Who thinks kidnapping your wife and embezzling the money is a good idea? Well Jerry Lundegaard in Fargo is a classic depiction of a greek tragedy. There are a lot of moments that spark conflict in which prompts the plot to move forward and proceed to keep getting worse and worse. The film starts with Jerry and the two criminals meeting in a bar to discuss the plan that they were about to carry out. This conversation shows that no one really knows what they are doing and heavily hints at how awful the plan will be carried out. The plan turns out to work at the start but then is turned around by the shooting of a police officer. This sets in motion the tragedy that would befall Jerry and almost everybody in the story. Aristotle explanation of tragedy is apparent in Fargo and it has the main three story beats. The first act sets up the story and gives the setting and the introduction to the main characters. The next act starts when the officer is shot and when the whole plan goes downhill. The film switches between Jerry and Marge, a police chief investigating the murders. It shows both of their efforts to try and get to a solution. The last act is finally the resolution of everything. Pretty much everyone gets killed or arrested and the only good part about the ending is that Marge finally arrests the “bad guy”. Overall this movie is a total tragedy and all the events spiral down to a unsatisfactory ending.

Hello, my name is Andrew. I’m a junior here at WSUV and have lived here my whole life. I’m interested in all genres of storytelling, but science fiction and fantasy are two of my favorite genres. Since I was a kid, I’ve loved reading and watching stories of other worlds. My grandparents had the original Star Wars and I would watch them repeatedly, along with Indiana Jones and other movies. Avatar was a huge spectacle for me when it came out in 2009, and I watched it more times than I’d like to say. My love for these genres is not solely focused in film, but in reading and games, too. My parents didn’t let my have free reign over when and what I watched early in my life, so I found myself reading a lot. I read what a lot of other kids read, like the Percy Jackson series, but I also tried more complex stories like The Hobbit and LOTR and found that I really liked stories about things that I haven’t or can’t experience. I think it’s amazing what we can do now with storytelling and technology. The new avatar film, for example, is almost completely CGI, and without CGI, we wouldn’t be able to achieve most of the shots needed for a movie like this one. Gaming is also something that I love, although for the most part, I don’t play narrative games and am more interested in arena/pvp type games. There are a few, though, like Assassins Creed, that I have played and loved throughout the years.

“Again Tragedy is the imitation of an action; and an action implies personal agents, who necessarily possesses certain distinctive qualities both of character and thought; for it is by these that we qualify actions themselves” is a quote from the Poetics by Aristotle on how a character is reflected in their actions. The actions of Jerry reveal to us as an ambitious man but are extremely anxious when he goes into sudden bouts of aggression. He is willing to go to extremes if it means he can get to his goal, which is the money he needs to make a real estate deal. Carl starts off as prideful of himself and tries to play himself off as a well put together criminal but after a slew of clumsy efforts and lack of acknowledgement from his partner, he progressively gets more agitated and that leads to him agitating his partner Gaear to kill him. Gaear is mostly standoffish but will always resort to murder to get away quickly. It leads him to getting arrested. Marge is shown as a kind and will go out of the way for people. She has more interaction with various people out of the main four as she tries to strike up conversations to get ideas on her case. When looking at these characters closely, most of their actions can be classified as a reaction to their environment that has been altered by another with their actions.

Just as said in Poetics, “For Tragedy is an imitation, not of men, but of an action and of life, and life consists of action, and its end is a mode of action not a quality.” The plot is moved by these actions. Jerry’s fears of getting caught in this elaborate scheme is heightened by the actions of Marge investigation. Carl starts to lose himself because of Jerry’s continuous delays and his own actions and with how Carl chooses to act resulted in tipping off Gaerad who resorted to murdering him along with people that acted in a way that Gaerad perceived as wrong. Majority of these characters are described 

tommy o.

But is it a tragedy?

If so, who is the hero? There may be two, but I’m going to argue against that. I will start by saying Marge is not a protagonist. Maybe I’m wrong. Let’s start with the character Mike.

