essay revision 34

• What do you think about the title of the essay? How can it be improved?
• What do you like or dislike about the introduction? Does it have an engaging hook?
• Is the thesis statement appropriate for this essay? How has it changed since the previous workshop? After reading the entire essay, take another look at the thesis and make sure it’s supported and that it doesn’t need more information.
• What is the writer’s purpose? Does the writer address the assignment: to reveal what traits/actions/characteristics makes these characters heroes. Furthermore, how well does the writer incorporate “The Stages of the Hero’s Journey” into the paper?
• What do you think of the writer’s use of specific evidence, examples or support from the movie or TV show (and written sources from this Unit)?
• What do you think about the balance of analysis and summary? If there is too much summary, what should the writer do to even things out more?
• Is there a logical organization? Does the writer use transitions throughout paragraphs and to link other paragraphs together?
• Is the paper underdeveloped? Could you suggest more ideas to broaden the scope of the essay?

ESSAY 1

The fictional character Prince Zuko from Avatar: The Last Airbender is a hero. Serving as the

antagonist in season one, Prince Zuko is a prince in exile. He has been tasked by his lord father to capture an old man known as the Avatar. Throughout his journey, he struggles with his identity and his power. He betrays those closest to him and almost follows the wrong path before choosing to help the man he was sent to capture and defeat his own father. It is because of Prince Zuko’s selflessness that he is a hero.

Avatar: The Last Airbender opens with a brother and sister in a canoe. Their names are Sokka and Katara respectively. They are native to the south pole and are members of the Southern Water Tribe. In this fictional world created by Michael Dante Dimartino, there are four nations. The Fire nation, the Earth nation, the Air nomads, and the Northern and Southern Water tribes. Certain people in this fictional world have a power known as ‘bending’ where a user can ‘bend’ the elements to their will. The elements that they can control correspond to their nation. For example, a firebender can conjure flames from his hands and shoot fireballs. An earthbender can make rocks levitate and create quicksand.

The character Katara is a waterbender but her brother Sokka has no bending abilities. He is a normal warrior. In the opening episode of this three season show, the sibling pair Sokka and Katara discover a ten year old boy frozen in an iceberg. They break the ice and free this boy. The Boy’s name is Aang. He has been frozen for about a hundred years with his pet Appa who is a flying Bison. Aang is an airbender and a nomadic monk. He is also the only person in this fictional world who has the ability to bend all four elements thus making him the ‘Avatar’.

The show starts with Sokka and Katara’s entire village away at war except for the babies, the elderly and the two siblings. The main premise of the show is that for the last hundred years, the Fire nation has been attacking everybody else with imperialism while the Avatar was frozen in an iceberg and therefore unable to stop the war and bring peace. Sokka and Katara’s mother was killed by the Fire nation and their father and every man in their tribe is away fighting the war against the Fire nation.

This is where Prince Zuko comes into play. Prince Zuko is the son of the Fire Lord, Ruler of the Fire Nation. The Fire Lord is a very abusive father. When Zuko was a young boy he spoke against his father and as a result his father scarred his face permanently by burning him and then exiled him, saying he could only return if he captured the Avatar as a prisoner and returned him to the Fire nation – a nearly impossible task due to his hundred year disappearance.

Zuko manages to find the Avatar and realizes he is just a boy who is traveling with his friends and trying to master the four elements.

Even though Zuko is exiled, his uncle Iroh chooses to travel with him. Iroh is the older brother of the Fire Lord and turned down the job ruling his nation after his son died on the battlefield. At first, Zuko considers his uncle a weak old fool who just wants to drink tea and eat noodles. Iroh serves as Zuko’s mentor throughout his journey – constantly watching him and keeping him safe.

During the first season of Avatar: The Last Airbender, Zuko chases the Avatar and his friends across the world, from the south pole to the north pole. During this time, he is ruthless and selfish and the only thing he wants to do is capture a child so that he can go home and be seen as a hero prince. At the end of the first season, Zuko manages to capture the avatar and isolate him from his friends. He finds himself in a dead end though, trapped by the intense blizzard of the north pole. The Avatar’s friends and his flying Bison come to rescue Aang and they are about to leave Zuko for dead when Aang decides to rescue him from the storm and bring him back to shelter.

This moment is the beginning of Zuko’s change of heart. Prince Zuko originally wants only to return home to the Fire nation as a hero but once he captures the avatar, he is treated with forgiveness for the first time in his life.

At the beginning of the second season, Zuko’s sister, Azula, princess of the Fire nation, is sent to bring Zuko and Iroh back to the Fire nation as treasonous prisoners for supposedly letting the Avatar escape once he was in custody.

