Vivienne François
Mrs. Knudson
12 AP English
13 October 2020
Lyric Essay: Complex Characters
In human nature, people tend to feel more purposeful when they find that someone that can make them say “same,” a song you scream that’s a “mood,” or that book that makes you finally unlock a deep self realization. In both “Oedipus the King” and “Saving Sourdi” authors compose complex characters to prove no one stands alone in our relatable universe and to emphasize the theme that truth can be fatal in many ways given character emotion.
“Saving Sourdi” author May-Lee Chai had me at “Sometimes we locked ourselves in the bathroom” (Chai paragraph 21). Similar to the complex character Nea, my older sister and I would lock ourselves in bathrooms, and call the times we shared in their “girl parties.” Chai established the archetype of the “mother older sister.” The sister that falls in the footsteps of a strong mother figure who the younger sister strives to keep their head above water to impress. Having a “mother older sister” is fun to have and a close relationship to hold, yet hurts when you wish they are on your side during times desired. Nea’s traits include spunk and defensiveness, holding her own version of strength compared to her mother and Sourdi. Rather than being a bigger person, turning the cheek, and keeping the brave face, Nea takes initiative in what she stands for, right or wrong. In the beginning of the story, Nea stabs a drunk man for calling her sister a “China Doll” (Chair paragraph 3) as he assaults her. Instead of gratitude she is shunned by her mother and sister. In the end, Nea learns the painful truth that her sister chooses her new family over her, never fully getting the same level of defense and respect from Sourdi. Unphysically stabbed by her sister’s untrustworthy ways.
When it comes to enduring truth, there’s two paths. The first path is a deep spiral that is fallen into and the other one is a bright successful path- taking something good from what is bad. There’s more fear failing doing something good over bad. For Oedpius, he went down the dark and deep spiral losing sight of his mental health. The only solution was to give up and feel hopeless and “Hated by all Gods” (Sophocles line 188). Despite his destiny to fail he threw in all trust that he was a bad person when he had no full intent to his mistakes. Most humans don’t try to fumble because it's easy and natural to not don’t go out of your way. Stabbing his eyes was not the answer; he only perceived it because of his realization of lost God complex, disappointment as king, and being and awful family member. Many people may experience the same reactions when it comes to finding out the truth, similar to Oedipus. They may either be extremely torn apart by it and react poorly or may try to move forward with what they’ve learned from this truth.
President Donald Trump is maybe too complex. So complex, that we both share an obsession with Twilight’s Robert Patterson. Sounds like a lie but here’s some proof: https://www.wmagazine.com/story/robert-pattinson-responds-donald-trump-tweets/. Although it’s so easy to conform into being team vampire I would’ve never realized how many layers this man got to him. Although he tries to appeal to millions of people because it’s his job as president to earn votes sometimes I realize that his own personality can be relatable because he too can enjoy pop culture other than being vulgar, smart yet stupid, a sayer of what’s on his mind, and straight up loud. The devastating truth is, Robert won’t ever love us back, plain and simple.
The platform TikTik has crossed so many lines. There is so much stuff that I do that people say and POST. I am shocked that people have the courage to stay with this stuff and share the same humor as me. But what’s so annoying, and I know everyone knows this TikTok audio is the one that goes “You have to live your life as the main character,” https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6pGXE2BtrCw It irks me to hear it on my for you page because its so wrong. Of course we humans are individuals with complex traits but we live amongst others connected by similarities.
In conclusion we are all complex characters but the hurtful truth is that we are almost the same. In both “Oedipus the King” and “Saving Sourdi” authors ensure to make their protagonist very detailed, but strongly suggest that we find ourselves through the characters due to the fact that every story holds an underlying message.
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