Personal Revelation Paper

Personal revelation

A year ago if somebody asked me what it meant to have a ‘revelation’, I would have been able to give them an answer. I would have probably given a generic definition of the word – something along the lines of: “A realization that changes the way you think.” Or “The revealing of a new idea or truth.” And these answers would not have been incorrect. However, I have developed a different understanding of the significance of the word and its meanings. Most importantly, I am now better able to recognize revelation when I witness or experience it. I would like to discuss a small, but valuable revelation I experienced recently.
Anybody who knows me well enough to call me an acquaintance knows that I am a lover of music. I will often talk about varying aspects of music – artists, songs, concerts, theory, instruments and equipment, software, local musical groups or bands, etc. However, the thing that makes this deep interest so apparent is the fact that I listen to my music so very often. At home of course – but with the current existence of “Ipods” it becomes all too easy to listen at almost any time of the day. The little “Ipod Nano” which weighs barely anything and takes up hardly any space goes with me just about everywhere; school in particular, seeing as I spend a good portion of each weekday attending it. Until recently I have thought nothing more of this than being a way to escape the troubles and boredom of the day with familiar and comfortable sounds. An event that took place within a few seconds helped to change the way I think about how often my earphones are in.
A couple of months ago I was in search of some information of some kind and went to see Mr. Copeland with a question. So accustomed to the sound of music ticking away in the background of my life, I hadn’t even noticed that they were in my ears as I spoke to him; though, my usual method of speaking to someone while my music is playing is to remove just one ear piece. We spoke for a couple of minutes, and as I obtained the answers to my questions Andy Snyder approached from the door to the classroom behind me. Before I had noticed his presence in the room, I felt one of my earpieces being taken out and realized that it was Andy. He looked at me briefly and then proceeded to politely interrupt with something to say to Mr. Copeland. In that moment, as insignificant as the intended gesture may have been, I came away from it having had a revelation. Andy may have just found what I was doing to be rude, which it very well might have been, but for some reason I understood it differently. So often I have those headphones in, that I had to wonder if there are things in life that I miss out on. It is much more difficult to comprehend the world when you’ve got a constant distraction such as a stream of music. Oftentimes I’ll chose to listen to music instead of things like socializing, which is obviously sometimes alright, but this helped me to realize the gravity of doing that too often. It overall lessens certain somewhat necessary skills of getting along with people. I figure that my perception of the world and all of the things in it will be a better one, if I moderate my music listening. Music is one of my favorite things in the world, but everything must come in moderation – especially the favorites.

Revelation Paperrrrrrrr

“Deconstructing the discourse of revelation”
Language and has come a very long way to develop into the many complex dialects currently found across the world and one of the most impressive aspects of human language is the written word; transitions of spoken words into an array of symbols, each representing simple sounds that when combined exemplify spoken language and more. With the creation of language, came more than the ability to converse, but also allowed for messages and information to carry from one generation to the next. Stories have been told and passed down for thousands of years – nearly as long as humans have been able to communicate verbally as well as visually. Oftentimes these stories will follow a similar structure to one another, establishing a generic layout and theme that is commonly used. Additionally, stories will every so often have themes that recur and repeat inside their own bodies in order to communicate the message. One may refer to these structures as “tropes.” A ‘trope’ may be defined as an element of a story that helps to set its structure. Within literature, a trope will often refer to a commonly used recurring theme. Within the large away of tropes seen in literature across history and the world, one in particular has provided the basic structure for some of the most influential stories ever written. The trope of revelation within a story is one that utilizes components of revelation such as a prophetic figure delivering a message, and a figure on the receiving end of the revelation accepting or denying the delivered message. The idea of revelation is in part, made up of those things.

The Matrix is a film in which the elements of the trope of revelation can easily be identified when sought after. We follow Neo, the main character, who from the beginning is already very skeptical of the reality that he is living in. As we find out more about Neo, we see that he is unsatisfied with the version of reality that he is given. He knows that there is something more than the on-screen view of the world that he and most others are wrapped up in. Right off the bat we witness Neo being exposed to subtle glimpses of the revelation he is on track to receiving. We are introduced to Neo as he is suddenly woken up in his cluttered one bedroom apartment as a simple message of text appears on his computer screen. It says: “Wake up, Neo…” “The Matrix has you…” And follows by telling him to “Follow the white rabbit…” This is Neo’s first contact with the prophets and exposure to his upcoming revelation in any way. Following the white rabbit leads him to a party at which he meets Trinity and eventually to Morpheus, the character of the movie who best fits the prophet label. Early in the movie Morpheus greets Neo for the first time, and he is fully presented the reality of the Matrix (the revelation). More specifically, Neo is presented the reality of the Matrix through a verbal explanation – and his understanding of the truth of the Matrix is developed only as far as an explanation of it could bring it. In the movie, as Morpheus is finishing his explanation he says to Neo, “Unfortunately, no one can be told what the Matrix is. You have to see it for yourself.” This implies the idea that a person can only be presented the revelation. But for them to fully come to terms with the truth, they must take a certain initiative and pursue it on their own. In Morpheus’ words to Neo: “I told you I can only show you the door. You have to walk through it.”

At one point, soon after Neo has is brought out of the Matrix into the world of the real, he is in obvious distress, due to the shock of his incredibly abrupt departure from the reality he has known all his life. He is lying on a mattress as Morpheus sits beside him, expressing sympathy: “I feel I owe you an apology. We have a rule we never free a mind once its reached a certain age. It’s dangerous, and the mind has trouble letting go.” Morpheus’ point in this scene is that people who are born into the false reality that is the Matrix become so used to that frame of thought that any other form of reality becomes extremely hard to accept. “…the mind has trouble letting go.” This line touches on the idea that the revelation of a new reality does not come easily to those who have come to know the false reality of the Matrix as the only reality, a category of people, which may also be described as the “dumb masses”, or “ignorant folk”.

It had been Prophesized among the people of the real world that a man, known as “The One” would one day be brought into the reality of the real world and help to end the war between the human race, and the machines which have enslaved them. Morpheus, more so than anybody else from the real world, believes very intensely that Neo is without doubt this person. “He believes it so blindly, that he’s willing to give up his own life, to save your own.” These are the words of an almost all-knowing being within the Matrix known as “The Oracle”, speaking to Neo for the first time. Shortly after, the group finds themselves under attack within the Matrix by several of the evil agents. One of the agents grabs hold of Neo for a moment, and it seems like he will be unable to get away. It is here that Morpheus plows into the agent, tackling it and successfully breaking its grip on Neo, allowing for he and the rest of the group to get away. As a result, Morpheus is taken hostage by the agents to be drugged and tortured. Shortly after this, Neo begins to take action himself for the first time. He remembers what “The Oracle” had told him and feels that it is his responsibility to save Morpheus. So, against all odds he and the brave Trinity venture into the Matrix to find and free Morpheus. It is during this rescue that Neo begins to show his ability as he displays superhuman strength and speed – even for in the Matrix.

Near the end of the movie, Neo has another type of revelation, which may be referred to as a “flash revelation.” He becomes trapped within the Matrix and is cornered by several of the powerful villains of the movie: the agents and has no apparent escape. Neo is actually killed, having been shot many times. His pulse flat-lines and for a moment all seems lost until a kiss from his lover, Trinity, brings him to life once more. In the next scene, Neo’s pulse returns and he stands up with the realization that he has ability beyond any other within the Matrix and that he is in fact, “The One”, as Morpheus had told him. He begins to literally see the Matrix for what it is – a series of codes that make up a computer program. At this point Neo is able to act as he pleases while in the Matrix and wards off the agents without any problem. This flash revelation allowed for Neo to see the “world” in a different way, almost within seconds, and he is therefore granted with new ability.

The first of the original three “Star Wars” films, “Episode IV: A New Hope,” introduces us to Luke Skywalker a young boy who lives with his aunt and uncle ‘Beru’ on a small farm-type facility. The galaxy in which Luke lives, is ruled largely by a malicious military force known as the “Galactic Empire.” He is fully aware of the Galactic Empire’s suppressive and evil temperament, but feels that the matter is out of his hands, choosing to stay uninvolved by ignoring it. A little ways into the movie, Luke catches his first glimpse of the revelation to come. He is purchasing two droids (robots) from a traveling droid shop for work for his family (the droids later turning out to be continuous characters of the story). While cleaning one of the droids, Luke accidentally triggers a holographic message; an image shoots out in front of it, and begins to play, but abruptly cuts short and repeats every few seconds. However a name is mentioned in the short part of the message that is actually played. Luke is very curious, recognizing the name Obi-Wan Kenobi, who the message speaks of – and tracing it to a local man named Ben Kenobi. His only guardians – his aunt and uncle whom he lives with, particularly his uncle, attempt to diminish his curiosity of the issue by making it seem unimportant and lying to him by saying that Obi-Wan Kenobi has been dead for a long time, and that Ben Kenobi is simply a crazy hermit. The message embedded droid at one point runs away into the dunes of the surrounding desert in search for Obi-Wan, the person that its message had been intended for. Luke heads out in search of the droid, soon running into Ben Kenobi, and discovers that Obi-Wan and Ben are the same. He spends some time with Obi-Wan and learns a great deal about his father and Obi-Wan both. He learns of the fact that they had both been Jedi fighting in the clone wars – a historically important war of their galaxy. Obi-Wan also tells him of “the force,” a mystical energy that allows the Jedi their power. Having heard these things, though intrigued, Luke still finds that world to be beyond his grasp and out of his life. Shortly after his encounter with Obi-Wan, Luke travels back to the home of his aunt and uncle to find that they had been brutally murdered and their house destroyed at the hands of the empire. Luke’s world crumbles – what little of a family life he knew had been wiped away in an instant. Shortly after the discovery of the wreckage, Luke makes the decision follow Obi-Wan and learn the ways of the Jedi to help with the rebellion against evil powers that destroyed his home and suppress the people of the galaxy. This was a moment of flash revelation. After the shock of seeing his relatives and home burnt and destroyed, he felt an apparent burst of initiative – a desire to get both revenge and to bring justice to the oppressors. Shortly after these happenings, Kenobi and Luke unit e with Han Solo and Chewbacca, the pilot and first mate of the Millennium Falcon, and proceed to leave the planet in order to join with the rebels in the fight. During this flight Kenobi begins to teach Luke the ways of the force – how to utilize and harness its ability. Luke is training with the light saber Kenobi had given him against a small floating ball, which is hovering around him shooting small lasers from different angles. Luke’s goal is to deflect the beams as they are shot. He effectively blocks several of the shots but is not one hundred percent accurate. Kenobi then does something that Luke was not expecting. He places a helmet over Luke’s head with a solid metal visor that blocks his vision and tells Luke to “use the force.” After a few tries Luke successfully deflects several shots regardless of his blindfold. Following this success, Luke says the following to Kenobi: “You know I did feel something. I could almost see the remote.” Kenobi’s response: “That’s good! You’ve taken your first step into a larger world.” It can be inferred that at this point Luke has experienced the beginning of an ongoing revelation pertaining to his ability with the force.
Luke quickly gets involved in the battle between the rebels and the Galactic Empire. Soon after their voyage begins on Han Solo’s ship, they find themselves conducting a rescue mission of Princess Leia. Their rescue and escape is dangerous but successful, however, before they do, Obi-Wan is seemingly stricken down; killed. Luke is naturally devastated, but forced to leave him. It is hinted though, that Obi-Wan had not been completely killed off, as when he was hit with Darth Vader’s light saber, there was no corpse to be found – he simply disappeared. Further on in the story, an attack is being conducted by the rebels in an attempt to destroy the “Death Star”, a major base and headquarters of the empire, and a squadron of fighter pilots have been assigned to do it. Luke is among these men. Their goal is to fire a set of lasers into a specific area of the Death Star, which they predict would set off a chain reaction causing it to explode. Eventually every pilot of the group is killed off, and Luke is the one remaining chance at success. Obviously in a tight situation, Luke receives some help from his thought-dead prophet, Obi-Wan. He is told: “Luke, use the force” and proceeds to ignore his radars, riding fully on instinct and “the force”. With the help of Han-Solo’s last minute protection he completes the mission and successfully destroys the Death Star, becoming a great young hero among the people.

