Sonsyrea Tate’s statement suggests that “home” may be conceived of as a dwelling, a place, or a state of mind. It may have positive or negative associations, but in either case, it may have a considerable influence on an individual. Choose a novel or play in which a central character leaves home yet finds that home remains significant. Write a well-developed essay in which you analyze the importance of “home” to this character and the reasons for its continuing influence. Explain how the character’s idea of home illuminates the larger meaning of the work. Do not merely summarize the plot."
Home does not have to hold memories of warmth and comfort. The walls that separate shelter from the merciless wild don't necessarily keep out the cold. Often, the classic idea of the warm hearth and the happy home is turned on its head, presenting the idea of a home that left a scar. But how does such a classically comforting idea turn dark? This question, and its answer, is showcased excellently in The Phantom of the Opera (2005 movie). In the Phantom's case, his scarring impression of home started from birth, the day his mother beheld his deformed face. He was instantly unwanted, instantly feared, and was imprinted with an idea of the norm that would never leave him.
For a mother to fear her child goes against all accepted and expected norms. Mothers are understood to love and adore their child unconditionally, not hesitating or doubting because of a mental disorder, much less a simple physical deformity. That expectation dooms the Phantom. His mother hates him from birth, a mask to cover his face his first piece of clothing. It's not simply her abuse that scars him so deeply; it's the sight of well dressed young children, laughing and throwing in his face how unusual and freakish his family life is. He grows with the skewed belief that he was so terrible, his own mother was forced to fear him; far from the truth of the matter, where the blame lies squarely on his compassionless mother's shoulders.
His mother's abuse centered around his deformed face- and his face would not stop haunting him. His natural defense mechanism, rage that scared off any that would potentially hurt him, only encouraged the feeling of being unwanted to imbed itself deeper within him. All that he met (spare two) feared him instantly, and his prompting them with acts of violence actively worsened the situation. If his home had taught him anything, it was that he would never be wanted; indeed, it was better to just scare away any that came close. He would never be given anything; he simply had to take it. It never occurred to him that others would ever feel differently.
Nothing but fear and rage was taught to him while occupying the gypsy freak show and his mother's house, the two places he originally called home. Love, and all concepts related to it, were left mysterious and intangible, fantasies to hover out of his reach. What he got instead of love was hate. When it came to his own passions, he had no model to follow; all he had were the lessons his mother and the operas he so coveted had taught him. Indeed, throughout the musical he employed shows of violence and poetic romance to further his goal, unable to put the cruelty of his upbringing past him. He went to great lengths to put together his owl opera and then secure the lead male role as his own; but at the cost of the previous lead's life.
The memory of home is one that can be molded and changed. Few find themselves going through life with only one true home to speak of. Often, however, it's left up to others to let this happen; and for some, such as the reclusive Phantom, others are all too often unwilling to help. His memories of a cold and cruel home setting the standard for his life, he lived plagued by the ideas taught through such an upbringing, and it eventually engineered his fall.
I like how your thesis statement is strong and clear, it tells the readers right away that what your topic is about.
ReplyDeleteAlso, your words choices(like "dark", "merciless", "fear" and rage) on describing Phantom's case creates a pretty dark and negative sense of feelings, which fits the theme of the story perfectly.
The conclusion is also well-written. Nice job!
I’ll start by being a little nitpicky about grammar, since that mental stumble whenever I read a minor error was interrupting a great essay. Try to be consistent with the literary present tense. Pay attention to subject-verb agreement. Make sure parallel structures stay truly parallel – for example, the third part doesn’t match the first two here: “He was instantly unwanted, instantly feared, and was imprinted…” Avoid the passive voice when the active voice can be used, or the phrasing might sound awkward. And I think this might just be a typo, but watch out for sentence fragments: “His mother hates him from birth, a mask to cover his face his first piece of clothing.”
ReplyDeleteNow that grammar is out of the way, let me start by that your diction is what really makes the essay, at least for me. Using strongly connotative words like “merciless” and “reclusive” greatly emphasizes the contrast between the warm hearth and the cruel world in which the Phantom grows up, and between the psychology of a normal person and the Phantom.
There are a couple of problems with the response that you could fix. As we learned in class, don’t ask a rhetorical question in your introductory paragraph. In fact, even if rhetorical questions were allowed, that question and the sentence after it could still be much more succinctly rephrased: “The Phantom of the Opera (2005 movie) excellently showcases how such a classically comforting idea turns dark.”
You answer nearly everything the prompt asks, but I think you could answer part of it more thoroughly. I haven’t seen the musical or the movie, so I don’t know all the details, but is the Phantom reminded of his home by anything after he leaves? The prompt asks not only how a character is affected by his home, but how that home continues to affect him after he leaves. You repeatedly mention that the psychological effect the Phantom’s upbringing has on him dictates his actions later in the musical, but are there examples you could include of something reminding the Phantom of his upbringing and precipitating a psychological response? Either way, the introductory paragraph could also state that his upbringing causes some event later in the work, rather than just stating that he is permanently affected psychologically.
The prompt also asks you to “[explain] how the character’s idea of home illuminates the larger meaning of the work”, but I don’t see any mention of the work’s meaning in the response. It’s clear that the Phantom was affected by the home he grew up in, but as someone who is not familiar with the work, I neither know what the meaning of the work is or how the Phantom’s psychology illuminates it.
You have a great example of a work in which home affects a character, but you now need to polish your response and explain more clearly what this has to do with the work as a whole.
I think that The Phantom of the Opera was a great example to use. His home truly effects the character he becomes throughout his life. Phantom of the Opera is one of my favorite movies and never fails to bring me to tears. I like that you pointed out that the fact that his mother feared him and didn't want him had a huge effect on his life. He never truly had a home where he was welcomed because he of his deformity. I also liked how to mentioned that rage was his defense mechanism. I agree, he knew people would fear him no matter what so he used that to his advantage. One thing I would point out though is that where he came from had less of an impact on his life than his actual deformity did. I also think you could have mentioned more about the importance of home in his life.
ReplyDelete