an image, saying, sterotype, ect. that is repeated through out the world and throughout media. An example of a trope would be a mad scientist (tons of movies have a mad scientist character, such as professor frink from the simpsons) or a dumb fat sidekick (like the sidekick from the movie Hot Fuzz.) A revelation trope is a type of revelation that is repeated throughout media and stories such as the movie foxfire and even the bible.

Though the revelation trope can be seen in many different stories it always follows the same basic outline with the same basic requirements: “(1) The ignorant masses are in a (2) unacceptable/oppressive situation when a (3) prophet tries to (4) share the message (5) that connects the dots in a new way (6) and offers a vision of a redeemed world (7) but there is opposition to the message (8) drama ensues.” These eight steps/requirments are held true by various different pieces of art and literature that all follow the same outline for the revelation trope. These steps can be seen clearly in the movie “Foxfire”, which can be used to explain what each step/requirement is. (1) The ignorant high school students (mainly the girls) (2) are being oppressed and harassed by their teachers when (3) Boots (the main prophet character, played by Angelina Jolie) tries to (4) beat up this teacher who harasses them (5) and stand up together (6) so that they wont be harassed any more. (7) But some of the girls deny that any harassing is going on (8) they beat the crap out of their harassing teacher. Foxfire follows the revelation trope exactly, and is the perfect example of the trope.

The most well know revelation trope story is the story of Jesus, and the book of Mark. This story also follows the stages of the revelation trope: (1) The poor masses, the farmers, the oppressed, ect. (2) are being oppressed by the higher powers, Herod and his men, the high priests, ect. (3) Jesus (4) tells them about how to live (5) that reconnects all the teachings of religion in a new way (6) and offers a vision of the kingdom of god, which can be made here on earth by following Jesus and his teaching. (7) But the high priests do not like what Jesus is teaching, and believe Jesus is trying to usurpe their power (8) so they kill Jesus. The Book of Mark is the prime example of a revelation trope and also shows us features that aren’t obvious in other works. By looking at the book or mark we are able to see more patterns about the revelation trope emerge. For example John the Baptist is a the prophet who comes before Jesus and fortells of Jesus’ coming. This early prophet who fortells/is obsessed with the main prophet is a trend that arises throughout a lot of revelations trope stories.

Another place where we can see this early prophet is in the Matrix. The Matrix, like the Book of Mark, follows the revelation trope to the dot: (1) The entirety of the human race (2) is stuck in a computer program run by machines when (3) Morpheus (4) tells Neo that the world is a lie (5) and shows how everything Neo knows is fake (6) and shows Neo the real world, (7) but the machines try to stop him (8) and huge fight scenes occur. The Matrix is a special case. In the form written about Morpheus is the main prophet and the John the Baptist character (aka the early prophet) would be the first one, the original Neo, who broke the system and freed the first groups of people, but it can be debated that Morpheus is the early prophet and that Neo himself the main prophet. Either way this revelation trope still follows the same pattern and also has the same idea of an ‘early prophet’ as the book of Mark.

Another pattern that emerges originally from the Jesus story is the prophets sacrifice for spreading his/her message. Aside from the sacrifice overall of the negative reaction to his/her message the prophets family is often negatively affected by the prophets actions. In the gospel of Mark Jesus also faces family sacrifices: “31Then Jesus’ mother and brothers arrived. Standing outside, they sent someone in to call him. 32 A crowd was sitting around him, and they told him, ‘Your mother and brothers are outside looking for you.’ 33 ‘Who are my mother and my brothers?’ he asked. 34 Then he looked at those seated in a circle around him and said ‘Here are my mother and brothers!’” Jesus in a sense renounces his family for the sake of his message, causing his family to make sacrifices for his actions. This sacrifice of family is faced by many prophets of the revelation trope, a prime example is An Enemy of the people, by Henrik Ibsen.

