Elena Gilbert from “The Vampire Diaries”

S Y N O P S I S ;

From THE VAMPIRE DIARIES, Elena Gilbert is a human in a world of supernatural beings. Living in Mystic Falls after her parents die in a car accident, Elena’s life changes drastically when she and her friends encounter two vampire brothers, Stefan and Damon Salvatore. Stefan falls dangerously in love with Elena, who has an uncanny resemblance to Damon’s old lover, Katherine. While the secrets of Mystic Falls are unraveled, they all realize that the feud of mystical creatures is far from over.

 

E L E N A ;

I’ve chosen to depict Elena as she is in the television show, rather than the book series. In general, she embodies the following characteristics:

• ACCEPTING: Elena literally is friends with vampires… and her brother is a werewolf… and her best friend is a witch. I don’t know about you, but I’d be pretty spooked. She’s pretty okay with it, though.
• BRAVERY: She participates in Stefan & Damon’s vampire endeavors, fighting off the “bad guys” and sacrificing her life to help the people she loves. I honestly don’t know how she lasts 8 seasons of this show.
• FAMILY-ORIENTED: She is very close with her brother, Jeremy, and her adopted aunt/legal guardian, Jenna.
• FORGIVING: Damon snaps Elena’s brother’s neck, and Elena forgives him. Pretty cool, right? I’d forgive someone if they did that to my brother, too.
• INDECISIVENESS: Elena is in love with both Stefan & Damon, but she can’t decide between the two of them. Two aggressively attractive vampire brothers fighting for your love? I don’t blame her.
• SELFLESSNESS: She will do literally anything to keep her family, friends, and lover(s) safe. She even kills her brother at one point. I know I said above the Damon snaps his neck… he does… Jeremy just never freakin’ dies, I guess.
• STUBBORNNESS: Elena is so stubborn, it actually gets pretty annoying at times. Like, Stefan will tell her that it’s dangerous and she shouldn’t go outside and fight vampires, but she does it anyway and 80% of the time gets hurt and needs someone to take care of her. Her stubbornness gets her turned into a freakin’ vampire. “Turn me into a vampire, I won’t do anything until you do, because I’m annoying,” –my impression of Elena circa seasons 1-3 (she literally never stops whining about wanting to be a vampire).

As stated before, she gets mixed up with Stefan and Damon Salvatore, two vampire brothers. It is exposed later on that the reason the two brothers were initially so infatuated with her is because she is a Petrova Doppelgänger, essentially meaning that she is completely identical to her ancestor, Katherine Pierce. Damon was in love with Katherine, so he naturally falls in love with Elena, feuding over her love with Stefan.

 

T H E O R E T I C A L  F R A M E W O R K S ;

FEMINIST CRITICISM

Elena is a very stubborn character. She shows stubbornness specifically with Stefan and Damon; whenever they try to help her with something, she insists on doing it herself. Ultimately, I see her as a very strong character. While she loves and cares for Damon and Stefan, she can do things without them and she can survive without them. In fact, there are some scenes where Elena saves their lives. There’s one scene where Damon encounters a “bad” vampire who is trying to kill him. This vampire hits Damon onto the ground and starts beating him with a baseball bat, pours gasoline on him, and lights a lighter, getting ready to light him on fire.

Elena stands there calmly talking to the bad vampire and trying to psychologically convince him to not hurt Damon anymore. This is an interesting approach to feminism, and I really like it. I know that there’s a lot of discussion about males being stronger than females, and I think this kind of idea relates to vampires being stronger than humans in some ways. In this way, Elena is not very physically strong, and this vampire is strong and has fangs to kill her. So, instead of trying to fight this vampire off (which would be – to put it bluntly – unrealistic), she uses her wit to talk this vampire down from hurting him.

“…women’s lack of social power, this lack being represented, by means of ‘castration’, as a male possession, though not in any sense a male attribute” (Barry 125-126). This quote from Barry reminds me significantly of his idea of “feminine vs. masculine”. Like I said above, Elena is by no means physically strong, but the fact that she was able to stop this strong vampire from hurting Damon shows a huge amount of respect that we should be having toward her. Women are painted as being weak and powerless, which is challenged in The Vampire Diaries, especially in scenes like this one where Elena shows her strength in unconventional ways.

