RELS 2812 Final Exam - professor: Jennifer Porter PDF

Preview

Summary

professor: Jennifer Porter...

Description

1

Final Exam

Department of Religious Studies, Memorial University of Newfoundland Final Take-Home Exam RELS 2812: Religion and Popular Culture Dr. Jennifer Porter December 16, 2020

2 Section One: a) Using EITHER Harry Potter OR Buffy the Vampire Slayer OR Star Wars, discuss the themes of self-sacrifice, resurrection, and salvation. Do you think these fictional book/film/TV series franchises are deliberately tapping into “Christ-imagery” in pop culture, and if so, what do you think the character’s “message” regarding religion is? If not, why do you think these themes are so prevalent in pop culture? Draw on the books/films/episodes, class lectures and assigned readings in your answer. Prior to taking this class, I had never considered the possibility of Harry Potter having influences and connections so close to Christianity; but now, my eyes have been opened to the idea that there are definite connections to the religion. In Harry Potter, there is a constant show of the themes of self-sacrifice, resurrection, and salvation. I will be examining just how these themes are linked with Christian beliefs. Though, in my opinion, there is no proper inspiration from Christ-imagery; but rather, these are themes that we constantly see in our everyday lives. In Harry Potter, we see salvation very prominently throughout all 7 books, and of course, through all 8 movies. It’s a reoccurring theme in the series. Throughout Harry’s journey, we see him in constant life-threatening situations but every time, he manages to get away because, at least until the 4th book, he has his mother’s self-sacrificing love as a blanket protection for him. In the first book, Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone, Harry encounters Professor Quirrell at the end of the year. After passing through numerous obstacles with the help of Ron and Hermione, he enters the room in which Quirrell is. He then learns of how Quirrell has been sharing his body with Lord Voldemort all year after an encounter in Albania. When Quirrell is ordered to attack Harry, he surges forward and grabs Harry but when he does so, he gets burned and his hands begin to die away. Eventually, he dies because of his advances on Harry. Why did

3 this happen? Well, Dumbledore explains that when Harry’s mother sacrificed herself so that harry would not die, she placed an ancient spell on him, a protection spell created from love. Because of her love for her son, Lily is able to protect Harry until he reaches his fourth year at Hogwarts. Each time harry is in a near death situation, he has been protected by his mother’s love. This salvation has remarkably saved him numerous times. While, yes, salvation is a Christian theme, I believe that in terms of connections, there is no true inspiration taken from Christianity. Rowling probably saw that salvation is a very prominent theme in our everyday lives, rather than taking an inspiration from Christian beliefs. Self-sacrifice is also very prominent in the Harry Potter series, particularly through Harry and his mother, Lily. I have already spoken about how Lily did her share of self-sacrifice when she gave her life for Harry. Now, I’d like to show how Harry also sacrificed himself to save others. Towards the end of the last book, Harry has watched Snapes’ memories and finds out that he, Harry, is the last horcrux created, and in order for Voldemort to be defeated, Harry must die. Therefore, he seeks out Voldemort so that he can die, and, in turn, someone can kill Voldemort after Nagini has been killed. When he is killed by Voldemort, his sacrifice has put a protective spell on all of those at Hogwarts. Well, all of those on the good side, at least. This also ties into the salvation theme because it serves as a protection for those who Harry has unknowingly protected. Finally, the last theme, resurrection has many examples in the series. Most prominently, is through the Tales of Beedle the Bard. It is a novel of children’s short stories that features the story of the Deathly Hallows. This story talks about Death and how one can become the master of death. Someone can become the master of death if they possess the three deathly hallows: the elder wand, the cloak of invisibility, and the resurrection stone. The resurrection stone can, with

4 three turns, bring back your loved ones. Though, they only come back in spirit form, they are not actually risen from the dead. Another way in which resurrection is showcased is after Harry has sacrificed himself, he is essentially brought back from the dead so that he can defeat Voldemort and finally bring peace for everyone. It is also shown in the fourth novel, when, during the battle between Harry and Voldemort, priori incantatem occurs. This is when the last few spells casted with a wand is shown. In this case, because the last few spells casted by Voldemort’s wand were killing spells, the spirits of his last few victims were shown. Personally, I feel as if these themes have been prominent in popular culture because of its existence in our reality. We are always experiencing these themes in various ways that it makes sense for these themes to work their ways into our forms of entertainment. When someone writes a book, or a movie, they must draw inspiration from something. Most of the time, this inspiration comes from our everyday lives because it is what we know best. We always choose to take inspiration from experiences, people, or places that we have come across in our lives. I believe that these themes were chosen to be included in Harry Potter because it shows us what we should do as humans when we are faced with difficult choices. I think that we should never forget that the essence of being human is to be helpful to others. This, I believe is an innate feature that we should never forget, and that it holds no bearings in Christianity.