When looking at the use of the revelation trope in two or more stories, we can compare and contrast the multiple uses and identify the varying aspects of the trope at different points in the two examples. For instance, in “The Matrix,” there is an obvious main prophet that delivers the revelatory message to Neo. Morpheus, in a scene near the beginning of the movie sits Neo down across from himself, and explains the truth about the Matrix as best he can. He asks Neo if he is truly keen on learning the whole truth during the blue pill-red pill scene, and when given the go, lays out the reality of the human race’s enslavement in the masked world of the Matix. This element of the revelation trope is clear to us. Within “Star Wars: Episode IV,” we can single out a similar prophetic figure. Obi-Wan Kenobi plays a comparable role in Star Wars to the character of Morpheus in The Matrix. Kenobi reveals several truths to Luke Skywalker; partially clearing up a bit of the confusion he has about his father and also explaining the great mystical power of “the force” to Luke, who had been completely oblivious to its existence previously. Obi-Wan explains these things to Luke, whose reaction is to accept the information appreciatively but continue shrugging it off as irrelevant to his own life. The basic outlines of this aspect of the trope of revelation, found in both of these stories, are very alike. There is a prophet, bringing new information to the attention of a disciple and the disciple accepts the new ideas but has certain doubts, but eventually fully accepts the new frame of thought.

The messages within “The Matrix” and “Star Wars” are in some ways different from one another as well as the same. In “The Matrix,” Morpheus reveals to Neo that the reality in which he has been living in is unreal and in turn also reveals to him the “real world,” outside of the Matrix. The message is of a new way to perceive the world before ones eyes. In “Star Wars,” Kenobi delivers a revelatory message to Luke about his father, Jedi and the force. Luke is given a new understanding of his ability and of the rebellion against the Galactic Empire. In both of these stories there is an obvious “unacceptable situation” that the characters are apart of. In “The Matrix,” it is the entrapment of the human race inside the Matrix program. And in “Star Wars,” it is the suppressive rule of the Galactic Empire. Within both stories, the main recipients of the message being given were partially aware of the suppressive situation. Neo, before his revelation, had been skeptical of his reality. He knew that something was not right about the world he lived in. Luke on the other hand, before he came to know Obi-Wan, knew of what the Galactic Empire had been doing, and was aware of the struggles occurring beyond his planet.

In “The Matrix”, we were witness to the presentation of a new idea to Neo – one showing him a new way to look at the world, and eventually giving him a complete, revelatory understanding of it. Correspondingly, in “Star Wars”, Luke was presented with a string of new information that forever changed his perspective of the state of his world as well as himself. In both stories, the prophetic figure in some way nearly killed, stirring up a great deal of concern and worry from the two disciples alike. Within “The Matrix”, Neo is afraid for Morpheus’ life, as The Oracle had told him it would end in order to save his own. So upon seeing Morpheus throwing himself in dangers way he is fully aware of the situation. Later on though, after treatment that had almost killed Morpheus, Neo pulls himself together and saves him from very near death. In a similar way, we see the prophet of “Star Wars”, Obi-Wan Kenobi, nearly die in the eyes of the disciple – he was struck down and eliminated from view, returning later on as only a voice to deliver a helpful piece of advice to Luke. We are able to infer from the two given examples that often within the ensuing drama of a story that uses the ‘trope of revelation’, the prophetic figure of the story will experience some form of ‘near death’. In both of these examples, the ‘near death’ situation had been voluntary of the prophet in some way. Morpheus chose to sacrifice his safety in order to ensure Neo’s. In a very similar way, Obi-Wan, while at arms with Darth Vader, chose to leave himself exposed, allowing for Darth Vader to hit him with his Light Saber.

The revelation trope, as said, is immensely popular. This is of course, not without reason. The trope of revelation is as common as it is because revelations are such a relevant part of spreading messages and new ideas. When an author has a message to portray in their literature, the revelation trope usually provides structure for the story. There is evidence of this in that in almost every modern as well as ancient story or scripture that presents a new idea. As well as being found in examples such as the two modern movies discussed earlier, this trope exists in much of the literature that has helped to define human culture for the past couple thousand years. For example – the story of Jesus Christ consisted of revelation. Jesus had supposedly been brought to this world though the Virgin Mary as God’s son and later in his life received a revelatory message from the same higher source, God. Jesus became a prophet of God’s message. Jesus is told to have obtained a good number disciples and proceeded to spread those messages to many people. The use of this trope is beneficial for the structure that it provides – readers have an increased ability to comprehend the message being given because they are used to reading and understanding stories organized in this way. From another point of view, the trope of revelation can seem limiting. It is so entwined in the way we think about storytelling and literature, whether authors are aware of it or not, that it has actually dampened the creativity that could have been in many examples. In certain ways, a story cannot be as free flowing as it would be while not following the revelation trope. Subconsciously, an author will abide by the structure where they might otherwise comprise a unique frame of their own.

Having explored the revelation trope within several examples – deconstructing and breaking it down into its various components and aspects, it is evident that not every message of revelation is for the better. The idea of a “false prophet” implies that some prophetic messages may appear legitimate and worthwhile things to abide by and follow, while in reality they are misleading and could cause more harm than good. Having said this, revelation’s can often be very positive, leading to a better understanding of one thing or another, or life in general, although one must be careful to avoid believing everything that they are told. The ability to deconstruct and decipher these messages is an invaluable tool.

Revelation Paperrrrrrr

“Deconstructing the discourse of revelation”
Language and has come a very long way to develop into the many complex dialects currently found across the world and one of the most impressive aspects of human language is the written word; transitions of spoken words into an array of symbols, each representing simple sounds that when combined exemplify spoken language and more. With the creation of language, came more than the ability to converse, but also allowed for messages and information to carry from one generation to the next. Stories have been told and passed down for thousands of years – nearly as long as humans have been able to communicate verbally as well as visually. Oftentimes these stories will follow a similar structure to one another, establishing a generic layout and theme that is commonly used. Additionally, stories will every so often have themes that recur and repeat inside their own bodies in order to communicate the message. One may refer to these structures as “tropes.” A ‘trope’ may be defined as an element of a story that helps to set its structure. Within literature, a trope will often refer to a commonly used recurring theme. Within the large away of tropes seen in literature across history and the world, one in particular has provided the basic structure for some of the most influential stories ever written. The trope of revelation within a story is one that utilizes components of revelation such as a prophetic figure delivering a message, and a figure on the receiving end of the revelation accepting or denying the delivered message. The idea of revelation is in part, made up of those things.

The Matrix is a film in which the elements of the trope of revelation can easily be identified when sought after. We follow Neo, the main character, who from the beginning is already very skeptical of the reality that he is living in. As we find out more about Neo, we see that he is unsatisfied with the version of reality that he is given. He knows that there is something more than the on-screen view of the world that he and most others are wrapped up in. Right off the bat we witness Neo being exposed to subtle glimpses of the revelation he is on track to receiving. We are introduced to Neo as he is suddenly woken up in his cluttered one bedroom apartment as a simple message of text appears on his computer screen. It says: “Wake up, Neo…” “The Matrix has you…” And follows by telling him to “Follow the white rabbit…” This is Neo’s first contact with the prophets and exposure to his upcoming revelation in any way. Following the white rabbit leads him to a party at which he meets Trinity and eventually to Morpheus, the character of the movie who best fits the prophet label. Early in the movie Morpheus greets Neo for the first time, and he is fully presented the reality of the Matrix (the revelation). More specifically, Neo is presented the reality of the Matrix through a verbal explanation – and his understanding of the truth of the Matrix is developed only as far as an explanation of it could bring it. In the movie, as Morpheus is finishing his explanation he says to Neo, “Unfortunately, no one can be told what the Matrix is. You have to see it for yourself.” This implies the idea that a person can only be presented the revelation. But for them to fully come to terms with the truth, they must take a certain initiative and pursue it on their own. In Morpheus’ words to Neo: “I told you I can only show you the door. You have to walk through it.”

At one point, soon after Neo has is brought out of the Matrix into the world of the real, he is in obvious distress, due to the shock of his incredibly abrupt departure from the reality he has known all his life. He is lying on a mattress as Morpheus sits beside him, expressing sympathy: “I feel I owe you an apology. We have a rule we never free a mind once its reached a certain age. It’s dangerous, and the mind has trouble letting go.” Morpheus’ point in this scene is that people who are born into the false reality that is the Matrix become so used to that frame of thought that any other form of reality becomes extremely hard to accept. “…the mind has trouble letting go.” This line touches on the idea that the revelation of a new reality does not come easily to those who have come to know the false reality of the Matrix as the only reality, a category of people, which may also be described as the “dumb masses”, or “ignorant folk”.

