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Critical overview of crime and punishment
Critical overview of crime and punishment
Critical overview of crime and punishment
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Harley Quinn and Redemptive Violence
The myth of redemptive violence is a common theme in comic books and other media today, especially in America. Superheroes are the ones who usually use redemptive violence in their stories to develop their characters. It is not surprising that that even villains are made to follow this trope to develop their characters. Harley Quinn is a villain who first appeared in “Batman: The Animated Series.” She became quite popular and it is no surprise that fans want to see her character development. While she is becoming her own person in comic books, she often must use violence to bring order to her chaotic life.
Before I can explain how Harley Quinn uses redemptive violence to calm her chaotic life, I need to explain what it is. The myth of redemptive is victory over chaos by being violent. As Westerners, this is driven into our heads and is a dominant theme in comic books among other media. Harley Quinn was once a doctor at Arkham Asylum who fell in love with the Joker. Falling in love can be confusing and chaotic on its own, however, when it comes to falling in
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love with the Joker, these are magnified. In Batman: Harley Quinn #1, Harley tries to end the confusion and chaos that the Joker brings into her life be killing him. Harley meets the Joker and falls in love with him, while she is in pure bliss at first, this is only the beginning of her journey of trying to stop the chaos in her life. After the Joker cast her aside to avoid Batman, Harley begins to see the disorder in her life brought on by the Joker. In the image from the comic, Harley comes to realize that her life is chaotic and that the only way to solve her problems and bring peace to her life is to confront those who have wronged her. She goes on to confront the Joker and plans to end his life, and hopefully bringing peace and order to her own life. In the end, her violence gets her nowhere and goes back to the Joker. In Detective Comics #831, “Kind of Like Family,” Harley is trying to separate herself from her past and the Joker. She goes in front of the board of directors at Arkham Asylum and admits to all she has done wrong, but hopes to go straight and start a new life. Her life is peaceful now, as she is free of the Joker now, however, it is again turned chaotic when Scarface breaks her out of Arkham Asylum to assist him in his next heist. Harley knows that the only way out of this life is by using violence again. She must betray Scarface by acting against him and even calling for Batman. In the end, her struggle was not in vane and lead her to a peaceful life. While she had to use violence to end the confusion brought to her life, it helped her find peace once again. In Batman: Black and White #3, Role Models, while once again pursuing a life of crime, Harley she uses violence again to redeem herself.
A young girl is kidnapped by a man, the girl is able to escape her captor and searches for someone to help her. While the girl looks for a hero, she runs across Harley Quinn and Poison Ivy and begs for their help. While trying to rob a bank, the two women realize that they must put a stop to this man’s crimes. In the panels to the right, we can see that Harley and Ivy have a resolve to help the young girl. While there may have been another option besides violence, that is the road they take. In order to stop a kidnapper, they use violence to stop him. The man is stopped, and the young girl sees the two as heroes; Batman even sees that they did nothing wrong and thinks that there is nothing bad about the two, even if it is just for the
night. While Harley Quinn started as a villain who was in love with the Joker, she tried to bring an end to the chaos that he brought into her life. When she tried to distance herself from a life of crime, it was thrust upon her again, and to find her way out she had to use violence to bring peace again. As Westerners, we have been conditioned to believe in the myth of redemptive violence. This holds true to develop heroes and villains, as we can see with Harley Quinn. While there may be other ways to end chaos brought into their lives, comic book characters often fall into this trope that they can only solve violence with violence.
According to the FBI, more than 75 percent of all murder victims are women, and more than 50 percent of the women are between the ages of 14 and 29 years old. A part of that statistic is Kitty Genovese,a murder victim who is the focus of an editorial, “The Dying Girl that No One Helped,” written by Loudon Wainwright. Kitty was a 28 year old woman who was brutally stabbed to death while on her way home from work. The woman, named Kitty Genovese, lived in a pleasant, welcoming, residential area, in New York. There was at least 38 witnesses that came forward, and they all heard her cries for help, but no one came to her aid. Wainwright effectively demonstrates how society has started turning a “blind-eye” toward problems that can endanger someone's
Most of the story Night takes place in a concentration camp, so cruelty is going to be normal for the prisoners at the camp. The point of this essay is to give examples of how cruelty is a theme in the story Night.
