For this post, think of someone from history, politics, pop culture, sports, film, or literature that fits the qualities of a Tragic Hero archetype (see the worksheet grid for help).
Begin the post with the person's name and then discuss with details/evidence how he or she has the qualities.
Your choice should ideally meet at least 5 of the 6 criteria.
Do not repeat a person that a classmate already posted about unless you are able to provide some significant new insights/connections.
Remember to sign your name so you can get credit!
(my sample...)
ReplyDeleteMike Tyson:
Although Mike Tyson was not born of "noble birth" or "elevated status" (in fact, he was born into abject poverty in a tough, crime-filled neighborhood), he was born with incredible strength which brought him great potential as a fighter. At the peak of his professional boxing career he gained immense wealth ($300 million) and world-wide fame as the youngest ever heavyweight champ.
In many ways Tyson struggled against his fate- to revert to the life of crime that he was born into. He used fighting and controlled violence to somewhat ironically escape the poverty and violence of his home.
His tragic flaw is the flip-side of his strength: his physical power and rage which made him a vicious fighter in the ring which he was ultimately unable to control outside the ring: he was convicted of Sexual Assault in 1992. This "choice" and his inability to control himself led to three years in prison and the beginning of the end of his career.
Later, when trying to come back, Tyson's rage and animalistic fighting became even more notorious when he was disqualified from a fight after biting most of Evander Holyfield's ear off. Few people would fight him after that, and he became known more for his rage and lack of control than skill.
Tyson's "tragedy" was most definitely public: it was all over the media for years, and he suffered much shame. Tyson declared bankrupcy in 2003 and has been in and out of jail for the last ten years.
Finally, Tyson was enlightened, learning about his "true self". He said in 2005: "My whole life has been a waste- I've been a failure...I just want to escape. I really embarassed myself with my life."
=Ms. Coppens
Steve Jobs:
ReplyDeleteSteve Jobs was raised in Mountain View California and was adopted ealy in his life. He was decribed as a very intellingent young child.
Steve was spirtual and was not against drug use, especially powerful ones like LSD. He did use them when he was young, especially when on, "sprirtual enlightenments".
Jobs started Apple with Steve Wozniak and they had success for a short period of time. Steve had a different view for the company than many of the other executives. He was phased out and evenutally fired. Once he did not have a roll in apple he became very deppressed. This was his making choices illustrating free will stage. He spent alot of money and went on many more, "spirtual enlightements."
Eventually he was enlightended and did succeed in coming back to Apple and reinventing the company to become one of the most succesful comanys of all time. He was however increasingly secretive especialy about his health. In 2004 it was revealed that he had pancreatic cancer but was recvovering. In 2011 he died at the age of 56. His family was very private about mourning his loss, however millions of Apple fans mourned his loss very publicly and made tributes to him.
Conor O.
DeleteRomeo:
ReplyDeleteRomeo was born into "noble birth." He comes from the rich, well- known family called the Montagues. At the beginning of the play Romeo is well respected, kind, and generous.
Romeo seems destined to die from beggining. Juliet and him are star crossed lovers, doomed from the start to die and end the family feuding. He struggles against his fate because it seems as though their families and everything around them is trying to tear them apart. Except, Romeo and Juliet long to be together forever, but it was not meant to be.
Romeo is tragically flawed because he is impulsive and blinded by love. For example, Romeo kills Tybalt in a attempt to avenge Mercutio's, his friend, untimely death, but it results in him being banished from Verona. All of this leads to Juliet faking her death, which eventually kills the both of them in the end.
Because of Romeo's free will he diregards his families wishes and goes ahead and marries Juliet, which leads to their tragic end.
Romeo learns that he would risk anything for love and commits suicide when he finds Juliet dead body in the tomb, though she wasn't actually dead yet.
The tragedy is both in public and in private. Romeo dies in the tomb privately with Juliet, but eventually the town finds out and this tragedy brings the Montagues and the Caputlets together in their sorrow.
Dibs on Whitney Houston
ReplyDeleteWhitney Houston was born into stardom in Newark, New Jersey. Surrounded by her godmother, Aretha Franklin, and her cousin Dionne Warwick, she was destined to become a talented star.
DeleteWhitney turned 15, and was trying to work on a record deal when her true, natural beauty was found by photographer. She later became one of the first African american models to appear on the cover of Seventeen magazine. Whitney, in this time of her life, seems to have a potentially heroic career and will continue to inspire all with her soulful voice and pure talent.
In 1992, after her success was overwhelmingly inspirational, she married R&B singer, Bobbie Brown. This turned ugly quick, when the couple became involved in substance abuse and eventually creates a struggle with addiction that Whitney would have to face for the rest of her life.
These choices with drugs turned her career sour, causing health complications, continuing to derail her life efforts. On February 11, 2012, Whitney was found dead in Los Angeles from accidental drowning. Her autopsy also showed heart disease revealed traces of Cocaine may have been factors in her death. Although Whitney was an idol to many with her pure talent and beauty, she struggled with addiction, eventually ending her life.
-Mackenzie
Perseus:
ReplyDeletePerseus is the son of Zeus and Danae, princess or Argos.
