You want to know something? I’ll let you in on secret. I don’t really enjoy reading. Not all the time at least. But don’t get be wrong! Occasionally I stumble upon a rare find that compels me to read. Something so ingeniously written, so perfectly composed, in fact, it was a lot like the perfect pizza. Thin crust with the right amount of toppings that is neither overwhelming nor difficult to finish.  It’s insane isn’t it, me reading? But I got to hand it to Professor Healey on this one; I loved “The Metal Children”, almost as much as I love pizza. No I lied, sorry. But you want to know something else? I loved “Taxi Driver” too. Not as much as I love pizza but enough so that if it was a slice of pizza, I’d be tempted to eat it. Ahah. Don’t worry, for the purpose of brevity, I’ll limit the introductions.

So what exactly did I like about the play? And what exactly did I like about the film? Well for one thing the protagonists were amazing. Whether it was their eccentric personalities or all the shit that they get themselves into, it was difficult not to feel anything but admiration and sympathy for Tobin and Travis.

Tobin is one sad dude. I genuinely feel sorry for him. I mean everyone literally pushed him into settling the whole book-school dispute. I mean come on; if I were a character I’d raise hell to give the man some space. Cut him some slack, he just lost his wife dammit. Putting my sympathy asides, Tobin is extremely passive. He lacks a backbone, has sex with a minor, and also has kidney stones. He is practically asking for it when others step all over him. I feel sorry for the man but I still think he needs to man up. He could have avoided all the violence and ass whooping if he wasn’t such a sitting duck. But I guess the book wouldn’t be as interesting if that happened.

Travis. Travis. Travis. Good old crazy Travis. OMG, this guy blew my mind. It was like watching a scene from Terminator I or II, not III because it wasn’t as good. I mean Travis was like the governor in several ways. He represented all the things men stood for. Raw courage, pure strength, and an obligation to save women, and/or girls. He also represented all the bad things men stood for. Violence, anger, and an unmatched desire to kill the senator.  Travis did everything to go against society. He was like a screwball running loose on the streets. Personally I don’t think Travis could’ve justified anything he did. I’m pretty sure he just wanted fulfillment or a purpose in life. He was willing to be remembered as the infamous senator-killer or the teenage prostitute-savior. Either way, Travis did all that he could to stand up against the harsh society he grew up in. I’m pretty impressed though. There aren’t that many people that are impervious to bullets. The exception being Superman.

Tobin and Travis are two very different characters. Actually, they are kind of like polar opposites of each other. Tobin being the submissive type who mopes over his lost marriage and Travis being the bullheaded macho man who is willing to go all the way. When pit against an unforgiving society both men were shown to react very differently from one another. It’s very difficult for me to want to compare such a passive character with a volatile one, so I can’t really label a common theme for the two.

I think this just goes to show that all men are different.

“Not all of us are assholes.”

“Taxi Driver” and “The Metal Children” are both highly compelling and deeply disturbing.  The intriguing plot and interesting protagonist of both kept my attention from start to finish.  Travis and Tobin, though very different in occupation and personality type, begin in similar situations.  The two characters show early signs of unhealthy mental states.  For Travis, this is indicated by insomnia, for Tobin it is his irresponsible behavior, namely unprotected sex and drug use.  Both men are plagued by loneliness due to unsuccessful love lives- Travis fails with Betsy, Tobin is dealing with his wife’s leaving him- and some sort of lack of satisfaction with life.  Travis is dissatisfied with the “scum” which inhabits his city.  Tobin is dissatisfied with his inability to write novels which achieve the commercial success he desires.

The two characters, however, take on very different courses of action.  Tobin takes on a nothing matters sort of attitude in response to his difficulties.  He partakes in irresponsible behaviors like the ones mentioned above and stops being productive.  He no longer keeps his apartment clean, stops paying attention to his health, and does not keep up with his writing.  He becomes pathetic.  When the controversy in the Midlothia school begins Tobin is given a chance to be proactive.  However, if not for a significant push from Bruno he would have chosen to ignore it.  Once in Midlothia he continues his passive behavior.  Vera tells him of the irresponsible behavior she and the other young women are engaging in in response to his novel.  Instead of using his influence to guide her in a more productive and responsible direction, he lets it happen. He even perpetuates and shows support for the activity by impregnating Vera.

