I've Got a Thesis!

Regions of the brain affected by PTSD and stress. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Yes!  I'm still playing around with exactly how to word it-- probably will be doing that right up until I turn it in-- but the idea is pretty clear to me, and I can see the development of the pattern in the films from Iron Man right through to Avengers:  Age of Ultron.  I was having trouble narrowing it down for the longest time.  It basically has to do with what happens when one person (Iron Man) is not adhering to the same code as the rest of the unit.  The actions he takes set him apart from the rest of the team, cause the threat he was trying to prevent, and create resentment.  Of course, there are other factors as well:  it's evident from the character's appearance in other films that he is having significant difficulties that constitute an almost textbook case of post-traumatic stress disorder, for one thing.  For another, his self-image is not that of a warrior; he isn't part of the culture.  He has a line in the first Avengers film, "we are not soldiers," that bears that out.  He's a loner in many ways and is used to working on his own, with his own rules and no oversight. 
The irony here is that the most important long-term benefit of a warrior code is that it helps prevent the worst effects of PTSD--if he would accept the same values that the others do, he would be able to find support in being part of the group and probably suffer a lot less.

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A Great Book, Finally

I know I said I'd post this a few hours after my last post, but it turned into almost a month.  And, no, I haven't been stalling.  I just forgot!  With all my coursework and getting my research paper draft going, this was the last thing on my mind.

Today is the second anniversary of my mother's death.  I woke up thinking about her, partly because I had a dream about her, in which she told me to "get cracking on that homework."  Since I'm just about up to date on everything else, I figured that this was my subconscious telling me I was missing something.  That was when I realized that I hadn't been posting.  So, here goes.

The book that has helped me the most with my paper is The Code of the Warrior:  Exploring Warrior Values Past and Present, by Shannon E. French, who is a philosophy professor at the U.S. Naval Academy.  Since she works in a military setting, it was probably only natural that she would want to write about this topic, and she obviously had access to plenty of current and former "warriors" to flesh out the research she did on warriors of the past.  One of the things that helped me is that it seems that the people (virtually all men) she consulted or quoted seemed to be able to detail the codes that governed their behaviors as members of the military, which fit what I saw in Avengers:  Age of Ultron.  I'll talk more about that in my next post.

Anyway, it's a terrific read; I couldn't put it down.  Check it out. 

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Waiting is the Hardest Part

The "Heroic Age" roster of the Avengers. Cover art for Avengers vol. 4, #12.1, by Bryan Hitch. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

I turned my research proposal in on Wednesday, so I figure I'll get it back on this coming Wednesday.  Tomorrow (Monday) seems too soon, based on last semester's assignments in all my classes.  I'm really hoping she okays it.  I'm sticking with Avengers:  Age of Ultron and a men's studies approach, but I narrowed it down to the code of the team.  My initial research question is:  Do the Avengers all keep to the same code?

The reason I'm asking this is that it seems to me that they don't, and they probably should for the good of the group.  This brings me to the fact that I am worried that I am partly drawn to that conclusion because I have a pretty good idea what the filmmakers are planning for the future films, thanks to my older brothers, Paul and Brian.  I'll get to that in my next post.

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