Monday, August 2, 2010

Thank You, AP English

When I was in my last year of high school I took an Advanced Placement class in English, to help myself out for what college academic life had planned for me. In this class we wrote a lot of essays, many of which involved comparing and contrasting two literary works of great merit.

Very recently I was able to thoroughly experience two largely varying narratives, both of which I enjoyed immensely. This post will discuss the connection between StarCraft II: Wings of Liberty, a real time strategy game, and The Poisonwood Bible, a novel published in the late nineties.

Wings of Liberty follows the path of ex-lawman James Raynor, and his mission to overthrow a corrupt government he helped put into place in the previous game. The game begins in a bar with Jim down on his luck, drinking in an empty bar on the same planet he began his career as marshal. Who should step through the door but Tychus Findlay, Jim's partner in crime from years ago, offering work that could get his rebel organization back on their feet. This renewing of their partnership kicks off a sector-wide epic which brings them face to face with the two other alien races of the game, and which culminates in a decision Raynor never thought he would have to face.

The Poisonwood Bible is the story of the Prices, a Baptist family who moves from Georgia to the unfamiliar wilds of the Congo. Narrated by the five women of the family, the tale is seen and told through the eyes of Orleanna, wife of preacher Nathan Price, and her daughters, Rachel, the eldest, Leah and Adah, the two very different twins, and Ruth May, the youngest. Originally planning on only staying for a year, their missionary tenure in the village of Kilanga is set awry by the political upsets, many of which are caused by their own government.

I completed the single-player campaign of Wings of Liberty on July Thirty-First, and finally finished The Poisonwood Bibleon August First. Having experienced both in such close proximity, I thought about the two a great deal and was able to tie them firmly together in my mind using a single thread.

StarCraft II: Wings of Liberty and The Poisonwood Bible, despite being worlds apart in both media and subject matter, are both bound together underneath the overarching theme of guilt.

Jim Raynor is a man haunted by the ghosts of his past. The sector's current tyrant, Emperor Mengsk, rules with an iron fist, and sits proudly upon his throne due to the former-marshal's aid in the first war. This despot betrayed Raynor's love, Sarah Kerrigan, by ordering her to place a device on the old government's capital planet which would lure in the voracious Zerg like moths to a flame, and then abandoning her to them. The Zerg would later turn Kerrigan into a creature known far and wide as the Queen of Blades, a malicious killing machine who would terrorize the sector and kill one of Raynor's closest Protoss allies.

Raynor's guilt at Kerrigan's death consumes him, and this is compounded when his old friend Tychus walks back into his life. Years earlier Tychus took the blame for both of them and was incarcerated for nine years. His reappearance in Raynor's life brings back countless memories of the good ol' days, and Raynor is forced to constantly defend his friend against the suspicions and accusations of his crew. The gripping conclusion of the first chapter of the StarCraft II trilogy involves Raynor having to choose between two regrets, two immense sources of guilt, and his decision holds the fate of their world in its hands.

The Prices do not adjust well to life in Africa, and the strain of life in an unfamiliar land is evident in their interactions with one another. While guilt is not present in their lives from the get-go, things take a sharp downhill turn once Nathan Price begins to force Christianity upon the villagers in a manner which borders on antagonistic. Their lives are placed in danger when political unrest begins to encroach on the borders of their existence in Kilanga and natural disasters such as a drought and the resulting famine cause many of them to deeply regret travelling to Africa in the first place. Guilt's immense weight finally falls, however, at the death of one of the Price daughters. None of the narrators are exempt from this event, and all are bowed beneath its burden as they move on with their lives, never quite leaving the past behind them.

The second guilt is felt only by some, and it directly involves the once-hopeful nation of the Congo. America's desire for cheap diamonds and cobalt leads to a scheme that will put the leader they want in charge of the country, a plan which will overthrow the newly-elected Patrice Lumumba, voice of the Congolese. Western guilt lies leaden on the shoulders of most (but not all) of the Price women, the actions of the Belgians in the colonial era and the actions of their own American countrymen in the post-colonial. Lives and hopes lost at the hands of their Western brethren force them to reconsider who they are as people, and to try to come to some sort of reconciliation.

Jim Raynor and Orleanna Price both have lines which, while appearing simple on the surface, speak volumes about who they are and what they've done with their lives. Facing his final decision Raynor says, "We are who we choose to be," a line almost stupidly simple at first glance. In it, however, these seven words manage to encompass his decision to become a marshal, and then a rebel freedom fighter, a path Tychus looks upon scornfully. These words contain within them his choice to set aside revenge for closure, to save lives instead of sit back, and, finally, his decision to choose between what seems right and what could be redemption.

Orleanna, in the first few pages of the book, tells the reader, "One has only a life of one's own." This simple message means more and more as the narrative progresses, yet from the beginning it reveals that she does not really feel needed or loved, and thus has only herself as company. As the novel goes on Orleanna makes a decision for the entire family, opting to set aside her weak-willed self and to put on strength and intensity, a woman motivated by the eventual safety of what family she has left.

StarCraft II: Wings of Liberty and The Poisonwood Bible both feature characters who are riddled with guilt and yet seek freedom from it, who are forced to face it and move on, and who make their largest decisions in the midst of disaster, panic, and betrayal. Both have lived lives full of regrets, yet firmly choose to make one less mistake, for others and not for themselves.

Works Cited

Kingsolver, Barbara. The Poisonwood Bible. New York: Harper Flamingo, 1998. Print.

StarCraft II: Wings of Liberty. V 1.0.1.16195. 31 July 2010. Blizzard Entertainment. 31 July 2010.

6 comments:

  1. Yes, this was way too long, I realize that.

    No, this wasn't meant to be written exactly like an essay, so it wasn't formatted that way. Pretty close, though, I think.

    I listened to a lot of Eminem while writing this. His new album is pretty good; I quite enjoy it.

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  2. I know nothing about these two things, but I liked this essay.

    re: second paragraph
    I think it's better when there is a connection between things, or when things have a connection - not when things share a connection. The last word in that paragraph separated from the rest of the world by a comma (and a line break!) is lonely.

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  3. Elisa, you are my best (and oftentimes I think only) reader.

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  4. I stopped myself from reading your massive analysis after getting only a few paragraphs into it, due to fear that you will spoil SC2 for me. As lazy as I am, I have yet to start the storyline. BLEH!

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  5. I actually didn't put in any big spoilers for either the game or the book.

    Probably a really good idea not to even risk spoiling it at all, though. We will have to talk about it once you've finished it.

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  6. Anonymous4/8/10 21:13

    This really takes me back to my OWN days of AP English, and of the local annual writing contest. Although, with the latter, students would receive a quotation and would be required to write an essay including either "two literary works of great merit" (grades 9 - 10) or one literary work of great merit and an historical event (grades 11 - 12).

    English majors seem to be naturally adept at using a single thread to link together concepts and story lines.

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