Being a demigod, particularly the son of Zeus, it was his duty to accomplish something great. The life of every demigod is fated to be full of suffering and struggle.
Perseus’s fatal flaw is his over confidence that sometimes borders on arrogance. He is over ambitious and thinks that he is undefeatable.
He killed Medusa and in turn he is pursued by Stheno and Euryale, the other two Gorgon sisters. After returning from his journey and learning the prophecy of the Oracle of Delphi, he travels to Argos to fulfill it. While in Argos he competes in the funeral games and during the discus throw, he accidently kills Acrisius.
When Perseus kills Acrisius his crime is witnessed both publicly and privately. The funeral games were a public event and the death of a king is not an offence to be taken lightly. Although Danae’s reaction isn’t known, her father’s death must have had some impact on her.
Harry Potter
ReplyDeleteHe is the son of two famous wizards. He also survived from a killing spell from a famous wizard. The only one who has ever survived.
It seemed like fate to face Voldemort, to settle things. He was destined to take Voldemort's life or lose his own. He had to build courage and have wonderful teachers to guide him.
He has the scar which was left from Voldemort's attempt of killing Harry. Harry was protected by the power of love. He also has no parents and has to live with his annoying and selfish relatives. He lived such a bad childhood
Harry lead many groups that caused troubles for others trying to protect him. This causes many people to die and make sacrifices throughout the story for his sake because he is destined to defeat Voldemort.
Harry lost his parents at a young age and did not know about wizardry until much later. He learns wizardry and the many secrets that it helped reveal. He realizes learning about spells and magic is very fun, but has consequences. He learns about his parents through people who have known them.
The tragedy i both public and private. Not everyone knows what the scar is or what it means, But they do know that it was given by Voldemort trying to kill him. Only Harry and a few other people close to him no about the pains he gets from the scar and its special qualities.
=Nicholas Cheung
DIBS ON THE KING OF POP
ReplyDeleteBarry Bonds
ReplyDeleteBarry Bonds was a Major League Baseball player. He started off as an average player. He just fit in with everyone else. But, suddenly he started hitting a great amount of home runs and was playing very well. He began to be recognized as a wonderful ball player. He then got greedy and wanted to be even better. This is when he started taking steroids. He wanted to hold the all time home run record. When the accusations came out that he had been taking steroids, he denied it. Finally, it became so black and white that he took them that he had to confess. It took him a long time to finally confess his wrong decision. Everyone now disliked him and realized what they had been cheering for, for so many years was a fake. This impacted not just him, but his family. Bonds had children and a wife that had to deal with his decision. The last thing he wanted was his children hearing his was a liar and a cheater. This wrong decision on a once heroes part, was a very harmful choice that he will regret forever.
Jimmy Kolenda
I've chosen Demi Lovato as my tragic hero. She is heroic to girls because she is an amazing role model and she has been through a lot throughout her life that has made her a stronger person. She seems to be fated by a higher force because she is under the microscope that comes with being famous at a young age, everything she says or does is criticized and she is 'fated' to be a good person and a positive role model because of her fan-base. She has a tragic flaw and/or a major error in judgement that leads to failure in struggle because she made the error in judgement that she had to be perfect, which includes the size of her clothing and how skinny she is, which lead her to have to deal with an eating disorder. She makes choices that bring about destruction, which illustrates her free will because she began to take control of all her eating habits and she developed an eating disorder. She is enlightened by learning about her true self because even though she had to struggle with an eating disorder in the end she was able to overcome it and it made her even stronger than she already was, her true identity was revealed because she was able to talk about her struggles and cope with them. Her tragedy is both public and private because there are things that only her close family and friends know about her eating disorder but there are also things that she has chosen to tell the public about.
ReplyDeleteSarah McAndrews
Ladies and gentlemen, the King of Pop himself, Michael Jackson.
ReplyDeleteAlthough Michael was not immediately born into musical nobility, him and
his brothers in The Jackson 5 quickly rose to fame in their early years. Even
as a young child, Michael stood out from his brothers as being one of the most
talented.
He certainly wasn't born into a perfect family though. As a child, he was
physically and verbally abused by his father, criticizing him of his nose and
his skin color. As this was happening, him and his brother's fame grew
exponentially. Because of his extreme fame as a young child, in the addition to
his mental and family-related instability, Michael Jackson seems to have been
fated to struggle through this destructive path.
As he grew older, his fame managed to grow massively as well, as well as
some tragic flaws and major errors in judgement. His relationships were very
strange. He was always seen as having relationships with people who were either
much younger or much older than he. His romantic partner preferences were
almost as riddling as his sexual orientation and his body-self image.
He began to have many surgeries, especially on his face. First, it started
with his nose, which he came out looking like a perfect image of a perfect young
African American man, but it grew worse. He got even more surgeries on his
nose, which quickly spread to the rest of his face, then his body. More
surgeries on his face caused the tip of his nose to become so mutilated that he
had to wear a prosthetic nose or a mask. His eyes suddenly looked extra buggy,
as if popping out from under is too-prominent eyebrows. His bright red lips
looked like those of a woman who had had surgeries too many times. He face was
now officially deformed and looked nothing like it had before.
