The Odyssey and Gratuitous Violence – A PowerPoint Presentation :The Odyssey and Gratuitous Violence – A PowerPoint Presentation


What does “gratuitous” mean? :What does “gratuitous” mean? Definition of gratuitous = being without apparent reason, cause, or justification. What some things that might seem gratutious? ice cream? dorritoe flavored toothpaste? solid gold contact lenses? the eiffel tower? the sport of golf really long books wthout pictures shaving your legs in the summer? etc. and so on.


Some questions to ponder. . . :Some questions to ponder. . . What about violence? Could violence seem gratuitous? Think about the last movie you saw. Did it contain violence that might seem gratuitous? What about these movies? Do they have gratuitious violence? THe Dark Night THe Berenstain Bears Go to School Saw Saw II Saw III Saw IV Saw 5 Friday the 13th Halo Supersize Me


What is the definition of “gratuitous violence”? :What is the definition of “gratuitous violence”? What is the definition of “gratuitous violence”? The definition of gratuitous violence is violence that is without apparent reason, cause, or justification. Often times Odysseus and/or his men practice violence on others that is without apparent reason, cause, or justification. It is at these times that one might say that Homer is including scenes that contain “gratuitous violence”.


What are some scenes from the Odyssey that contain gratuitous violence? :What are some scenes from the Odyssey that contain gratuitous violence? The cyclops scene when Odysseus puts the hot, sharp stick into the the Cyclops eye and the eye sizzles like bacon on a hot tin plate and/or roof. The part where Odysseys kills all the suitors. The seen where the cyclops eats one of Odysseus’ men and crunches his bones in his teeth. The scene where the water monster catches one of Odyssesus’ men crunches his bones with his teetch. The scene where one of Odysseus’s arrows sticks in one of the suitor’s eyes and the suitors tries to pull it out but ends up pulling his brain through his eye socket. The part with the Sirens The part where Odysseus’s men get drunk on the beach and the island’s inhabitants attack them and some of them die.


Why are these scenes considered “gratuitous violence”? :Why are these scenes considered “gratuitous violence”? These scenes are gratuitous because the violence that Homer describes seems to be without apparent reason, cause, or justification. In other words, the violence in these scenes seems to be in the scene simply to keep the audience entertained. In other words these scenes are without apparaent cause or reason and are not justified in a reasonable way that would give one cause to reason that the violence was justifiably necessary to be in the scene in the first place.


What about other types of gratuitous violence? :What about other types of gratuitous violence? Read the description of each scene and decide which of the two you would consider gratuitous violence. The part in Glory when all the soldiers storm the confederate fort and a bunch of main characters get shot or the scene in Friday the 13th when Freddy grabs the lady through the window and cuts her throat. A guy making a tackle in a football game vs. a guy getting shot in the video game Halo. A scene from CSI where they find a guy murdered in a library and there is blood on the floor and on the table and he’s obviously been stabbed vs. a horrific scene from the nightly news after a terrorist bombing.


Read this from an interview with author, Sissela Bok and answer the questions: :Read this from an interview with author, Sissela Bok and answer the questions: “There's never been a time when you could see so much graphic violence any hour of the night or day in our own homes.” “In fact, a lot of adolescents -- and a lot of adults -- have trouble sometimes distinguishing movies and reality.” “We need, for example, to think about the "The Odyssey" or Shakespearean plays, and there are so many other works of art that can help us deal with violence. "Schindler's List" is another. That is very different from saying that we want to see the killing and the torture and the murder for the thrill or the enjoyment that it gives us.” “It is a vicious circle to some extent. Because all the violence on the screen contributes to making people much more afraid than they really need to be. Life is not that scary.” React to something she says. Agree / Disagree? A new idea you have not considered before. Etc. Why do so many entertainment forms include gratuitous violence? Why is it entertaining? Should we be concerned with the use of gratuitous violence in our entertainment forms? - Read the article. Do creators of entertainment (movies, books, video-games, web sites) have a responsibility to minimize gratuitous violence in light of research about it? At what point should Mr. Waterson allow his children to see movies or play video games that incorporate gratuitous violence?