Aristotle and Pity - My grandmother and predator

I am personally very picky when I pick a movie or a story to read. I often find myself browsing for hours on Netflix and Hulu looking for that special feel-good story that would bring my own spirits up and prepare me for the week ahead. This pursuit often happens on Sundays, and after I have thoroughly cleaned my apartment and taken care of school duties and such.

My requirements for the main character are not specific. It is often someone ordinary, someone who would otherwise be your normal next-door neighbor, your teacher, your friend. I look for the quiet, introverted character who awakens into a sudden leader. A man or a woman who jumps adventure and lessons of his or her own. In a way, this week's lecture on Aristotle and Tragedy made me become more aware of why I often search these types of stories, and how can these art pieces enhance our own visions of life.

 As a viewer you engage in the storyline, you walk along with the main character with his ups and downs, and you fear what they fear from the comforts of our homes. I recall hearing my grandmother yelling to Arnold Schwarzenegger while watching the film Predator (1987): "Run! Run!; hide!!" That is the type of mental and conscious involvement we have with our characters when watching movies.

I think we begin this close relationship with them because the films and stories make us initially connect with them at a personal level. You usually read an introduction where the director or author shows you who you are going to meet, what they do on a daily basis, and how they are so similar to you. When something suddenly happens and there is a call for adventure, the life of this character is suddenly changed as if our own lives were at that precise moment; therefore, minutes later one cannot avoid but to jump in the adventure with them.

When Arnold is hurt, my grandmother covers her mouth. It is because of that introduction and connection that we feel pity when things go south. Aristotle nailed this understanding of tragedy as a reflection of our own experiences, and as a means to regulate our emotions. I initially thought that tragedy existed so we did not have to make the same mistakes, but if true, that would mean that grandma would know what to do if the Predator shows up at her door, which is unlikely to be true.

What I understand of this concept now is that tragedy was built to put us in those situations within the boundaries of safety and to teach us about life, from the eyes of art. This week's assignment reminds me of Joseph Campbell's book "A hero with a thousand faces" where Campbell is able to identify the monomyth: how all the mythological main characters have a pattern of events and characteristics that are replicable over time and through cultures as well.

We identify with the hero because he is us, just until the point that he jumps into an adventure. In any way, it is hard sometimes to contain the limits of fiction and reality but what is easy to do, is to analyze how amazing and epic stories can teach us about life before life itself puts a great challenge into our path.