It had been Prophesized among the people of the real world that a man, known as “The One” would one day be brought into the reality of the real world and help to end the war between the human race, and the machines which have enslaved them. Morpheus, more so than anybody else from the real world, believes very intensely that Neo is without doubt this person. “He believes it so blindly, that he’s willing to give up his own life, to save your own.” These are the words of an almost all-knowing being within the Matrix known as “The Oracle”, speaking to Neo for the first time. Shortly after, the group finds themselves under attack within the Matrix by several of the evil agents. One of the agents grabs hold of Neo for a moment, and it seems like he will be unable to get away. It is here that Morpheus plows into the agent, tackling it and successfully breaking its grip on Neo, allowing for he and the rest of the group to get away. As a result, Morpheus is taken hostage by the agents to be drugged and tortured. Shortly after this, Neo begins to take action himself for the first time. He remembers what “The Oracle” had told him and feels that it is his responsibility to save Morpheus. So, against all odds he and the brave Trinity venture into the Matrix to find and free Morpheus. It is during this rescue that Neo begins to show his ability as he displays superhuman strength and speed – even for in the Matrix.

Near the end of the movie, Neo has another type of revelation, which may be referred to as a “flash revelation.” He becomes trapped within the Matrix and is cornered by several of the powerful villains of the movie: the agents and has no apparent escape. Neo is actually killed, having been shot many times. His pulse flat-lines and for a moment all seems lost until a kiss from his lover, Trinity, brings him to life once more. In the next scene, Neo’s pulse returns and he stands up with the realization that he has ability beyond any other within the Matrix and that he is in fact, “The One”, as Morpheus had told him. He begins to literally see the Matrix for what it is – a series of codes that make up a computer program. At this point Neo is able to act as he pleases while in the Matrix and wards off the agents without any problem. This flash revelation allowed for Neo to see the “world” in a different way, almost within seconds, and he is therefore granted with new ability.

The first of the original three “Star Wars” films, “Episode IV: A New Hope,” introduces us to Luke Skywalker a young boy who lives with his aunt and uncle ‘Beru’ on a small farm-type facility. The galaxy in which Luke lives, is ruled largely by a malicious military force known as the “Galactic Empire.” He is fully aware of the Galactic Empire’s suppressive and evil temperament, but feels that the matter is out of his hands, choosing to stay uninvolved by ignoring it. A little ways into the movie, Luke catches his first glimpse of the revelation to come. He is purchasing two droids (robots) from a traveling droid shop for work for his family (the droids later turning out to be continuous characters of the story). While cleaning one of the droids, Luke accidentally triggers a holographic message; an image shoots out in front of it, and begins to play, but abruptly cuts short and repeats every few seconds. However a name is mentioned in the short part of the message that is actually played. Luke is very curious, recognizing the name Obi-Wan Kenobi, who the message speaks of – and tracing it to a local man named Ben Kenobi. His only guardians – his aunt and uncle whom he lives with, particularly his uncle, attempt to diminish his curiosity of the issue by making it seem unimportant and lying to him by saying that Obi-Wan Kenobi has been dead for a long time, and that Ben Kenobi is simply a crazy hermit. The message embedded droid at one point runs away into the dunes of the surrounding desert in search for Obi-Wan, the person that its message had been intended for. Luke heads out in search of the droid, soon running into Ben Kenobi, and discovers that Obi-Wan and Ben are the same. He spends some time with Obi-Wan and learns a great deal about his father and Obi-Wan both. He learns of the fact that they had both been Jedi fighting in the clone wars – a historically important war of their galaxy. Obi-Wan also tells him of “the force,” a mystical energy that allows the Jedi their power. Having heard these things, though intrigued, Luke still finds that world to be beyond his grasp and out of his life. Shortly after his encounter with Obi-Wan, Luke travels back to the home of his aunt and uncle to find that they had been brutally murdered and their house destroyed at the hands of the empire. Luke’s world crumbles – what little of a family life he knew had been wiped away in an instant. Shortly after the discovery of the wreckage, Luke makes the decision follow Obi-Wan and learn the ways of the Jedi to help with the rebellion against evil powers that destroyed his home and suppress the people of the galaxy. This was a moment of flash revelation. After the shock of seeing his relatives and home burnt and destroyed, he felt an apparent burst of initiative – a desire to get both revenge and to bring justice to the oppressors. Shortly after these happenings, Kenobi and Luke unit e with Han Solo and Chewbacca, the pilot and first mate of the Millennium Falcon, and proceed to leave the planet in order to join with the rebels in the fight. During this flight Kenobi begins to teach Luke the ways of the force – how to utilize and harness its ability. Luke is training with the light saber Kenobi had given him against a small floating ball, which is hovering around him shooting small lasers from different angles. Luke’s goal is to deflect the beams as they are shot. He effectively blocks several of the shots but is not one hundred percent accurate. Kenobi then does something that Luke was not expecting. He places a helmet over Luke’s head with a solid metal visor that blocks his vision and tells Luke to “use the force.” After a few tries Luke successfully deflects several shots regardless of his blindfold. Following this success, Luke says the following to Kenobi: “You know I did feel something. I could almost see the remote.” Kenobi’s response: “That’s good! You’ve taken your first step into a larger world.” It can be inferred that at this point Luke has experienced the beginning of an ongoing revelation pertaining to his ability with the force.
Luke quickly gets involved in the battle between the rebels and the Galactic Empire. Soon after their voyage begins on Han Solo’s ship, they find themselves conducting a rescue mission of Princess Leia. Their rescue and escape is dangerous but successful, however, before they do, Obi-Wan is seemingly stricken down; killed. Luke is naturally devastated, but forced to leave him. It is hinted though, that Obi-Wan had not been completely killed off, as when he was hit with Darth Vader’s light saber, there was no corpse to be found – he simply disappeared. Further on in the story, an attack is being conducted by the rebels in an attempt to destroy the “Death Star”, a major base and headquarters of the empire, and a squadron of fighter pilots have been assigned to do it. Luke is among these men. Their goal is to fire a set of lasers into a specific area of the Death Star, which they predict would set off a chain reaction causing it to explode. Eventually every pilot of the group is killed off, and Luke is the one remaining chance at success. Obviously in a tight situation, Luke receives some help from his thought-dead prophet, Obi-Wan. He is told: “Luke, use the force” and proceeds to ignore his radars, riding fully on instinct and “the force”. With the help of Han-Solo’s last minute protection he completes the mission and successfully destroys the Death Star, becoming a great young hero among the people.

When looking at the use of the revelation trope in two or more stories, we can compare and contrast the multiple uses and identify the varying aspects of the trope at different points in the two examples. For instance, in “The Matrix,” there is an obvious main prophet that delivers the revelatory message to Neo. Morpheus, in a scene near the beginning of the movie sits Neo down across from himself, and explains the truth about the Matrix as best he can. He asks Neo if he is truly keen on learning the whole truth during the blue pill-red pill scene, and when given the go, lays out the reality of the human race’s enslavement in the masked world of the Matix. This element of the revelation trope is clear to us. Within “Star Wars: Episode IV,” we can single out a similar prophetic figure. Obi-Wan Kenobi plays a comparable role in Star Wars to the character of Morpheus in The Matrix. Kenobi reveals several truths to Luke Skywalker; partially clearing up a bit of the confusion he has about his father and also explaining the great mystical power of “the force” to Luke, who had been completely oblivious to its existence previously. Obi-Wan explains these things to Luke, whose reaction is to accept the information appreciatively but continue shrugging it off as irrelevant to his own life. The basic outlines of this aspect of the trope of revelation, found in both of these stories, are very alike. There is a prophet, bringing new information to the attention of a disciple and the disciple accepts the new ideas but has certain doubts, but eventually fully accepts the new frame of thought.

The messages within “The Matrix” and “Star Wars” are in some ways different from one another as well as the same. In “The Matrix,” Morpheus reveals to Neo that the reality in which he has been living in is unreal and in turn also reveals to him the “real world,” outside of the Matrix. The message is of a new way to perceive the world before ones eyes. In “Star Wars,” Kenobi delivers a revelatory message to Luke about his father, Jedi and the force. Luke is given a new understanding of his ability and of the rebellion against the Galactic Empire. In both of these stories there is an obvious “unacceptable situation” that the characters are apart of. In “The Matrix,” it is the entrapment of the human race inside the Matrix program. And in “Star Wars,” it is the suppressive rule of the Galactic Empire. Within both stories, the main recipients of the message being given were partially aware of the suppressive situation. Neo, before his revelation, had been skeptical of his reality. He knew that something was not right about the world he lived in. Luke on the other hand, before he came to know Obi-Wan, knew of what the Galactic Empire had been doing, and was aware of the struggles occurring beyond his planet.

In “The Matrix”, we were witness to the presentation of a new idea to Neo – one showing him a new way to look at the world, and eventually giving him a complete, revelatory understanding of it. Correspondingly, in “Star Wars”, Luke was presented with a string of new information that forever changed his perspective of the state of his world as well as himself. In both stories, the prophetic figure in some way nearly killed, stirring up a great deal of concern and worry from the two disciples alike. Within “The Matrix”, Neo is afraid for Morpheus’ life, as The Oracle had told him it would end in order to save his own. So upon seeing Morpheus throwing himself in dangers way he is fully aware of the situation. Later on though, after treatment that had almost killed Morpheus, Neo pulls himself together and saves him from very near death. In a similar way, we see the prophet of “Star Wars”, Obi-Wan Kenobi, nearly die in the eyes of the disciple – he was struck down and eliminated from view, returning later on as only a voice to deliver a helpful piece of advice to Luke. We are able to infer from the two given examples that often within the ensuing drama of a story that uses the ‘trope of revelation’, the prophetic figure of the story will experience some form of ‘near death’. In both of these examples, the ‘near death’ situation had been voluntary of the prophet in some way. Morpheus chose to sacrifice his safety in order to ensure Neo’s. In a very similar way, Obi-Wan, while at arms with Darth Vader, chose to leave himself exposed, allowing for Darth Vader to hit him with his Light Saber.

The revelation trope, as said, is immensely popular. This is of course, not without reason. The trope of revelation is as common as it is because revelations are such a relevant part of spreading messages and new ideas. When an author has a message to portray in their literature, the revelation trope usually provides structure for the story. There is evidence of this in that in almost every modern as well as ancient story or scripture that presents a new idea. As well as being found in examples such as the two modern movies discussed earlier, this trope exists in much of the literature that has helped to define human culture for the past couple thousand years. For example – the story of Jesus Christ consisted of revelation. Jesus had supposedly been brought to this world though the Virgin Mary as God’s son and later in his life received a revelatory message from the same higher source, God. Jesus became a prophet of God’s message. Jesus is told to have obtained a good number disciples and proceeded to spread those messages to many people. The use of this trope is beneficial for the structure that it provides – readers have an increased ability to comprehend the message being given because they are used to reading and understanding stories organized in this way. From another point of view, the trope of revelation can seem limiting. It is so entwined in the way we think about storytelling and literature, whether authors are aware of it or not, that it has actually dampened the creativity that could have been in many examples. Stories in some ways cannot be as free flowing as it would be if the trope of revelation were not used to often.

