Gabrielle Piccari Exam #2 April 28th, 2008
Section II
2) How is the soul conceptualized in “Bart Sells His Soul?” Do you think this portrayal is philosophically sound?
The debate about whether or not humans have “souls”, let alone other inhabitants of this earth, has been and currently is largely debated among philosophers. It is important to note, that no one has “proven” the existence of a soul, if that is even possible, and that all of the ideas and hypotheses thus far, are merely just that, suggestion. If by philosophically sound, you mean proven or logical, this question then defeats itself because there is no “universal truth” on souls. Among the philosophers and religions that believe in souls, opinions vary greatly on its corporeality, character and life-span of a soul. In the episode “Bart Sells his Soul?” the writers take ideas and beliefs from many different philosophers and religions and incorporates them into Bart’s experience. The experiences Bart has during the time he believes he has sold his soul are deeply rooted in theories about the soul that span thousands of years. Because of this, I believe that the portrayal of the soul, in this episode, is philosophically sound.
Among the ancient Greek philosophers, the idea of a soul was widely accepted. Pythagoras thought that the soul was eternal and also that once you died; your soul could inhabit anything from a plant to a dog. (http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/ancient-soul/#1) Pythagoras even claimed to hear his friend’s soul yelp from a puppy being beaten. His idea that the identity or characteristics of someone is attributed to the soul leads into Bart not being able to laugh at Itchy & Scratchy; something he would normally do. The eternal characteristic of the soul is widely accepted by philosophers (ie. Socrates, Plato) and in many religions. Thomas Aquinas believed that not only was the soul eternal, but the body will be resurrected someday as well. Aquinas said, “Further, the members should be conformed to the head. Now our Head lives and will live eternally in body and soul, since “Christ rising again from the dead dieth now no more” (Romans 6:8). Therefore men who are His members will live in body and soul; and consequently there must needs be a resurrection of the body.” (Summa Theologica) He cites a verse in Job 19: “26 And after my skin has been destroyed, yet in my flesh I will see God” This idea is portrayed in Bart’s dream when everyone has died and in row boats sit their life-like bodies and souls, paddling together. The significance of the row boats and river could be related to the Ancient Greek idea that there is a river barring souls from entering Hades and that, once you have paid the fare, you could be rowed across to the afterlife. When Bart attempts to make condensation on the freezer window and nothing happens, the writers are referring to scripture in Genesis 2:7 (”And the LORD God formed man [of] the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living soul.”) Interestingly, the Greek word for soul is pneuma, which means breathe, wind or air.
Because the “soul” is undoubtedly a complex and abstract idea and/or substance, it is no wonder there are so many ideas and opinions pertaining to its essence. The holistic approach the writers use to explain the soul in this episode is philosophically sound.
Word Count: 575
Section III
1) How much of a feminist is Lisa? How does she exhibit feminist concerns? Are their limits to the extent that she will confront the masculine culture in which she lives?
Lisa undoubtedly attempts to be a solid feminist in ideology and practice, but sometimes in real life, she is “gives in” to masculine culture. Often, when she gives into masculine culture, it is to prove that she is as capable as a boy.
In the episode, “Lisa on Ice”, Lisa joins a rival ice hockey team to Bart’s team. She is the only girl and does an amazing job of being a strong and brave goalie for her team, which had their best winning season with her as goalie. Of course this seems like a feminist victory. But, it does not come without a cost. Lisa abhors violence and is a devote Buddhist (a belief system that renounces violence or harm to all creatures). During the season, she gradually becomes more and more aggressive. This violence undoubtedly helps her become a better goalie and leads her team to victory but, she realizes in the end that, this violence is not a positive thing and regains her peacefulness. Not only is being violent against her individual beliefs, but violence is a masculine trait that is thrown at boys in the form of GI Joe figures and aggressive war and fighting video games.
In contrast, Lisa follows through completely in the episode, “Lisa vs. Malibu Stacy”. When she is confronted with a widely popular doll for girls that portrays grossly sexist ideals, she attempts to confront and defeat the mega-corporation that produces such a thing. When she realizes that she will get nowhere with the corporation, she attempts to contact the original creator of the doll. Lisa convinces Stacy Lovell, the creator, to create a new doll, with empowering feminist ideals. Even when the grand release of the doll is thwarted by a more trivial doll, she did not lose hope in her efforts.
