Blog 8: Life is not a problem to be solved, but a reality to be experienced.

While reading “High School is Hell”, I thought about my own high school experience and how well this article represented some of those memories.  Joss Whedon does a fantastic job at taking average metaphors that teenagers use on a daily basis and turning them into reality.  He does such a good job that they seem more real than reality itself.  But the argument I see being made in this article is that social issues can be expressed and even emphasized by using metaphors.  In the article, they discuss different metaphors that are shown during the first 3 seasons.  As the seasons progress into one another, the metaphors become more intense and have a greater influence to social issues that teenagers face.  I think the best example was from the third season and about graduation.  At the end of the episode the school explodes so that no matter what, the students cannot return to the high school.  Graduation for teenagers is truly an exciting and terrifying experience.  One chapter of your life is ending and you are starting your own chapter on your own terms.  For some, it is hard to let go of the past and move on towards the future.  Using a metaphor and turning it into reality on the show, Whedon expresses this hesitance and extinguishes it with the finality of the school being destroyed.  He gives the characters no choice but to move on.  So many of the metaphors expressed have real influence for teenagers.  So many things you face in high school are life changing and you feel that if just one of those things goes awry then your life as you once knew it is over.  You really could “just die from embarrassment.”