When examining the many complicated relationships between the characters in the multiple batman universes, the relationship between Harley Quin and Poison Ivy in “Batman: The Animated Series,” specifically in the episode titled “Harley and Ivy,” is the one I found most fascinating. The personal backstories that they both have as individuals is already fascinating, but as their stories intertwine, things get even more intriguing. The two female villains officially meet for the first time in this episode, they join forces and become the “queens of crime,” while also opening the show, and TV industry, up to the queer audience. I would argue that in this episode they even go as far as addressing the urgent need for positive representation and acceptance
Maryclaire Dale’s article “Kindergarten kidnapper tells girl, ‘I’m not a monster’”, appears in the Bucks County Courier Times and it tells the people of Bucks County how a woman kidnapped a kindergartener from school. In Philadelphia during January of 2013, a girl was taken from her kindergarten classroom and “sexually tortured during a bizarre overnight ordeal.” The girl was an 8-year-old and she had been abducted by “former day care worker Christina Regusters”, who was 22 years old. Christina was sentenced to 40 years to life. The judge called the crime, “a horror show” because the 8-year-old girl was found “shivering under playground equipment” half naked. Christina took full responsibility for what happened and as she was charged with “kidnapping, sexual assault and other charges”
Robert Wonser and David Boyn’s article “The Caped Crusader: What Batman Films tell Us About Crime and Deviance,” explore the “sociology of deviance” within the Batman trilogy (Wonser, p. 1). Throughout discussing the relevancy of deviance and crime in fiction films within modern society, particularly centring on the Batman series over the last decade. Current motion pictures consistently explore criminology in the many forms it presumes in, thus presenting cultural relevant themes of deviance. Wonser and Boyn’s work analyzes the Batman films while discussing the application of sociological concepts, focusing on Batman as one who obeys and breaks social laws (Wonser, p. 2). Fantasy films stimulate the sociological imagination
To begin, this powerful essay focuses everything on violence and how it is being used by games, movies, and even the most influential people such as the president. The author, Barbara Kingsolver central point is to let readers understand the wrongfulness of the violence being shown and done by humans especially in schools. How can the
A question that arises in almost any medium of art, be it music, film or literature, is whether or not the depiction of violence is merely gratuitous or whether it is a legitimate artistic expression. There can be no doubt that Michael Ondaatje's long poem The Collected Works of Billy the Kid is a violent work, but certain factors should be kept in mind before passing it off as an attempt to shock and titillate; certainly, the poem does both of these, but they are not the primary purpose of the work. For one thing, social context needs to be considered; Billy lived in the "Wild West", a time associated with range wars, shoot-outs and great train robberies. The entire legend of Billy the Kid has been built around his criminal activities and notorious reputation; indeed, the more popular this myth becomes, the more people he is accused of having murdered. If anything, it was a cultural fascination with violence that "created" the legend, perhaps even more so than anything the "real" Billy ever did. Michael Ondaatje comments on this phenomenon and actually offers an alternative vision of who Billy the Kid was; perhaps he was not just a blood-thirsty killer but a man who, due to circumstance and human nature, was continually being pushed over the edge. Ondaatje is more concerned with the motivations behind the acts of violence than the acts of violence themselves: "A motive? some reasoning we can give to explain all this violence. Was there a source for all this? yup -" (54). If they shock, it is to shock the readers out of complicity and encourage them to think about the nature of violence and their own capacity for it.
In “Violent Media is Good for Kids” Gerard Jones introduces us to his fearful and lonesome childhood. He lived in a world where he was taught to be the violence fearing, and passive boy his parents wanted him to be. But, when one of his mother’s students gave him a Marvel comic book, his fearfulness was transformed into inspiration. He found a way to escape these discouraging feelings through the “stifled rage and desire for power” (Jones 285) that he had newly found. The popular comic book hero “The Hulk” freed him from his passive and lonely persona. Throughout the article he cites his testimonies and the testimonies of others as examples; and shows how they used violence as a positive realm for “overcoming powerlessness.” (Jones 287) Ultimately, Jones is trying to convey the message that violent media can provide kids with psychological tools for coping with the problems that they face as they grow. Although there are slight hints of biased evidence, “Violent Media is Good for Kids” should be considered for the top prize for persuasive essays.
It has been happened frequently in today’s society that parents and teachers try to keep children away from violent media. Children are taught that violent is not right and dangerous. In the article, “Violent Media Is Good for Kids”, Gerard Jones asserts that allowing children to violent media instead of banned it can bring great benefit to children during their growing stage. By watching violent media, children learn to overcome fear, control the rage and prove the real self from the superheroes in the story. Jones believes that violent entertainment can assistance children to fulfill emotional and development need. In my opinion, Jones develops a persuasive argument because of his strong emotions, considerable evidences and reasonable assumptions.