Tobin gives his greatest display of apathy at the board meeting itself.  After three people give passionate speeches about the implications and messages of his novel, Tobin gets up and essentially says his novel is meaningless.  Though this appeals to my personal feelings about art, I feel that he should have used  the opportunity to defend the novel.  He could have played off the point of view of social commentary.  He could have pointed out to those assembled that the life of one of the young women who gets pregnant ends in tragedy.  Instead he gets up and tells a pathetic story filled with self pity.

For Travis, on the other hand, everything in life takes on more meaning.  As he becomes more frustrated with the state of affairs in his city, he decides to take action. He diets and exercises to become healthier and stronger- a sharp contrast to Tobin’s unhealthy coping methods.  He buys weapons to enable himself to fight against those who ruin the city.  However, he begins his attempts to improve the city in a nonviolent way.  He goes to see Iris, the prostitute looking for a way out.  Instead of sleeping with her as expected, he tries to get her to leave her pimp.  Though she initially refuses, Travis continues to try to persuade Iris when he takes her out for pie.

Travis’s active attempts to change the city culminate when he shoots the pimp and his partner.  There isn’t much more active than risking your own life to kill another.  Nothing can stop him, not the risk of being killed or even actually being shot.  In contrast to Tobin’s lack of motivation, Travis is determined to achieve his goal no matter what.

When I first watched “Taxi Driver”, I found the movie to be so incredibly boring that I was surprised it got nominated for four Oscars.  “Did people watch this movie blindfolded?” I thought.  After years of hearing about the great Martin Scorsese, it seemed that I had been let down.  All was not lost, however, and I discovered a greater respect for the movie after Monday’s discussion.  I discovered more about the themes of the movie and the characters that can also be related to “The Metal Children”.

One theme that is dealt with in both “Taxi Driver” and “The Metal Children” is the theme of loneliness and isolation.  In “Taxi Driver”, for example, Travis is a lonely taxi driver who has no one to share his life with.  He has fellow taxi drivers who he talks to occasionally, but he never truly befriends them and becomes close with them.  Travis has parents who he communicates with through letters, but he hides his address from them so that they cannot communicate with him.  He tells his parents that this is because he is a successful government worker who must keep his address a secret.  Travis also does not have a partner in his life.  He does not have a wife or a girlfriend he goes home to at night.  Instead, Travis goes to the porno theaters at night.

Travis’ isolation is something that carries over into “The Metal Children”.  In “The Metal Children”, after Tobin’s wife leaves him, he is alone.  Tobin secludes himself to his apartment for over a month and spends much of his time pining for his wife, pondering why she left him.  Travis seeks comfort in the “hoobily-doobily” (drugs) but that is not enough to cure his loneliness.

What Tobin and Travis both want is to be loved.  In “The Metal Children”, Tobin momentarily appeases his loneliness by having sex with one of his neighbors.  Later in the play, however, Tobin cannot hold out any longer and he calls his ex-wife to talk to her.  “Miranda, hey, it’s me… I just wanted to let you know that I miss you (he starts to cry, makes himself stop)…”  This excerpt from “The Metal Children” shows how much Tobin misses his wife and wants to be with her again.  Tobin misses his wife so much, that when he is stabbed and falls into a coma, he cannot stop thinking about her.  He even acts out a conversation between him and his wife and why she left him.  This just goes to show how much Tobin’s wife leaving truly affected him.

Likewise, in “Taxi Driver” Travis also wants someone to love.  For Travis, that someone is Betsy.  Unfortunately for Travis, Betsy is a classy, upper -class working woman who enjoys Kris Kristofferson.  In other words, Travis’ world is different from Betsy’s world.  Travis makes an attempt to enter Betsy’s world by upgrading his wardrobe.  The result is disastrous for Travis, however, when he tries to bring Betsy into his world by taking her to a porno.  Travis ends up losing Betsy.

I think that it is at this point that Travis’ rebellion against the established authority begins.  He starts by rebelling against the way that Betsy is treating him.  He storms into her office and confronts her about all the calls and flowers that she rejects from him.  Travis then tries to rebel by attempting an assassination against Senator Palantine.  When this fails, however, Travis confronts and kills Sport, the pimp who Iris works for.  I think that this is just what Travis needed to do since the beginning of the movie.  He was always talking so much about cleaning the trash off the streets that I think he needed to stop waiting for other people to come around and just take action himself.

