Traditional notions of good and evil have been very “black and white.” In early literary history the Torah advocated the world can be divided into good people who follow God and evil people who reject God. This concept was copied in popular television by “The Transformers” and “G.I. Joe” where inherently good heroes who only wanted to save humanity fought inherently evil villains whose sole purpose in life was to destroy and enslave humanity...for no apparent reason. “Buffy” blurred the lines between good and evil by giving its characters a dinamic mix of virtue and vice.
Buffy herself is devoted to good, but her lifestyle is as violent as “A Clockwork Orange.” She befriends and cooperates with demons, and she engages in romantic affairs that the Torah insists she be stoned and banished to hell for. However, instead of condemning Buffy for these affairs, the series simply presents them as a natural part of human existence.
The rest of the characters in Buffy also blur the line between good and evil. The most striking example may be the character named “Angel,” who is in fact a demon. Angel switches back and forth between committing acts of outright virtue and acts of outright vice constantly struggling with the conflicting moral values all humans face.
Braum, B. (2000) The X-files and Buffy the
Vampire Slayer: The ambiguity of
evil in supernatural representations.
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I liked how you compared her violent lifestyle to another literary text. However, does Buffy really 'blur the line between good and evil'? is she not just good and maybe the defintion of evil has changed some what?
ReplyDeleteyes i agree with danni. your comparison with her violance to the other text was quite interesting.
ReplyDeleteIt would be interesting to see how you'd work the ideas presented by Braum (2000) into your discussion. Also what specific examples from Buffy can you use to support your views?
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