Mike seems to be a reversal of fortune for Marge and I believe tied to Geaer as well, at least as a push toward realization for her.. When it’s revealed that Mike’s story is entirely untrue Marge can not understand why he does it. In the same way when she is scolding Gaear in the police car about violence for the sake of money she can’t conceive of a reason why he did it. Both of these moments push Marge’s  realization that she just doesn’t understand the motivation to do wrong, and she says so directly when she says, “I just don’t understand.” What interests me about this is her acceptance. Despite her inability to comprehend these motivations in others she easily accepts evil’s existence in the almost idyllic world around her. It appears to me that outside of that moment of recognition Marge will remain effectively unchanged. So, is Marge ever reversed or, perhaps, is she an unchanging balancing element within the plot that drives the actual protagonist? In this context Marge may not even qualify as a protagonist because she doesn’t seem to be permanently reversed or changed in character.

Jerry appears to be a protagonist in that the audience sees he is pitiable, he is flawed, and his downfall is feared, or at least concerning, and the audience wants to avoid his fate in their own lives. Jerry seems to realize the catastrophe he has caused and in the end laments the misfortune of his own weakness and pride, weakness in that he makes self-serving choices and pride because he believes he is entitled to be more than he is in the world. Yes, his motivations appear base as Aristotle attributes to characters in comedy, but Jerry’s motivation is arguably to become a greater person then he is.

Overall, it could be a tragic-comedy because of the base motivations of Jerry if he is the protagonist. However, I think Fargo is more closely tied to straight tragedy regardless of Jerry’s selected means to change his fortune, which was immediately reversed from the very beginning of the film.  If Marge is seen as an unchanging balancing element instead of a protagonist, then Marge is inevitable as that force and Jerry was doomed by this force from the moment he confirmed the deal with Gaear and Carl, if not from the moment he committed fraud prior to the story. It’s arguable that this is not a tragedy, at least not to Aristotle, if we note that for Jerry there was never a moment of prosperity; his tragic flaw (hamartia) was always active, his reversal of fortune (peripeteia) was at the beginning if not before, so the structure of the story doesn’t follow the Aristotelian beginning, middle, and end for a tragedy. There is catastrophe and Jerry suffers consequences, and a catharsis is fostered in the audience, but modes of narrative have changed over the last 2000 years so maybe it’s okay to mix the parts up and still call it a tragedy.

What do you think?

The plot in Fargo is delightfully wild. Introduced as a “true story”, the audience is immediately more dialed in to the story and characters from the get-go. We see Jerry engaging in a shady and ill-advised scheme to get money from his father-in-law. By setting up this contract, we see that Jerry believes his father-in-law wouldn’t give him money of his own accord, and neither would his wife. Two of his most immediate family members, and he believes neither of them would help him is he asked. An excellent setup for the relational strife ahead.

By being in this situation at the beginning of the movie, some sympathy can be directed Jerry’s way by the audience, but his continual downward spiral makes it really challenging to hold onto such sympathy. The plot is driven forward by things going wrong and getting worse, often because of him, and those events in turn drive Jerry deeper and deeper down his dark path. Driven by fear, which is a classic plot device in Greek tragedy. All of the events that befall Jerry compound. With each wrong turn, such as the parking lot sale going bust, he becomes angrier and more desperate for a solution. Any solution at any cost becomes his mode of operation towards the end of the film. The compounding tragic events in Jerry’s character arc can be described by this Poetics quote: “Tragedy is an imitation not only of a complete action, but of events inspiring fear or pity. Such an effect is best produced when the events come on us by surprise; and the effect is heightened when, at the same time, they follow as cause and effect. The tragic wonder will thee be greater than if they happened of themselves or by accident; for even coincidences are most striking when they have an air of design.”

