Modern Day Prophet Vicious
Hannah Schiffman 4.25.08
My modern day prophet is my mother. She may not be a prophet for everyone, but prophets usually aren’t. Sometime only specific people get the revelation. My mom is a prophet because she is trying to open my eyes, and help me through life and show me that I can do anything I want to if I try hard enough. Obviously I am the ignorant mass, just me, I argue with her, ignore her, and sometimes will flat out tell her she is wrong and do the opposite of what she has asked of me, which causes an unacceptable situation where there is lots of yelling and door slamming. I think though, that the message my mother is trying to show me is an ongoing message, that changes as I grow up. After I make the revelation that my work at school, should take precedence over soccer or hanging out with my friends, it is up to me to follow through and actually try to use the revelation to my advantage. And since the revelation is ongoing, there will be a new message that she has to share with me once I make progress with the one before.
Prophets come in all different shapes and sizes and forms, but they all relate in that they have the same common cause, to show people what is hidden from them. In Feed, Violet tries to show Titus that the media is controlling everyone and trying to make them all the same. She tries to get him to resist with her, and to think on his own, but he doesn’t really believe in what he’s doing, so he starts to stop seeing her. And in the end she dies, and he finally sees what she was trying to tell him, and he wants to be forgiven for not seeing, but not forgiving for ignoring her. In a way, Violet is like my mom because while my mom is trying to show me one thing, I’m off in my own world doing something else. And when something backfires on me, I feel stupid, and come back to my mother not exactly asking for forgiveness per-say, but more for a second chance to get it right, to do it over, and to listen this time around.
In the Matrix, Morphius is the pre-revealer for Neo. Neo is supposed to be “the chosen one”, and so Morphius finds him and trains him to be ready to lead the revolution and defeat the “government”. At first though, Neo is confused and a little scared at this revelation because he is technically in the real world now and just like a newborn, has never walked, talked or done anything prior to this moment. Morphius and the other must teach him how to do everything and watch over him to make sure he is not hurt. Now my mom isn’t teaching me to rebel against the government or anything like that, but she too is a pre-revealer in a way because, just as she is guiding me and showing me things I might not see on my own, she is also preparing me to do the same with my kids, if I have any. So I will hopefully one day be a prophet for my own offspring. But for now, I am still in the process of learning and there are still some sheets over my eyes that my mom might eventually be able to help me pull off. My mother also was my protector when I was born, watching over me, helping me to tie my shoes, and basically showing me how the world works and how to use what I have to live. So prophets sometimes don’t just give a message, but actually teach others something new and protect them from those who might want to keep them from getting the message.
In Foxfire, Angelina Jole’s chatacter shows the girls that together, they can be strong and fight back against the authority. Since the teacher is harassing one of the girls, who is too shy to say anything, the girls come to her aid, lead by Angelina Jole, and tell the teacher off and show each other that in numbers they are safer and can actually do something about an unwanted situation. My mom always tells me that I can’t come home late by myself. She has taught me to look to those I trust for help when I can’t do something on my own and that there is safety, and power, in numbers. I have learned from her that I can’t always fight alone, that a lot of the time I need other to support me or that others need me to stand up for them.
Almost anyone can be a prophet, even if only for one person. People have thoughts to share, advice to give, and new and unique outlooks on the world. You don’t have to move mountains to open someone’s eyes, it could be something small and rather insignificant to most, but to maybe one person, it could mean the world. Like if a girl is doing drugs that she know are dangerous, but doesn’t really care because nothing has ever happened to her or anyone she knows, and then her friend dies of an overdose. While this is an extreme example, the kid who died is the prophet in that this girl now sees that she could really hurt herself with this drug. There are smaller scale prophets too, but in general they are all out to do the same thing, change someone’s outlook on life, and open eyes to new ideas and to actual reality.
My mother always says to me “I’m just trying to help you succeed in life so that you can be able to do exactly what you want”. And that’s her message to me, and while I do accept it, I still resist it because half the time I think she is trying to ruin my life while the other half I know she is only doing what is best for me and going out of her way to do it. Most times prophets seem to either get rejected OR have the message accepted. I think parents are the exception to this rule because since you live with them your view of the message is going to change constantly, since your in such close contact with them and your own personal opinions of the person will probably get in the way of the message. But think about it, there is a whole day dedicated to either mothers or fathers. So they must be pretty darn special, I mean they did you give you life, and housing and clothes and food and support, even though there have been fights and arguments and disagreements. Parents are probably the most important prophets in our lives because they are the ones who first teach us how to do the things we take for granted, like tell a joke, or have a conversation, or to speak even. They are the ones showing you the new world that you have just arrived in, and showing you how to live in it in order to make yourself known.
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