Now Zuko is on the run across the Earth kingdom with his uncle by his side as his sister and her friends track them down. For the first time here, Zuko has to choose between his allegiance to his home and his country, or creating his own destiny which is more insecure and scary.

Zuko’s travels through the Earth kingdom bring him and Uncle Iroh to the capital of the Earth kingdom, Ba Sing Se. There in the capital, Azula has set a trap to capture the Avatar, her traitor brother and uncle, and claim the Earth kingdom for the Fire nation at the same time. At this point there is an epic showdown and Zuko betrays his Uncle and fights alongside Azula against the Avatar. Uncle Iroh fights against Zuko and Azula so that Aang and his friends can escape but as a result, Uncle Iroh is defeated and taken prisoner by Azula and the Fire Lord.

Zuko’s choice to fight alongside his sister and take up arms against his loving uncle who had always been there for him earned him a ticket back to the Fire nation and ended his exile. At the start of the third season, Zuko is welcomed back to this home country as a hero prince. It is the return he had dreamed about only Zuko feels horrible. He betrayed his uncle, joined the side of the people who continuously abuse and hurt him, and viciously attacked the Avatar and his friends. After spending time back home Zuko realises that he made a big mistake in betraying his uncle. Zuko goes to his father during an eclipse, the only time firebenders cannot use their power, and tells him that he is going to help the Avatar defeat him. His father tries to attack Zuko but he is stronger with techniques his uncle taught him and he redirects the attack and flees. Zuko then goes to break his uncle out of jail only to learn that he already escaped earlier that day during the eclipse.

At this point, Zuko steals a hot air balloon and then goes in search of the Avatar and his friends again. This time instead of capturing them, he seeks to earn their trust and friendship so he can teach firebending to Aang so that Aang can defeat the Fire Lord.

Ultimately, Zuko fights alongside Aang’s friends and defeats his sister. Aang defeats the Fire Lord and Prince Zuko becomes young Fire Lord Zuko and is loved by his country as the first ruler in three generations to not be warmongering.

Zuko’s journey represents the traditional hero’s journey. At first, he is literally the bad guy. He is the main threat to the protagonist and the protagonist’s friends. He starts his adventure hot headed, bad tempered, and generally angry. By the end of the show, Zuko is a soft spoken, peaceful, smiling young man. He endures betrayal by his family, he has an always supportive mentor by his side, and he comes full circle and sacrifices his own position and security to help his friends.

Unlike the other characters in this show, Zuko is the only one that makes a full character arc. To start as the villain and then gradually become the hero is more heroic in my opinion than a character that starts as a force of good. Aang, Uncle Iroh, Sokka and Katara all are static characters all just going about their business but Zuko is a dynamic hero. When he stands up to his father and runs away to help the Avatar, Zuko in that moment forsakes his royal family and his loyalty to his Lord father. At that point, he has nothing. His uncle is no longer by his side. He leaves his girlfriend in the Fire nation too so that he can do his one job – teach the Avatar firebending.

It’s that selflessness that makes Prince Zuko a hero. It’s not about Zuko’s inherent heroic traits, but rather the wisdom and discipline that comes from self discovery and understanding one’s role in events. Zuko goes on more of a heroic journey than any other character I’ve seen in the media.

In the final episode of the show, Zuko finally meets up with his Uncle after a season of not talking to one another. Uncle Iroh is camped outside Ba Sing Se with his war buddies and is about to lay siege to the city to reclaim it for the Earth King. Zuko goes to his tent and sobbs and apologizes to his uncle and begs him for forgiveness. After listening to Zuko, Iroh lunges across the tent and gives his nephew a huge warm hug. This is the main climax of the show. Here, Uncle Iroh shows how proud he is of his nephew. He is proud of his sacrifice, his outpouring of love, his selflessness, his humility and his modesty. He is proud that he has become a hero.

Works Cited

• Eisen, Zach T, Mae Whitman, Jack DeSena, Dante Basco, Dee B. Baker, Mako, and Melendy Britt. Avatar, the Last Airbender. , 2015.