Also, and I mention more about this below, but Elena truly identifies with the supernatural. That being said, she will do anything and everything to put her life at risk in order to save her friends and loved ones. In one scene, Damon is caught in a fire, and Elena is put in the position of saving his life. The fact that she is willing to almost die in order to help him challenges the idea of females being weak. Barry discusses how females have been known to be seen as incapable of physical work, but Elena challenges that. Throughout this series, she undergoes intense physical labor (running, fighting, etc.) in order to save her life and the lives of others.

“To posit all women as necessarily feminine and all men as necessarily masculine, is precisely the move which enables the patriarchal powers to define, not femininity, but all women as marginal to the symbolic order and to society,” (The Feminist Reader 127). I like this quote, because Elena is not a girly girl. She is a girl who fights bad guys and saves lives, shown in scenes like the one above with Damon getting caught in a large fire and Elena having to save him.

Elena almost repels the “male gaze”. The male gaze has been described as so: “…in film women are typically the objects, rather than the possessors, of gaze because the control of the camera (and thus the gaze) comes from factors such as the as the assumption of heterosexual men as the default target audience for most film genres,” (FAQ: What is the “Male Gaze”?) Elena, on the other hand, is not very sexualized. She is seen in jeans and t-shirts for 90% of this show, now that I think about it. And while the show is based around two vampire brothers fighting for her love, she doesn’t just let it happen. She fights back to them, and doesn’t let them take advantage of her at all. 

POSTCOLONIALISM 

Elena Gilbert can easily be compared to Barry’s idea of “the Hybrid.” For the first few seasons of this show, Elena is human; however, even though she is a human, she almost identifies as a vampire. Since she spends so much of her time with Stefan and Damon, who are two vampires, she begins to identify with them. “…hybridity and ‘cultural polyvalency’, that is, the situation whereby individuals and groups belong simultaneously to more than one culture,” (Barry). When someone brings up something negative about vampires, Elena immediately becomes immensely defensive, because she has found herself belonging to the vampire world. For example, when Alaric Saltzman is introduced into the story as a teacher at Elena’s school, he has a huge ring on one of his fingers. Elena soon finds out that this ring is one of the Gilbert Rings, which was created by one of her ancestors to ward off supernatural creatures and prevent humans from getting killed by them. From there, she was able to deduce that he was not only afraid of getting hurt by a vampire. More importantly, however, he was a vampire hunter, meaning that Damon and Stefan needed to stay away from him. That being said, Elena felt the need to protect herself along with Damon and Stefan, because she felt threatened by him and his urge to kill vampires.

Additionally, Elena is, by default, considered “the Other.” She has been pulled into this world of supernatural creatures and can never escape. Since her normal world is full of humans, she no longer is able to relate to the humans. She relates more with the supernatural, which shows her as the outsider in society; she falls into tension-filled relationships, because she begins to care more about the vampires, witches, and werewolves in her life rather than the humans. Barry states, “…The people there being anonymous masses rather than individuals, their actions determined by instinctive emotions (lust, terror, fury, etc.), rather than by conscious choices or decisions,” (Barry 186). Most importantly, Elena is then, by default, classified with these supernatural creatures, simply because she loves and cares for them. Supernatural creatures do not have a good reputation in this society; they are known for brutally killing humans, and that is ultimately how Elena is being seen by people once they find out she is associated with these “killers”. However, if you watch the show and follow the story, you will find out that these supernatural creatures are anything but killers – they feel just as much as humans. At the end, though, this idea of “homogenous” individuals that Barry introduces shows Elena as one of these killers, because society sees them as all the same (the supernatural creatures themselves along with anyone who associates with them). “…a European cultural tradition of ‘Orientalism’… identifying the East as ‘Other’ and inferior to the West,” (Barry 186). Just like the East vs. the West, the supernatural are inferior to humans. The “us” are the humans, and the “them” are the supernatural. Again, this type of attitude toward Elena can be seen throughout her ongoing relationship with characters like Alaric Saltzman who are constantly fighting against vampires and not giving them a chance.

 

C U L T U R A L  S I G N I F I C A N C E ;

Elena Gilbert is an essential hero in our society. I find myself being attracted more and more to the stories of female heroines, and I know that a lot of people around me feel the same way. In a society where women are marginalized and don’t have a lot of the same rights as men, a lot of females (like myself) look to stories like The Vampire Diaries in order to feel like we have some sort of worth. The fact that this teenage girl is going around and killing vampires and saving her friends from danger is–as corny as it sounds–a really reassuring thing to witness. The fact that a show starring a female has become this popular is great. Characters like Elena are one small step toward female equality, and it’s really easy to appreciate a story like this.