During Lisa’s stay at the military school in the episode “The Secret War of Lisa”, she is subjected to probably the most brutal amount of sexist abuse in her life. Not only was she the first female cadet, she also ended up passing the physical requirements that the boys had to do. Lisa also does not give into her parents obvious “babying” of her and offers to take her home. She is ostracized and even though she endured the same hazing as Bart, was never accepted. In the same way as in “Lisa on Ice”, Lisa gives into participating in violent activities just to keep up with the boys by participating in attempting to learn how to fire rifles. More importantly, she was ready to give up and give into the fact that everyone told her she could not do it, until, Bart decided to try and help her.
Lisa attempts to help create a more equal society in many episodes. Occasionally, she comes off as pompous, though, like in the episode “Bart Star”. She attempts to be the first girl on the pee-wee football team, but when she finds out there already are girls, she expresses her disgust for the sport because of their use of pig’s skin for the ball. Sometimes she uses her vendettas to be overly self-righteous.
Word count: 523
Section IV
1) After stopping by Homer’s house on the way to his second job at the foundry, Frank Grimes tells Homer, “You’re what’s wrong with America.” Do you agree? Why or why not?
The fact that Homer shows up to work almost every day (reinforced in every opening clip with him driving home at the end of the day) and in the situations where he loses his job, he makes an effort to get a new job with his limited skills means that he attempts to work within the system and support his family. The fact that his bosses are grossly negligent and allow his lazy, incompetent behavior to continue is of no consequence to Homer. It is also obvious that, in real life, Homer’s lifestyle would not be as accepted or even feasible. One of the writers commented on this by saying, “we wanted to show that in real life, being Homer Simpson could be really dangerous and life threatening, as Frank Grimes sadly learned” (John Weinstein Wikipedia.org).
In the grand scheme of things, corrupt judges, politicians and cops, a failing education system and crime are among some of the most damaging things in America. The judge in the episode “The Boy Who Knew Too Much” publicly voiced that he was blatantly unlawful in his actions. Mayor Quimby, officer Wiggum, Lisa’s teacher Elizabeth Hoover and Bart’s teacher Mrs. Krabappel have a much more damaging effect on society than Homer. Jason Holt, from the book Philosophy and the Simpson, has this to say about Mayor Quimby, “Quimby’s hypocrisy, on the other hand, like that of many politicians, is not to serve his constituents, but to use his power for personal gain”. Thus, The Simpsons do a good job of pointing out the flaws of American society. Approval ratings for our politicians are at an all time low in America right now, and there has been scandal after scandal of politicians using large amounts of money on sex workers. At a time of economic instability, our politicians should be working harder than ever to help America, yet, there seems to be more important things on their mind.
Tied in with politics is our failing education system. No Child Left Behind is a federal mandate, created by our current president and his colleagues to improve the system that was obviously failing for Lisa in 1997 and is now, six years later, proven to be failing also. In the episode, “The Secret War of Lisa”, it is made painfully clear that Lisa’s education is not pushing her to success but rather forcing her to watch outdated picture films with little intellectual value. Frequently, Mrs. Krabappel and Elizabeth Hoover are seen being bad role models, smoking in front of the students and showing them their apathy for their job. Educators play an important role in the lives of all of us growing up and the effects of bad teachers seem to stick with us into adulthood.
All of these examples, and more, are accurate depictions of what is wrong with America. Frank Grimes was frustrated that he tried his hardest to conquer the “American Dream” and could not succeed as much as he wanted to. Perhaps, he was an over-achiever and he should have realized that having that job at the nuclear plant was reaching his goal. Instead he was overwhelmed by Homer Simpson’s bad habits. I believe the Rolling Stones said it best, “You can’t always get what you want, but if you try sometimes, you just might find you get what you need”. I do not, therefore, agree that Homer is what is wrong with America, rather the other characters through out the seasons that accurately depict the sad state of affairs parts of our society are in.
Word Count: 589
Bibliography
Aquinas, Thomas. “Summa Theologica” found online at :
www.ccel.org/ccel/aquinas/summa.html
Lorenz, Hendrik. plato.stanford.edu/entries/ancient-soul/#1. Updated 2003. Date Retrived: April
2008.
Skoble, Aeon, “The Simpsons and Philosophy”. Carus Publishing Co. 2002.
www.Wikipedia.org. Updated: April 2008. Retrived April 2008.
