Dear Readers,
As I am nearing the completion and revision of the final version of my paper, I look back to the beginnings and start of this paper. To start with, it took me a total of four days to realize that I wanted to analyze and decipher the potential messages and metaphors of a video game,–specifically, Kingdom Hearts: 358/2 Days. Initially, I was reluctant to choose a video game as the subject of my analysis because compared to television shows and movies, it seemed unsophisticated and childish in the eyes of society. However, the more I thought about it, the more I was able to form the actual thesis of not caring about what society may think or expect of oneself but rather the potential and freedom of will that should come with life. Therefore, forget what society thinks, and if you can understand forget in the context of the song, “Forget you” (Glee version), then kudos to you; we understand each other like peanut butter and jelly…for the moment.
“It was a dark and stormy night” when I wrote my first draft. It was cold, dreary, and raining outside. In addition to the pitter-patter of water hitting the glass windows, I was well aware of the deep, rumbling snores and chortles of my mother, sister, the neighbors’ pet dog, the neighbors’ yet unborn baby, the doorman, and perhaps the rest of the apartment complex altogether. I was tempted by slumber, but alas, sleep deprivation is but a small sacrifice and part of The Process.
The Process is not just capitalized for show and affect, it is also an excuse/a right of passage a legitimate method I use to produce any work concerning the English language.
One of the biggest challenges I faced producing my first draft was writing the introduction and then trying to incorporate enough supporting and crucial details without the first three paragraphs turning into a summary. In an effort to remedy this, I went to the Writing Center, and immediately, the person who reviewed my work told me that what I was writing was not truly relevant to my thesis. My essay had consisted of mundane details and unnecessary plot summary. Reflecting over my essay made me realize how rudimentary and shallow my paper was despite the length of it. As a result, she suggested that I put a two to three paragraph summary between my introductory and body paragraphs. While I did follow her advice to an extent, another reader had talked about how it disrupted the flow of my essay. I kept my one paragraph summary anyway.
In addition, I also heeded the suggestion to add in my précis for George Lakoff and Mark Johnson’s Metaphors We Live By; this way, I could better point out the rhetorical analysis of the metaphors found within my video game while still being able to make a connection to what we learned in class. Taking into account that the subject I was using was a video game, I was worried that referencing two outside sources would be a bit awkward; however, by putting in the précis, I have to say that my sources goes into the essay a lot smoother now.
The second biggest struggle I faced was the structuring of my essay. As Professor Blankenship had suggested, creating an outline would have been ideal. Not only would it assign each paragraph a topic sentence to help guide the reader, it would have also made the flow of my paper better and increase its fluidity. About a week before this paper was due, the class and I were told to create outlines of our papers. Since Katya and I both felt that we needed the opinions and views of others, we decided to switch our papers and create outlines for one another’s essays. After she went through my paper, she was able to precisely tell me where the flow of my paper was interrupted (the fifth paragraph) and which paragraph seemed a bit off by describing how it said two things instead of just one (the fourth paragraph). By labeling each paragraph by its summary and function, we were able to reflect on the structure of our papers and pinpoint the parts that needed further work. Outlines can really help writers see how certain paragraphs fit in with the rest of the paper or thesis. I remember learning how to make outlines in grade school, and I remember being encouraged my teachers to continue the habit when I entered high school. It is within my opinion that as students, once we are exposed to more intermediate methods of writing, we have the tendency to overlook the importance of the basics. It is one those foundations we often take for granted, and a reminder of its benefits can really show how it can improve the quality of our paper and writing.
There had been many ways of writing this essay. I could have sorted the body paragraphs by the game’s sequence of events; the prompts I was attempting to address, category (persuasion/metaphor/empathy), or even by the works we had read in class. I decided on a categorical design because it allowed me to evenly distribute the game’s information more easily. Once I was able to do that, I had to incorporate the readings we did for this course. I found that I had more ease using Metaphors We Live By compared to some of the other readings, and in an effort to meet the requirements of this paper, I forced the insertion of a second reading: Emily Martin’s The Body at War. However, with the help of others, I soon realized that forcing the addition of an extra reference would only bring down the overall quality and fluidity of the paper. What does not fit will not fit, and if the writer realizes it, the reader would also notice. As a result, I decided to take out Emily Martin’s piece as a reference and instead use Sam Richards’s TedTalk, “A Radical Experiment in Empathy.” Richards’s encouragement of empathy could definitely be connected to the message of the game, which was trying to overcome the limitations society had placed onto us.
I remember when I was writing my previous draft, I would cringe at some of the things I wrote. By taking into account and using the suggestions and constructive criticisms of others, I hope that the additional efforts made to this paper could only better your experience reading this.