In “The Metal Children”, Tobin also does what he has to.  Tobin writes “The Metal Children” because it is an outlet for him to express his thoughts and emotions after a tough time in his life.  When this novel gets banned in Midlothia, however, Tobin sets out to speak on behalf of his novel.  After dealing with this, Tobin starts to clean up his life.  He writes another bestselling novel and gets back in shape.  Just like Travis desired in “Taxi Driver”, Tobin gives his life a purpose again.

I have one word to describe Adam Rapp’s play The Metal Children – AMAZING! Once I started reading it, I couldn’t put it down. I didn’t find Taxi Driver to be as entertaining, but after watching the movie for a little while, I began to enjoy it more and more.

I don’t think that Tobin, the protagonist of The Metal Children, wrote the novel with the intention of liberating teenage girls and giving them a sense of independence. He wrote the novel to help him cope with his own problems in his life and to achieve fame and notoriety. Additionally, I firmly believe that his book should not have been banned. Teenagers have a right to read about the problems affecting other kids of their generation. Many parents don’t properly inform their children about issues such as teenage pregnancy, which could put them in an uncomfortable and dangerous position when they’re in the real world.

The main reason why I believe Tobin was only acting for his own self-interest is that he proceeded to put Vera in a dangerous position. Although Vera went after Tobin, and not the other way around, if Tobin had wanted to help teenage girls, he would not have become involved with Vera. Vera told Tobin about Boy X and the mission, but this did not cause Tobin to ask Vera to leave his room.

Also, Tobin even states, “Uh, I didn’t write the novel for any particular reason. I was still in my twenties and things weren’t going so well for me.” At the school board meeting allocated for the discussion of his book, he openly admits that he didn’t write the book with the teenager girls in mind, but as a result of the troubles in his own life.

Tobin is both similar to and different from the character of Travis in the movie Taxi Driver. Both Tobin and Travis take action in pursuit of their own selfish interest, and in the process, inadvertently help a group of people. In the play The Metal Children, Tobin inspires the teenage girls with his book. Similarly, in the movie Taxi Driver, Travis protects prostitutes by exposing the prostitution ring. Although it is possible, in the end, that Travis did indeed want to help Easy, his original plan was to kill Palantine, which in his mind would give his life a purpose.

Throughout the whole movie, Travis is attempting to be someone who he’s not. In order to win the approval of Betsy and the rest of the people who work for the Palantine Campaign, he puts on his red jacket when he enters the office. Also, in his letters to his parents, Travis appears to be an important worker for the government who is making a lot of money. Similar to all Americans, he is trying to achieve the American Dream and make something of his life. He finally kills the man responsible for the prostitution ring and as a result earns his title as a hero.

The desire to escape your background and to become someone new is a common theme in both the play and the movie. Vera also wants to take on a new role in society. She was orphaned as a young girl and she becomes involved with this mission in order to give her life a purpose. Tobin published his written work as a young adult novel because he felt it would earn greater publicity than if it was classified as an adult novel, showing that he also wants to become famous.

Both Tobin and Travis ignore the laws and authority of society. Tobin writes a novel targeted for teenagers about a controversial topic. The truth is, however, that the parents had a problem with the fact that the students were reading the novel as part of their English class. I don’t think the book would have incited so much discussion had the novel merely been available at the library or bookstore. In the movie Taxi Driver, Travis resorts to killing people in order to reach his goal. There are morals and laws against hurting other people, but he completely disregards these standards.

Overall, I found both The Metal Children and Taxi Driver to be entertaining. I firmly believe that the viewing of art should not be limited by an “authority” that claims it “inappropriate.” Often, the “inappropriate” art is still based on reality, and banning the viewing of this art is only a way for society to attempt to ignore the issues.

I loved “The Metal Children”!! I couldn’t put the book down once: I read it in one sitting, tuning out the clamor in my house because I was so fascinated by the story.

In the play Vera tells Tobin “the novelist might be the only true cultural revolutionary left in America”. Vera is only sixteen and yet her words display more maturity than many characters in the play.

When first asked to do this assignment I assumed I would compare Vera to Travis of Taxi Driver (even though I know that Vera is not the protagonist of the play).