Marge is an interesting comparison as the second main character of Fargo. We are introduced to her as a reliable, competent police officer. She has a strong connection to her family, namely her husband and their baby on the way. As the plot moves forward following Jerry’s game of life and death, Marge is always right behind, investigating him and getting ever closer. She’s unwavering in her search for truth and justice, which is probably her strongest character trait. As Jerry is forced into his situation by his own dangerous scheme, Marge wants to unravel it and get to the bottom of this mystery.

When all else fails, what do you do? We see a real man’s tragedy turn into a film. Knowing the film really adds another layer to the story that mystifies the audience. Believing what happen and having more empathy for our characters helps the storyline. This strikes something strange with Aristotle’s text. He mentions that poetics is greater than historians because historians only have real-life events to go off from while poetics can explore what might happen. Poetics are universal, but what happens when the story is based on a true story?  Is the poetic a historian now? Having this be my first read of Aristotle, I see the importance upon which filmmaking is grounded. Aristotle’s ideals of the importance of the plot in his analogy of two paintings were brilliant. The film follows Aristotle’s ideals on tragedy, in the tragedy of suffering and character. He mentions the importance of plot and character. What character types thrive in tragedy and not. Our main character is in a downward spiral and becomes unrecognizable at the end. As the story progresses, it gets worse and worse with many dead and no good things happening to Jerry. There will have to be a second read to really consume Aristotle’s ideals.

I am almost positive I wrote my Fargo blog prompt last semester and titled it the same thing. I am original until I am not.

Fargo is a story, but in that story the two main characters, Jerry and Marge, struggle against the plot towards their own individual goals. The plot is like a cause and effect sequence of events that begins due to Jerry’s unlikable, undeserving attitude and idea. He hires some shady characters to kidnap his wife so that he may get some money from her father out of a return deal. Things go south because the people in the story are not perfect beings, but humans who make mistakes. His father-in-law demands to take charge of the situation, something Jerry had not planned and thus must overcome. While those conflicts are set up and running, our second main character, Marge, must sift through Jerry’s long line of mishaps to uncover her own truth and recognize her own flaws. Marge has to react to the killings that happened because Jerry wanted his wife kidnapped and Jerry has to try and fix his mess, or, run away like he ended up doing.

The entire film, the audience can sense that Jerry is not a good person. He is not inherently evil, but his own misgivings and inferior status in life develop into a complex that ultimately brings his mental demise. Also physical, if you count going to jail as one. He cannot keep up with the horrible cause of accidents that started with his poorly thought out plan at the beginning and fumbles any chance he has, through work with his deal or at home with his wife and child. Marge, on the other hand, starts out as a likable and charismatic police chief. What we start to learn though, is that she may be unhappy with her unexciting marriage to a man named “Norm.” He is the norm, a regular man that Marge married. She meets up with an old friend and takes everything he says at face value, which is the same thing she did to Jerry when she first meets and questions him. It is not until one of her friends rattles her simplistic understanding of the world and it’s people does she begin to look under the surface level. Her old friend had lied to her face and she believed it, as did Jerry. After realizing her mistake, she goes back to our first main character and calls him out on the string of lies he keeps weaving.

On page 25 of Aristotle’s Poetics, he states that “we must not demand of Tragedy any and every kind of pleasure, but only that which is proper to it.” What he means is that for a tragedy to work out, a story must not continually make every single plot or action end up in one. There is a fine line between tragedy and straight up devastation. That is why, in Fargo, we did not see Jerry get away with his crimes or why Marge did not end up dying. That is why Gaear was caught in the end, and while multiple died, there was a lesson to be taught from Jerry’s mistakes. Not everything must be tragic to the nth degree for a tragedy to move and teach an audience.

Hello! My name is Libby Skalisky and I am a senior Humanities major. I specialize in English, Human Development, and DTC. I have already tried to take this class, but because of personal extenuating circumstances I had to withdraw. The most I remember about it is liking it a whole lot! Stories and storytelling in general is an art. It is hard to master, but I guess that’s why we’re all taking this class.

