What’s one thing Aladdin and Edmond Dantes in ‘The Count of Monte Cristo’ have in common?
For one thing, they’re both lucky in their own ways with the help of their unexpected friends.
Aladdin, for one, fell into the scam of Jafar along with Babu, his pet monkey. To their astonishment, they’re not the only one inside the ‘Cave of Wonders’; a friendly magic carpet stirs and wanted to make friends with Babu and Aladdin and help them find the magic lamp.
Walking through the Cave of Wonders tests both Aladdin and Babu’s sense of lust and gluttony as they see mountains of gold and valuable items even the Sultan lacks of.
Eventually, they see the magic lamp but.. it’s just an ordinary lamp. However, the lamp possesses a genie! The genie grants him three wishes and any wishes except resurrection, love and asking for more wishes. With Aladdin’s deceit, he manages to get out of the cave without using a wish.
Going back to The Count of Monte Cristo, Dantes finds himself to be falsely accused of a crime and sent to a prison. To his luck, he hears tapping and finds out it is someone who is digging his escape from the prison. Here we meet the priest Abbe Faria, a new friend of Dantes who guides him to his riches at the Isle of Monte Cristo after he has exasperated from his efforts to try again and escape. With Dantes’ cunning tricks, he successfully escaped without any trouble.
Another association I found between the two is the fact that they’ve been tricked and sentenced to prison without an explanation. Aladdin was a harmless market thief but Jafar convicted him of kidnapping Jasmine the princess.
On the other hand, Dantes was wrongly accused of being a Bonapartist and helping Napoleon escape from his exile at the Isle of Elba and sending information about it when he actually was just a sailor who did a favor of sending a letter to someone at an island.
As you can see, both characters experience injustice of where they’re at. Inequality is an important theme here because later on in their stories, the characters rise up to their opponents, making them better than they were. In today’s world, we still have people who are just like Aladdin or Dantes and are waiting to strike back at their opponents.
The most important thing everyone needs to remember is that everyone should be given a fair and equal chance to rise up to their potential. No person, despite their disabilities or unfortunate events, has a less chance of becoming the person they want to be. If everyone can see that and was given the proper resources, imagine how Aladdin could’ve turned out to be; instead of a street rat, he could become a street merchant! Or in Dantes’ case, he could’ve defended himself innocent and received the job that he was offered.
During winter break, I got the chance to see the highly praised film ‘Frozen’ much to my brother’s dismay. As I watched the film, I’ve made several interpretations relative to the novel we are currently reading right now, “All Quiet on the Western Front”. Mind you, I have written some spoilers in order to elaborate further on the characters’ motives, both “All Quiet on the Western Front” and Frozen.
While we were reading “All Quiet on the Western Front”, a highly-acclaimed novel about World War I, an important character named Paul receives permission to go home for two weeks, allowing him to see old friends and families. Although he seems quite content to take a break from shells and machine guns, he feels out of place without the trenches or his friends by his side. It’s as if he doesn’t belong where he’s supposed to belong and vice versa. Perhaps it is the fear of losing all of his friends while he’s gone? Or he senses the urge to stay with everyone while he’s there.
Going back to Frozen, Elsa the recently-coronated queen, feels that her powers doesn’t allow her to belong in her kingdom in Arendalle. Her ice powers and her past history with her sister’s almost-fatal injury has made her feel insecure about showing her true colors. I can sometimes relate to this because having many debates and arguments at home that most teens would discuss with their parents, I would feel much more comfortable being at school where my friends and I could easily talk with each other without feeling guilty or mad about something.
Another connection I’ve found was how Elsa and Paul have kept secrets from their friends and families for the sake of providing a leeway from them worrying so much. Elsa has almost costed Anna’s life with a little fun and games when they were younger. When her family took Anna to the rock trolls to seek help, they have made the decision to keep it a secret from Anna of her previous incident. As an addendum, her father has made it clear to make sure nobody knows about her powers as well, thus reducing the number of staff members and unfortunately for Elsa, reducing her time with her little sister.
Going back to ‘All Quiet on the Western Front’, Paul has kept secrets from his friend’s mother. When he was returning home for a few weeks, he has decided to share the news of Kemmerich’s death with his mother in the most shortest way possible. He spares her the details of how he actually died because he understands that her grief of her son will only grow if he shares the horrific truth.
In the end, the similarities between the two characters intertwine with each other, despite the different settings and situations. One may have been viewed as an antagonist while the other may have been viewed as reserved. As we overcome these first impressions of them and understand their histories, their true identities shine through, allowing the readers to see the example they must set among their peers.
CAUTION! DOUBLE SPOILERS! CAUTION!
Superheroes are courageous, unique in their own special powers but sometimes cocky and braggish. With today’s media, most heroes from DC Comics to Marvel, for example, are recognized by almost everyone just from how they strive to be publicized as the heroes who will save the day. But I will instead focus on the unspoken heroes that deserve a little recognition themselves.
‘Meet the Robinsons’ is a Disney film who displays a positive message to innovation and creation. Despite Lewis’, the main character of the film, struggle to make his invention work just so that he can fill his need of seeing his mother, his friends’ (or you could say family’s) support from the future allows him to…
🐾 PAWSE & PLAY ► 