The Metal Children by Adam Rapp and Taxi Driver by Martin Scorsese were both very interesting and fun to read and watch. At first, I thought to myself, “Ahh a old movie… this is going to be so boring!” However, that was not the case as I was very impressed by how much I liked the movie. Additionally, the Metal Children was very engaging also and kept me anxious to find out what would happen next.

Getting right to the point, I felt like both characters were put in situations that were unexpected. Tobin who doesn’t even realize what the effects of his book would do to Midlothia, has to deal with this situation. Even though he’s EXTREMELY submissive to all that is going on, he still has this problem to deal with. Also, Travis was living his life, but his character is so unpredictable that he ends up wanting to kill Palantine and finds some meaning in is life. He’s motivated and determined to achieve his goal.

I also felt like both societies had an established authority to which each character sort of rebels against. Tobin, unaware but still, writes The Metal Children, which becomes so controversial and splits a whole community. Also, from the beginning of the movie, the setting and scenes display Travis’s environment almost hell-like, and Travis is this character who eventually becomes a “hero” in this horrid environment. Both characters have a tremendous effect on society and change what people think about normal issues. Whether it was Tobin who inspired Vera and her friends or Travis who brought to light prostitution to the eyes of his community, both men created controversy and questioned the morals of the people living in their societies.

Another quality that I felt both characters had in common was their contradictive nature. Tobin was this passive person who was trapped in his own world. Yet, the effect that his work made sparked a big commotion and he was caught in the mess of the world around him. However, in the end of the play, Tobin sort of improves himself. Similarly, Travis who seems to be this tough guy, runs into Iris. Even though he’s on a mission to kill Palantine, he still worries about Iris, which portrays he has a sensitive side too. Travis acts like he has no feelings attached to the world when in fact he gets emotional and passionate at times. Both these characters have two different sides to them.

Finally, a theme that was common to both works was isolation and detachment. Tobin’s wife left him and therefore was alone. This parallels Betsy rejecting Travis. Travis was trying to fit in Betsy’s world but also bring her into his but this didn’t work out for him. Betsy felt offended and hence left Travis. The reader or watcher often finds that he/she wants to sympathize with these characters but this is hard knowing their true intentions. Tobin had no motivation to do anything and had no guts to stand up and say something. I didn’t have any respect for him. Also it’s difficult to tell whether Travis was a hero because it’s easy to say he was just at the right place at the right time. Would the outcome have been the same if the secret service agent didn’t catch him? It’s a mystery.

Many times, the pressures of society can influence our actions. However, both Tobin and Travis influence their societies and create a difference. I enjoyed reading and watching these two characters as they made me think about how our society and media affects what we all do and even think about various issues.

Let me start out by staying I LOVED the Metal Children. I literally could not put it down. It was interesting. Unlike most plays I’ve read (including “The Indian Wants The Bronx) the language was accessible, the characters were intriguing, and the plot was exciting on paper. I know that plays are meant to be seen and not read but, with the help of great stage directions, I was able to visualize every scene.

The unique way the play begins immediately grabbed my attention. It took me a few minutes to figure out what the hell Tobin was doing. I think that the lovesick, drunken, self-pitying 38-year-old writer is a realistic portrayal of an artist’s lifestyle. While Tobin doesn’t always make the best decisions, like sleeping with Vera, I have sympathy for him. After losing his wife to a better looking, wealthier man Tobin is crushed and his self-esteem is in the gutter. Loneliness is a powerful emotion that drives people to search for love and acceptance in places they wouldn’t normally look.

I really loved Tobin’s character for two reasons. Firstly, because he was such a smart-ass and secondly, everything he says in Act Two, Scene 1 during the school board meeting completely supports what I said in last week’s blog! When he explains that he didn’t write the Metal Children for any particular reason and that the novel was a product of pain medication and an extremely trippy dream it made my day! I wish that I had read the Metal Children a week sooner so I could use it to support my ideas in last week’s blog!

While I loved the Metal Children, Taxi Driver was a completely different story. I know that as a Sicilian, hating any work of Martin Scorsese is blasphemous, but I couldn’t help disliking the plot-less time suck that is Taxi Driver. While I understand that the film is meant to highlight Travis’ mental instability, the storyline about a crazy, attention- seeking war veteran did not hold my interest. Like Tobin, Travis is extremely lonesome. He feels like an outsider, which is highlighted by the wardrobe, colors, and camera angles used by Scorsese throughout the film.

