Perspective Matters

    Growing up, I remember sitting in front of my TV as I waited for a heroic knight to fight off the vicious villain to the death while saving his one true love. While the stories themselves were incredible, I was drawn by the strong contrast set between the hero and villain. To a younger me, it made sense for a character to fall into one of two characters: a hero who does no wrong, or a villain who seeks only to destroy. However, over the last few years, I found myself more open and understanding of the actions and decisions made by both the hero and villain. Even simple fairytales were no longer captured in black and white but shifted into color, highlighting every array of humankind's strengths and flaws. When faced with a literature assignment in my English class, a question came to me. Why is it that society applauds the victories of a hero or main character and celebrates the demise of the villain or antagonist? To some extent, why is it that we even create separate standards between the two when witnessing similar scenarios? On the surface, it can seem rather simple, however when looked at more deeply, these perceptions say a lot about our human nature and the way it impacts our lives.

Saving Sourdi - A Story Through the Eyes of a Child

    As an older sister, it can be unbelievable at times to witness the stark difference between my sister and me. We were both born in India to the same parents who stood firm in their moral values and parenting techniques throughout both our lives. However, when it came to decisions or our reactions to various experiences in life, our parents have always said that we differ almost every time. Where I would never know what I wanted for Christmas, my sister already had a list ready. Where I wanted to save money, she wanted to spend it. Regardless of our differences, it never changed how strongly attached we are to each other. I like to believe that was the driving reason for my anger towards Sourdi in the short story Saving Sourdi. This piece was told from the perspective of a younger sibling as she faces difficulties in her relationship with her sister. Through reading it, my response to the piece highlighted my immaturity and hypocrisy but perhaps moreover our willingness to accept a story without acknowledging various angles. The story tells of two sisters, Nea and Sourdi, who grew up in America as refugees. Throughout the story, they are depicted as having a powerful relationship which later arrives a divide when Sourdi leaves home to start her own family. These details are kept rather ambiguous, leading Nea and the audience to believe that Sourdi needs to be saved from the burden of marital and cultural duties. Thus, the title Saving Sourdi. When first reading this piece, I was upset with Sourdi for how she treated her sister. I experienced Nea’s feelings of abandonment, and it only deepened my anger at the situation. At various parts of the story, Nea gives the audience an insight into her hopes for a future with her sister, that one day they would “…run away… to California to see the stars. Paris, London. Cambodia even…” (May-Lee Chi). Instead, Nea is left alone in a broken home as Sourdi chases what we can only assume are her own selfish desires to live a different life. This was what I kept telling myself until I analyzed the story to realize that my anger at Sourdi was misguided due to only witnessing each event through the perspective of Nea. It was as if I was in Nea’s mind and only experienced her side of what happened, giving no thought to Sourdi’s potential fear of following her mother’s footsteps, or desire to live the life she wanted. 

    A study by Encyclopedia of Early Childhood Development discusses how younger siblings tend to imitate the older sibling’s “… caregiving, and helping roles…” (Howe). We are given the story through the perspective of an eleven-year-old girl who just began understanding the workings of society. We continue to see remnants of her innocence and childish nature through her impulsive and reckless behavior, all of which she believes is helping her sister. I think that deep down these actions stem from the heart of a young child who does not want to be abandoned by the only person who cared for her. When stuck in the lens of a young child who misses her older sister, the audience begins to resent Sourdi. This is not to say Nea’s version of the story is wrong, but that that is simply how she perceived it to be as a child at her age and I in my blind faith towards the main character became ignorant. Neither are guilty of their decisions, however similar to when looking through a telescope, we miss the rest of the world around us as we struggle to make clear only one part of the perspective.

How Trustworthy is a Flawed Character?

