Activity: Fictional Characters as Representatives of one of the Contrasting Values
Assignment and Goal: Your responsibility is to select any fictional character in the history of the world to serve as the representative face of one of the contrasting values that we have been studying. A file listing the values and their definitions that we have been going over can be found on the website in another posting. Your goal is to demonstrate your understanding of the value by incorporating specific elements of the definition into your caption for the character that you select. It is also important to show how your character fails to meet the characteristics of the definition of the contrasting value. The written portion should be a strong, argumentative paragraph that makes specific references that demonstrate how the character’s personality meets the criteria of the definition. You need to provide a visual of your character to complete the assignment.
Example: Captain Hook from Jake and the Neverland Pirates
Captain Hook from Jake and the Neverland Pirates is a perfect fictional character to represent the value of authority. Captain Hook runs a tight ship with inferior members of his crew. The concentration of all of the power on his ship is the most important reason why others listen to his ridiculous schemes. Clearly, his ship is run in an anti-democratic manner. He repeatedly ignores his crewmembers’ voice, input, and ideas regardless of whether they are useful or not. They have zero ability to vote on the direction that the ship and crew take. Looking at why Hook has power over his crew is another reason why it is easy to see him as the face of Authority. His source of power comes from tradition, knowledge, and experience. Centuries of pirate life have led to the absolute power that captains have acquired. His people did not place Hook in control, he got handed control because that is the way that it has always been done with pirate captains. His experience and expertise are certainly positive characteristics for a leader, but there is little doubt that other members of his crew, for example Cubby, have similar levels of expertise, which mean very little in comparison with old traditions that a pirate captains have absolute, non-democratic power.