Role Models... or not?

Throughout the beginning of the novel, Guitar is shown as a sort of role model for Milkman. However, after finishing the book, we learned that Guitar actually tries to kill Milkman. After this murder attempt, Milkman chooses to not bring it up to his friends and instead, says he accidentally shot with his own gun. Why did Milkman not tell his friends the truth? Was he just in shock of what had happened? Maybe he just couldn't believe that the person who he thought was his close friend just tried to end his life?

While thinking about this, I made a connection with celebrities and their fanbases. Nowadays, many kids look up to and admire famous people (singers, actors, models, youtubers, etc.). However, often times, these celebrities start using drugs, becoming addicted, and therefore, not a very good role model. When this happens, there always seems to be a group of fans who become very defensive and start making up all kinds of excuses and cover-up stories. For instance, I used to be obsessed with a family vlog channel on youtube called the Shaytards. Everytime I watched their daily vlogs, I would read the comments and they would be FILLED with comments such as "omg family goals" or "you guys are living a perfect life" or "i wish i was part of this family". Then, about a year ago, the father of the family (ShayCarl) announced to the internet world that he had been cheating on his wife and was an alcoholic. Fans were absolutely shocked. How could this seemingly "perfect family" have had so much going on behind the scenes? Everything we had been watching through a screen had been a lie. 

Personally, I couldn't see how there was anyway to justify what he had done but of course, there was still that group of fans making up different excuses for him. This also made me wonder how much fame had affected his decisions? If he was just part of a normal, average family, and not one with over five million subscribers, would he have still made the same decisions? How do you think fame affects the choices celebrities make?

Blog Inspo Credit- Sober by Demi Lovato

Comments

  1. Dhatri MedarametlaOctober 28, 2018 at 7:09 PM

    Wow, Sophia! This was such an interesting post to read. I especially loved how you connected this to YouTube and fame. Though I wasn't a die-hard fan, I used to watch the Shaytards as well and was devastated when the scandal came out. In my opinion, fame can really change people because it provides them with power and money: two things that humans are hungry for. Great post; can't wait to see what you write next week:)

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Knowledge of the Past

In the quote we were given by Jim Powell in his book Postmodernism for Beginners, it says "... any art attempting to represent the Holocaust should continue to haunt us with its inability to represent the unrepresentable." This means that since the Holocaust was so extreme and inhumane, no form of writing or art will be able to accurately represent it in its entirety. Simplifying a huge event to just words on a paper causes it to lose meaning. Although I agree with this, I still think it's necessary to write about history because it's the only form of documentation we have. This got me thinking- what would happen if we couldn't rely on written history to look back on past events? If we somehow lost all memory and knowledge on history, would we repeat it because we are unaware of the consequences? Humans have truly come a long way in a relatively short period of time. Take the Holocaust, for example, this genocide in WWII happened only 80 years ago. For some reaso...
Read more

What We Leave Behind

Image
When we were assigned to research facts about modernism this week, it was very apparent that once I started looking online, there were a few specific things modernism was known for. For instance, every website I looked at included that modernism was characterized by industrialization, rapid social change, as well as advances in science and art. Thinking back to my past history classes, it seemed like every time period I had ever learned about could be simplified and summarized with just a few keywords- so in that case, what would be used to describe the time period we are living in at the moment? Up until this point in my life, the biggest events I can think of are presidential elections, school shootings, and natural disasters. In terms of technological advancements, what comes to mind for me are Tesla cars, virtual reality devices, and the development of robots. In another couple thousands of years, are these the things the beginning of the 2000's will be known for? Or will ...
Read more

Mind Over Body

"That is real freedom." In this quote from This is Water ,   I believe that Wallace is referencing one's mental freedom. Throughout his speech, one main message is fighting your brain's "natural, hard-wired, default setting". When you aren't making a conscious effort to think about your thoughts, you'll go into an automatic state of mind where it's nearly impossible to control your thoughts. Other than mental freedom , this idea reminds me of your mental strength.   One of the most important lessons I've learned throughout my sixteen years is that the most limiting factor in life is truly your mind. I first realized this when playing sports. I've done gymnastics and dance and color guard and synchronized swimming and throughout all of these, I found out that no, it wasn't my physical abilities that were holding me back from performing at my greatest potential, it was always my mental ability. My coaches always told me that every ...
Read more