Lyric Essay

 The main character of a novel is usually written to be the good guy doing good things. But sometimes the author adds a little twist to the story. Although the protagonists act with their best intentions in mind, due to their ignorance, their otherwise good intentions ironically result in disastrous consequences.

In Oedipus Rex, Oedipus ignores many telltale signs throughout the story that could have pointed him towards the truth a lot earlier. Before he comes to the realization, however, he has already cursed the murderer of King Laius and promised to exile him. Now, if the murderer wasn’t Oedipus himself, this would’ve been the right thing to do. However, as the audience knows, Oedipus just dug his own grave here. When Tiresias tells Oedipus that “You yourself are the pollution of this country,” Oedipus is too blinded by his rage to even consider that Tiresias could be right. When Oedipus realizes that all the prophecies were in fact true, and that he killed his own father Laius and married his mother, he is forced to take responsibility by gouging his eyes out and exiling himself. 

Nea of “Saving Sourdi” thinks that she needs to be the knight in shining armor for her sister in multiple points throughout the story. At the beginning, we see Nea “[stab] the man in the sleeve” for harassing Sourdi. And although Nea did this because she thought it was the right thing to do, Sourdi and Ma chastise her for it. Later on, after Sourdi gets married, Nea is once again convinced that Sourdi needs saving from Mr. Chhay, Sourdi’s husband when Sourdi calls her and talks with a “tiny crimped” voice. Nea immediately assumes the worst: that Mr. Chhay is an abusive husband and Sourdi needs to be “saved” from her marriage. She has a one-track mind and refuses to consider any other possibilities. When Nea decided to visit Sourdi and take her back home, she was shocked to realize that Sourdi was fine with her married life and didn’t need Nea’s intervention to begin with.

Similarly I also thought of the first Iron Man movie because Tony Stark is in a very similar situation. At the beginning of the movie, Tony starts off as a careless, but intelligent billionaire. America is currently fighting a war, and Tony Stark being the man he is, sees an opportunity for profit. He decides to start manufacturing advanced and deadly weapons for the US government, intending to help the US military. Later on, an encounter with the Ten Rings (a terrorist organization) opens his eyes and makes him realize that his weapons are also being smuggled to the terrorists. Due to his careless nature and blindness to what was going on around him, his weapons ended up in the wrong hands and likely resulted in the deaths of many innocent lives.

I believe it’s also important to consider how the protagonists respond to the consequences that follow because seeing how one responds to adversity is a really telling way of judging character. 

Oedipus’s journey consists of three parts: Antigone, Oedipus the King, and Oedipus at Colonus. To see the conclusion of his journey, I read Oedipus at Colonus (the summary of course) to see if Oedipus’s character grew after his exile. A couple of years later, Oedipus ends up in Athens alongside his daughter Antigone. It is prophesied that Oedipus’s burial spot will bring the city good fortune. So the rulers of Thebes come to retrieve Oedipus, but Oedipus doesn’t want to go back because his sons didn’t support him in exilement. King Theseus of Athens agrees to protect Oedipus, and the rulers of Thebes realize that Oedipus won’t come back to Thebes. After Oedipus dies, King Theseus follows certain rituals to ensure that Athens will always be a safe haven for its residents. The end. So does Oedipus grow from his mistakes? Well, the plot summary honestly doesn’t reveal too much about Oedipus’s character, but Oedipus was definitely humbled by the events of Oedipus the King and became a shell of his former self, learning to let go of some of his pride.

“Saving Sourdi” ends after Nea’s realization, but as readers, we can infer that Nea also grows afterwards. Initially, she naively thinks that Sourdi will always depend on her, and tries to avoid anything that will involve them growing apart. But after the end, she realizes that Sourdi and herself growing apart as life goes on is inevitable, and that Nea trying to keep Sourdi for herself is just plain selfish. Nea would most likely be a more mature person after this experience.

If there is one main personality trait of Tony Stark it’s that he always learns from his experiences and never makes the same mistake twice. Immediately after his escape from the clutches of the terrorists, he returns to the United States a changed man and promptly shuts down his weapons program. He then takes up the mantle of Iron Man to fix his wrongdoings and set things right again. He finally grows out of his immature persona and accepts responsibility for his actions.

Nea, Oedipus, and Tony Stark all made oblivious decisions that resulted in varying degrees of punishment. Nea learned the hard truth about Sourdi not needing her. Oedipus became (literally) blind as a result of his initial (figurative) blindness. And Tony Stark was faced with the guilt of having the blood of thousands of lives on his hand. But all these characters found ways to learn and better themselves from failures, and that’s what matters.