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Broken Families, Bloodlines, and Bonds |
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Recently, I once again begun contemplating something that has been close to my heart. What truly constitutes familial bonds or a valuable relationship? Since I read "The Bean Trees," in addition to a variety of TV programs and other literature, the idea that the ideal family is not needed to create a stable, safe, and beneficial environment.
I will get it out of the way immediately: The things that have piqued my interest in this topic is the anime Toradora! and the recent Disney kidbuster, Tangled. On the surface, they do lack the sort of mature material that would constitute discussion over the idea of this type of family versus that type of family or how one's environment influences their behavior.
Here's a sneaky spoiler alert. I really need to get down to the details to illustrate my point on how the two imply the 3 things I will be discussing, as aforementioned in the title.
Toradora is a cute anime on the topic of 5 friends, specifically Aisaka Taiga and Takasu Ryuji. The former has divorced parents who have both begun new families of their own. She's the odd one out, her father is a nasty human being and her mother is almost as childish as Taiga. The latter never met his father as he was murdered.
Taiga is short and short-tempered, having few friends because of her voracious attitude. Ryuji is gentle neat-freak with a knack for cooking and coupons despite his literally killer face that terrifies his peers. Both being misunderstood, they flock with one another, develop a pseudo-family, and in response to immense adversity and pressure, realize and acknowledge their love for one another and get married.
The pseudo family reinforces this idea of sanctuary in any family. Taiga feels uncomfortable in her "complete" families. Initially finding comfort and security in the pseudo marriage of Ryuji and his apparent love, Kushieda Minori, it is clear that the true relationship is between Ryuji and Taiga. Their family of 3 is homely and fun for all it's members while Taiga is an outsider to all her other families and is seen as unnecessary and unwanted.
Yet in the hand, this whole concept gets a slap in the face when Taiga abandons her life, right after she and Ryuji get married. After all the loose ends have been tied up and relationships restored, she leaves and reinforces the idea of always being near one another despite being physically distant. It isn't the most pleasing ending at first, but it's "reality." They both grow up substantially and as much as they dislike this outcome, they accept it.
In Tangled, Rapunzel is kidnapped by her soon to be step mother, the Witch. Yet, Rapunzel grows up happily with her single step mother and cherishes her. This all happens when Rapunzel has no idea she is the lost princess, born when her mother was saved by a magic flower. The attributes of the flower were passed onto Rapunzel and that is all the Witch is after.
It is clear to the viewer that the Witch is selfish. She's using Rapunzel, correct? But she still takes care of the girl. She provides all she can or "wants" to, at least her tower dungeon isn't too similar to a literal dungeon. For all Rapunzel knew at the time, the outside world was evil and out for her magic hair.
Eventually, she chances upon Flynn Rider, who enters the tower in hopes of hiding from guards who were after him; he had just stolen the lost princess' tiara from the castle.
The satchel that carries the tiara is a key symbol. When examining the context and situations it is mentioned, it can be interpreted as Rapunzel's virginity. It's all Flynn is after, they organize plans for how to give it up to him and he grudgingly accepts. She also states she has hidden it somewhere he will never find it.
Eventually, the Witch makes another appearance near the climax and hands over the satchel to Rapunzel and dares her to give it to Flynn as a test, to see if he's still after the crown or now doing it for Rapunzel alone. Give it to him and see if he doesn't run as soon as he gets the chance, and mother won't tell you I told you so is something along the lines of what the witch says.
Finally, the scene of the lantern festival while they're on the boat. I was scared to give it to you at first, but for some reason, I'm not scared anymore. She hands over the satchel and he sets it aside. Flynn no longer cares about it.
Here, it is obvious that Flynn has evolved as a character but now stays with Rapunzel for her as a person, not the crown, or her virginity for that matter.
Let's backtrack to broken families: Rapunzel was kidnapped and had a step mother. Flynn was an Orphan.
The former was made into a complete shut in, and Flynn became a notorious thief. One had no real knowledge of the world but had so much curiosity for it. The latter had too much knowledge of it and being disappointed with it, sought his only salvation in money and infamy.
Ultimately, the movie negates all this with the death of the Witch. The step mother she shared memories with and 16-17 years is slain before Rapunzel, ironically by her pet chameleon. Rapunzel discards that family and quickly enters the complete family. Everything magically fixes itself. They're spontaneously close to one another and all their problems are solved.
Ignoring all this for a moment, the movie has one clear moral behind the childish facade. It's a story of growing up and how it's impossible to shield a child from the dark evils of the world. It's very Salinger, or Catcher in the Rye. It's a lone mother trying to keep her daughter's innocence, her hair, all for herself and away from the world to protect it.
In the end, we must accept that as Salinger believed, there are two forms of innocence, and rather than protecting the first one as he tried to, we must seek the 2nd form although it does not always have to be found with God.
This is a lot to take in really, especially out of this context, it may or may not make sense. It's clear that I've digressed a lot from my original points. I do that a lot.
I will attempt to finish this with my ultimate points about the title.
Families can exist in any form. The only advantage a complete family has is foundation founded in blood or DNA, assuming these are biological parents and children.
Other families are perfectly capable of existing, it's all about overcoming obstacles and creating a new foundation for creating a beautiful family tree.
Bloodlines are some of the weakest bonds in existence. Blood doesn't even connect families, it's truly the DNA found in all of our cells. Yet, basing a relationship or bond on a set of phospates, nitrogen bases, and sugars with hydrogen bonds is foolish. According to this form of bloodline, we should then respect animals even more and as there is very little difference between us. We are all derived from a common ancestor and share the same building blocks, constituted of the same Earth.
Relationships and bonds need to be founded on experience, memories, and definitive love. These things are much more personal and important than the incredibly common elements and crap that form our DNA.
For me, this all ultimately leads back to the internet for me and life.
I do not value my blood relatives because I have no bonds with them other than flimsy ones. I wouldn't mind befriending them, but I have no obligation to do so. Just because the sperm and egg that made me is similar to the sperm and egg that made them does not mean I should love and respect them.
On the other hand, if I have a childhood friend, do I value them less than family despite having spent more time with them because we lack a feeble blood line?
However, I don't want to destroy the argument with unfair reasons like that. People always jokingly say that the internet is serious business and that a lot of these things we see and deal with should not be taken seriously.
Trolls for instance and a lot of the Threads in the Chatterbox really. We apparently aren't allowed to take them seriously so we aren't made fun of or so we don't end up getting hurt.
That's unfair. The problem with me is that I value all the contact I make with anyone, be it real life or through pixels and EMWs on the internet. Just because I lack physical closeness does not make the development of emotional closeness impossible.
I value and consider peoples comments when they truly matter or are from people I consider important. That doesn't mean I'm judging peoples importance, but as mentioned, it's essential to distinguish a troll from someone you'd consider a friend. Unless what the troll says really does make sense, the friend's comment should be taken into consideration more hastily.
But before I digress again, all I want to say is that love and bonding is universal. We can't pretend that blood is magical and constitutes a fantastic relationship but it's merely a single step ahead of nothing to begin with at all. The internet is no different, merely because it is the internet, does not make it instantly meaningless. Simply because these are strangers does not make them unimportant or insignificant.
Even in real life, we begin strangers to every one and we develop personal memories, moments, and relationships.
Hopefully this was not too much of a hassle to read, I apologize for any errors or if I strayed too far from the point.
Veiny Banana
Morax Byron
Gideon Marx
Agrias Oaks
Internet-Implosion
Brian
 Veiny Banana · Tue Jun 07, 2011 @ 03:25am · 0 Comments |
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