Revelation Paperrrrrr

“Deconstructing the discourse of revelation”
Language and has come a very long way to develop into the many complex dialects currently found across the world and one of the most impressive aspects of human language is the written word; transitions of spoken words into an array of symbols, each representing simple sounds that when combined exemplify spoken language and more. With the creation of language, came more than the ability to converse, but also allowed for messages and information to carry from one generation to the next. Stories have been told and passed down for thousands of years – nearly as long as humans have been able to communicate verbally as well as visually. Oftentimes these stories will follow a similar structure to one another, establishing a generic layout and theme that is commonly used. Additionally, stories will every so often have themes that recur and repeat inside their own bodies in order to communicate the message. One may refer to these structures as “tropes.” A ‘trope’ may be defined as an element of a story that helps to set its structure. Within literature, a trope will often refer to a commonly used recurring theme. Within the large away of tropes seen in literature across history and the world, one in particular has provided the basic structure for some of the most influential stories ever written. The trope of revelation within a story is one that utilizes components of revelation such as a prophetic figure delivering a message, and a figure on the receiving end of the revelation accepting or denying the delivered message. The idea of revelation is in part, made up of those things.

The Matrix is a film in which the elements of the trope of revelation can easily be identified when sought after. We follow Neo, the main character, who from the beginning is already very skeptical of the reality that he is living in. As we find out more about Neo, we see that he is unsatisfied with the version of reality that he is given. He knows that there is something more than the on-screen view of the world that he and most others are wrapped up in. Right off the bat we witness Neo being exposed to subtle glimpses of the revelation he is on track to receiving. We are introduced to Neo as he is suddenly woken up in his cluttered one bedroom apartment as a simple message of text appears on his computer screen. It says: “Wake up, Neo…” “The Matrix has you…” And follows by telling him to “Follow the white rabbit…” This is Neo’s first contact with the prophets and exposure to his upcoming revelation in any way. Following the white rabbit leads him to a party at which he meets Trinity and eventually to Morpheus, the character of the movie who best fits the prophet label. Early in the movie Morpheus greets Neo for the first time, and he is fully presented the reality of the Matrix (the revelation). More specifically, Neo is presented the reality of the Matrix through a verbal explanation – and his understanding of the truth of the Matrix is developed only as far as an explanation of it could bring it. In the movie, as Morpheus is finishing his explanation he says to Neo, “Unfortunately, no one can be told what the Matrix is. You have to see it for yourself.” This implies the idea that a person can only be presented the revelation. But for them to fully come to terms with the truth, they must take a certain initiative and pursue it on their own. In Morpheus’ words to Neo: “I told you I can only show you the door. You have to walk through it.”

At one point, soon after Neo has is brought out of the Matrix into the world of the real, he is in obvious distress, due to the shock of his incredibly abrupt departure from the reality he has known all his life. He is lying on a mattress as Morpheus sits beside him, expressing sympathy: “I feel I owe you an apology. We have a rule we never free a mind once its reached a certain age. It’s dangerous, and the mind has trouble letting go.” Morpheus’ point in this scene is that people who are born into the false reality that is the Matrix become so used to that frame of thought that any other form of reality becomes extremely hard to accept. “…the mind has trouble letting go.” This line touches on the idea that the revelation of a new reality does not come easily to those who have come to know the false reality of the Matrix as the only reality, a category of people, which may also be described as the “dumb masses”, or “ignorant folk”.

It had been Prophesized among the people of the real world that a man, known as “The One” would one day be brought into the reality of the real world and help to end the war between the human race, and the machines which have enslaved them. Morpheus, more so than anybody else from the real world, believes very intensely that Neo is without doubt this person. “He believes it so blindly, that he’s willing to give up his own life, to save your own.” These are the words of an almost all-knowing being within the Matrix known as “The Oracle”, speaking to Neo for the first time. Shortly after, the group finds themselves under attack within the Matrix by several of the evil agents. One of the agents grabs hold of Neo for a moment, and it seems like he will be unable to get away. It is here that Morpheus plows into the agent, tackling it and successfully breaking its grip on Neo, allowing for he and the rest of the group to get away. As a result, Morpheus is taken hostage by the agents to be drugged and tortured. Shortly after this, Neo begins to take action himself for the first time. He remembers what “The Oracle” had told him and feels that it is his responsibility to save Morpheus. So, against all odds he and the brave Trinity venture into the Matrix to find and free Morpheus. It is during this rescue that Neo begins to show his ability as he displays superhuman strength and speed – even for in the Matrix.

Near the end of the movie, Neo has another type of revelation, which may be referred to as a “flash revelation.” He becomes trapped within the Matrix and is cornered by several of the powerful villains of the movie: the agents and has no apparent escape. Neo is actually killed, having been shot many times. His pulse flat-lines and for a moment all seems lost until a kiss from his lover, Trinity, brings him to life once more. In the next scene, Neo’s pulse returns and he stands up with the realization that he has ability beyond any other within the Matrix and that he is in fact, “The One”, as Morpheus had told him. He begins to literally see the Matrix for what it is – a series of codes that make up a computer program. At this point Neo is able to act as he pleases while in the Matrix and wards off the agents without any problem. This flash revelation allowed for Neo to see the “world” in a different way, almost within seconds, and he is therefore granted with new ability.

The first of the original three “Star Wars” films, “Episode IV: A New Hope,” introduces us to Luke Skywalker a young boy who lives with his aunt and uncle ‘Beru’ on a small farm-type facility. The galaxy in which Luke lives, is ruled largely by a malicious military force known as the “Galactic Empire.” He is fully aware of the Galactic Empire’s suppressive and evil temperament, but feels that the matter is out of his hands, choosing to stay uninvolved by ignoring it. A little ways into the movie, Luke catches his first glimpse of the revelation to come. He is purchasing two droids (robots) from a traveling droid shop for work for his family (the droids later turning out to be continuous characters of the story). While cleaning one of the droids, Luke accidentally triggers a holographic message; an image shoots out in front of it, and begins to play, but abruptly cuts short and repeats every few seconds. However a name is mentioned in the short part of the message that is actually played. Luke is very curious, recognizing the name Obi-Wan Kenobi, who the message speaks of – and tracing it to a local man named Ben Kenobi. His only guardians – his aunt and uncle whom he lives with, particularly his uncle, attempt to diminish his curiosity of the issue by making it seem unimportant and lying to him by saying that Obi-Wan Kenobi has been dead for a long time, and that Ben Kenobi is simply a crazy hermit. The message embedded droid at one point runs away into the dunes of the surrounding desert in search for Obi-Wan, the person that its message had been intended for. Luke heads out in search of the droid, soon running into Ben Kenobi, and discovers that Obi-Wan and Ben are the same. He spends some time with Obi-Wan and learns a great deal about his father and Obi-Wan both. He learns of the fact that they had both been Jedi fighting in the clone wars – a historically important war of their galaxy. Obi-Wan also tells him of “the force,” a mystical energy that allows the Jedi their power. Having heard these things, though intrigued, Luke still finds that world to be beyond his grasp and out of his life. Shortly after his encounter with Obi-Wan, Luke travels back to the home of his aunt and uncle to find that they had been brutally murdered and their house destroyed at the hands of the empire. Luke’s world crumbles – what little of a family life he knew had been wiped away in an instant. Shortly after the discovery of the wreckage, Luke makes the decision follow Obi-Wan and learn the ways of the Jedi to help with the rebellion against evil powers that destroyed his home and suppress the people of the galaxy. This was a moment of flash revelation. After the shock of seeing his relatives and home burnt and destroyed, he felt an apparent burst of initiative – a desire to get both revenge and to bring justice to the oppressors. Shortly after these happenings, Kenobi and Luke unit e with Han Solo and Chewbacca, the pilot and first mate of the Millennium Falcon, and proceed to leave the planet in order to join with the rebels in the fight. During this flight Kenobi begins to teach Luke the ways of the force – how to utilize and harness its ability. Luke is training with the light saber Kenobi had given him against a small floating ball, which is hovering around him shooting small lasers from different angles. Luke’s goal is to deflect the beams as they are shot. He effectively blocks several of the shots but is not one hundred percent accurate. Kenobi then does something that Luke was not expecting. He places a helmet over Luke’s head with a solid metal visor that blocks his vision and tells Luke to “use the force.” After a few tries Luke successfully deflects several shots regardless of his blindfold. Following this success, Luke says the following to Kenobi: “You know I did feel something. I could almost see the remote.” Kenobi’s response: “That’s good! You’ve taken your first step into a larger world.” It can be inferred that at this point Luke has experienced the beginning of an ongoing revelation pertaining to his ability with the force.
Luke quickly gets involved in the battle between the rebels and the Galactic Empire. Soon after their voyage begins on Han Solo’s ship, they find themselves conducting a rescue mission of Princess Leia. Their rescue and escape is dangerous but successful, however, before they do, Obi-Wan is seemingly stricken down; killed. Luke is naturally devastated, but forced to leave him. It is hinted though, that Obi-Wan had not been completely killed off, as when he was hit with Darth Vader’s light saber, there was no corpse to be found – he simply disappeared. Further on in the story, an attack is being conducted by the rebels in an attempt to destroy the “Death Star”, a major base and headquarters of the empire, and a squadron of fighter pilots have been assigned to do it. Luke is among these men. Their goal is to fire a set of lasers into a specific area of the Death Star, which they predict would set off a chain reaction causing it to explode. Eventually every pilot of the group is killed off, and Luke is the one remaining chance at success. Obviously in a tight situation, Luke receives some help from his thought-dead prophet, Obi-Wan. He is told: “Luke, use the force” and proceeds to ignore his radars, riding fully on instinct and “the force”. With the help of Han-Solo’s last minute protection he completes the mission and successfully destroys the Death Star, becoming a great young hero among the people.

When looking at the use of the revelation trope in two or more stories, we can compare and contrast the multiple uses and identify the varying aspects of the trope at different points in the two examples. For instance, in “The Matrix,” there is an obvious main prophet that delivers the revelatory message to Neo. Morpheus, in a scene near the beginning of the movie sits Neo down across from himself, and explains the truth about the Matrix as best he can. He asks Neo if he is truly keen on learning the whole truth during the blue pill-red pill scene, and when given the go, lays out the reality of the human race’s enslavement in the masked world of the Matix. This element of the revelation trope is clear to us. Within “Star Wars: Episode IV,” we can single out a similar prophetic figure. Obi-Wan Kenobi plays a comparable role in Star Wars to the character of Morpheus in The Matrix. Kenobi reveals several truths to Luke Skywalker; partially clearing up a bit of the confusion he has about his father and also explaining the great mystical power of “the force” to Luke, who had been completely oblivious to its existence previously. Obi-Wan explains these things to Luke, whose reaction is to accept the information appreciatively but continue shrugging it off as irrelevant to his own life.

