For my essay I want to write about a t.v. series called “The Vampire Diaries”. I want to discuss their ability to turn off their humanity. On the show vampires are able to switch on and off their emotions or humanity whenever they feel like or when their life gets to hard for them. Even though they have this ability,we see that even though their “switch is off” or it’s lights out the characters on the show(who’s switch is off) still demonstrate certain emotions. For example the character Elena has turned off her humanity after her brother died and began killing;however, when she believed her friend was dead she began to cry. Therefore, we see that you can never fully turn of your emotions.
I want to use the concept of humanity switching as a way to cover society’s way of casting out individuals who are perceived as diffferent than the norm, when in reality they are very similar to everyone else. Using the Gothic metaphor of vampires, or the undead and their ability to unsuccessfully turned off their humanity as an example of being the same as everyone else.
I think this a great example to use for your paper, but i’m not quite sure what you mean by, society casting out people that are different, to relate to vampires switching on/off their humanity.
Ah me too! Except I will be using the originals in my essay. The concept of humanity is a great idea btw wish I thought of that. Will you relate this to yourself?
Thanks! I’m glad I’m not the ony one using The Vampire Diaries and yea I plan on using the concept of humanity in my paper.
This sounds like a great text/topic for Essay 3. Like Wendy, I’m still not sure about how you are comparing the humanity on/off switch with outcasts. Does turning off humanity align with the assimilation of cultural outsiders? When you write your thesis/essay, be sure to make the analogy very clear to your readers.
Thnaks for the feedback! I’m not a 100% sure how I’m going to use it. I’m still tweaking it. I was s=thnking about using the concept of humanity to show how even though they are vampires they are still human beings. In relation to the way society ostracizes people who they think are different than them, when in reality, they are still human beings like eveyone else.
That sounds like an interesting idea, but you will definitely have to work out exactly what comparisons are at work in this metaphor. Right now, of course, it is a bit too vague. I’m looking forward to hearing what you come up with!