    Literature is not just meant to be highlighted for its beautiful and artistic elements but for a larger purpose that hints at various and complex parts of our lives. In the movie 500 Days of Summer, we are introduced to the relationship between Tom Hansen and his girlfriend Summer. The movie begins in a small pancake shop where Summer breaks up with Tom. The rest of the movie is presented in a non-chronological timeline of the events leading up to and after the breakup through Tom’s perspective. We are initially introduced to Tom’s obsession with having an unrealistic lover, an effect of a childhood filled with "...bad British pop music and a total misreading of the movie The Graduate" (500 Days). We continue to witness these expectations as we are given an insight into his delusions of what he believes a relationship should have. However, due to Tom’s perceptions of the occurring events, I was unaware of his underlying flaws. Even with these obvious flaws in the main character, I still felt bad for him and found Summer a bit annoying. I felt that she led Tom on in the relationship when she had the duty of a responsible partner to cut it off sooner than she did. Through Tom’s eyes, he sees himself as a victim and we soon come to that conclusion as well. Like any other, it feels heartbreaking when our feelings are not reciprocated on a subject that means very deeply to us. We empathize with Tom because we understand what a broken relationship can mean and as a result come to understand his actions. This view of their relationship continued until much later when I finally saw Summer's view of the relationship. Blinded by his unrealistic views on what love should look like, he ignored the signs of a cracking relationship and forced Summer to continue in a charade of emotions and fake love. I felt that Summer decided on a whim to break up as seen in the pancake scene, but in reality, it was Tom’s impossible expectations for a relationship that drove her away.

The second side of this movie I wanted to address was the difference in standards set between the protagonist and antagonist. I think the film was an extreme representation of the difference between the two characters, making it a lot easier for the audience to disagree with some of the decisions made by Tom. However, even so, I still tolerated his behavior while searching for smaller and meaningless reasons to support my dislike towards Summer.

1. Breaking plates in the kitchen after a previous relationship

2. Unnecessary violence in a bar

3. Controlling, degrading, and aggressive behavior toward Summer

These are just a few of the scenes from the movie that if in any other instance would've lost my respect and any appeal for the character. However, experiencing Tom's life through his eyes blurs the fine line between our morals and causes his character to be more amiable than really. This movie emphasizes a tremendous part of the complexity behind a character and how deceiving a story can be when only one side is heard or perceived.

    David Foster Wallace's piece, This Is Water surrounds the topic of awareness and gives us advice on how to respond to difficulties that, normally, we would victimize ourselves in. It's easy at times to believe the world revolves around us. I mean we can't experience what others are experiencing nor can we hear the thoughts of anyone else as deeply as our own. This has led to ignorance of the world around us and caused us to become biased in our judgments and harsh in our conclusions. Something as simple as a traffic jam can easily become self-centered as we begin the never-ending list of "...MY hungriness and MY fatigue and MY desire to just get home..." (Wallace). We begin asking ourselves why they would do that to me. ME. We often place ourselves at the crux of the conflict and assume that the opposite side’s reasons are directed toward us, when in reality the car that just cut us off was a "...father whose little child is hurt or sick in the seat next to him, and he's trying to get this kid to the hospital..." (Wallace). Like Summer and Tom, we all experience the same things differently. Tom felt that Summer was his everything, whereas Summer only saw their relationship as a small moment of pleasure and joy. Our emotions differ within every aspect of our lives, so the only thing we can do is be a little more understanding of what might not always be seen as obvious.  

    My childhood expectations of how characters were supposed to act and respond to their difficulties slowly bled out as I began to experience life for myself. When asking ourselves the question of why we empathize with the hero and come to detest the villains of most stories, we must realize that it is based on how we perceive life around us. We shut out the most valuable parts of what makes us human and start trusting a character who is just as flawed as the rest of us. Literature depicts forms of life that represent the most fascinating parts of our character that can easily be undermined when viewed from a single point of view. As David Foster Wallace likes to say “…the most obvious, important realities are often the ones that are hardest to see and talk about…” (Wallace).  Literature begs for empathy, a moment of understanding for one of the millions of beautiful lives we don't get to live.

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