Monday, March 14, 2011

Internal struggles and our shortcomings

I was amazed at how beautifully gospel principles were portrayed within these stories. I think I’ll begin my post with Chloe’s script. I thought it was really interesting how well we saw the struggle that Grace had to endure reflected the struggles we each have in our lives. Honestly, most of the struggles I experience are self inflicted in a way or are only there because of something I’ve done. In other words, I can be my own worst enemy, which is reflected in this script pretty magnificently. I thought it was cool that Grace ascended once she overcame her fallacies. I couldn’t tell if the hair represented a certain vice in specific or if it was a kind of all encompassing symbol of the trials we each have but it seemed like the hair was an excellent way to tell this story of internal struggle, which is also a theme in other holy works, whether that be the Bible, The Book of Mormon, the Quran, or many other things people believe to be inspired. This idea of overcoming oneself is obviously extremely important and a pursuit of just about anybody who is interested in transcendence or becoming better than they are at present. This theme was also present in A. Todd’s script, Mr. Bellpond. While he has to overcome his natural tendency to close himself off from the rest of the world, he also experiences something that we all experience in our religious journeys: faith. Mr. Bellpond was promised by somebody that he could neither see, nor hear, nor meet that he could be rewarded significantly with what he desired most if he would just strain himself and do his best. I loved how Mr. Bellpond really did give it his all and that this mysterious stranger who was the catalyst to this entire story told him that he wasn’t good enough. But in spite of the fact that his efforts fell short of the standard placed before him, he was still rewarded with what he most earnestly desired. I thought that was a pretty insightful play on what we all experience. We all experience trials and hardships but are still expected (by a being we can’t necessarily see or communicate with in a traditional sense) to bounce back and become great. As we do this, we’re reminded of our shortcomings and even get a little beat up in the process. As we do this, we also realize that our best simply isn’t good enough. But just because we’ve done our best, our friend makes up the difference for us and allows us to achieve what we desire most.

1 comment:

  1. i like how you were able to narrow the struggles down to basically the same problem, that both Bellpond and Grace had to overcome an obstacle that was blocking their progression. That's probably one of the most basic but most imortant elements of the gospel. That's also something everyone can relate to, whether they are religious or not, proving to me again how simple it can be to incorporate spirituality into our work.

    I think the process of including gospel principles into our work can be pretty archetypal. the themes of overcoming obstacles and transcending the average is important to everyone. Maybe not everyone will see something as making a religious point, but they don’t really have to either. It’s important that we are ready to put that aspect of ourselves into our work and it can blatantly or subtly affect the viewer.

    ReplyDelete