Sincerely,
Serena Law
Serena Law
English 2150H – KTRH
Rhetorical Analysis
March 11, 2015
Kingdom Hearts: 358/2 Days
Metaphors That Illustrate Society and the Individual
Metaphors could found all around us. The importance of metaphors is emphasized in Metaphors We Live By, where coauthors George Lakoff and Mark Johnson analyze the ways we utilize and incorporate figures of speech into our daily lives,–half the time without realizing it! Lakoff and Johnson’s initial concern was the lack of understanding and awareness people had when it came to language and the power words had in shaping our realities. In Metaphors We Live By, Lakoff and Johnson “discovered that certain assumptions of contemporary philosophy and linguistics had been taken for granted within the Western tradition since the Greeks [which] precluded us [them] from even raising the kind of issues we [they] wanted to address” (ix). They do not see the excessive and pervasive usage of metaphor as a negative aspect of the way we communicate, but they laud it as “the key to giving an adequate account of understanding” (ix). Their explanations and analyses stem from their desire to show that rather than objective or absolute truth, our experiences and realities are more effected by the metaphors we use. We use them to understand the world around us. Society itself has an over-reliance on metaphors; it is structured and systematized by it. This dependency is apparent in the way society uses figures of speech to convey ideas and messages in popular culture through mediums such as films and television. We use metaphors to support ideas, arguments, and claims, and video games are no exception. While seemingly flippant and facetious at times, video games carry on deeper meanings and messages than initially thought. They do so through the usage of metaphorical concepts and objects that are brought to literal existence within their world. Kingdom Hearts: 358/2 Days is a prime example of how metaphors are effectively used to impact the way people view themselves. Through metaphors, the creators and developers of the game are able to convey this idea that we live in a society where we always feel pressured to conform, regardless of the size or intensity of that influence. Society itself is a force of coercion, and while a portion of us may believe that we were safe from the limitations and expectations of society when we were younger, especially so when we were still in the womb, Kingdom Hearts: 358/2 Days shows just how invasive the standards of society really are. The developers of this game proves this point through the metaphors they exhibit in the game, including the existence of the protagonist, the organization he is a part of, and the different worlds he finds himself adventuring in.
Kingdom Hearts is a collaborative franchise between Disney Interactive Studios,–a subdivision of the Walt Disney Company, and Japanese game maker, SquareEnix. The game play allows the player the assumption of a first person perspective from the view of the series’ protagonist,–whose name is Sora, and in the case of Kingdom Hearts:358/2 Days, the player assumes the role of Sora’s alter-ego: Roxas. Either way, the protagonist of the games always ventures off to the various Disney universes that mark the extensive history of Disney. These universes include the characters and settings from Cinderella, Sleeping Beauty, Snow White, Beauty and the Beast, Peter Pan, and so forth.
By including iconic fictional characters who already have a world they belong to (Ex: Winnie the Pooh in Winnie the Pooh & Pals), the developers of Kingdom Hearts: 358/2 Days are able to introduce individuals who do not fit into any of the previously made Disney cultures. Roxas happens to be one of those people. Unlike a regular human being, he was created and placed in an entity known as Organization XIII, and because he was created, he lacks an understanding of the world and culture around him. Culture refers to the social norms and concepts others have accepted as common sense. All the other people in Organization XIII are also known as Nobodies; they are derived from previously existing individuals who had lost themselves to the darkness. The darkness is also represented as shadows within this game world, and they are symbolic of depression due to the commonality of it. Since these people are Nobodies, they could seen as a metaphor for everybody. Nearly everyone has a part of themselves that they wish to hide or make obscure from others, and in rejecting the existence of that part, they are also refusing to accept a part of themselves. Looking beyond the individual, society also does this. The idea of society gives the impression of homogeneity ; however, underneath the placid surface, there are always going to be individuals who stray off from what most people see as socially acceptable. People avoid and overlook the less accepted parts of themselves the same way society does; hence, “nobody” becomes a metaphor for “everybody.”
The creators of the game uses Nobodies as a means of showing us that being normal is not all that appears on the surface, and they effectively use Roxas as a means of persuading and encouraging us to be true to ourselves without the fear of the consequences society may bestow upon us. As a reminder, Roxas is the alter-ego of the original protagonist of the Kingdom Hearts franchise, and similar to his predecessor, he is about 16. The teen years is a critical period that nearly everyone has experienced. It is the period in their lives when one is experiencing and witnessing changes in their mentality, physicality, and in the relationships they have with the people and settings around them. It is also the time when they become exposed to different types of sexuality. Just like the different Disney worlds Roxas is exposed to, his personal world also expands as he continues to mature. Roxas is definitely the epitome of a teenager confused in the midst of his growth. It should be noted that Roxas’s weapon is a literal key; his key could also be looked upon as a metaphor for the male genitals. He uses his key to “unlock” the Disney universes he goes into. He visits the world of several princesses, but they are never present. As the entire game is seen through the perspective of Roxas,–a teenager who is presumably going through puberty, this could mean that his innate world lacks women and he is more interested in men, or more specifically, Axel. Axel is the first friend Roxas makes in Organization XIII. He takes on the responsibility of teaching Roxas how to survive as a Nobody and how to act in social situations. As Roxas gains more awareness throughout the chronological sequences of the game, his relationship with Axel also develops, and he begins to see Axel as an individual that transcends the role of a parental figure. The potential of Roxas being homosexual is especially crucial because he is the Nobody and alter-ego of Sora. Since Nobodies represent the unwanted aspects of one’s self, there is the same sort of potential for Sora to be homosexual or bisexual. Yet, Sora may be rejecting this part of himself not only because he made a promise to his childhood sweetheart,–who is female, but also because the idea of a person having a sexuality that deviates from heterosexuality is a taboo in many parts of the world. To an extent, the topic of homosexuality is still a sensitive and undermined topic not just in the real world, but also in the Disney universe.