I am personally more partial to fictional stories because of the absolute out of this world stuff that can happen, but I am down for a little realistic story every now and then. I enjoy fantasy, comedy, romance, and animation. I grew up reading a lot of manga and books, as well as watching a lot of film and TV shows. My entire life has been based on what I could consume next, honestly. Even now, I am writing this and wanting to get back to binging a TV show I started a couple days ago, but alas.

I like stories, I like trying to write them. I do write fanfiction, but it’s never in a professional sense. I personally think I am a better poet than any type of storyteller, but that is why I want to see this class through until the end, to harness whatever stories I end up creating and liking them in the end. So, you know, don’t laugh at whatever silly stuff I come up with!

Here are some of my favorite stories in different media:

Movies: Baby Driver, Everything Everywhere All at Once

TV Shows: Bobs Burgers, Rise of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles

Books: The Child Thief  by Brom, The Hunger Games Series by Suzanne Collins

The plot in the movie “Fargo” begins with Jerry Lundegaard meeting two criminals, Carl and Gaear, to plan the kidnapping of his wife in order to get money from his wealthy father-in-law, Wade Gustafson. Once the plan was put into action things quickly started to go wrong and problems continued throughout the whole movie. This accurately represents what Aristotle would call a well-constructed plot. To be a well-constructed plot he says it needs to “be single in its issue” and that the change of fortune should be from good to bad.

The change of fortune from good to bad shows a lot about each character. While these situations unfold we can not only see how they handle the situation, but we can also see how they interact with each other. From the start, when Jerry comes up with his plan, we can see that he is a desperate and selfish man. He continues to prove this as the story continues with each bump in the road. Then with the criminals, we are able to see that one is more emotional, talkative, and angry. While the other is emotionless, ruthless, and keeps to himself.

Aristotle explains an important aspect of a tragedy, which is fear and pity. He says “Such an effect is best produced when the events come on us by surprise; and the effect is heightened when, at the same time, they follow as cause and effect.” This is shown when the two kidnappers are on their way back with Jean and they get pulled over, which then causes a surprising domino effect of issues. Once the cop becomes suspicious of the two men Gaear decides the best solution is to kill him. But someone saw them while driving by which then led to a car chase that ended in a double homicide. This chain of cause and effects happened very quickly which added to the element of surprise. 

Hi everyone!

My name is Kendall Brandon. I am 19 years old, I’m a senior here at Washington State University Vancouver, and I will be graduating in the Fall. I am majoring in DTC, minoring in Communications, and last semester I completed my Social Media Certificate. While I am taking this course as a requirement, I’m still very interested in the class and excited to learn more about storytelling. As of right now, I am not the greatest at creating and telling stories of my own, so I hope that this class will be able to help me strengthen those skills so I can improve as a storyteller. I am also hoping that this course will help me improve my creativity because that is something else that I tend to struggle with sometimes.

The genre of storytelling that interests me the most is probably drama or mystery. I think that these genres of storytelling interest me the most because they do a good job of captivating the audience and keeping their attention throughout the entire duration of the story. This captivation makes it a lot easier to immerse yourself in the story, which makes the story itself more interesting and enjoyable.

I think that my favorite medium for storytelling is movies, but sometimes I also enjoy novels. Usually, it is a lot easier for me to fully understand and comprehend the entire story if I can watch everything unfold instead of reading it. However, I think the story also influences the medium I choose.

My name is Cynthia Elizalde and this is my third year in WSUV. I’m a Humanities major with concentrations on English and Foreign Languages and Cultures, and a Creative Writing minor. When it comes to reading a book and watching a film, I enjoy genres such as Fantasy, Mystery, Fiction, Drama, Romance, and Action. I do enjoy reading manga, books, comic books, and online stories. I enjoy watching films and series from different countries, so that I can have a broader view of what the world has to offer through stories. It is interesting to learn how these stories from other countries are inspired by their own myths, urban stories, history, and culture. This is one of the reasons why I decided to have one of my Humanities’ concentrations as Foreign Languages and Cultures. 