Also, Elena is an outsider. Being in high school is hard; I know I went through a lot where I felt like the outsider and felt like I didn’t belong anywhere. Elena goes through that same sort of thing; she finds herself in this world of vampires and can’t relate closely to humans after her interactions with the vampires; however, she gets through it. And honestly, if a weird vampire girl can get through high school, so can I… I think that’s a very important message that this show sends out. The fact that a lot of high school aged individuals are watching this show allows them to see that people go through hard times, but you’re always able to get out of it in some way.

A lot of viewers relate to Elena because she is classified as that “outsider.” It allows people to see her as this imperfect character, which is more realistic than if she were just this beautiful, flawless vampire girl who didn’t go through hard times at all.

 

 

Amy Poehler · Smart Girl

You may have heard of this female hero from shows like Saturday Night Live or Parks and Recreation. You may also know her from Chicago’s Second City or for Broad City, a show she produced. If you don’t know about any of this, you probably know her as Tina Fey’s TV wife. Yes, I’m talking about Amy Meredith Poehler.

Amy Poehler was born in Newton, Massachusetts in 1971. When she attended Boston College, she joined an improv troupe called My Mother’s Fleabag. This is where it all started. After graduation, she moved to Chicago and joined Second City—as well as Improv Olympic—and became friends with Tina Fey. After Second City, Amy moved to New York City to create the comedy troupe known as Upright Citizens Brigade. After the success of the UCB Theatre that came out of this troupe, Amy joined Saturday Night Live. Her first episode was the one immediately after 9/11. One can imagine how nerve racking that must have been, but she killed it. The episode was a huge success.

Saturday Night Live gave her the fame she deserved. She and Tina Fey were a power duo on that show, starring in Weekend Update together, as well as many other skits. She began to star in hilarious films and created her own show called Parks and Recreation that became a big hit, which brought her higher up in the comedy social class. From this, she became known as Amy Poehler—not Amy Poehler from Saturday Night Live. She used her fame to empower girls and women all over the world. Her character on Parks and Recreation was a new type of woman that has almost never been depicted in television and film. She was a strong, independent woman who was able to be thought of as a hero without the help of a male counterpart. She gave everyone the idea of working in teams. Her character, Leslie Knope, told viewers to find their teams. Teams are heroes in themselves.

Then, Amy (and Meredith Walker) founded Amy Poehler’s Smart Girls organization. The organization, according to the website, is dedicated to helping young people cultivate their authentic selves. They tell people that intelligence, imagination, and confidence in themselves is more important than fitting in. Aside from the movies she’s currently working on and the shows she’s producing, this organization is where most of her time goes to.

So, what are two theoretical frameworks that relate to Amy Poehler as a heroine, you ask? One is feminist criticism, which gives a feminist outlook on analyzing how males and females relate to each other in the world. It also talks about oppression of women in real life and how women are depicted in literature. Barry states, “The ‘women’s movement’ of the 1960s was not, of course, the start of feminism. Rather, it was a renewal of an old tradition of thought and action already possessing its classic books which had diagnosed the problem of women’s inequality in society, and (in some cases) proposed solutions” (116). Well, Amy Poehler is the definition of feminist criticism. She created Leslie Knope, a person who only analyzes every single thing she does as a feminist criticist. Every episode has Leslie questioning why an antagonist on the show is speaking down to her. Every time a character tries to look at her with a male gaze perspective, she turns them down and talks about how women are not the misogynistic stereotypes that are given to them. In one of the episodes “The Debate,” an episode Amy contributed on writing, Leslie debates against Bobby Newport, the other candidate for city council. Any time Bobby says something (which never actually makes sense), everyone cheers and applauds for him. Any time Leslie speaks and gives her opinion on something (which is always the one that makes sense), everyone criticizes her. She based this off of real life situations where women are called bitches for giving the same opinions that men give or for giving any opinions at all. An example of this would be with Hillary Clinton. Hillary and Bernie Sanders gave a lot of the same opinions, and people only called Hillary a bitch. Everyone thought Bernie was being strong for expressing his opinions. Amy Poehler uses feminist criticism to write episodes like this. She shows through satire that women have been seen through the male gaze in television and in life for years, until shows like Parks and Recreation.