The messages within “The Matrix” and “Star Wars” are in some ways different from one another as well as the same. In “The Matrix,” Morpheus is reveals to Neo that the reality in which he has been living in is unreal and in turn also reveals to him the “real world,” outside of the Matrix. The message is of a new way to perceive the world before ones eyes. In “Star Wars,” Kenobi delivers a revelatory message to Luke about his father, Jedi and the force. Luke is given a new understanding of his ability and of the rebellion against the Galactic Empire. In both of these stories there is an obvious “unacceptable situation” that the characters are apart of. In “The Matrix,” it is the entrapment of the human race inside the Matrix program. And in “Star Wars,” it is the suppressive rule of the Galactic Empire. Within both stories, the main recipients of the message being given were partially aware of the suppressive situation. Neo, before his revelation, had been skeptical of his reality. He knew that something was not right about the world he lived in. Luke on the other hand, before he came to know Obi-Wan, knew of what the Galactic Empire had been doing, and was aware of the struggles occurring beyond his planet.

In “The Matrix”, we were witness to the presentation of a new idea to Neo – one showing him a new way to look at the world, and eventually giving him a complete, revelatory understanding of it. Correspondingly, in “Star Wars”, Luke was presented with a string of new information that forever changed his perspective of the state of his world as well as himself. In both stories, the prophetic figure in some way nearly killed, stirring up a great deal of concern and worry from the two disciples alike. Within “The Matrix”, Neo is afraid for Morpheus’ life, as The Oracle had told him it would end in order to save his own. So upon seeing Morpheus throwing himself in dangers way he is fully aware of the situation. Later on though, after treatment that had almost killed Morpheus, Neo pulls himself together and saves him from very near death. In a similar way, we see the prophet of “Star Wars”, Obi-Wan Kenobi, nearly die in the eyes of the disciple – he was struck down and eliminated from view, returning later on as only a voice to deliver a helpful piece of advice to Luke. We are able to infer from the two given examples that often within the ensuing drama of a story that uses the ‘trope of revelation’, the prophetic figure of the story will experience some form of ‘near death’. In both of these examples, the ‘near death’ situation had been voluntary of the prophet in some way. Morpheus chose to sacrifice his safety in order to ensure Neo’s. In a very similar way, Obi-Wan, while at arms with Darth Vader, chose to leave himself exposed, allowing for Darth Vader to hit him with his Light Saber.

The revelation trope, as said, is immensely popular. This is of course, not without reason. The trope of revelation is as common as it is because revelations are such a relevant part of spreading messages and new ideas. When an author has a message to portray in their literature, the revelation trope usually provides structure the story. There is evidence of this in that in almost every modern as well as ancient story or scripture that presents a new idea. As well as being found in examples such as the two modern movies discussed earlier, this trope exists in much of the literature that has helped to define human culture for the past couple thousand years. For example – the story of Jesus Christ consisted of revelation. Jesus had supposedly been brought to this world though the Virgin Mary as God’s child and later in his life received a revelatory message from the same higher source, God. Jesus became a prophet of God’s message. Jesus is told obtained a good number disciples and proceeded to spread those messages to many people.

Revelation Paperrrrr

“Deconstructing the discourse of revelation”
Language and has come a very long way to develop into the many complex dialects currently found across the world and one of the most impressive aspects of human language is the written word; transitions of spoken words into an array of symbols, each representing simple sounds that when combined exemplify spoken language and more. With the creation of language, came more than the ability to converse, but also allowed for messages and information to carry from one generation to the next. Stories have been told and passed down for thousands of years – nearly as long as humans have been able to communicate verbally as well as visually. Oftentimes these stories will follow a similar structure to one another, establishing a generic layout and theme that is commonly used. Additionally, stories will every so often have themes that recur and repeat inside their own bodies in order to communicate the message. One may refer to these structures as “tropes.” A ‘trope’ may be defined as an element of a story that helps to set its structure. Within literature, a trope will often refer to a commonly used recurring theme. Within the large away of tropes seen in literature across history and the world, one in particular has provided the basic structure for some of the most influential stories ever written. The trope of revelation within a story is one that utilizes components of revelation such as a prophetic figure delivering a message, and a figure on the receiving end of the revelation accepting or denying the delivered message. The idea of revelation is in part, made up of those things. This trope exists in much of the literature that has helped to define human culture for the past couple thousand years. For example – the story of Jesus Christ, consisted of revelation. Jesus had supposedly been born in this world though The Virgin Mary as God’s child and later in his life received a revelatory message from the same higher source, God.

The Matrix is a film in which the elements of the trope of revelation can easily be identified when sought after. We follow Neo, the main character, who from the beginning is already very skeptical of the reality that he is living in. As we find out more about Neo, we see that he is unsatisfied with the version of reality that he is given. He knows that there is something more than the on-screen view of the world that he and most others are wrapped up in. Right off the bat we witness Neo being exposed to subtle glimpses of the revelation he is on track to receiving. We are introduced to Neo as he is suddenly woken up in his cluttered one bedroom apartment as a simple message of text appears on his computer screen. It says: “Wake up, Neo…” “The Matrix has you…” And follows by telling him to “Follow the white rabbit…” This is Neo’s first contact with the prophets and exposure to his upcoming revelation in any way. Following the white rabbit leads him to a party at which he meets Trinity and eventually to Morpheus, the character of the movie who best fits the prophet label. Early in the movie Morpheus greets Neo for the first time, and he is fully presented the reality of the Matrix (the revelation). More specifically, Neo is presented the reality of the Matrix through a verbal explanation – and his understanding of the truth of the Matrix is developed only as far as an explanation of it could bring it. In the movie, as Morpheus is finishing his explanation he says to Neo, “Unfortunately, no one can be told what the Matrix is. You have to see it for yourself.” This implies the idea that a person can only be presented the revelation. But for them to fully come to terms with the truth, they must take a certain initiative and pursue it on their own. In Morpheus’ words to Neo: “I told you I can only show you the door. You have to walk through it.”

At one point, soon after Neo has is brought out of the Matrix into the world of the real, he is in obvious distress, due to the shock of his incredibly abrupt departure from the reality he has known all his life. He is lying on a mattress as Morpheus sits beside him, expressing sympathy: “I feel I owe you an apology. We have a rule we never free a mind once its reached a certain age. It’s dangerous, and the mind has trouble letting go.” Morpheus’ point in this scene is that people who are born into the false reality that is the Matrix become so used to that frame of thought that any other form of reality becomes extremely hard to accept. “…the mind has trouble letting go.” This line touches on the idea that the revelation of a new reality does not come easily to those who have come to know the false reality of the Matrix as the only reality, a category of people, which may also be described as the “dumb masses”, or “ignorant folk”.

It had been Prophesized among the people of the real world that a man, known as “The One” would one day be brought into the reality of the real world and help to end the war between the human race, and the machines which have enslaved them. Morpheus, more so than anybody else from the real world, believes very intensely that Neo is without doubt this person. “He believes it so blindly, that he’s willing to give up his own life, to save your own.” These are the words of an almost all-knowing being within the Matrix known as “The Oracle”, speaking to Neo for the first time. Shortly after, the group finds themselves under attack within the Matrix by several of the evil agents. One of the agents grabs hold of Neo for a moment, and it seems like he will be unable to get away. It is here that Morpheus plows into the agent, tackling it and successfully breaking its grip on Neo, allowing for he and the rest of the group to get away. As a result, Morpheus is taken hostage by the agents to be drugged and tortured. Shortly after this, Neo begins to take action himself for the first time. He remembers what “The Oracle” had told him and feels that it is his responsibility to save Morpheus. So, against all odds he and the brave Trinity venture into the Matrix to find and free Morpheus. It is during this rescue that Neo begins to show his ability as he displays superhuman strength and speed – even for in the Matrix.

Near the end of the movie, Neo has another type of revelation, which may be referred to as a “flash revelation.” He becomes trapped within the Matrix and is cornered by several of the powerful villains of the movie: the agents and has no apparent escape. Neo is actually killed, having been shot many times. His pulse flat-lines and for a moment all seems lost until a kiss from his lover, Trinity, brings him to life once more. In the next scene, Neo’s pulse returns and he stands up with the realization that he has ability beyond any other within the Matrix and that he is in fact, “The One”, as Morpheus had told him. He begins to literally see the Matrix for what it is – a series of codes that make up a computer program. At this point Neo is able to act as he pleases while in the Matrix and wards off the agents without any problem. This flash revelation allowed for Neo to see the “world” in a different way, almost within seconds, and he is therefore granted with new ability.