An Enemy of the People follows the basic formula of the revelation trope. The revealer is DR. Thomas Stockmann, who tries to share the message with the ignorant masses that the compact majority (the ignorant masses he is trying to spread the message too) is in fact always wrong on decisions, and that the few intellectuals are always right (himself). He reconnects the dots: the compact majority is not educated and cannot think for themselves, in a democratic system the compact majority makes decisions, the few intellectuals get drowned out by the majority of fools. And shows the idea of a society run by intellectuals. Unfortunatly the compact majority takes this as and insult and completely rejects him dubbing him an “enemy of the people,” and as a result him and his family come under attack by the town. This is where we can see the pattern of the family taking sacrifices for the prophets message. In Enemy of the people, the doctors family, after the message has been shared, gets fired from their jobs, kicked out of school, and discriminated against for the prophets message: Petra, the prophets daughter, gets fired from her job: “Yes. I’ve been given my notice.” Similar things happen to the prophets father, and sons. It is clear that the prophets family suffers from the reacting to the prophets message, but it brings up the question, is it worth it for a man with a family to try to share a message. According to Dr. Thomas Stockmann’s brother, the mayor of the town they live in, it is not worth it: “A man with a family has no right to be carrying on as you are. You have no right, Thomas.” A man’s family should always come before his own personal message. The mayor is correct in that fact that while a prophet can share his message, he must always look out for his family so they do not come under too much harm. While the mayor is correct, prophet figures tend to disregard this fact. Jesus disregarded his family for the sake of his message, and Dr. Stockmann never held back his case for the sake of his family (despite the fact that his wife tried to get him to stop).
The loss of family continues in the feminist novel “The Awakening”. The Awakening is an interesting type of revelation story because, instead of having a prophet figure, it is instead told from the point of view of the prophet realizing the message them self. The story starts with Edna Pontellier, who is the prophet figure who realizes the message. The story evolves and we are faced with a problem, she is stuck in a life she does not belong in: “Mrs. Pontellier, though she had married a Creole, was not thoroughly at home in the society of Creoles.” Edna is in a life where she does not fit in and is not happy. She realizes this herself, and ends up reconnecting the dots of her life. She knows she loves to paint, so she takes painting more seriously, things that make her happy she does more of, and this little taste offers her a redeemed world where she can do what she wants and live a happy life. This of course is not met without opposition. Her message that she realizes causes her to act strangely for people in her situation, and that causes people (mainly her husband) to wonder what is wrong with her: “’Yes, yes; she seems quite well,” said Mr. Pontellier, leaning forward and whirling his stick between his two hands; “but she doesn’t act well. She’s odd, she’s not herself. I can’t make her out, and I thought perhaps you’d help me.”’ This opposition begins to overwhelm our prophet figure to the point where she cannot take it anymore, and commits suicide for the sake of her message, which is simply her new way of life.

Mrs. Pontellier’s family suffers from her realization of this message, this new way of life. First off, her husband was cheated on, because at the time her message involved loving a man who is not her husband. Secondly and most of all, Mrs. Pontellier never was a mother woman, and would not give up her beliefs for her family: “She understood now clearly what she had meant long ago when she said to Adèle Ratignolle that she would give up the unessential, but she would never sacrifice herself for her children”. She left her loving family motherless and widowed for the sake of her new way of life. Her family ended up paying the ultimate price of the opposition to her message (which was of course her new way of life.) While this family sacrifice is different than the sacrifice that occured in Enemy of the People, it is very related to the Jesus sacrifice endured by his family. Mrs. Pontellier also disregarded her family in a similar way that Jesus disregarded his family. Jesus put his message above his family, as did Mrs. Pontellier, the difference being that Jesus's message was towards the people, while Mrs. Pontellier's message involved only herself.

In the Awakening we consider Mrs. Pontellier to be the prophet figure. When she is coming to a realization of her message she falls into a state of confusion and hopelessness at the summer home. In the story it even evolves into a physical issue demonstrated by her hot flashes on the island where she passes out at the house by the church. This is a common theme. There is a process each prophet goes through when they first come to a realization of their message. This process involves extreme confusion, because they have realized this huge idea, and are so astounded that no one else can see this. Derek Jensen is a modern day prophet who describes this process in detail: “I now understand that the dissonance I felt for so long is a natural step in rejecting one’s socialization – a less refined term would be brainwashing. It is not possible – at least in my own case – to move from one way of perceiving the world to another without a transition of confusion, loss, even hopelessness.” (142 Jensen) When seeing what’s truly going on in the world, Jensen become confused and bewildered that no one else sees this going on, they must know something that he doesn’t because there’s no way that people would just let this kind of thing happen. He is not the only prophet to have thought this, in fact it is an overarching part of the revelation trope for prophets to go through this period of confusion. Many would Thom Yorke, the lead singer of the band Raidohead, to be a prophet in our current society. In an interview with Chuck Klosterman Thom Yorke expresses his feelings of confusion when coming to the realization of a message: “’I absolutely feel crazy at times,’ he says. ‘Anybody who turns on the TV and actually thinks about what they’re watching has to believe they’re going insane or that they’re missing something everyone else is seeing. When I watch the Fox News channel, I can’t believe how much nerve those people have and how they assume people are just going t swallow that shit. And I find myself thinking that I must be missing something.’” (No More Knives, Klosterman) Once again we uncover the idea of the fact that prophets look at how the outside world is reacting and think “I must be missing something.” This is just another part of a realization of their message because to a prophet their message is astoundingly clear, so clear in fact that they don’t understand why the outside world has not come to this revelation already.

The revelation trope often involves the disciple of the prophet being abandoned by the prophet, and forced to carry out the message on their own. This involves the prophet being taken away and forcing the disciple to prove that they are truly devoted to this message, often this involves one major revelation decision. This is most evident in both the Matrix and in Star Wars. In the Matrix we see Morpheus (the prophet) sacrifice himself by bashing through a wall and attacking an agent to save Neo’s (the disciple) life. This leaves Neo alone and forces him to either reject or embrace the revelation that he is the one. Following this pattern in the trope Neo embraces the revelation and makes the critical revelation embracing decision to go back into the matrix to save Morpheus. The same can be seen in Star Wars. Obi-wan (the prophet) fights Darth Vader to allow Luke (the disciple) and the others to escape the death star. This leaves Luke guideless in his quest for the force, which he still has not completely embraced as being true. He then must make the pivotal decision of turning off his guidance system and trusting the force, truly embracing the revelation.