It just made more sense to me. Both characters are rebellious and are decided on the path with which they will achieve their goals. Tobin on the other hand appears to be so passive that at some points it disgusts me (as when he impregnates Vera). However, I digress. The more I think about it, there are a few similarities between the two characters.

Tobin, the protagonist of “The Metal Children” is a writer who is stuck. When we are first introduced to him we see that he is a liar, indifferent and a mess. Yet when we learn that his wife has left him we begin to pity him. However, Tobin is still very passive and shows little concern for the problems his book has caused. He does not even want to go to Midlothia to defend his book.

Throughout the play Tobin does not take a stand against anything; he is unsure of where he what path his life will take right up until the last scene of the play when he has finished writing a new novel. He has cleaned up his life and lost weight. Tobin’s tears at the end of the play shows that he finally cares for something.

In contrast, in the movie Taxi Driver I felt biased against Travis from the beginning. He was always alone, and the dirty colors and sad music that was supposed to draw me into his world only made me want to separate from it. Like Tobin, at first Travis is indifferent to the crimes he witnesses daily. He later becomes motivated to do what most people find hard to do: take action to better his own life and his environment. He does this by exercising to increase his strength and purchasing guns to make himself feel more powerful. In the movie he changes from passive to active, killing robbers and pimps to clean up the streets. He does not do this to impress Betsey or even for fame. He acts because he feels that he must, that it is his purpose in life.

Tobin reacts to authority by doing what he is good at: he writes. Although he did not write The Metal Children to criticize authority, his writing gives him a voice. His new novel at the end of the play is a criticism on consumerism. In real life Tobin is not out spoken, nor does he take action physically as Travis does. Instead Tobin uses his writing to tackle problems of society.

A common theme displayed by both characters is man’s strong desire to make a difference in the world. Both characters do so in a different way. Tobin makes a difference by writing while Travis helps Iris get her old life back.

Another theme the two works share is that in isolation one views society differently and is able to recognize its flaws. Travis is a loner: no one relates to him or understands him. Tobin is also alone; even though people often surround him they do not appear to understand him.

Also an important theme both works share is in individual’s responsibility of reforming society. As an artist, the author must inform the reader about what needs to be changed in a society. Once a good story impacts them, they are the ones who will take action. This also relates to Travis because he realizes he has a responsibility as he attempts to change his world. It’s like those Salvation Army people used to scream at me when I was younger, “only YOU can make a difference!”

What really is the difference between a movie and play? Both have a text.  Both have themes, symbols, and characters. Both have specific scenes and imagery. I will sometimes watch a movie and analyze it as though it were a book, by paying attention to little nuances or to specific language.  To quote Vera, from “The Metal Children,” as she so wonderfully paraphrases Shakespeare,  “…storytelling’s function, whether is be spoken by the mouths of actors on a stage or discovered in the pages of books, is not to simply entertain…but… to help us understand the complexity and confounding realities of what it means to be human.” Whether it be through writing a play, directing a movie, or acting in one, Adam Rapp, Martin Scorsese, and Robert de Niro each embody this notion of telling a story in order to shed light on the intricacies of reality and the complexities of man.

These ideas are really what make “The Metal Children” and “Taxi Driver” each so raw and filled with reality. Normally in a movie or play, there will be this ideal hero, with all the characteristic, heroic qualities. Shiny hair, great body, gets all the girls, basically a Greek god. What I found interesting about these works is that each of their stories center around a fallible character.  In the “Metal Children,” I see Tobin’s main flaw to be his passivity as a person. His wife left him and he just mopes around instead of getting his life back together. He has a book due to be written; yet he is unable to write it by his deadline because his is completely paralyzed from his own despair. His aggressive manager is merely used as a foil to highlight Tobin’s own passivity. All these things build up to the moment he visits Midlothia, the town that wants to ban his book. Yet, the moment he gets there, instead of having some classic epiphany and becoming a hero, he is, shocker, still passive. He does essentially nothing when he is vandalized and has the same reaction when he gets beat up one night. His response to the authority of this town is no different. He does not make any extra effort to stand up to them. He just does what he came to do. Speak about his book. As a writer all the action is up in Tobin’s head, never materialized.

Even though on the outset they may seem like completely different characters, I think Tobin and Travis are actually really similar. The beginning of the movie Travis says in a voice over that he wanted to drive a cab because he wanted long hours. The fact that he just sits in his cab and drives around all days makes him extremely passive. In his taxi he is a people watcher.  When people come in, he does not interact with the people he picks up. The most his does is look in his mirror.