Mr. Jackson also dabbled in substance abuse, along with using aesthetics to
help him fall asleep at night because he had a sleeping problem.
The King of Pop never seemed to actually discovered his true identity,
except for his trademark single-handed glove and his passion for dance and
music. So many people knew about him from the press and media and such, but it
seems as though not many people knew him personally, on an intimate level so
nobody could have helped the troubled soul soothe his problems, which sprouted
from the seeds of problems of his early childhood.
Notorious B.I.G.
ReplyDeleteChris Wallace aka The Notorious B.I.G. was born in Brooklyn, New York and grew up with out a father. Big grew up being made fun of because of his weight and everyone would call him names. Also, Big was surrounded by many drugs growing up and got involved in using them and selling them. This almost separated Big from his fate from becoming one of the most influential rappers of all time, but when he was arrested, he decided he was going to separate himself from the drugs and pursue his rap career. Big was a very big hit to America and they loved the music he made. People admired Big because he was just an average person selling drugs on the streets of New York, but then escaped that lifestyle by pursuing his dream. They believed that if he could do it anyone could do it. The life of a rapper was not all that great, because there was a lot of drama involved. That drama caused Big to get shot at the young age of 24, but he was still arguably the greatest influence of rap music of all time.
-Princess Diana
ReplyDeletePrincess Diana became Lady Diana Spencer after her father inherited the title of Earl Spencer. She was princess of wales. She was not a stranger to the British royal family. She married Prince Charles, the wedding was watching by millions of people and broadcasted on live television. They soon had two sons,Prince William, and Prince Harry. Even being overwhelmed as a royal with the media always watching, Diana still pursued her own interests. Diana was a supporter of many charaties such as helping the homeless and the children in need. Diana and Prince Charles went through a divorce. Before and during this time Princess diana had been struggling with depression and bulimia.She devoted herself to her sons and to such charitable efforts as the battle against the use of land mines. Diana used her popularity as celebrity to help raise awareness about this issue. Diana died in a car crash at age 36, escaping from paparazzi.Continuing her charitable efforts is the Diana, Princess of Wales Memorial Fund. Established after her death, the fund provides grants to numerous organizations
Julie, from the book Into the Wild.
ReplyDeleteJulie was born into a fairytale family, and saves the world from the wild. she struggles to defeat the wild while trying to save her family. she makes the choice to leave the wild under her bed which leads to it escaping and causing the world to trapped. Julie is significantly changed after the wild is defeated, by being more courageous, brave, and happy to be who she is.
Elvis Prestly is a true here
ReplyDeleteelvis was born in gracleland trennasee with an ill born twin brother, putting his family in more of a financial crisis than they already were in
Elvis during his 20-30's had a strong addiction to drugs and other narcotics, making the stubble to become a superstar even harder.
due to the drugs, elvis lost respect, integrity and in the over view, lost money due to the inability to preform at some shows
again, the drugs he chose brought out the bad sides in him, there for in the end killing him
the tragedy that the hero elvis faces was his death many would say. although he died, his music became more popular and the love for eliv became more known after his death.
Lindsay Lohan
ReplyDeleteLindsay Lohan was not raised in a “noble” or “elevated” status but gained her potential as a young child star. Lindsay gained fame from her first movie ‘The Parent Trap’ and then further expanded her acting career between the years 2003 and 2005. Her most famous movie was ‘Mean Girls’ in the year 2005.
Her home live unfortunately was horrible growing up. Her parents continually split, divorced, and reunited every few years though out her childhood. Lindsay’s father had an addiction to drugs while she was in her highest point of acting fame. Lindsay was fated to self-destruct.
Lindsay’s tragic flaw was growing up too fast in the eyes of the paparazzi. Ever since she was a small child Hollywood had expectations for her to fit into. As most teenagers do, she rebelled and drank alcohol. Unfortunately she followed her father’s footsteps and experimented with cocaine and other drugs.
The result of her tragic flaw was receiving several DUIs (her first in 2007) and being constantly in the tabloids. Her acting career was severely impacted with her entering rehab every few months. Pictures and videos of her at her worst is how people remember her.
Lindsay claims to be enlightened at her many trips to rehab. In her interview with the UK Sun she said that she wants to mentor teenagers addicted to drugs. She claims to have learned from her mistakes and told the reporter how bad and addicting drugs are. She wants to help teens learn from her own mistakes.
Although she wants to be a role-model, she went to prison and broke her parole many times. Luckily for her she was always released from prison each time because of overcrowding and her fame. Lindsay stole a necklace in 2010 and went to prison yet again. Lindsay’s life seems to run in a repeating cycle but she is a tragic hero. Once again, she is on the rise of fame and appeared as the host of SNL in the beginning of 2012.
Elvis Presley, Micheal Jackson, Barry Bonds, Whitney Houston, Demi lavato
ReplyDeleteSteve Jobs
ReplyDeletePrincess Diana
Notorious B.I.G.
Harry Potter
Romeo
Whitney Houston
Love,
Jimmy Kolenda <3