The difference between Tobin and Travis is that they both seek attention in different ways.  Tobin writes a novel about his ideas in order to give his life purpose or meaning and Travis plans to assassinate a senator. Tobin searches for affection by having sex with random women and Travis prefers to watch other people have sex on a giant screen.

While Travis is obviously a nut job and Tobin seems to be sane, I find it ironic that the nut job receives praise for murdering a few pimps and Tobin is ostracized for writing his novel. While Tobin’s drug induced, accidental genius was written for “no particular reason,” Travis actually committed his actions for two reasons: for his own social advancement and to save the teenage prostitute, Iris, from her pimp. Even with the best intentions, to rescue Iris, I still feel that Travis should be treated as a criminal rather than a hero. Just because he murdered bad people doesn’t make murder ok. If Travis’ plan to murder the Senator had been successful, he would have been throne in the slammer. It’s only because he murdered pimps that society deems his actions acceptable. Are there exceptions to the law? Can murder ever be justified?

Never judge a book by its cover, however when I first saw the cover for the Metal Children I immediately thought that this was going to be a really strange story and I probably wouldn’t find it interesting, I mean come on there’s a guy with a pig mask on the cover. However, once I started reading it, my opinion quickly changed and I couldn’t seem to put the book down. Now I know why they say don’t judge a book by its cover. Similarly when I went to my library to get a copy of Taxi Driver, and when I took one look at the cover, I thought to myself that there’s no way I would find this movie interesting, actually I was home alone in a dark room while watching this movie and instead of falling asleep like I thought would happen, I found myself being unable to take my eyes off of the television.

The protagonists in both the Metal Children and in Taxi Driver may seem to be two completely different people, I mean one’s a taxi driver in New York City, and the other is an author who lives alone in his apartment, but when you really thing about it they have more in common than you might initially think. Both Travis and Tobin are isolated from the world. This is one common theme that this play and movie have. Taxi Driver begins the movie with a set of eyes looking through the review mirror, right away from this scene we see that Travis is alone; although the when I first saw this I’ll admit I thought it was kind of freaky that the movie started with just a set of eyes looking at you, but after watching the whole movie it’s clear to me now that this was an appropriate way to start off the movie. After analyzing the scenery and clothing in class it’s even clearer just how isolated Travis was throughout the movie. As much as Travis is isolated, we know that he doesn’t want to be anymore through his efforts of trying to get with Betsy. When we analyze these scenes we see that Travis wears brighter colors when he’s around her and that he’s trying to make an effort to have somebody in his life.

Similarly Tobin in the Metal Children is very isolated from society. He lives alone in a messy apartment and doesn’t feel like doing anything. When he first hears about the movement that is going on he doesn’t even care. If someone were fighting against their whole community in favor of me I think that I probably would show some appreciation and at least try to help out the situation, wouldn’t you? But Tobin just didn’t seem to care about anything, it wasn’t until his agent Bruno convinced him to go to an upcoming town meeting in Midlothia that he finally got out of his apartment and did something. Even though Tobin went to this meeting, he didn’t really help much at all. While writing his book, Tobin never intended to start a revolution, all he was doing was telling a story since he was upset over what happened to him. Basically the book was his way of getting over what had occurred in his life, and then everyone else interpreted his book in a much more extreme manner. Did he intend on making teenage girls want to rebel against the rules within their community and form a whole new community that supports teen pregnancy….of course not!

Travis and Tobin are both responsible for great change that has occurred within communities. However one thing that’s different about these changes is that Travis intended on bringing about change, while Tobin had no intention of it whatsoever.
Travis was tired of the “scum” that he kept seeing throughout New York City, and if no one was going to do anything about it than he would. If people are running around New York City committing crimes and nothing is being done about it, shouldn’t someone take action? Well Travis believed that he should and so he worked out and committed himself to getting fixing the problems in the city. In the end Travis became a “hero” for exposing the problems that everyone just seemed to ignore. Tobin similarly becomes a “hero” to a group of teenage girls. To these girls his book has managed to change all of their lives. These girls all became committed to “the mission”. However unlike Travis, Tobin never intended on making any changes in society. All Tobin wanted to do was vent about his feelings that he had about what had occurred with his wife.

