Everyone Is Jesus in Purgatory: Difference between revisions

{{trope}}

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Memories of that overzealous English teacher, who forced you to accept that every character, every scene and every action had a ''[[wikipedia:Allegory|deep inner meaning]]'' have led to widespread fear on the part of readers and viewers everywhere that every tale secretly contains some other story being told in [[Subtext]].

 

{{examples}}

== Anime and Manga ==

* ''[[Casshern Sins]]'': {{spoiler|Casshern is Satan but good. Luna is Jesus but evil.}}

* Maybe the [[Punisher]] isn't a fascist, and just wants every single murderer and rapist to die.

* Pretty much anything written by [[Grant Morrison]].

* Somebody came up with the idea that the [[Fantastic Four]] represent the four elements (Thing is Earth, Invisible Woman is Air, Human Torch is Fire (duh), and Mr. Fantastic is Water). This sounds like something that was developed retroactively. [[Stan Lee]], of course, has no problem with being labeled a genius, so he hasn't discouraged this. Lampshaded in the "Ultimate" version.

** When [[John Byrne]] took over the title in the 80s, one of his first issues features the Four fighting four elementals, who were ordered not to face their counterparts, thus making the mapping explicit. [[Neil Gaiman]] later took advantage of the scheme for his ''[[Marvel 1602|1602]]'' version of the Fantastic Four.

* ''[[Transformers Film Series|Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen]]'' is just a mindless action movie... or is it? [http://io9.com/5301898/michael-bay-finally-made-an-art-movie This article] brutally rips on both this trope and the movie.

* [[Bill Murray]]'s ''[[Groundhog Day]]'' stands as Hollywood's sole Buddhist message movie. As Phil (short for 'philosopher', obviously, a common name for the Buddha), Murray eventually realizes what takes many lifetimes to understand; namely, that every cycle of birth-death-rebirth (every 'day') is always the same, over and over, depressing, painful, and bound by karma (i.e.- how you've treated others in the past), until you awaken and make a conscious choice to change that destiny. It's interesting that Phil takes the Tantric path, initially using the opportunity of being 'reborn' every morning to simply fulfill all desires, and therefore, to ultimately purge himself of them. Still, over who knows how many 'days' -- how many lifetimes of days—he eventually comes to see the connectedness of all things, the sacredness of all life, and the joy to be found in knowledge, wisdom, and simply making a difference in the lives of others. By his own effort, and even against his own initial nature, over many lifetimes he achieves Enlightenment, and is able to move on. Plus, that scene where he lets the groundhog drive the truck is freakin hilarious. On the note of "who knows how many 'days,'" [[Word of God]] is that Phil relived that same day for ten years. He was only saved when he finally falls asleep with the one virtuous girl on his bed on the "first" day. [[Sarcasm Mode|Deep Aesop]], right there.

* ''If...'' is a favorite example for people who feel plagued by pretentious movie criticism. Possibly due to the film's anti-establishment themes, a lot of critics at the time were eager to show that they "got it" and came up with [[Deliberately Monochrome|various symbolic meanings]] for its switching between color and monochrome. In fact it was just a low-budget project and they couldn't afford to do the whole thing in color.

* You could potentially read read way too much into [[Quentin Tarantino]] films if you wanted to. For example, [[Oliver Stone]] basically did this with the script of ''[[Natural Born Killers]]'' by turning it into a commentary on the mass media. And ''[[Inglourious Basterds]]'' arguably implies that the basterds' sentiments towards the Nazis (and thus the sentiments of the audience that glorifies the basterds) are [[Not So Different]] from the Nazis' sentiments towards the Jews and are similarly contemptible. Of course since 95% of everything Tarantino does is based on the [[Rule of Cool]] you're probably just reading too much into it.

* Fans of the movie version of ''[[Sin City]]'' often wondered if the three protagonists were one and the same. Marv was the real character with John Hartigan as his [[Author Avatar]] made up by his own delusions while in a near-death experience. Dwight is Marv "with a new face" after faking his death. A lot of this came about because much of Dwight's backstory was alluded to but not explained (his story was essentially a sequel to his [[Origin Story]] from the comics). Comic fans explained that these were, indeed three seperate characters that were featured in different stories published years apart and in a different order.

* In-universe example: The film ''Being There'' has Peter Sellers playing a simpleton who talks about gardening and various mundane subjects yet prompts all those around him—including important political figures—to regard him as a genius who speaks constantly in profound metaphors.