The other theoretical framework is structuralism, which is the analysis of human understanding, experiences, and culture. Barry says that the “structures in question here are those imposed by our way of perceiving the world and organizing experience, rather than objective entities already existing in the external world. It follows from this that meaning or significance isn’t a kind of core or essence inside things: rather, meaning is always outside” (38). Amy Poehler relates to this through the work she has done with Amy Poehler’s Smart Girls. The organization is dedicated to helping young people cultivate their authentic selves, which means it has been doing more for young people than schools have. The United States school system hasn’t been doing a great job at telling students that their imagination is one of the most important parts of them. Amy Poehler has been doing her best to prove that imagination is key. Amy Poehler’s Smart Girls has analyzed the culture and experiences of young people—mostly girls and women—to figure out what it is that motivates them. They show off the work of women and girls on their social media accounts, so that these people know that someone out there is proud of them. They aren’t compared to the boys; they’re just themselves. Amy uses structuralism to find out what it is about the different cultures and experiences that these girls and women encounter that is so important for other people to know. She makes a huge difference in this world, not only as a comedian (which is my kind of a hero), but as a woman who supports other women.

Children as Heroes; One Girl Growing up in the Zombie Apocolypse

 Clementine from Telltale’s Walking Dead Games: Season 1 

    When thinking of heroes/heroines, children do not often come to mind. The term “hero” creates an images of a person taking control and power; making important, necessary decisions to solve problems in their path. Children usually do not have power or control of their life, and rely on adults fully in order to survive; which is why it can be difficult to think of a young child as a hero. However, in situations where people have to lean on all members of their community to survive, such as a zombie apocalypse, some children step up to the plate and offer their help. For instance, Clementine in Telltale’s Walking Dead games is thrown into a violent world between the living and undead and shows everyone that she is capable of more than people expect; and ultimately proving she is a hero.

Clementine’s Introduction

Imagine being thrown into the zombie apocalypse at only eight years old. Imagine being uncertain of if your parents will come back or are even alive. Imagine hiding in a tree house because your babysitter is now a flesh eating monster. Imagine being completely alone during all of this. This is the exact situation that Clementine is thrown into.

The Telltale Walking Dead games starts out in the perspective of a man named Lee. Lee meets Clementine early on in the game, when she mistakes him for her father. Clementine then comes to Lee’s rescue, by handing him a weapon, when he gets ambushed and pinned by her zombified babysitter. Showing the player, within minutes of meeting her, that she will put herself out there to help others.

          

    Lee and Clementine start traveling together after this. Clementine wants to travel to Savanah, where she believes her parents are still alive (the player finds out her parents are dead when listening to the house’s voicemail; the father got bit). Because Clementine is only a child, Lee keeps the blunt truth from her for a while (depending on how the player wants to play). Clementine, in the first season, is often shielded from “bad” things because of her age. The adults wanted her to have some form of a childhood, since she is growing up in the zombie apocalypse, and will have to grow up earlier to survive. However, even though the group tries to shield Clementine from the violence of their world, Clementine surprises them with her adaptability and bravery.

For example, in one scene further into the game, Clementine’s group is trapped outside a safe house with an injured member while zombies are approaching. As the adults start arguing about how to get into the house, Clementine crawls through a doggie door entrance and unlocks the door.

Depending on the player, they can either get mad at Clementine for putting herself in danger or praise her for quick thinking. Clementine risked herself by going into the house, alone, unaware of any zombies that might have been sneaking around. But, she knew that the longer they wait and argue outside, the more danger the group is put in. She makes an important decision without any push from the adults and in result saves her group.

In addition to performing heroic actions, Clementine also stands up for others, even those who have wronged her. In a tense situation, a group member named Ben reveals he was the one who was paying off bandits in order to protect the group (but ultimately resulted in three people dying). The group starts to take a vote whether or not to kick Ben out and most of the adults vote in favor of it until Clementine speaks up.

Although Ben messed up in the past, (he didn’t help Clementine when zombies were coming toward them and runs away leaving Clementine in danger) Clementine still stands up for him and voices her opinion in this important decision. Clementine’s words cause some adults to change their minds and give Ben a second chance, showing how much power Clementine has in the group (even for a child).

Critical Race Studies view

Telltale’s Walking Dead games come with a long list of victories and fails in regard to race.  One of the main victories is the main playable character of this game is Lee, a black adult male. The majority of main characters in games are white males, so it was very exciting to players to have a change. However, the intention was to make the game with two black protagonists, Lee and Clementine. Unfortunately, Clementine race has been recognized as a fail and brings forth the issue of African american characters being made intentionally racially “ambiguous”.

