Cort's Online Media Lit Journal

Response:

I definitely agree with Allison’s thesis for this TV show, which was “Do not take advantage of what you have.” This applies well to the show as a whole because the reason the teens are nominated by their parents to go on the show in the first place is due to their lack of respect (not only for their own parents but also for themselves) and nonexistent appreciation. When you look at this through a Christian set of eyes you can see that it applies just as adequately to us. It is human nature for us to be incontinent with what we possess, but we should not at any time put our belongs above God. Matthew 8:19-21 says, “Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy, and where thieves break in and steal. But store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where moth and rust do not destroy, and where thieves do not break in and steal. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.”  This tells us that belonging will perish in time, but God will not. It shows us that it does us no good in the end to try and hold on to our possessions for too long because, when we die, we cannot take them to heaven with us. They become unimportant figments of our life on earth. What we really should be focusing on is how we can be the hands of God, better ourselves, and do things for the benefit of his kingdom.

Subject: In this episode, Clare, one of the main characters who has the ability to heal herself very rapidly, steals a compass from her father because she knows that it points somewhere specific, and she wants to know where it leads to. Her and her best friend, Gretchen, go on a road trip following wherever the compass leads. After a 21 hour drive, they arrive at a carnival. Clare meets up with Samuel, the man who Clare’s dad originally took the compass from, for the second time. He invites the two of them to explore the carnival. His goal is to make Clare feel as loved and accepted here as possible because we wants to use her just like he is using the rest of the people with abilities there. By having them all in the same place, he is trying to amplify his own powers and take over everything. His underlying motives and manipulation, however, go unseen by anyone. Clare is smitten by the carnival because she just wants a place where she can completely be herself and feels like she belongs; a place where she doesn’t feel like a freak or have to hide her ability. In the end, Clare decides to stay a few more days while Gretchen goes back to the college. All Clare wants is to continue feeling this essence of  “being at home.”

Content: This episode is fairly easy to relate to because everyone enjoys feelings accepted, and we all know what it’s like to feel out of place or be made fun of. At the carnival, Clare feels supported and accepted. Everything about it looks appealing, even though it’s not. Clare is blinded by her overwhelming feelings to the point where she cannot see the suspicious evil directly in front of her: Samuel. His goal is to take advantage of her and use her, and she has absolutely no awareness of this. We, too, can fall into situations like this where things looks so good that we ignore the evil in front of us. Dating a person who is not a Christian would be a small but good example because they may be a wonderful person with a great personality and lots in common with us, but they don’t believe in God. Therefore we are not suppose to just look beyond that fact and ignore it. We are not suppose to be with that person even though it may be tempting.

Evaluation: I think that it is part of our human nature to want to be accepted by those around us. As Christians, expressing our love for God is much easier while in an all Christian setting compared to being in a place without few to zero other Christians. Still Jesus says in Matthew 18:20 that “where two or three come together in my name, there am I with them.” This means that even if we are not surrounded by a sea of Christians we can know that God is there with us. Even if we are by ourselves, he is there. Over all, we don’t have to worry about God accepting or declining us because he loves us exactly the way we are.

Response:

I definitely agree that the movie is about acceptance, but I think it also has a lot to do with family and sacrifice. The family aspect of it comes from the fact that by the end of the movie they are all much more closely knit then they were compared to the beginning. Going through trials all throughout the movie brought them together and helped their family bond. It also includes quite a bit about sacrifice because as soon as Bod and Mrs. Incredible realize that their children are in danger they are willing to do whatever they can to save them from any harm. When you love someone, you are willing to sacrifice for them. This also goes hand in hand with the family aspect because they ended up working together to get each other our of all the tricky situations they fell into.

On a Biblical note, there is a lot of truth here. Jesus has blessed us each with families who love us. That can mean not only parents, grandparents, aunts and uncles, but also friends and co-workers, etc. Deuteronomy 31:6 says, “He will never leave you nor forsake you.”  This shows that God is our father and he has no intention of leaving us. Even though we go through trails daily, he is always there to help. Here’s were the aspect of sacrifice comes in. God loved us so much that he sent his only son to die on the cross for us; Jesus sacrificed his life for us so that we would not all be damned.

Subject: This movie is about a stingy old man named Ebenezer Scrooge who hoards his money and considers no one’s feelings but his own. When his best friend and partner in business dies, he only becomes more bitter. 7 years after this death , on Christmas Eve, his partner’s ghost comes to visit him saying that he is bound by chains in the next life because of the selfish man he was on earth. He also informs Scrooge that, if he does not change his ways, he will be bound by even more chains then his partner. The following night, he is visited by 3 more ghosts–the ghosts of Christmas past, present, and future–each showing him the cruel man he has become. The third ghost even foresees Scrooge’s death and points out that people, including his relatives, are happy and relieved. At the end of the movie, Scrooge is a changed man. He reconnects with his long forgotten family, appreciates his employees more, and becomes less caught up in his money by helping the poor.

Content: I think the thesis of this movie would be “There is more to life then money.” Scrooge lets his love for wealth consume him and take over his life. He loses his friends, becomes disconnected from his family, and even loses the love of his life all because of his greed. At the end of the movie, however, he does a complete 180 and goes from unhappy and selfish to joyful and selfless. We as a society do this in both large and small ways. We are selfless when we talk to people who others think are weird or, on a bigger scale, when we give money to our churches or others people in need.  It is very easy for us to let money get the best of us, and it can be hard to give up things we want for the well being of others. The good news is that, when we put our greed and want for selfish gain aside, we can do lots of good and can truly help a lot of people.

