The article made many interesting points, and I believe that
the author took both sides and views into consideration and treated both points
fairly. The author first starts out by giving their opinion on the fact that if
Bella and Katniss were to ever meet, Bella “would be stomped” and just
destroyed by Katniss. The author actually has this view a lot throughout most
of the article. They make a point to say that Bella “never kills, or even
injures, anyone,” and then continues on about how “Katniss, on the other hand,
is an extremely competent hunter and archer, a born survivor who is deadly when
cornered.” This shows that the author realizes Katniss could murder Bella in a
second and not think twice about it because she was born and raised with the
skills to survive while Bella is extremely weak and fragile. Later on in the
article the author goes on to quote Laura Miller when she says that “in some
ways, Katniss is more passive than Bella.” The author completely flips from
Katniss to Bella at this point, explaining how “At the end of Twilight, Bella actually does get power.
She turns into a vampire who has the physical and magical wherewithal to save
her entire family from death – not to mention flatten Katniss with a flick of
her perfect pale sparkly wrist.” This quote demonstrates how the author has
flipped from hating Bella to realizing she has a ton of power at the end of the
book series and with that the author is supporting both sides of these two
characters and making valid points on both characters.
While I agree with you that the author did swap how he was discussing the characters towards the end of her essay. Noah Berlatsky spends a majority of his time praising Katniss from The Hunger Games and bashing Bella from Twilight. While I agree that Katniss is an amazing character and in her own way gives a sense of power to women everywhere, it is not fair to compare the characters. The Twilight Saga is a known as romance series while The Hunger Games is a dystopian series. It is like comparing apples and oranges in terms of their character roles. When Bella from The Twilight Saga needs to step up and physically protect her family, she does. She becomes a ruthless mother and wife that is willing to put several lives on the line in order to protect her own family, similar to Katniss. Berlatsky recognizes this towards then end of his essay when he says, “At the end of Twilight, Bella actually does get power. She turns into a vampire who has the physical and magical wherewithal to save her entire family from death”. While she does acknowledge this fact, I have to believe that because of the passion exhibited in her love for Edward, Bella would have done anything to protect her family throughout the entire saga. If she was not in fact, a human fighting vampires. A better comparison for a fight might be between Katniss and Tris from series Divergent.
ReplyDeleteFor the fourth question under “Converse with a written text,” I do agree that the author does consider points of views from different sides. To add to your blog, other than her own opinion that “Bella would be stomped and just destroyed by Katniss.” She actually used quotes from other authors, such as Tina Jordan at EW.com says that ‘Compared to Katniss, Bella is simply the more passive character,’” and “Meghan Lewitt here at The Atlantic compared the ‘swoony Bella’ to the ‘tough-as-nails Katniss.’” She used those quotes to describe the different characteristics between Bella and Katniss, and then she categorizes these two characters with opposite personalities into masculinity and femininity. Then she applies these two categories to feminists and adult in general to start what she argues. Then, as you said, with all these views that, we can see from the conclusion, she actually disagrees with, she argues that “is masculinity really categorically better and more feminist than femininity?” With all that, I think the author does seem to treat sources fairly, and in fact, I kind of think that she gives opposite views too many spaces before she actually starts to argue. However, I do think the author has some strong points though, Such as “power and desire have to separate” and “Katniss has only power and Bella only has desire, also she mentions that conversely, Bella got the power at the end of the book and Katniss found out what she desired all along was domestic bliss. The author uses those points to support the conclusion.
ReplyDeleteI agree that the author, Noah Berlatsky, did take both sides in to consideration while writing this essay. He did start by obviously favoring Katniss, saying "Thumb-fingered Bella wouldn't stand a chance." against her. He goes on quoting Tina Jordan at EW that "compared to Katniss, Bella is simply the more passive character." He basically says that during a whole book Bella was depressed over a boy, while Katniss is over in her world saving people, and being such a strong female leader. Later in the essay, he switches, and he seems to favor Bella more. He quotes Laura Miller saying, "In some ways, Katniss is more passive than Bella, allowed to have all kinds of goodies, but only if she demonstrates her virtue by not really wanting them in the first place." Berlatsky goes on to say that in the end Bella ends up getting the vampire "powers" and she would basically do anything to protect her family.So to answer the fourth question, yes he does consider opposing views and he does treat sources fairly. On the other hand, I really liked Meagen's comment, I completely agree that the comparison between the two in the first place is kind of irrelevant. Their two stories are totally different.
ReplyDeleteI too agree with the fact that it doesn't seem that Noah is picking a side in this article but it does seem like i'm seeing her favor Katniss at the beginning of the article. Two different movies, two different characters, two different instincts. Bella is indeded your helpless type of girl searching for romance, while Katniss is a warrior, a gladiator, a hunter, a killer. I think that if the two met, they would both have tons of questions for one another. I think it's crazy to think about the two in a fight but.... interesting nonetheless. I would bet my money on Katniss due to Bella's weaknesses and according to the article, so does the author, she states "Bella's main distinguishing characteristic is her clumsiness; she can't get out of gym class without getting injured, much less survive a fight."
ReplyDeleteI agree with you on the fact that the author favors Katniss throughout the beginning and middle parts of the article. The author Noah Berlatsky also uses many quotes which favor Katniss over Bella such as the quote from Tina Jordan, “compared to Katniss, Bella is simply the more passive character.” And another quote from Meghan Lewitt, “swoony Bella” and “tough-as-nails Katniss”
ReplyDeleteBerlatsky towards the end of his article does show favor for Bella with her one-dimensional characteristics by adding her vampire features, which were non-existent during the first 3 novels and movies. I do still believe that the author was still in favor of Katniss but did have to point out the obvious slight edge that Bella carries. One puzzling thing about this entire article was the fact that, why are critics and people even trying to argue these two characters from un-similar genres of movies? It’s not like comparing Lebron, Kobe, and Steph to Michael? It’s comparing a drama to a melodrama. The characters aren’t even on par with each other, which is why Berlatsky ultimately had more evidence on why Katniss would win instead of Bella. It’s not that people hate Bella it’s that she was a rather dull monotones character.
I agree in the fact that the author Noah Berlatszy, definitely favors Katniss in the beginning of his article, by saying “Through the Hunger Games series, she racks up a body count that would impress Dirty Harry. Thumb-fingered Bella wouldn't stand a chance.” Obviously with this sentence he think that Katniss could snap Bella like a twig, without flinching. Personally Hunger Games is way more of an action movie, than Twilight, which is more of a love story that every once in a while has an action scene. I agree with Meagen when she states that the two movie are definitely different, whether it’s the characters or the genre of the movies. Towards the end of the article he decides to change his mind, or you could say he got an open mind about these two movies. He states that Bella “—not to mention flatten Katniss with a flick of her perfect pale sparkly wrist.” In the end of his article he acknowledges Bella’s strength that she gets towards the end of the movie, while saying that she pretty much grew a pair and decided to protect her family from harms way. Either way both of the characters in the movies have positives and negatives points in there roles.
ReplyDelete