This is a picture of Clementine and her parents. Clementine’s father is very dark-skinned, while the mother is more light-skinned.  However, Clementine’s character looks more white or Asian American (an opinion that be found on SEVERAL discussion boards regarding Clementine’s race). Even though her hair is a big indicator of her race, her skin color ended up confusing a lot of gamers. The lead animator of the game ended up clearing up these questions in an interview, confirming that Clementine is African American.

Is Clementine’s Design Racist?

The problem is not that black people cannot have very light skin. The problem is that most video games characters are white and to create an “African American” girl and make her so fair skinned brings up the question, “Why did they make her look so white?” In the article linked above, the author speculates that because Clementine is given such an “innocent and pure” persona, the designers purposefully gave her lighter skin.

Using a quote from Audre Lorde’s, “Age, Race, Class, and Sex: Women Redefining Difference” on page 118: “To allow women of Color to step out of stereotypes is too guilt provoking, for it threatens the complacency of those women who view oppression only in terms of sex.”

Did they make Clementine lighter skinned because their stereotype for darker skinned children did not match the persona they were going for? Maybe not. But think about how this looks to people who play the game. A girl with two black parents appears white in most scenes, with only her hair resembling her parents race. And why does this matter? Because the developers created Clementine to be so racially ambiguous to please an audience that maybe they believed would have liked a light skinned girl better. (Not to mention casting an white adult woman to voice a eight year old African American girl) These designers had a great opportunity to do what VERY FEW games have done so far, have two main characters that are African American. And arguably they did do that, just in a very poor way.

“Change means growth, and growth can be painful. But we sharpen self-definition by exposing the self in work and struggle together with those whom we define as different from ourselves, although sharing the same goals. For Black and white, old and young, lesbian and heterosexual women alike, this can mean new paths to our survival.” (Lorde, pg. 123)

Feminist Criticism view

Using Toril Moi’s work, “Feminist, Female, Feminine” to analyze Clementine’s character is a bit tricky. First of all, Clementine’s journey takes place in a world where most social constructs are forgotten; anarchy reigns and survival is the highest priority. In a zombie scenario elements of the patriarchy might linger, but would not take a key role in the world. Women wouldn’t be forced to stay at home, or bear children; they would be expected to help the community survive like any man would. So the feminist part, I believe, would not apply to Clementine. Secondly, Moi focuses more on the feminist political movement and feminist texts; which again doesn’t really matter in a zombie apocalypse game.

However, when looking at the game dialog, several of Moi’s characteristics of female and feminine can be applied. Clementine’s character, in particular, is used in the game as a little girl that the player is tasked with taking care of. If the player has to take care of a little boy than a girl, the game would be very different (in my opinion). The characters in the game treat Clementine very delicately because she is a girl (also because she is very young), and her feminine presence almost has a calming effect on adults in the group (who are often yelling and arguing with each other). The writers have designed her as a “pure” character who needs to be protected, but is also brave and helps others. They use Clementine as a “damsel in distress” in a lot of scenes, but then let the player groom her skills (and her hair) to make sure she can take care of herself and survive without him.

The game dialog indicates that Clementine is a strong character (in an emotional and mental sense) which is a “newer” characteristic among female characters, especially very young ones. Clementine has to survive in a world with monsters who want to eat her. Not to mention, she deals with the death of her parents and her primary caretaker, Lee, in a very short period of time, but never gives up. Not many children could do that.

Conclusion

Being a hero is not as simple as performing a few brave actions or standing up for others once or twice. Being a true hero requires a person to be continuously brave and always stand up for what you believe in. Clementine shows again and again that she is a hero at only eight years old. She pushes herself to do good. A final example of this is when her group comes across an “abandoned” car filled with much needed supplies and the group decides to take it all. Clementine voices to everyone that the stuff belongs to someone else, and it is wrong to take it. Clementine knows that survival is important, but she also knows that taking the supplies is like killing the people it belongs to. Clementine is not only a heroine, but she is a heroine in the zombie apocalypse when most people are out for themselves. She is an unlikely hero in an amazing game.

(Season 2 of Telltale’s Walking Dead games features Clementine as the main playable character! So her hero’s journey can continue, at the will of the player).