* ''[[Tron: Legacy]]'' might as well be called ''Gnosticism: the Movie''. Finding something that ''isn't'' capable of being read as symbolic of gnostic philosophy!

 

** The whole "Carroll was a pedophile" thing has been proven as false since ages ago and has absolutely no basis in fact.

* The seven ''Chronicles of [[Narnia]]'' have been claimed to be [[An Aesop]] focusing on one of the [[Seven Deadly Sins]]. Just goes to show that this trope applies even when there's plenty of actual, valid symbolism, allegory, and "supposition" to choose from. And a book was just published saying that each novel corresponds with one of the seven heavens of the medieval cosmos.

** It's safe to say, however, that The Deplorable Word of ''The Magician's Nephew'' is a nuclear metaphor, as Aslan says that humans are working on weapons just as dangerous. And that Earth will soon have [[Red Scare|rulers]] just as [[Those Wacky Nazis|disinterested in human life]] as Jadis. This is pretty overt. [[Word of God]] confirms.

* The Greek poet and Literature Nobel Prize winner Odysseas Elytis once attended a celebration in his honor, where samples of his work were read and then had their meaning analyzed in detail by distinguished scholars. When his turn came to speak and thank everybody, he put his tongue in his cheek and gave special credit to the scholars for finding more depth to his poetry than even he had thought of.

*** Rowling essentially admitted as much in a 2007 interview with [[Time (magazine)|''Time'' magazine]]. She said that she used Christan themes because it was what she was familiar with, but that the themes could apply to almost any religion. "I did not set out to convert anyone to Christianity. I wasn't trying to do what [[C. S. Lewis]] did."

** There are some cases of genuine, intentional symbolism in the books. For example, J.K. Rowling has said that the Dementors are meant to represent clinical depression. The feeling of being around Dementors as exactly the same as being depressed. "Like there would never be any happiness again in the world" is one example. It's safe to say that if anyone manages to convince themselves that Rowling meant the Dementors to be anything more allegorical than "depression", they're terribly deluded.

** [http://www.harrypotterforseekers.com Harry Potter for Seekers] is an entire website devoted to the alchemical and spiritual symbolism in Harry Potter, as if it's a genuine discipline of mysticism. One page evaluates the symbolism of the characters. Take the lead protagonist, for example:

{{quote|"Harry...symbolizes the new soul force in the seeker who wants to go the Path of Alchemical Transformation resulting in total liberation. Harry...will break all seven chains tying the seeker to the universe of time and space, and he will defeat the root-force of the fallen universe that dwells within the seeker."}}

** Fagin, the [[Affably Evil]] crook from ''[[Oliver Twist]]'', is named after an Irish co-worker of Dickens's (from his hated years in the boot-blacking factory.) Subverted in that Dickens's Fagin is explicitly Jewish (ethnically, anyway: in the scene where he's introduced we see him breaking Kosher laws by eating pork sausages.)

* Shirly Jackson wrote a short story called "The Lottery". It is about a town who ritually sacrifice a person, RANDOMLY DRAWN from the entirety of the townspeople, to be stoned to death to help the harvest. [[Word of God|It is about nothing else.]] There is no symbolism and deeper meaning in it beyond that.

** Some people also seem to think that 'the West' into which Frodo & Co eventually go is ''only'' allegorical. While it ''can'' be construed as symbolic, it's also very much an actual place (as explained in the Appendices and ''[[The Silmarillion]]''.) Yes, it's a place. Where the angels and immortals live, and the dead rest in the ever-expanding halls of Mandos. It's not allegorical, it's stated.

** Tolkien drew a distinction between "allegory" and "applicable". The fact that a story has parallels with a real life event doesn't mean the parallels can't be legitimately drawn, but it doesn't justify 'explaining' the story by the parallels. Nor does it mean the author intended the parallels.

** One could probably fill half the pages of the Literature section with Key's maunderings. This is the fellow, after all, who claimed that the word "sex" was embedded on Ritz crackers (by what method, he never quite explained) and in just about every single advertisement you ever heard of. He had a particular hate-on for liquor and tobacco advertisements, seeming to think that subliminal inserts in those ads were almost singlehandedly responsible for alcohol and tobacco addiction.

* Freddie Mercury insisted unto his death that "Bohemian Rhapsody" had not only no hidden meaning, but no meaning at all. Due to this, [[Freud Was Right|most theories revolve around his bisexuality]], which he ''also'' denied ([[Ambiguously Gay|well, refused to confirm]]) until his death. To be fair, though, the song definitely ''sounds'' like it might have some meaning deeper than "Mom, I just shot a guy and the police are after me, help..."