Stuart Voytilla, Myth and the Movies: Discovering the Mythic Structure of 50 Unforgettable Films, Michael Wiese Productions, 1999 (ISBN 0-941188-66-3)

Essay 2

Marianne Williamson once said, “Love is a hero’s journey, and the hero’s journey is a noble but difficult path” Heroes can be created out of love, there are many heroes in the world and especially in our lives. They do not have to be in movies only, but real people who did something great for others. The word “hero” stands for the act of sacrificing, courage, equality, perseverance, and the most important thing is love. In the film “Django Unchained,” the story begins and sets in Texas, two years before the civil war in 1858. Django was a slave who worked thousands of hours for others who mistreated him. He was finally freed by King Schultz who was a financial reward hunter. Had a long journey to save his wife Broomhilds from slavery that got tortured from a brutal Mississippi plantation owner. Django and Dr. Schultz has became allies, he decided to help him find his slave wife when Django found the wanted men. During his journey, Django the free man never stopped sacrificing, perseverance, and loving his wife.

It all started when Django was walking with back men all chained together in line as slaves. Getting purchased and sold throughout their life line. Dr.King Schultz had bought him from the hard slavery life, inorder to help him find the wanted men. During the journey, Django has sacrificed many times in order to get to his purpose. He had a normal life like any other slaves in Texas thats gets tortured while working almost all day long. But in a minute, it turned 360 degrees into killing and trying to rescue his slave wife. The game ”Mandingo” was one of the very helpful roads to get in his wife owner’s house, Mr.Calvin Candie. He is one of the very rich men is Mississippi that buys and sells men slaves to enjoy the Mandingo at his house. It is known as two slaves fighting each other until the death of one. After a very long and cold winter, Django and Dr. King Schultz are now headed for Mississippi to find his wife. Dr. King Schultz planned, “We will do an act, my character is that of a big money buyer from Dusseldorf, here in Greenville to buy my way into the Mandingo fight games. And your character is a Mandingo expert I hired to help me do it” (1:01). Django has now sacrificed his life and might get killed at any second if they get known that who they are is a lie. Even though Django have meet Mr.Calvin Candie and knew he was a very dangerous man, he decided to keep on going into the mission and rescue his wife.

The characteristics of bravery, sacrifice, perseverance and loving defends Django as a hero. After a tour around Candie’s house, Django and his partner are now given a room to stay in for the rest of the night. They made a plan to ask for a German-speaking woman slave to spend the night with. As Broomhilda enters the room, Schultzspoke German with her just in case someone is listing behind the door. He told her that there is a man behind the closet she have to meet, but she must scream (1:40). The next night, Django had to face one of their biggest obstacles, which is Stephen the black leader of the slaves in the house. He had some species about the relations between the German speaking slave and Django. At the dinner table, Candie now knows everything going on, and asks the men to give him over twelve hundred thousand dollars or his wife would be killed. Yet he agreed to buy his wife for 12,000 and leave peacefully. What makes Django really a hero is his perseverance towards his wife. Going through dangerous people and willing to give up everything he has including his life is one of the biggest proves that makes him a hero. Nowadays not everyone is willing to sacrifice their lives to the people they love. What makes Django so special is that he is living in a world full of racism and fights through to find his way. In the article “The Stages of the Hero’s Journey,” Christopher Vogler states, “All stories consist of common structural elements of Stages found universally in myths, fairy tales, dreams, and movies. These twelve Stages compose the Hero’s Journey.” Django never stopped dreaming on the day he will meet and rescue his wife, dreams made his even stronger throughout his journey.

After Django accepted Candie’s offer, he agreed to let them sign her freedom paper and leave, but Candie was not honest, and had a trick under his sleep to kill them both. In the article “Django Freeman,” the author states, “Candie really has a trick up his sleeve, but so does Schultz. Schultz agrees to shake it, but as he walks over to Candie he draws his hidden Derringer and shoots Candie in the heart.” After Schultz releases that Candie wants to finish them, he decided to save himself and Django as well. After the death of Django’s allie but Candie’s men, he decided to take him gun out and murdered everyone in the house. After the bloody house and he is the only one left. A group of men come along wanting to top him, threatening him of killing his wife if he does not give up. In the movie “Django unchained,” Steph stated, “I believe if you don’t give up in the next ten seconds, we are going to blow this b**ch’s brains out! Believe that!” Django answered, “I give up.” Django would rather save his wife, instead of himself. Bravery is one of the symbols that makes him a hero. After knowing that if he gives up, he will get tortured and killed after it.He still did it to save Broomhilda and live peacefully for the rest of her life.

(one more body paragraph will be added for the ending with evidence and explanations)

After one of the hardest journeys of his life was completed successfully. He never gave up on one of the biggest things he had, which is his love. Love have made bravery out of his that made his persevere and never give up on the valuable things he has in his life. Of course with the help of his friend the reward hunter, he is no free with a happy life without racism and torturing. ( will work on it more for the final raft)

 

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