The first of the original three “Star Wars” films, “Episode IV: A New Hope,” introduces us to Luke Skywalker a young boy who lives with his aunt and uncle ‘Beru’ on a small farm-type facility. The galaxy in which Luke lives, is ruled largely by a malicious military force known as the “Galactic Empire.” He is fully aware of the Galactic Empire’s suppressive and evil temperament, but feels that the matter is out of his hands, choosing to stay uninvolved by ignoring it. A little ways into the movie, Luke catches his first glimpse of the revelation to come. He is purchasing two droids (robots) from a traveling droid shop for work for his family (the droids later turning out to be continuous characters of the story). While cleaning one of the droids, Luke accidentally triggers a holographic message; an image shoots out in front of it, and begins to play, but abruptly cuts short and repeats every few seconds. However a name is mentioned in the short part of the message that is actually played. Luke is very curious, recognizing the name Obi-Wan Kenobi, who the message speaks of – and tracing it to a local man named Ben Kenobi. His only guardians – his aunt and uncle whom he lives with, particularly his uncle, attempt to diminish his curiosity of the issue by making it seem unimportant and lying to him by saying that Obi-Wan Kenobi has been dead for a long time, and that Ben Kenobi is simply a crazy hermit. The message embedded droid at one point runs away into the dunes of the surrounding desert in search for Obi-Wan, the person that its message had been intended for. Luke heads out in search of the droid, soon running into Ben Kenobi, and discovers that Obi-Wan and Ben are the same. He spends some time with Obi-Wan and learns a great deal about his father and Obi-Wan both. He learns of the fact that they had both been Jedi fighting in the clone wars – a historically important war of their galaxy. Obi-Wan also tells him of “the force,” a mystical energy that allows the Jedi their power. Having heard these things, though intrigued, Luke still finds that world to be beyond his grasp and out of his life. Shortly after his encounter with Obi-Wan, Luke travels back to the home of his aunt and uncle to find that they had been brutally murdered and their house destroyed at the hands of the empire. Luke’s world crumbles – what little of a family life he knew had been wiped away in an instant. Shortly after the discovery of the wreckage, Luke makes the decision follow Obi-Wan and learn the ways of the Jedi to help with the rebellion against evil powers that destroyed his home and suppress the people of the galaxy. This was a moment of flash revelation. After the shock of seeing his relatives and home burnt and destroyed, he felt an apparent burst of initiative – a desire to get both revenge and to bring justice to the oppressors. Shortly after these happenings, Kenobi and Luke unit e with Han Solo and Chewbacca, the pilot and first mate of the Millennium Falcon, and proceed to leave the planet in order to join with the rebels in the fight. During this flight Kenobi begins to teach Luke the ways of the force – how to utilize and harness its ability. Luke is training with the light saber Kenobi had given him against a small floating ball, which is hovering around him shooting small lasers from different angles. Luke’s goal is to deflect the beams as they are shot. He effectively blocks several of the shots but is not one hundred percent accurate. Kenobi then does something that Luke was not expecting. He places a helmet over Luke’s head with a solid metal visor that blocks his vision and tells Luke to “use the force.” After a few tries Luke successfully deflects several shots regardless of his blindfold. Following this success, Luke says the following to Kenobi: “You know I did feel something. I could almost see the remote.” Kenobi’s response: “That’s good! You’ve taken your first step into a larger world.” It can be inferred that at this point Luke has experienced the beginning of an ongoing revelation pertaining to his ability with the force.
Luke quickly gets involved in the battle between the rebels and the Galactic Empire. Soon after their voyage begins on Han Solo’s ship, they find themselves conducting a rescue mission of Princess Leia. Their rescue and escape is dangerous but successful, however, before they do, Obi-Wan is seemingly stricken down; killed. Luke is naturally devastated, but forced to leave him. It is hinted though, that Obi-Wan had not been completely killed off, as when he was hit with Darth Vader’s light saber, there was no corpse to be found – he simply disappeared. Further on in the story, an attack is being conducted by the rebels in an attempt to destroy the “Death Star”, a major base and headquarters of the empire, and a squadron of fighter pilots have been assigned to do it. Luke is among these men. Their goal is to fire a set of lasers into a specific area of the Death Star, which they predict would set off a chain reaction causing it to explode. Eventually every pilot of the group is killed off, and Luke is the one remaining chance at success. Obviously in a tight situation, Luke receives some help from his thought-dead prophet, Obi-Wan. He is told: “Luke, use the force” and proceeds to ignore his radars, riding fully on instinct and “the force”. With the help of Han-Solo’s last minute protection he completes the mission and successfully destroys the Death Star, becoming a great young hero among the people.

When looking at the use of the revelation trope in two or more stories, we can compare and contrast the multiple uses and identify the varying aspects of the trope at different points in the two examples. For instance, in “The Matrix,” there is an obvious main prophet that delivers the revelatory message to Neo. Morpheus, in a scene near the beginning of the movie sits Neo down across from himself, and explains the truth about the Matrix as best he can. He asks Neo if he is truly keen on learning the whole truth during the blue pill-red pill scene, and when given the go, lays out the reality of the human race’s enslavement in the masked world of the Matix. This element of the revelation trope is clear to us. Within “Star Wars: Episode IV,” we can single out a similar prophetic figure. Obi-Wan Kenobi plays a comparable role in Star Wars to the character of Morpheus in The Matrix. Kenobi reveals several truths to Luke Skywalker; partially clearing up a bit of the confusion he has about his father and also explaining the great mystical power of “the force” to Luke, who had been completely oblivious to its existence previously. Obi-Wan explains these things to Luke, whose reaction is to accept the information appreciatively but continue shrugging it off as irrelevant to his own life.

The messages within “The Matrix” and “Star Wars” are in some ways different from one another as well as the same. In “The Matrix,” Morpheus is reveals to Neo that the reality in which he has been living in is unreal and in turn also reveals to him the “real world,” outside of the Matrix. The message is of a new way to perceive the world before ones eyes. In “Star Wars,” Kenobi delivers a revelatory message to Luke about his father, Jedi and the force. Luke is given a new understanding of his ability and of the rebellion against the Galactic Empire. In both of these stories there is an obvious “unacceptable situation” that the characters are apart of. In “The Matrix,” it is the entrapment of the human race inside the Matrix program. And in “Star Wars,” it is the suppressive rule of the Galactic Empire. Within both stories, the main recipients of the message being given were partially aware of the suppressive situation. Neo, before his revelation, had been skeptical of his reality. He knew that something was not right about the world he lived in. Luke on the other hand, before he came to know Obi-Wan, knew of what the Galactic Empire had been doing, and was aware of the struggles occurring beyond his planet.

In “The Matrix”, we witnessed the presentation of a new idea to Neo – one showing him a new way to look at the world, and eventually giving him a complete, revelatory understanding of it. Correspondingly, in “Star Wars”, Luke was presented with a string of new information that forever changed his perspective of the state of his world as well as himself. In both stories, the prophetic figure in some way nearly killed, stirring up a great deal of concern and worry from the two disciples alike. Within “The Matrix”, Neo is afraid for Morpheus’ life, as The Oracle had told him it would end in order to save his own. So upon seeing Morpheus throwing himself in dangers way he is fully aware of the situation. Later on though, after treatment that had almost killed Morpheus, Neo pulls himself together and saves him from very near death. In a similar way, we see the prophet of “Star Wars”, Obi-Wan Kenobi, nearly die in the eyes of the disciple – he was struck down and eliminated from view, returning later on as only a voice to deliver a helpful piece of advice to Luke. We are able to infer from the two given examples that often within the ensuing drama of a story that uses the ‘trope of revelation’, the prophetic figure of the story will experience some form of ‘near death’. In both of these examples, the ‘near death’ situation had been voluntary of the prophet in some way. Morpheus chose to sacrifice his safety in order to ensure Neo’s. In a very similar way, Obi-Wan, while at arms with Darth Vader, chose to leave himself exposed, allowing for Darth Vader to hit him with his Light Saber.

Revelation Paperrrr

“Deconstructing the discourse of revelation”
Language and has come a very long way to develop into the many complex dialects currently found across the world and one of the most impressive aspects of human language is the written word; transitions of spoken words into an array of symbols, each representing simple sounds that when combined exemplify spoken language and more. With the creation of language, came more than the ability to converse, but also allowed for messages and information to carry from one generation to the next. Stories have been told and passed down for thousands of years – nearly as long as humans have been able to communicate verbally as well as visually. Oftentimes these stories will follow a similar structure to one another, establishing a generic layout and theme that is commonly used. Additionally, stories will every so often have themes that recur and repeat inside their own bodies in order to communicate the message. One may refer to these structures as “tropes.” A ‘trope’ may be defined as an element of a story that helps to set its structure. Within literature, a trope will often refer to a commonly used recurring theme. Within the large away of tropes seen in literature across history and the world, one in particular has provided the basic structure for some of the most influential stories ever written. The trope of revelation within a story is one that utilizes components of revelation such as a prophetic figure delivering a message, and a figure on the receiving end of the revelation accepting or denying the delivered message. The idea of revelation is in part, made up of those things.

The development of the written languages has allowed humans to strengthen their creative minds through fiction, allowing thoughts that exist solely as ideas to take form in writing.

The Matrix is a film in which the elements of the trope of revelation can easily be identified when sought after. We follow Neo, the main character, who from the beginning is already very skeptical of the reality that he is living in. As we find out more about Neo, we see that he is unsatisfied with the version of reality that he is given. He knows that there is something more than the on-screen view of the world that he and most others are wrapped up in. Right off the bat we witness Neo being exposed to subtle glimpses of the revelation he is on track to receiving. We are introduced to Neo as he is suddenly woken up in his cluttered one bedroom apartment as a simple message of text appears on his computer screen. It says: “Wake up, Neo…” “The Matrix has you…” And follows by telling him to “Follow the white rabbit…” This is Neo’s first contact with the prophets and exposure to his upcoming revelation in any way. Following the white rabbit leads him to a party at which he meets Trinity and eventually to Morpheus, the character of the movie who best fits the prophet label. Early in the movie Morpheus greets Neo for the first time, and he is fully presented the reality of the Matrix (the revelation). More specifically, Neo is presented the reality of the Matrix through a verbal explanation – and his understanding of the truth of the Matrix is developed only as far as an explanation of it could bring it. In the movie, as Morpheus is finishing his explanation he says to Neo, “Unfortunately, no one can be told what the Matrix is. You have to see it for yourself.” This implies the idea that a person can only be presented the revelation. But for them to fully come to terms with the truth, they must take a certain initiative and pursue it on their own. In Morpheus’ words to Neo: “I told you I can only show you the door. You have to walk through it.”

At one point, soon after Neo has is brought out of the Matrix into the world of the real, he is in obvious distress, due to the shock of his incredibly abrupt departure from the reality he has known all his life. He is lying on a mattress as Morpheus sits beside him, expressing sympathy: “I feel I owe you an apology. We have a rule we never free a mind once its reached a certain age. It’s dangerous, and the mind has trouble letting go.” Morpheus’ point in this scene is that people who are born into the false reality that is the Matrix become so used to that frame of thought that any other form of reality becomes extremely hard to accept. “…the mind has trouble letting go.” This line touches on the idea that the revelation of a new reality does not come easily to those who have come to know the false reality of the Matrix as the only reality, a category of people, which may also be described as the “dumb masses”, or “ignorant folk”.

It had been Prophesized among the people of the real world that a man, known as “The One” would one day be brought into the reality of the real world and help to end the war between the human race, and the machines which have enslaved them. Morpheus, more so than anybody else from the real world, believes very intensely that Neo is without doubt this person. “He believes it so blindly, that he’s willing to give up his own life, to save your own.” These are the words of an almost all-knowing being within the Matrix known as “The Oracle”, speaking to Neo for the first time. Shortly after, the group finds themselves under attack within the Matrix by several of the evil agents. One of the agents grabs hold of Neo for a moment, and it seems like he will be unable to get away. It is here that Morpheus plows into the agent, tackling it and successfully breaking its grip on Neo, allowing for he and the rest of the group to get away. As a result, Morpheus is taken hostage by the agents to be drugged and tortured. Shortly after this, Neo begins to take action himself for the first time. He remembers what “The Oracle” had told him and feels that it is his responsibility to save Morpheus. So, against all odds he and the brave Trinity venture into the Matrix to find and free Morpheus. It is during this rescue that Neo begins to show his ability as he displays superhuman strength and speed – even for in the Matrix.