Evaluation: The Bible talks quite a bit about what we should do with our money. For example, it says how we should give 10% of our earnings to the church. But what does that really mean? I think it is to show us that we don’t need money to survive. It is not essential; God is, and we need to learn to rely on him instead. Matthew 6:19-20 says, “Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy, and where thieves break in and steal. But store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where moth and rust do not destroy, and where thieves do not break in and steal.” This is basically telling us that anything we store up here on earth will waste away, and it is pointless because we cannot take things to heaven with us. What IS important, though, are the things we do on earth that count when we get to heaven. This plays in with the movie because Scrooge finds out the hard way the money is not all there is in life, and that same message applies to us as Christians as well.

Response: I agree with Kels on the analysis of this song. She talks a lot about not being all by yourself because there are always people that love you and then goes deeper into the first two lines of the chorus. She did i really good job. I would like to touch on the last two lines of the chorus and go in a different direction.

When it says “You can make it out, You will live to tell” it means that you’ll make it through and live to tell your story. I think that it can be looked at as persevering through the tough times in your life when you feel alone and putting your experiences to good use. What I mean is not only learning from them but also sharing your knowledge and your story with others so that they, too, may learn from it. From a Christian point of view, we can look at this as a chance to testify to other people and still manage to be relatable to them.  2 Timothy 4:2 says, “Preach the Word; be prepared in season and out of season; correct, rebuke and encourage—with great patience and careful instruction.” This is proof that, as Christians, we are commanded to go out and share the good news with the people of this world, but what good are we if we are not relatable? By sharing our struggles and telling about times when we felt alone, we can better reach non-Christians because there is that foundation of a common feeling, and I think that’s what this song is getting at.

Subject:     This song is about a girl who is in so much distress that she sees her only way out as suicide. While making her way to the cliffs she plans to throw herself from, she meets a young man who eventually convinces her that her life is worth so more then that. When she says he does not understand the way she feels, he proceeds to explain that he, too, was considering suicide before she arrived and they began talking.

Song: Fade in, start the scene
Enter beautiful girl
But things are not what they seem
As we stand at the edge of the world
“Excuse me, sir,
But I have plans to die tonight
Oh, and you are directly in my way
And I bet you’re gonna say it’s not right”
My reply: “Excuse me, miss
But do you have the slightest clue
Of exactly what you just said to me
And exactly who you’re talking to?”
She said, “I don’t care, you don’t even know me”
I said, “I know but I’d like to change that soon, hopefully”

Yeah, we all flirt with the tiniest notion
Of self conclusion in one simplified motion
You see the trick is that you’re never supposed to act on it
No matter how unbearable this misery gets

“You make it sound so easy to be alive
But tell me, how am I supposed to seize this day
When everything inside me has died?”
My reply: “Trust me, girl
I know your legs are pleading to leap
But I offer you this easy choice-
Instead of dying, living with me”
She said, “Are you crazy? You don’t even know me.”
I said, “I know, but I’d like to change that soon hopefully”
Yeah, we all flirt with the tiniest notion
Of self conclusion in one simplified motion
You see the trick is that you’re never supposed to act on it
No matter how unbearable this misery gets

I would be lying if I said that things would never get rough
And all this cliche motivation, it could never be enough
I could stand here all night trying to convince you
But what good would that do?
My offer stands, and you must choose
“All right, you win, but I only give you one night
To prove yourself to be better than my attempt at flight
I swear to god if you hurt me I will leap
I will toss myself from these very cliffs
And you’ll never see it coming”
“Settle, precious, I know what you’re going through,
Just ten minutes before you got here I was gonna jump too”

Content:     This song points out that, even when things get excruciatingly tough, we have purpose. With the lines “You see the trick is that you’re never supposed to act on it, No matter how unbearable this misery gets” this song is literally saying that at some point in time we are all going to feel absolutely awful, but no matter how agonizing we may feel, it is not worth ending our lives or totally giving up. Also, with the line “I would be lying if I said that things would never get rough” it is being very practical in saying that life is not all happy go lucky, lighthearted fun; there are bumby, hard to get through times. However, perservierence and a little help can take us from the beginning to the end. This reflects our society by realisticly bringing pain and hurt to attention. As I previously stated, life is not only full of happiness, but also of suffering. Sometimes society makes us believe that we have to be perfect, but this song demonstates the fact that everyone feels pain sooner or later. From celebrities to homeless citizens, every person experiances this emotion. Therefore, we are brought together by this common feeling, and, even in this time of hardship, we can learn from and be supported by one another so as to know that it is not the end.

Evaluation     Being a Christian does not mean that we can deflect pain from our lives. We feel just as much hurt as any other person. Psalm 55:5-6, 18 says “The cords of the grave coiled around me;  the snares of death confronted me. In my distress I called to the Lord; I cried to my God for help. From his temple he heard my voice; my cry came before him, into his ears…They confronted me in the day of my disaster, but the Lord was my support.” This verse fits perfectly with the context of this song because it says that no matter what the problem is, no matter when we call out to him, God will be out support. As a Christians, we know this full well, but non-Christians, for example maybe the girl in this song, could potentially reach a breaking point and see no sign of a support system. We could present the Lord to them and teach them the word, thus, providing them with the best support syestem possible.