Unlike Tobin, Travis has a rough interior that begins to germinate into something more as the movie progresses. He argues with Betsy’s campaign friend after she dumps him. And he boldly tries to get the 12-year-old prostitute, played by Jodie Foster, to flee her predicament. Unlike Tobin, Travis wishes to emerge from his own shadows and be noticed.

The theme of society vs. individual, of being a loner vs. part of a community, is what unites “Taxi Driver” and “The Metal Children” the most. Both characters are loners in their own right. Each one separated from their immediate surroundings. The Beginning scenes in “Taxi Driver” perfectly depict Travis as a loner. Walking the empty streets on his own, living alone, Travis is isolated. The audience can feel this by the way the camera is always inside the cab. Travis is stuck in his own world.

Tobin also is trapped. The part of the play that depicts his daily life only takes place in his apartment. To me, there is no better isolation that being constantly homebound.  Travis though, ends up taking action. His practice in front of his mirror actually comes to fruition. Tobin’s last action in the play is crying alone in his apartment.

Normally this would be the end of my blog, but last night I watched a really great movie called “A Single Man,” directed by designer Tom Ford. It was really interesting because he used eyes in his film similar to the way Scorsese uses eyes in “Taxi Driver”.  He always narrows in on people’s eyes and when the main character is in the car, Ford focuses on his eyes in the mirror, just like Scorsese does with Travis.

Something else to note, is that I felt a similar pain and excitement about Colin Firth’s performance in “A Single Man,” that I felt while watching de Niro in “Taxi Driver.” When an actor makes his character seem so real, so raw, so fallible, I feel it much deeper than I do with a typical acting performance. These kinds of performances make me want to act myself. They make actors seem like they understand something more about living and about man’s existence.

The Metal Children was an amazing play to read.  I just couldn’t put it down.  And Taxi Driver was equally amazing. I totally understand why its one of the greatest and most influential movies.

The Metal Children and Taxi Driver both have protagonists who are thought of in a positive light- the Metal Children’s Tobin was a Young Adult author whose book was taught in the school curriculum and considered one of the greats.

It was pretty comical because whenever Stacey Kinsella or Vera discussed the intricate symbolism and hidden meanings in his book, Tobin had no idea what they were talking about.  I especially liked this part because in English class throughout high school we would always analyze classics and discuss what hidden meaning the author meant to reveal or what symbolism/ analogies he used and we would always wonder- what if we are reading too much into it?  How do we know the author meant anything by it at all?  Maybe we are wasting our time analyzing this book that wasn’t meant to be analyzed.  And that’s exactly what happened in The Metal Children.  Tobin wrote this book which was interpreted, analyzed, studied and declared one of the greatest pieces of Young Adult literature, when really Tobin had written the book when he was high on drugs and didn’t mean anything deeper in his writing.

Similarly in Taxi Driver, Travis Bickle searched to give his life meaning and a higher purpose than just driving taxis and watching all the scum- the pimps, prostitutes and hustlers who come out at night.  He is not in his right mind and becomes fixated on Senator Palandine, who was running for president, and made it his life purpose to assassinate Palandine.  When the time came to assassinate him, Travis’ plan was thwarted by the Secret Service and he just barely escaped.  He went psycho and started popping pills and drinking alcohol, and transferred his fixation onto a different mission.  He didn’t care- maybe it wouldn’t be Paladine, but he knew he would be killing people tonight.  He went to the prostitute house where Iris worked and killed a few people there (the pimps).  He was written up in the papers and hailed as a hero who killed the bad guys and freed Iris, a helpless twelve year old girl caught up in the prostitute business.

Both of these guys- Travis and Tobin- are perceived as heroes and geniuses, when in reality, they were just two messed up guys with troubled lives.  If they had known Tobin had written the book while high, would they have cared enough to even read it, let alone make it a Bestseller and add it to a high school curriculum?  Of course not- it would have been thought of as garbage.  And if the public had known that Travis wanted and attempted to assassinate Palandine, would he be hailed as a hero?  Of course not.

Both The Metal Children and Taxi Driver show the power of perception and misinterpretation.  Travis is a perceived as a hero because his actions were misinterpreted, and Tobin is considered a literary genius because his intentions were misread, too.