They are bringing awareness to the situation such as campaigns like the Domestic Violence Awareness Project. This article covers the possibilities of death resulting from domestic violence, how to stay out of or how to get out of an abusive relationship, how to help children in this situation and also this article recognizes the supporters that are there to establish a better person out of the people in these situations. “Domestic violence impacts women, men, and children of every age, background, and belief. Nearly 1 in 4 women and 1 in 7 men in the United States have suffered severe physical violence by an intimate partner. Victims are deprived of their autonomy, liberty, and security, and face tremendous threats to their health and safety.” A quote from “Domestic Violence Awareness Project,” from the president 's proclamation. They are trying to shed light and positive energy on the negative and what could have been a negative and dangerous situation. Some abuse situations are publicly displayed when someone gets out of a situation and decides to shed light on what they have been
While most of the violent crimes that happens most are them are belongs to men, women have not been the wilting flowers promoted so heartily by Victorian adorers and (right or wrong) often evident in today's society. Before we get into detail about the fascinating phenomenon of the Black Widow, it is worth a brief overview of women's escalating role in the world of violent crime, particularly in the United States.
In one particular incident where Randy called the cops to come, Aaron forced Wendy and Randy to go outside to tell them nothing was wrong. There was a video camera surveillance Aaron used to spy. Even after multiple visits from cops and neighbors witnessing the violence and yelling that was going on, nothing was done. It was only discovered when the police unveiled the pictures one of the children drew to cover up the punches on the wall that the police suspected domestic violence was present in their home. She had no choice and was unable to speak up, because she knew what he was capable of doing to her family and her children. She feared for her children’s safety, but it boggled my mind that even when others tried to help her and her family, she covered it up for the sake of their safety. If she had reached for help, there could have been an alternate outcome. It was evident Randy, Joshua, Marshall, and Tyler grew up in an abusive environment where Aaron would beat them and their mother whenever he wanted to, but nothing was done to bring justice forward. Perhaps, even if Wendy did try to reach out, she felt like no justice would be served and she would still be trapped in that abusive and dangerous
There are many sad scenarios that come to mind when thinking about the victims of domestic violence. With this particular issue, the victims are impacted mentally and physically. A situation that comes to mind is one of a little boy hiding under his bed. He is in a neighboring room and can hear furniture moving and screams of his mother in agonizing pain. He understands that he is too small to intervene on his mother’s behalf and too scared to confront his father. What is he left to do? The young boy calls 911 with the hopes that they could step in and end his mother’s pain. The boy’s father repeatedly abused his mother and insisted that she stay in her place and never considers ending the relationship. This fictional situation is one that occurs everyday in every corner of our country. Domestic violence incidents in 2005 accoun...
... did not have a history of troubled behavior or personal connection to the victim, were capable of being involved in such a random, yet passionate act of violence. Virk was a ‘punching bag’ for the internal anxiety or frustration these girls faced, which essentially leads back to parent’s inability to detect these issues and societies failure to provide support for these girls. The autopsy reports showed that Virk would have most likely died solely from her head injuries from the severe beating she took, essentially making every person present that night underneath the bridge responsible for Virk’s death. Although female violence has been on the rise, the media did play an essential role in creating fear of female violence in Canada. While the story of the murder of Reena Virk is both ruthless and alarming, not many similar cases have occurred in the past 17 years.
In our society, certain ideals are held in high regard. Individuals relentlessly pursue these ideals to achieve a perceived perfection. These principles are often depicted in media that further glorifies and establishes a desire to pursue these paragons. In a medium such as comic books, however, these standards and perceptions are heavily distorted by the characterizations and settings. Particularly, the superhero genre absorbs the ideals we strive towards and regurgitates them in an extreme and unrealistic manner. The superhero genre is often reflective of societal changes in ideas and morals. These ideals are then molded into misleading representations that influence the behaviors of viewers. Comic books absorb elements of our society and transform them. For example, as the enemies of America change, so do the enemies of our superheroes. However, the enemies are transformed into supervillains that are extremely dark and villainous. Such characterizations cloud people’s understanding of real threats and enemies affecting our society. Also, to cater to the value that American society places on intelligence, attractiveness, and physical strength, comic books create characters that epitomize these characteristics. Though the represent society’s ideals, these characters manipulate the ideas and convey them back to the audience in an unrecognizable manner. In developing such distorted representations, the superhero genre affects human behavior and perceptions of these ideals.