Near the end of the movie, Neo has another type of revelation, which may be referred to as a “flash revelation.” He becomes trapped within the Matrix and is cornered by several of the powerful villains of the movie: the agents and has no apparent escape. Neo is actually killed, having been shot many times. His pulse flat-lines and for a moment all seems lost until a kiss from his lover, Trinity, brings him to life once more. In the next scene, Neo’s pulse returns and he stands up with the realization that he has ability beyond any other within the Matrix and that he is in fact, “The One”, as Morpheus had told him. He begins to literally see the Matrix for what it is – a series of codes that make up a computer program. At this point Neo is able to act as he pleases while in the Matrix and wards off the agents without any problem. This flash revelation allowed for Neo to see the “world” in a different way, almost within seconds, and he is therefore granted with new ability.

The first of the original three “Star Wars” films, “Episode IV: A New Hope,” introduces us to Luke Skywalker a young boy who lives with his aunt and uncle ‘Beru’ on a small farm-type facility. The galaxy in which Luke lives, is ruled largely by a malicious military force known as the “Galactic Empire.” He is fully aware of the Galactic Empire’s suppressive and evil temperament, but feels that the matter is out of his hands, choosing to stay uninvolved by ignoring it. A little ways into the movie, Luke catches his first glimpse of the revelation to come. He is purchasing two droids (robots) from a traveling droid shop for work for his family (the droids later turning out to be continuous characters of the story). While cleaning one of the droids, Luke accidentally triggers a holographic message; an image shoots out in front of it, and begins to play, but abruptly cuts short and repeats every few seconds. However a name is mentioned in the short part of the message that is actually played. Luke is very curious, recognizing the name Obi-Wan Kenobi, who the message speaks of – and tracing it to a local man named Ben Kenobi. His only guardians – his aunt and uncle whom he lives with, particularly his uncle, attempt to diminish his curiosity of the issue by making it seem unimportant and lying to him by saying that Obi-Wan Kenobi has been dead for a long time, and that Ben Kenobi is simply a crazy hermit. The message embedded droid at one point runs away into the dunes of the surrounding desert in search for Obi-Wan, the person that its message had been intended for. Luke heads out in search of the droid, soon running into Ben Kenobi, and discovers that Obi-Wan and Ben are the same. He spends some time with Obi-Wan and learns a great deal about his father and Obi-Wan both. He learns of the fact that they had both been Jedi fighting in the clone wars – a historically important war of their galaxy. Obi-Wan also tells him of “the force,” a mystical energy that allows the Jedi their power. Having heard these things, though intrigued, Luke still finds that world to be beyond his grasp and out of his life. Shortly after his encounter with Obi-Wan, Luke travels back to the home of his aunt and uncle to find that they had been brutally murdered and their house destroyed at the hands of the empire. Luke’s world crumbles – what little of a family life he knew had been wiped away in an instant. Shortly after the discovery of the wreckage, Luke makes the decision follow Obi-Wan and learn the ways of the Jedi to help with the rebellion against evil powers that destroyed his home and suppress the people of the galaxy. This was a moment of flash revelation. After the shock of seeing his relatives and home burnt and destroyed, he felt an apparent burst of initiative – a desire to get both revenge and to bring justice to the oppressors. Shortly after these happenings, Kenobi and Luke unit e with Han Solo and Chewbacca, the pilot and first mate of the Millennium Falcon, and proceed to leave the planet in order to join with the rebels in the fight. During this flight Kenobi begins to teach Luke the ways of the force – how to utilize and harness its ability. Luke is training with the light saber Kenobi had given him against a small floating ball, which is hovering around him shooting small lasers from different angles. Luke’s goal is to deflect the beams as they are shot. He effectively blocks several of the shots but is not one hundred percent accurate. Kenobi then does something that Luke was not expecting. He places a helmet over Luke’s head with a solid metal visor that blocks his vision and tells Luke to “use the force.” After a few tries Luke successfully deflects several shots regardless of his blindfold. Following this success, Luke says the following to Kenobi: “You know I did feel something. I could almost see the remote.” Kenobi’s response: “That’s good! You’ve taken your first step into a larger world.” It can be inferred that at this point Luke has experienced the beginning of an ongoing revelation pertaining to his ability with the force.
Luke quickly gets involved in the battle between the rebels and the Galactic Empire. Soon after their voyage begins on Han Solo’s ship, they find themselves conducting a rescue mission of Princess Leia. Their rescue and escape is dangerous but successful, however, before they do, Obi-Wan is seemingly stricken down; killed. Luke is naturally devastated, but forced to leave him. It is hinted though, that Obi-Wan had not been completely killed off, as when he was hit with Darth Vader’s light saber, there was no corpse to be found – he simply disappeared. Further on in the story, an attack is being conducted by the rebels in an attempt to destroy the “Death Star”, a major base and headquarters of the empire, and a squadron of fighter pilots have been assigned to do it. Luke is among these men. Their goal is to fire a set of lasers into a specific area of the Death Star, which they predict would set off a chain reaction causing it to explode. Eventually every pilot of the group is killed off, and Luke is the one remaining chance at success. Obviously in a tight situation, Luke receives some help from his thought-dead prophet, Obi-Wan. He is told: “Luke, use the force” and proceeds to ignore his radars, riding fully on instinct and “the force”. With the help of Han-Solo’s last minute protection he completes the mission and successfully destroys the Death Star, becoming a great young hero among the people.

When looking at the use of the revelation trope in two or more stories, we can compare and contrast the multiple uses and identify the varying aspects of the trope at different points in the two examples. For instance, in “The Matrix,” there is an obvious main prophet that delivers the revelatory message to Neo. Morpheus, in a scene near the beginning of the movie sits Neo down across from himself, and explains the truth about the Matrix as best he can. He asks Neo if he is truly keen on learning the whole truth during the blue pill-red pill scene, and when given the go, lays out the reality of the human race’s enslavement in the masked world of the Matix. This element of the revelation trope is clear to us. Within “Star Wars: Episode IV,” we can single out a similar prophetic figure. Obi-Wan Kenobi plays a comparable role in Star Wars to the character of Morpheus in The Matrix. Kenobi reveals several truths to Luke Skywalker; partially clearing up a bit of the confusion he has about his father and also explaining the great mystical power of “the force” to Luke, who had been completely oblivious to its existence previously. Obi-Wan explains these things to Luke, whose reaction is to accept the information appreciatively but continue shrugging it off as irrelevant to his own life.

The messages within “The Matrix” and “Star Wars” are in some ways different from one another as well as the same. In “The Matrix,” Morpheus is reveals to Neo that the reality in which he has been living in is unreal and in turn also reveals to him the “real world,” outside of the Matrix. The message is of a new way to perceive the world before ones eyes. In “Star Wars,” Kenobi delivers a revelatory message to Luke about his father, Jedi and the force. Luke is given a new understanding of his ability and of the rebellion against the Galactic Empire. In both of these stories there is an obvious “unacceptable situation” that the characters are apart of. In “The Matrix,” it is the entrapment of the human race inside the Matrix program. And in “Star Wars,” it is the suppressive rule of the Galactic Empire. Within both stories, the main recipients of the message being given were partially aware of the suppressive situation. Neo, before his revelation, had been skeptical of his reality. He knew that something was not right about the world he lived in. Luke on the other hand, before he came to know Obi-Wan, knew of what the Galactic Empire had been doing, and was aware of the struggles occurring beyond his planet.

In “The Matrix”, we witnessed the presentation of a new idea to Neo – one showing him a new way to look at the world, and eventually giving him a complete, revelatory understanding of it. Correspondingly, in “Star Wars”, Luke was presented with a string of new information that forever changed his perspective of the state of his world as well as himself. In both stories, the prophetic figure in some way nearly killed, stirring up a great deal of concern and worry from the two disciples alike. Within “The Matrix”, Neo is afraid for Morpheus’ life, as The Oracle had told him it would end in order to save his own. So upon seeing Morpheus throwing himself in dangers way he is fully aware of the situation. Later on though, after treatment that had almost killed Morpheus, Neo pulls himself together and saves him from very near death. In a similar way, we see the prophet of “Star Wars”, Obi-Wan Kenobi, nearly die in the eyes of the disciple – he was struck down and eliminated from view, returning later on as only a voice to deliver a helpful piece of advice to Luke. We are able to infer from the two given examples that often within the ensuing drama of a story that uses the ‘trope of revelation’, the prophetic figure of the story will experience some form of ‘near death’. In both of these examples, the ‘near death’ situation had been voluntary of the prophet in some way. Morpheus chose to sacrifice his safety in order to ensure Neo’s. In a very similar way, Obi-Wan, while at arms with Darth Vader, chose to leave himself exposed, allowing for Darth Vader to hit him with his Light Saber.

Revelation Paperrr

“Deconstructing the discourse of revelation”
Language and has come a very long way to develop into the many complex dialects currently found across the world and one of the most impressive aspects of human language is the written word; transitions of spoken words into an array of symbols, each representing simple sounds that when combined exemplify spoken language and more. With the creation of language, came more than the ability to converse, but also allowed for messages and information to be carried from one generation to the next. Stories have been told and passed down for thousands of years – nearly as long as humans have been able to communicate verbally as well as visually. Oftentimes these stories will follow a similar structure to one another, establishing a generic layout and theme that is commonly used. Additionally, stories will every so often have themes that recur and repeat inside their own bodies in order to communicate the message. These structures may be referred to as “tropes.” A trope can be defined as an element of a story that helps to set its structure. Within literature, a trope will often refer to a commonly used recurring theme. Within the large away of tropes seen in literature across history and the world, one in particular has provided the basic structure for some of the most influential stories ever written. The trope of revelation within a story is one that utilizes components of revelation such as a prophetic figure delivering a message, and a figure on the receiving end of the revelation accepting or denying the delivered message. The idea of revelation is made up of basically those things; it is _______________

The development of the written languages has allowed for humans to strengthen their creative minds through fiction, allowing thoughts that exist solely as ideas to take form in writing.

The Matrix was a film in which the elements of the trope of revelation could be easily identified when sought after. We follow Neo, the main character, who from the beginning is already very skeptical of the reality that he is living in. As we find out more about Neo, we see that he is unsatisfied with the version of reality that he is given. He knows that there is something more than the on-screen view of the world that he and most others are wrapped up in. Right off the bat we witness Neo being exposed to subtle glimpses of the revelation he is on track to receiving. We are introduced to Neo as he is suddenly woken up in his cluttered one bedroom apartment as a simple message of text appears on his computer screen. It says: “Wake up, Neo…” “The Matrix has you…” And follows by telling him to “Follow the white rabbit…” This is Neo’s first contact with the prophets and exposure to his upcoming revelation in any way. Following the white rabbit leads him to a party at which he meets Trinity and eventually to Morpheus, the character of the movie who best fits the prophet label. Early in the movie Morpheus greets Neo for the first time, and he is fully presented the reality of the Matrix (the revelation). More specifically, Neo is presented the reality of the Matrix through a verbal explanation – and his understanding of the truth of the Matrix is developed only as far as an explanation of it could bring it. In the movie, as Morpheus is finishing his explanation he says to Neo, “Unfortunately, no one can be told what the Matrix is. You have to see it for yourself.” This implies the idea that a person can only be presented the revelation. But for them to fully come to terms with the truth, they must take a certain initiative and pursue it on their own. In Morpheus’ words to Neo: “I told you I can only show you the door. You have to walk through it.”