5 b) Critics are split on the issue of whether the religious underpinnings of books such as The Chronicles of Narnia series or the Twilight series present positive or negative messages to audiences. Choose EITHER the Chronicles of Narnia (The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe) OR Twilight, and discuss BOTH the pro- and anti- arguments made about your choice. Which arguments do you find more compelling, and why? Draw on the novels, class lectures and assigned readings in your answer. Not really being a religious person myself, I tend to be on the side of negativity whenever religion is thought to be of some kind of unknown influence on popular culture. In the case of the Twilight series, I firmly believe that the religious underpinnings of the series are presenting negative messages to audiences. In everything from gender roles, to how Bella reacts when Edward leaves her, this series projects a very negative message to all of its readers. In the second book, New Moon, Edward and his entire family leave Forks because of an incident that put Bella at harm. When this happened, Bella went into a deep depression which lasted for months. She had no idea what to do with herself when Edward left, it was as if she had ceased to exist. She only begun to rise out of the depression when she becomes friends with Jacob and spends pretty much all of her time with him. To me, this just shows that Bella has become so dependent on the patriarchy that she cannot be on her own anymore. This idea that a patriarchal life is the most comfortable situation for Bella promotes the idea that it should also be the case for other women as well. Personally, I believe this to be rather toxic because, especially as of late, women have been very independent and able to survive on their own without any patriarchy.

6 Similarly, with the belief that Bella refuses to get an abortion even though she is constantly told she will die if she brings the baby to term. This belief that abortion is killing a life is of a toxic religious belief that is only now becoming a huge topic of discussion.

7 Section Two: b) Using examples from at least three different web pages (you MAY, but are not required, to include your own website in this question), discuss the conservative, transgressive, or subversive role that religion can play in popular culture. Conservative roles include depicting and reinforcing mainstream ideas about religion; transgressive roles include poking fun at, mocking, or challenging mainstream ideas about religion for shock effect, but not particularly in order to accomplish some greater transformative goal; and subversive roles include deliberately attempting to undermine, challenge, or reformulate conventional religious ideas, with a goal of encouraging audiences to rethink conventional religious teachings. Do you think popular culture is largely conservative, transgressive, or subversive in its approach to religion? Why? You should also draw upon any other class content (lectures, assigned readings) as relevant to support your answer. In terms of religious depiction, I think that popular culture is largely conservative. Of course, it is not entirely conservative because there are plenty of transgressive and subversive depictions in popular culture. Though, a large portion of popular culture is definitely conservative out of respect. This is the basis of my belief, that popular culture is largely conservative because the Catholic church has a large following and if the majority of popular culture made fun of the religious beliefs of Christianity, there would be cause for large boycotts and anger. Popular culture strives to showcase the beliefs of Christianity and educate the masses on all its beliefs. For example, the website on Toy Story & Religion talks about how the toys view Andy as a God figure. They believe he is all powerful and their savior. Without him, the toys would be subject to a toy chest and not played with. It is when the toys are played with that they feel at their happiest and this happiness happens with Andy. This belief is a Christian belief,

8 that happiness comes from God and the belief in Him. The promotion of this belief is what Toy Story focuses on in terms of teaching Christian beliefs without it being an explicit education. Children watching this movie are then intaking this education without realizing it is a religious belief. In my website, The Use of Catholicism in The Conjuring Franchise, I outline how the movies are a strong depiction of Christian beliefs because the movies show that good conquers evil. The good in the movies are the Christian faith. In order to conquer evil, Satan in the films’ case, crosses, praying, and exorcisms are a large part in using good to overtake the evil and banish Satan from its vessel. In Christianity, the huge belief is that if you pray, you will be saved. This is clearly reflected in the franchise because it is shown that prayer will banish Satan. The website Christianity and Batman talks about how Batman has disciples just as Jesus did. For Batman, these disciples are his followers that help him in battling evil. They must be prepared to die for what they believe in and to save others. Just as how Jesus’ disciples were prepared to die for their beliefs, in order to help promote their beliefs. Batman’s followers have to do the same. This Christian belief is projecting onto its viewers and readers the Christian belief that we should all be prepared to go down with our beliefs and never let anyone sway us, just as these disciples and Jesus did. We must have this same courage as them....