Assignment 1-3-2 Journal Article Paper

Assignment 1-3-2

Journal Article Analysis

Louise Njie

HUMN240-H4WW

Professor I. Morris Schottenein

April 30, 2013

      For this assignment, I chose to analyze Spider-Man in love: A psychoanalytic Interpretation by Richard Kaplan. In my opinion, this article is intended for a generalized audience and no specific audience in particular. The author analyzes how spider-man falls in love with MJ his one true love and how they met. He also talks about Spider-man’s childhood and his high school days. The author also briefly touches on the subject of the myth of super heroes and their love interests.

      The writer focuses on a few ideas in this analysis. Firstly, he talks about how not all super heroes are all hard hearted and rigid and emphasizes that they too can fall in love just like the rest of us. After all, they are humans just like the rest of the society that they protect. Richard Kaplan goes on to say that when it comes to super hero movies, love is not the first priority of the super hero, upholding their duty as the protectors of mankind is and anything else would be a distraction.

      The writer also touches on the fact that super heroes do not always have a happy ending nor do they always get the girl at the end of the movie. They have to make sacrifices just like the rest of us and they have to face the same challenges as we do when it comes to love. For example, Spider-Man had to give up MJ in the end to focus on his “public duty” of saving the world.

      The article focuses on gender roles and gender role socialization and how that plays an important role in our view of super heroes and what they should look and act like. Parker (Spider-Man) was not a “masculine man”. He wasn’t muscular nor was he hard. Instead, he had a soft voice and had a lean build and was not intimidating at all as we would expect super heroes to be. The writer mentions that MJ ends up falling in love with him however because of this very reason, because he reminded her of her mother’s nurturing nature.

The author of this article also gives his readers an in-depth insight into the early life of Peter parker (Spider-Man), which actually helps the readers understand the hero better from a psychological point of view. During his earlier years, Peter did not get adequate attention from his father and this made him feel rejected and angry. Due to the fact that he was slightly afraid of his father, he could not misbehave in school so in his mind’s eye, his father was the villain and he directed all his anger towards him. Peter’s father leaves and he is forced to live with his Uncle Ben and his wife.

      Spider-Man’s uncle is later murdered and this triggers him to start his quest to becoming a super hero, thrusting him into the “call to adventure” stage of his “hero’s journey”. The article later goes on to describe how Spider-Man falls in love with MJ and how he constantly must find the balance between playing super hero at night and a normal kid by day. The article concludes by indicating that women want “real men” to fall in love with. In the end MJ falls in love with Peter Parker, the man and not Spider-Man, the super hero. Women want a man who is understanding and caring, not just a tall, strong and handsome man.

      Personally, I think this was an in-depth article that gave an insight into the life of Spider-Man the super hero and Peter Parker the actual man behind the mask of Spider-Man. The one thing about this article that I didn’t particularly like was the body of the article and how the writer organized his ideas. The ideas did not flow into each  other instead, they were scattered all over the article and I almost had to read the whole article 4 times before I could grasp the concept of what the author was trying to say in each paragraph and worked really hard to connect the ideas together. In my opinion, the article was not very organized and it was difficult for me to read it because he didn’t capture my attention nor keep me interested most of the time.

      For the most part, I agree with the writer’s points. For example, he mentioned that “……this image of the threatening bad father should be comprehended as a longstanding, powerful, and pervasive image within American popular culture.” (Kaplan, Richard L. (April 2011). Spider-Man in love: A psychoanalytic Interpretation. Journal of popular culture, volume 44, issue 2, p. 291-313. Retrieved from http://0-journals.ohiolink.edu.olink...issue=v44i0002). I agree with this statement. It goes back to the theory of nature vs. nurture, how a child was raised and what environment they were raised around during the first few years of their lives plays a vital role in how their belief system is shaped as they grow up. It affects how they see the world and themselves in it.

      I also agree with the fact that super heroes are humans just like us and they face almost the same challenges that we face in our everyday lives. Not all men are rigid and hard hearted and a man does not have to be this way to be considered a man. One last thing I agree with is that women want to fall in love with a “real man” and not an insecure little boy who hides behind a mask.

      For the people that are really interested in Spider-Man, this would be an important article for them as it can provide them with a detailed understanding into the various sides of the life of the hero, from how he was raised to how he became a super hero. Other than the fact that I didn’t like how the writer organized his thoughts, it was a good read overall and I learnt a lot about the super hero we all know and love.

References

1.      Kaplan, Richard L. (April 2011). Spider-Man in love: A psychoanalytic Interpretation. Journal of popular culture, volume 44, issue 2, p. 291-313. Retrieved from http://0-journals.ohiolink.edu.olink...issue=v44i0002