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  • Essay / Discussion on what makes a hero in capitalist society

    What makes a hero? When we think of movie heroes, it's superhero movies like the Marvel series that first come to mind. For example, T'challa in the film Black Panther is undoubtedly a hero who selflessly puts his nation and others before himself. Unlike those films, “Sorry to Bother You” is not a typical hero film. It is even questionable whether the protagonist, Cassius, can be considered a hero. On the other hand, even though Sorry to Bother You shows a clear confrontation between the protagonist and the villain, it is obscure to count Black Panther's Killmonger as a villain. While both films blur the line between hero, anti-hero and villain, each of them suggests different types of heroes and their strategic logic for fighting capitalism. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on “Why Violent Video Games Should Not Be Banned”? Get the original essay T'challa is a classic hero with the responsibilities and duties of royalty. He was born with his origins as the son of T'Chacca, king of Wakanda, a prosperous country with advanced futuristic technology and abundant natural resources. Wakanda disguises itself as a poor nation to be safe from outside threats and Vibranium abuse. After the unexpected death of his father, T'challa ascends the throne and considers what would be the right way to rule his nations. At first, he believes his mission is to protect Wakanda's tradition and the security of his nation. Despite his lover Nakia, who believes that Wakanda should help suffering outsiders, he still chooses to remain isolated for the sake of his nation's safety. He tracks down Klaue to stop him from selling vibranium and exposing the truth about Wakanda to the outside world. But after realizing that it is right to help and share his resources to help others outside the border, he makes the big decision to change the long-standing tradition of isolation and benevolently invests resources to help the underserved by building the first international outreach center. His hero character is also well represented in the scene where he takes Agent Ross to Wakanda to save him from taking the risk of revealing his true identity to a stranger. Unlike T'challa, who was born royal with hero responsibilities and personalities. , Cassius is just an ordinary, underprivileged worker, aiming to climb the social ladder. The film presents him as an ambitious man who dares to turn his back on his friends, his girlfriend and even gives up being himself to succeed. The very beginning of the film begins with Cassius struggling to meet his basic needs, building his professional experience and trophies to find employment and become socially stable. He also lives in his uncle's garage, who is also facing foreclosure on his house. Hopefully, as he gets a job as a telemarketer at Regal View, his basic needs begin to be met. On his first day at Regal View, he "sticked to the script" but failed to make any sales. Then Langston, one of his colleagues, gives the advice to use your “white voice,” which sounds like “what white people are supposed to sound like.” Apparently, it turns out he's good at doing a good white voice and uses it to make more sales and climb the social ladder. As he makes more sales and gets a promotion, he pays off his uncle's debt and prevents him from signing up for Worry-Free and getting his own house. But ironically, his job as a power caller is to sell Worry's workFree. Even though he clearly sees that his job is to sell slave labor, he continues to use his white voice for his successful career, which is not normal behavior expected from heroes. The price of succeeding in a capitalist society is quite painful. He loses his friends who fight for their rights at work and he also loses his girlfriend, who was his motivation to succeed. More importantly, he begins to lose himself trying to enter high-end society. He starts speaking in his white voice without even realizing it. However, Cassius begins to realize that he should not be involved in this evil plan after attending the party thrown by Steve Lift, the CEO of Worry-Free. From the beginning, when he started working for Worry-Free, he knew the company was morally corrupt. However, upon witnessing the deeper part of the evil plan of turning people into Equisapeins, his moral compass begins to activate. Then his moral thoughts fully awaken as this evil plan begins to affect him. After watching the video about the mutation process, he panics when he realizes that what he sniffed might be a fusion catalyst that turns humans into Equisapiens. What we should notice in this scene is what caused Cassius to change his position. It seems that, rather than discovering his mistakes for himself, Cassius was forced to confront the villainous boss of capitalism, which woke him up. Although Cassius doesn't appear to be perfectly moral like T'challa, he ultimately acts like a hero. He is leading the project to involve Equisapiens in the protest. Even after the manifestation, after the catalyst activates and he transforms into an Equisapien, the film ends up showing Cassius leading the Equisapiens to attack Steve Lift's house. Rather than becoming a fake Martin Luther King as Steve Lift predicted, his appearance in the last scene is more that of a Malcolm X, actively fighting against the villain of capitalism. Although there is a big gap between the two protagonists, their relationship with the antagonists also conveys a different meaning. Sorry to Bother You shows a typical conflict between heroes and villains. Steve Lift is an undeniable villain who takes advantage of this by creating a new form of slavery and transforming the working class into a horrible hybrid. It is true that Killmonger was a big obstacle for T'challa as he toppled him from the throne and attempted to weaponize vibranium. But what makes the Black Pather relationship between Killmonger and T'challa unique is that the protagonist ends up buying into the idea of ​​the antagonist even though they clashed. T'challa learns from Killmonger that the tradition he was trying to maintain was false. And Killmonger's position also seems entirely plausible and somehow sympathetic to the audience. Killmonger's endings according to his plans are entirely plausible. The problem lies in the ends and not the means. His desire for revenge is not only personal but rather cultural. The only problem was that he was too blinded by the revenge he chose to carry out violently. Throughout his life, serving in the army of the "colonizers", he witnessed and even experienced the oppression of African Americans. On the other hand, the Wakandans have neglected other dark nations under the guise of protecting the exploited vibranium, but mostly for the sake of their own protection and benefits. Killmonger's idea of ​​reaching out to the oppressed outside the border was right. Even T'challa was convinced of this idea and ultimately chose to involve himself in the outside world. When T'challa eats the magical heart-shaped herb and meets.