After watching the TED Talk today, I have lots of ideas of what tragedy is, but all of these ideas aren't really coming together to form one grand concept just yet. I feel as if I have a good general idea of what tragedy is in literature, and then a few random ideas that aren't connected to anything else; there are no branches to connect these leaves to the tree trunk. Hopefully the connections, the branches, will develop over time, and hopefully they develop rather quickly, because I'm feeling a little out in the dark with tragedy. I'd like my tree to look like this, although I'm not sure what the bird would mean in the case of my metaphor. Perhaps it's Mr. Schoenborn, circling above, watching my idea tree grow, hopefully not becoming a woodpecker and drilling holes in the tree that it my definition. That would probably be bad. It would also be bad if this happened, if I became my definition of tragedy.
In any case, the general literature definition that's been forming in my brain says that tragedy involves one or more sad and life-changing events that often negatively affect the main character or multiple characters. The plot of the piece generally seems to centralize around the tragic event/s, and the character development stems from the event/s as well. The seemingly random idea that doesn't connect yet came from the TED Talk we watched today. The man speaking mentioned that we, people, are not losers. Sure, we lose sometimes, tragedy strikes, but that does not make us losers simply because we happened to lose. If that were the case then every person who ever lived and will live was and will be a loser. Losers aren't people who are affected by tragedy. I don't know yet how this connects, and I'm not sure how it will connect in the end, since it's a little off topic, but I really liked that idea. It's a very comforting idea.
In any case, the general literature definition that's been forming in my brain says that tragedy involves one or more sad and life-changing events that often negatively affect the main character or multiple characters. The plot of the piece generally seems to centralize around the tragic event/s, and the character development stems from the event/s as well. The seemingly random idea that doesn't connect yet came from the TED Talk we watched today. The man speaking mentioned that we, people, are not losers. Sure, we lose sometimes, tragedy strikes, but that does not make us losers simply because we happened to lose. If that were the case then every person who ever lived and will live was and will be a loser. Losers aren't people who are affected by tragedy. I don't know yet how this connects, and I'm not sure how it will connect in the end, since it's a little off topic, but I really liked that idea. It's a very comforting idea.