Bibliography
Cantwell, John D. "Heroes." American Journal of Cardiology
94.2 (2004): 169-171. Science Direct. Web. 20 Nov. 2013.
This article will help me
demonstrate why we need heroes and idols with specific instances of their
positive power.
Bilbrey, Pam. "Heroes: storytelling keeps them with us."
H&HN Hospitals & Health Networks Oct. 2008: 24. Academic OneFile. Web.
20 Nov. 2013.
This article will help me relate superheroes to real-life heroes.
Rosenberg, Robin S.. Our superheroes, ourselves. Oxford: Oxford
University Press, 2013. Print.
This book will help me establish a psychological more scientific
approach to my topic
Rubin, Lawrence C.. Using Superheroes in Counseling and Play Therapy.
New York, NY, USA: Springer Publishing Company, 2006. p
41.http://site.ebrary.com/lib/pitt/Doc?id=10265313&ppg=41 Copyright © 2006. Springer Publishing Company. All rights reserved.
This book will give me examples of practical value for superheroes,
showing how they are used to help children psychologically.
Ware, C. (2003). Jimmy Corrigan the Smartest Kid on Earth. Pantheon.
I will use Jimmy’s relationship with superheroes to illustrate their
influence on society.Argument:
For my final project, I am going
to argue that superheroes, and role-models or idols in general, are very
important in our society and teach us a lot about ourselves and contribute positively
to society. I will be using Jimmy Corrigan to show peoples dependence on
superheroes and my other sources will provide examples of how heroes offer us
hope and something positive to strive for. Overlooking their mistakes even has
some value to it. Sometimes we need to have that perfect person to look up too,
even if that is false. If we choose to take mistakes and flaws of our idols
into account, we can also learn a lot from them.
I think that many people may make
a counter argument that we rely too much on idols and often choose false idols
that take is down a dark path when we perceive them as perfect and invincible. Also,
that the role-models we choose are insufficient.
I think that my argument matters
because almost everyone has a role-model that they admire in some aspect of
their life. Many people try to take away the importance of them but I hope to
illustrate that heroes and idols are a positive influence and our reliance on
them is not a negative thing.
I will use pieces from my earlier
revision about superheroes in Jimmy Corrigan but for the most part this paper
will be a new essay, more centered around the positive aspects of superheroes
and what they mean to us as a society. I briefly touched on this subject in my
earlier essay but I feel that it is a strong basis for a new, more in depth
paper. The focus will be on our society rather than Ware’s argument and
deconstruction of the superhero.
1 comment:
Your sources are good.
Your focus on the positive aspects of superheroes is fine; you are right to bring up the problem or fear of idol worship in tension with it. This is a all a little big & possibly vague, though - given the constraints of the class, I assume you'll want to focus more narrowly on Jimmy Corrigan (or possibly another book/event/problem beyond Jimmy Corrigan in addition) than your proposal really makes clear.
If that's the case, then it's really an interesting challenge. JC *seems* to be far more of a satire of superheroes than of anything. So seeing an argument, rooted in JC, that we should emphasize the positive value of the idea of the superhero (presumably including in Jimmy's case) is interesting and demanding.
So is it *Jimmy* who benefits from the idea of the superhero, then? Or is it the reader?
To reword everything: the approach is interesting but dangerously broad. It will be interesting, though, to see you work on Jimmy Corrigan - just find and keep a narrow focus.
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