At one point, soon after Neo has is brought out of the Matrix into the world of the real, he is in obvious distress, due to the shock of his incredibly abrupt departure from the reality he has known all his life. He is lying on a mattress as Morpheus sits beside him, expressing sympathy: “I feel I owe you an apology. We have a rule we never free a mind once its reached a certain age. It’s dangerous, and the mind has trouble letting go.” Morpheus’ point in this scene is that people who are born into the false reality that is the Matrix become so used to that frame of thought that any other form of reality becomes extremely hard to accept. “…the mind has trouble letting go.” This line touches on the idea that the revelation of a new reality does not come easily to those who have come to know the false reality of the Matrix as the only reality, a category of people, which may also be described as the “dumb masses”, or “ignorant folk”.

It had been Prophesized among the people of the real world that a man, known as “The One” would one day be brought into the reality of the real world and help to end the war between the human race, and the machines which have enslaved them. Morpheus, more so than anybody else from the real world, believes very intensely that Neo is without doubt this person. “He believes it so blindly, that he’s willing to give up his own life, to save your own.” These are the words of an almost all-knowing being within the Matrix known as “The Oracle”, speaking to Neo for the first time. Shortly after, the group finds themselves under attack within the Matrix by several of the evil agents. One of the agents grabs hold of Neo for a moment, and it seems like he will be unable to get away. It is here that Morpheus plows into the agent, tackling it and successfully breaking its grip on Neo, allowing for he and the rest of the group to get away. As a result, Morpheus is taken hostage by the agents to be drugged and tortured. Shortly after this, Neo begins to take action himself for the first time. He remembers what “The Oracle” had told him and feels that it is his responsibility to save Morpheus. So, against all odds he and the brave Trinity venture into the Matrix to find and free Morpheus. It is during this rescue that Neo begins to show his ability as he displays superhuman strength and speed – even for in the Matrix.

Near the end of the movie, Neo has another type of revelation, which may be referred to as a “flash revelation.” He becomes trapped within the Matrix and is cornered by several of the powerful villains of the movie: the agents and has no apparent escape. Neo is actually killed, having been shot many times. His pulse flat-lines and for a moment all seems lost until a kiss from his lover, Trinity, brings him to life once more. In the next scene, Neo’s pulse returns and he stands up with the realization that he has ability beyond any other within the Matrix and that he is in fact, “The One”, as Morpheus had told him. He begins to literally see the Matrix for what it is – a series of codes that make up a computer program. At this point Neo is able to act as he pleases while in the Matrix and wards off the agents without any problem. This flash revelation allowed for Neo to see the “world” in a different way, almost within seconds, and he is therefore granted with new ability.

The first of the original three “Star Wars” films, “Episode IV: A New Hope,” introduces us to Luke Skywalker a young boy who lives with his aunt and uncle ‘Beru’ on a small farm-type facility. The galaxy in which Luke lives, is ruled largely by a malicious military force known as the “Galactic Empire.” He is fully aware of the Galactic Empire’s suppressive and evil temperament, but feels that the matter is out of his hands, choosing to stay uninvolved by ignoring it. A little ways into the movie, Luke catches his first glimpse of the revelation to come. He is purchasing two droids (robots) from a traveling droid shop for work for his family (the droids later turning out to be continuous characters of the story). While cleaning one of the droids, Luke accidentally triggers a holographic message; an image shoots out in front of it, and begins to play, but abruptly cuts short and repeats every few seconds. However a name is mentioned in the short part of the message that is actually played. Luke is very curious, recognizing the name Obi-Wan Kenobi, who the message speaks of – and tracing it to a local man named Ben Kenobi. His only guardians – his aunt and uncle whom he lives with, particularly his uncle, attempt to diminish his curiosity of the issue by making it seem unimportant and lying to him by saying that Obi-Wan Kenobi has been dead for a long time, and that Ben Kenobi is simply a crazy hermit. The message embedded droid at one point runs away into the dunes of the surrounding desert in search for Obi-Wan, the person that its message had been intended for. Luke heads out in search of the droid, soon running into Ben Kenobi, and discovers that Obi-Wan and Ben are the same. He spends some time with Obi-Wan and learns a great deal about his father and Obi-Wan both. He learns of the fact that they had both been Jedi fighting in the clone wars – a historically important war of their galaxy. Obi-Wan also tells him of “the force,” a mystical energy that allows the Jedi their power. Having heard these things, though intrigued, Luke still finds that world to be beyond his grasp and out of his life. Shortly after his encounter with Obi-Wan, Luke travels back to the home of his aunt and uncle to find that they had been brutally murdered and their house destroyed at the hands of the empire. Luke’s world crumbles – what little of a family life he knew had been wiped away in an instant. Shortly after the discovery of the wreckage, Luke makes the decision follow Obi-Wan and learn the ways of the Jedi to help with the rebellion against evil powers that destroyed his home and suppress the people of the galaxy. This was a moment of flash revelation. After the shock of seeing his relatives and home burnt and destroyed, he felt an apparent burst of initiative – a desire to get both revenge and to bring justice to the oppressors. Shortly after these happenings, Kenobi and Luke unit e with Han Solo and Chewbacca, the pilot and first mate of the Millennium Falcon, and proceed to leave the planet in order to join with the rebels in the fight. During this flight Kenobi begins to teach Luke the ways of the force – how to utilize and harness its ability. Luke is training with the light saber Kenobi had given him against a small floating ball, which is hovering around him shooting small lasers from different angles. Luke’s goal is to deflect the beams as they are shot. He effectively blocks several of the shots but is not one hundred percent accurate. Kenobi then does something that Luke was not expecting. He places a helmet over Luke’s head with a solid metal visor that blocks his vision and tells Luke to “use the force.” After a few tries Luke successfully deflects several shots regardless of his blindfold. Following this success, Luke says the following to Kenobi: “You know I did feel something. I could almost see the remote.” Kenobi’s response: “That’s good! You’ve taken your first step into a larger world.” It can be inferred that at this point Luke has experienced the beginning of an ongoing revelation pertaining to his ability with the force.
Luke quickly gets involved in the battle between the rebels and the Galactic Empire. Soon after their voyage begins on Han Solo’s ship, they find themselves conducting a rescue mission of Princess Leia. Their rescue and escape is dangerous but successful, however, before they do, Obi-Wan is seemingly stricken down; killed. Luke is naturally devastated, but forced to leave him. It is hinted though, that Obi-Wan had not been completely killed off, as when he was hit with Darth Vader’s light saber, there was no corpse to be found – he simply disappeared. Further on in the story, an attack is being conducted by the rebels in an attempt to destroy the “Death Star”, a major base and headquarters of the empire, and a squadron of fighter pilots have been assigned to do it. Luke is among these men. Their goal is to fire a set of lasers into a specific area of the Death Star, which they predict would set off a chain reaction causing it to explode. Eventually every pilot of the group is killed off, and Luke is the one remaining chance at success. Obviously in a tight situation, Luke receives some help from his thought-dead prophet, Obi-Wan. He is told: “Luke, use the force” and proceeds to ignore his radars, riding fully on instinct and “the force”. With the help of Han-Solo’s last minute protection he completes the mission and successfully destroys the Death Star, becoming a great young hero among the people.

When looking at the use of the revelation trope in two or more stories, we can compare and contrast the multiple uses and identify the varying aspects of the trope at different points in the two examples. For instance, in “The Matrix,” there is an obvious main prophet that delivers the revelatory message to Neo. Morpheus, in a scene near the beginning of the movie sits Neo down across from himself, and explains the truth about the Matrix as best he can. He asks Neo if he is truly keen on learning the whole truth during the blue pill-red pill scene, and when given the go, lays out the reality of the human race’s enslavement in the masked world of the Matix. This element of the revelation trope is clear to us. Within “Star Wars: Episode IV,” we can single out a similar prophetic figure. Obi-Wan Kenobi plays a comparable role in Star Wars to the character of Morpheus in The Matrix. Kenobi reveals several truths to Luke Skywalker; partially clearing up a bit of the confusion he has about his father and also explaining the great mystical power of “the force” to Luke, who had been completely oblivious to its existence previously. Obi-Wan explains these things to Luke, whose reaction is to accept the information appreciatively but continue shrugging it off as irrelevant to his own life.

The messages within “The Matrix” and “Star Wars” are in some ways different from one another as well as the same. In “The Matrix,” Morpheus is reveals to Neo that the reality in which he has been living in is unreal and in turn, also reveals to him the “real world,” outside of the Matrix. The message is of a new way to perceive the world before ones eyes. In “Star Wars,” Kenobi delivers a revelatory message to Luke about his father, Jedi and the force. Luke is given a new understanding of his ability and of the rebellion against the Galactic Empire. In both of these stories there is an obvious “unacceptable situation” that the characters are apart of. In “The Matrix,” it is the entrapment of the human race inside the Matrix program. And in “Star Wars,” it is the suppressive rule of the Galactic Empire. Within both stories, the main recipients of the message being given were partially aware of the suppressive situation. Neo, before his revelation, had been skeptical of his reality. He knew that something was not right about the world he lived in. Luke on the other hand, before he came to know Obi-Wan, knew of what the Galactic Empire had been doing, and was aware of the struggles occurring beyond his planet.

In “The Matrix”, we witnessed Neo being presented with a new idea – showing him a new way to look at the world, and eventually giving him a complete, revelatory understanding of it. Correspondingly, in “Star Wars”, Luke was presented with a string of new information that forever changed his perspective of the state of his world as well as himself. In both stories, the prophetic figure in some way nearly killed, stirring up a great deal of concern and worry from the two disciples alike. Within “The Matrix”, Neo is afraid for Morpheus’ life, as he had been told by The Oracle that it would end in order to save his own. So upon seeing Morpheus throwing himself in dangers way he is fully aware of the situation. Later on though, after treatment that had almost killed Morpheus, Neo pulls himself together and saves Morpheus from very near death. In a similar way, we see the prophet of “Star Wars”, Obi-Wan Kenobi, nearly die in the eyes of the disciple. He is struck down and eliminated from view. However he later on returns as only a voice to deliver a helpful piece of advice to Luke.