Travis and Tobin clearly lived extremely different lives, I mean one was a struggling writer who was becoming addicted to drugs and hitting a low point in his life, and another was a man who spent some time in the marines, and now didn’t really know what he was doing with his life and so he decided to become a Taxi driver. After hearing this you probably think how on earth could these completely different people possibly have anything in common? Well turns out they may have lived in different areas, and had different careers, but both of these characters shared a common theme, they were isolated and wished to find a way to not be isolated anymore.

“Are you talking to me”, one line that will be famous for years to come and a line that made me enjoy the movie Taxi Driver.  Yes at times the movie was drawn out, but when Professor Healey pointed out the significance of the cinematography, I realized how much of a genius Martin Scorsese is.  I also realized how similar Travis Bickle is similar and yet different to “The Metal Children” protagonist Tobin Falmouth.  I am glad that this is the topic of the blog to compare such mysterious characters, each one a puzzle that I still can not figure out.

I will start with Tobin because at times he frustrated me throughout the play.  I read the play without being able to put it down, and the character Tobin left me with so many opinions of him. He frustrated me firstly because of how he just stood around  at times and let people say all these opinions of him and let his controversial book get out of hand.  I could not take how he had little opinion of himself, occasionally weeping because he thought he was failure. I do not know how it happened but out of nowhere, my frustration just turned into sympathy for this character.  I could not stop feeling bad for him, for all he had to go through, for his longing to be reunited with his wife who left him. I felt such pity for him and I wanted Adam Rapp to hopefully have some great ending for Tobin to exchange for all the sadness he went through but sadly he did not.

I think that Tobin had his ups and downs.  He challenged the authorities in a way that I think was surprising to those who had an opinion of the book.  He responded in a way that did not glorify the teens trying to get pregnant; in fact, he was not too passionate about what was going on in the surroundings. I think that it was a responsible way of stating his thoughts on the book, he did not try to be a supreme hero and fight those who sprayed graffiti quoting his book.   I thought that it was a problem when he slept with Vera, to me that attached him to the situation.  He became part of the situation  I think and that was not what he should of done.  He did not try to be a savior and was very complacent in my opinion.

Travis as I think back is more of an opposite to Tobin.  Travis was lonely, in the same way Tobin was.  Scorsese emphasized this fact showing how he contrasted how different Travis was from society through his dress and personality.  Travis did not frustrate me like Tobin did, but I still sympathized with him.  I think Travis truly is an innocent guy, he did not know that watching an inappropriate movie with Betsy was wrong.  He was innocent and I sympathized him from the beginning as he felt that he had no sense of direction.  I think that Tobin could be portrayed in the same way, a man feeling no sense of direction, lacking motivation.  I just feel that Travis tried to be a savior, to give him some motivation while Tobin wrote.  Travis wanted to do something  that was big something that would make him a savior to society.

Travis had more passion then Tobin, he took initiative.  Even though it was illegal motives, Travis wanted New York to be cleaned and he was willing to do it.  He had passion and wanted things to be taken care of, if Palantine  did not do it he would.  To be honest I would not even consider Tobin as someone who went against established authority.  He wrote a book not purposely going against society but as a catharsis for the loss of his wife.  He went to talk to the school because he was asked to.  I think Vera showed more passion and went against established authority more than Tobin because she campaigned to promote his book.

Travis I think went against authority more openly.  He bought guns which I know is illegal. I do not even know if I can fully come to a conclusion as to whether or not Travis is a hero.  He did risk his life in a bloody shooting but it was illegal so I do not know if I can decide if he is a hero or not.  His intentions are definitely heroic and more open than Tobin.  He has more restraint than Tobin and I wonder if Tobin encountered Iris, what would he do. Would he show restraint as Travis did and try to save her or would he sleep with her?

In the end, these characters are alike in the way that they share the same themes.  Travis and Tobin in the end of the production have themes of isolation, socially aloof, and have socially disparity within their societies.  All this is a result from having unique minds of their own that are different from most of society that they chose to express. In  the end they will always be a mystery to me as characters.