I do have an interest in video games, especially when they have interesting stories and characters to follow along. Because of my lack of time, I have only played games such as Genshin Impact and Cookie Run for the last two years. These games have interesting character designs and world building, that is something that caught my attention and decided to play them. I want to create characters that are interesting for the audience and have a well written world so that people can immerse themselves into it. A game that has inspired me the most is Undertale. The story was intriguing and emotional, and it became one of my favorites of all time. Some series that have inspired me are To Your Eternity by Yoshitoki Oima, its story being  fantasy and emotional.

In the movie Fargo, the plot moves forward in a domino effect of bad decisions and actions. At the beginning of the movie, it is revealed that Jerry Lundegaard is in some sort of financial trouble. In order to escape this financial trouble Jerry wants to obtain his father-in-law’s money. To do this he contacts Shep Proudfoot who then sets up a meeting with Carl Showalter which ended up being a meeting with Carl and his partner Gaear. Jerry discussed a plan with Carl and Gaear to kidnap his wife Jean Lundegaard and demand a ransom of $80,000. Carl and Gaer would receive a tan Ciera in addition to half the ransom, $40,000. A seemingly simple plan that quickly turned sideways. In the process of kidnapping Jean and taking her to the cabin, Gaear killed a Minnesota State Trooper and two seemingly innocent bystanders who drove by the dead Trooper. As a kidnapping that was intended to have no physical harm to anyone quickly turns into a triple homicide Carl quickly becomes overpowered by stress and begins to panic, requesting $1 million as the new ransom which Jerry now gets no cut in the ransom. As tensions run high and Sheriff Marge Gunderson begins asking questions reckless decisions are made which lead to catastrophic consequences. Ultimately resulting in the death of Jean, her father Wade Gustafson, and Carl. As well as the arrests of Gaear and Carl.

When comparing Aristotle’s Poetics and the movie Fargo, the first connection I made was with Aristotle’s definition of tragedy. In chapter 6, Aristotle defined tragedy as “an imitation of an action that is serious, complete, and of a certain magnitude…” This stands true because Fargo is based on a true story that took place in Minnesota in 1987. So, it is therefore an imitation of an action (the kidnapping leading to a string of murders) that are serious, complete, and of a certain magnitude because it shows how one bad decision led to another which ultimately lead to a great deal of sadness with many innocent lives taken.

The second connection I made between the two was when Aristotle said, “Again, Tragedy is the imitation of an action; and an action implies personal agents, who necessarily possess certain distinctive qualities both of character and thought; for it is by these that we qualify actions themselves and these – thought and character – are the two natural causes from which actions spring, and on actions again all success or failure depends.” This is something that I connected to Fargo because each of the characters had different personality traits that affected their decision-making. However, once the first person was murdered things started to spiral out of control which demonstrates an action that sprung, resulting in further actions which eventually led to failure.

Hello everyone!

My name is Allison. This is my fourth semester at WSUV and I will be graduating in the Fall. Prior to coming here I went to Battle Ground High School and did running start at Clark College. I am a DTC major with a minor in Communication and just completed my Social Media Certificate. I took this class for two reasons. The first reason is because in all honesty I just needed an elective. However, when looking through my options I knew that this was the best option for me. This brings me to the second reason I wanted to take this class which is to challenge myself. Storytelling is not something I am not very good at. I don’t see myself as a creative person when it comes to writing/creating stories. I am the type of person who tends to overthink things and ends up just deleting everything I had written because I don’t think it is good enough. However, think that this class will help me improve my creative writing skills which will help me later on in my career path. After graduating I plan on going into Social Media Marketing.

I would say that my favorite genre of storytelling is probably mystery if I had to pick one. However, I also like horror, drama, and romance. As for my favorite story media, it would definitely be movies or TV shows. I like being able to physically see the characters and hear their distinct voice to be able to follow along with the story.