While the metaphor of Nobodies being everybody is well established, what is lost in this translation should also be taken into account. The goal of Organization XIII is to collect hearts for the actual in-game project, Kingdom Hearts, which is represented as a heart shaped moon in the sky; hence, the meaning behind the logo. Once this kingdom is complete and filled with hearts, the members of Organization XIII would finally be able to obtain what they had all really wanted from the start: a heart. In this case, a heart stands for a person’s emotions, personality, and any other aspects that would make up an individual’s character, or at least, what makes that person different from everyone else. Since Nobodies are not supposed to have hearts, they put up façades where they act out emotions they normally would have had if they had genuine feelings and personalities. The reason why the organization chooses to create an entire kingdom of hearts is because giving an individual heart to each and every one of its members is tedious and impossible. Similar to people in reality, the characters within the game understand that hearts are not tangible items; hence, the end goal is to become One and indirectly obtain hearts for everyone as a result. By becoming one entity with the rest of the Disney universes,–and thereby becoming an actual kingdom, nobody would ever be alone or ostracized since everyone will always and forevermore be together as a complete whole. Kingdom Hearts became the solution Organization XIII sought to become accepted by the rest of society; however, there is a part of Kingdom Hearts that the Nobodies of Organization XIII overlooked. Because the Nobodies are so focused on obtaining and seeking hearts, they overlook the idea and potential that they might have had hearts from the beginning. According to Metaphors We Live By, by George Lakoff and Mark Johnson, “The very systematicity that allows us to comprehend one aspect of a concept in terms of another (e.g., comprehending an aspect of arguing in terms of battle) will necessarily hide other aspects of the concept” (10). Metaphors do convey notions very well, but they also distract and misdirect us from other parts of the concept that could prove to be important. Not only does Roxas’s weapon “unlock” the worlds he visits, it also unlocks the heart of others and, therefore, allows him to have new experiences and obtain hearts from the Heartless. Since hearts are obtained from monsters known as Heartless, it is insinuated that Nobodies do have hearts. This continuous and frantic search for hearts is a metaphor for finding one’s true self. The true self is who a person is without the restraints and limitations society had placed on them.
We live in a society where we feel pressured to conform, and by utilizing Roxas, what the developers may be suggesting is that society is a continuous influence that has affected us even from the conceptions of our own existences. In the end, not matter how distant Roxas may seem at the start of the game, by the final conclusion, he is no different from the rest of us. The developers of the game puts us in a position where we are empathetic to Roxas and his relationship with the rest of society. As Sam Richards told his audience in his TedTalk, “A Radical Experiment in Empathy:” “…step outside of your tiny, little world. Step inside the tiny, little world of somebody else. And then do it again and do it again and do it again. And suddenly all these tiny, little world, they come together in this complex web. And they build a big, complex world.” In the Kingdom Hearts franchise, this figurative language is literal. We look through the eyes of Roxas; we look into his growing world of relationships and self-discoveries, and we see him in a light different from the way his friends, enemies, or cohorts may see him in. We see him as a person who is awkward and just starting to realize his potential and the ambiguity of the world beyond, but we also empathize with his loneliness, difference, and desire to conform or be somewhat accepted by the rest of society. Nobody wants to be alone; not even Nobodies. By the end of the game, Roxas deviates from his role and the regime of the organization. By deciding that he is his own person and individual, he strives to look for his purpose and returns to the side of light, which is the side of all things considered good and pure. As the targeted demographic consists of pre-teens, teenagers, and young adults, Kingdom Hearts: 358/2 Days is essentially trying to encourage its audience to keep going on the right path of being true to themselves and not to succumb to their “shadows,” which stands for their depression, insecurities, and negative thoughts. We look through the eyes of Roxas, who does not understand the world he was created in, and in so many ways, we can relate to that feeling of being a stranger in a foreign but familiar environment.
When we are aware and conscious of these metaphors, we are able to analyze and decipher the potential messages that linger behind these actions and figures, and as a result, we are able to give importance and meaning to the people and objects within this game.
List of Works Cited:
1) Lakoff, George and Mark Johnson. Metaphors We Live By. Chicago: Chicago University Press, 1980. vii – 13. Print
2) Richards, Sam. “A Radical Experiment in Empathy.” Online Video Clip. TEDTalk. TED Conferences, LLC. Apr 2011. Web. March 2015