Usually when I am assigned to watch a movie, read a book, or do anything that is assigned, I automatically assume that it has to be boring.  As I sat waiting for “Taxi Driver” to download onto my iTunes, I gathered a bunch of snacks and a coffee cup filled to the brim with caffeine galore, but to my amazement, I didn’t even need it.  To be honest, I’m not gonna say that this movie was the best movie I’ve ever seen in my life because it really wasn’t and I wasn’t completely and totally in love with it, but it kept me awake on a Thursday night while I was home alone and for that, it must be pretty good.

“Taxi Driver,” directed by Michael Scorsese, is about a war veteran named Travis who seems to be dissatisfied with his life and he wants to be able to make a difference.  In the beginning of the movie, there were arguably some scenes that could have been cut out, but if they were I think it would have taken away from the simplicity and lonesomeness of Travis’s life.  The director wanted us to see that Travis was an ordinary man, just a taxi driver, who wanted more out of his life.  He wanted to be loved, to make a difference, to change the city in which he lived in, and to stand out.  Travis opened his heart up to Betsy, but since he is just the taxi driver, he didn’t fit in to her overly wealthy lifestyle with glitz and glam.  Travis is a part of the city; the drab life of the city.  When he goes to Betsy he tries to change himself for her by dressing nicely with what is probably his only red blazer, but he still stood out like a sore thumb; similar to the way Betsy stood out in the scene at the porno movie theater.

Travis was unable to find love in the city and although this angered him, instead of sitting back and letting this heartbreak get the best of him, he stood up strong and was determined to do something else.  He worked out every day, bought guns, and worked toward his goal of getting rid of the “scumbags,” the men (pimps) who encouraged prostitution rings.  During these times, the cops didn’t really care about prostitution, and they might have been engaging in it themselves.  At first, Travis tried talking to Iris to make her leave her pimp, but after she didn’t listen, he knew he had to take it into his own hands.  Travis went from being the ordinary taxi driver, to someone who can be called a hero for what he did.

However, the idea of a hero can be taken very differently according to the people who are judging.  After reading Adam Rapp’s play, “The Metal Children,” I was a little disturbed, but no matter how disturbing the content is, I couldn’t put the play down and I ended up finishing it in less than an hour.  Adam Rapp’s contemporary style of writing along with his interesting plot and choice of characters, made me want to read more of his plays.  In “The Metal Children,” his protagonist, Tobin is in a tough situation.

Like Travis, Tobin is lonely and mentally unstable after losing his wife and his drowning career.  He has experienced losing someone who he loves, like Travis, but instead of making the best of it, he does something completely different than Travis.  He doesn’t watch his health or try to be active, but instead he sits around, gaining weight and letting his apartment look like one of those on the new TLC series, “Hoarding.”  When a town in PA blows up over one of his so-called “young adult” books, Tobin shows no emotion.  He doesn’t feel bad about it, he doesn’t even care at all and he needs to be pushed by his assistant to go to the town’s meeting about the book.

Unlike Travis who is very passionate about problems in his city, Tobin is way more apathetic, even to the dozens of girls running around getting pregnant because of his book.  Although this epidemic really isn’t his fault at all, he just wrote the book while he was depressed and high, he still became a part of it once he had sex with Vera.  (I’m sure Travis wouldn’t approve of this).  Tobin takes a much more different approach when it comes to his mental unstability.  He is much more dependent on outside help from his assistant who pushes and encourages him, in contrast to Travis who is dependent upon himself.

However active Travis may be and however passive Tobin may be, they were both lost souls who needed something to get them back on track, or for Travis, on to a different track.  Travis goes against established authority, the cops, because he realizes that if he reports the child prostitution situation to them, they would still sit on their asses and not do much about it.  On the other hand, Tobin doesn’t really care about what the established authority, the school officials and church members, has to say about his book.  After several passionate speeches about his book, Tobin walks up to the plate and in the most apathetic tone ever says that he wrote the book while he was high and therefore it didn’t mean anything more than that to him.  Tobin really doesn’t care what the officials have to say about him or his book because the sayings are all personal opinions of what they got out of a piece of art, that unintentionally caused trouble amongst the town people.

All in all I really enjoyed watching “Taxi Driver” and reading “The Metal Children.”  It’s obvious that good art has no boundaries and I don’t think that any established authority has the right to judge what is inappropriate versus what is appropriate because art can be perceived in many different ways.

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.