{{quote|Does it mean this, does it mean that, that's all anybody wants to know. Fuck them, darling. I say what any decent poet would say if you dared ask him to analyse his work: If you see it, dear, then it's there.}}

* [[The Beatles]] get this a ''lot'':

*** And of course:

{{quote|"You want it all, ''but you can't have it!''"}}

** There are some fans [[Epileptic Trees|who believe]] that [[The Eighties]] pop album ''Invisible Touch'' is a [[Concept Album]] about [[The End of the World as We Know It|nuclear war]].

** Or Jethro Tull's "A Passion Play". Or "Dark Side of the Moon", and everything [[Pink Floyd]] did afterwards.

*** "This song is about a hotel run by cannibals."

*** "This song is about God creating humankind."

*** This song is about ''[[Changeling: The Lost]]''.

* [[Peter Gabriel]]'s ''Shock the Monkey'' has been interpreted as either being about animal rights or the [[Electric Torture|Milgram Experiment]]. [[Word of God|Gabriel himself has stated]] that the song has a romantic subtext.

 

== Newspaper Comics ==

** Valve released [http://www.teamfortress.com/loosecanon/index.html a comic] before the "Engineer update" came out that sketches a plot around the "characters" of the game. It's quite amusing but even Valve admit it was created retroactively. Note that the comic does not reference the cold war at all, but rather seems to have more of a steampunk/western theme.

* [http://gameoverthinker.blogspot.com/ The Game Overthinker] is a blog that occasionally does this, when the webmaster isn't analysing the landscape of gaming in general.

** More so, that interpretation is probably accurate, given how [[Surreal Theme Tune|weirdly worded the song is.]] What else could it mean?

** ''[[The World Ends With You]]'' is practically a Everyone Is Jesus in Purgatory game as a whole. Subliminal messages and religious symbols can be found everywhere if you look hard enough, and the roles of characters in the plot can be pretty much delved into something much deeper. Not to mention the fact that {{spoiler|Joshua is the Jesus figure while simultaneously managing to be God, whose name is literally "Jesus" in another language...}}

* ''[[The Path]]'' can be (and was, in fact, intended to be) interpreted in many ways. Is it a cautionary tale about the dangers of temptation in its many forms? Is it a metaphor for life and growing up? Are the girls actually the memories of the grandmother at different stages in her life?

* ''[[EarthBound]]'' has a lot of this going around, but one of the bigger reasons for this is the [[Eldritch Abomination]] final boss Giygas. One interpretation that the only reason that you can beat Giygas- who can't be damaged by anything and seems nearly invincible- is because he is the final boss of a video game, and therefore, it is your duty to beat him. Hence, Paula's prayer command only really works when it reaches you, the player.

* [http://sydlexia.com/pac-nihilism.htm This article] on ''[[Pac-Man]]'' had got to be a parody of this trope.

** [https://web.archive.org/web/20090325135133/http://goonfleet.com/imagehosting/1353847526801bdcc1.jpg Maybe pac man is just manic depressive?]

** Dr. John Zmirak [http://takimag.com/article/where_bad_ideas_go_to_die#axzz1d3X0POvP identified] one major reason why this kind of analysis can sometimes produce results that seem so outlandish and bizarre to ordinary laymen. All too often, scholars simply state their premises and proceed to analyze a work in light of those premises... but rarely does anyone ask whether those premises are actually ''true''. A scholar might, therefore, produce a Marxist or Freudian or Feminist reading of Tony Orlando's "Tie a Yellow Ribbon" without ever considering whether Marxism or Freudianism or Feminism have or do not have any instrinsic validity as philosophical systems (he takes it as instructive that Economics departments rarely teach Marxism anymore and Psychology departments have been quietly moving away from Freudianism for decades).

{{quote|-- ''"I look forward with interest to [[Artistic License Chemistry|alchemical]] readings of Sophocles and [[Artistic License: Biology|Lamarckian]] Biblical criticism. I’d really enjoy a good, solid account of Toni Morrison firmly grounded in Nostradamus."''}}

 

{{reflist}}

[[Category:Tropes of Legend]]

[[Category:Audience Reactions]]

[[Category:The Index Is Watching You]]

[[Category:Esoteric Trope Names]]