Richard's Animorphs Forum
Animorphs Section => Animorphs Forum Classic => Topic started by: anijen21 on November 15, 2009, 05:44:27 PM
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What are your guys thoughts on what races/genders the Animorphs are, and what role they occupy in the group? Do you think there's any meaning behind the fact that Jake is the only white male and the group's leader, that Rachel is beautiful and her bloodthirst is a corollary of that "confidence?" (That's what Tobias thought in #43, anyway)
what are your thoughts?
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This is an interesting topic for discussion!
I've always considered it a fluke that Jake was the only caucasian guy ither than Tobias (a nothlit, of course) and also the group's leader. My impression always was that KAA wanted to represent a multicultural perspective of American youth, and it just so happened that Jake (being her favourite boys' name) was a white guy (possibly also because she herself is white).
Rachel was never my favourite character (strange, because I'm a strong woman myself!), but I always wondered if her bloodthirst and war-mongering was a sub-concious rejection of her beauty and the box society automatically put her in. I think her father's "Rachel is better than any son" comment also has a lot do to with it: he thinks she's better than a son, and damnit if she isn't going to live up to that!
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Jake and Rachel are jewish (says so in Megamorphs 3), Tobias is the only WASP character.
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Haha I don't know how I forgot about Tobias. Maybe b/c they portrayed him as a beta male so
well? Maybe b/c I only picture him as a hawk? Or maybe I'm just a dumdum lol
but ita about Rachel. They kept describing her as ultra confident and self-assured, but I always thought she was really insecure on some deep level that I couldn't quite identify. Uncontrolled rage has to
come from somewhere.
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I suspect the authors have the same religious background as Jake and Rachel.
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Just because Jake and Rachel are somewhat Jewish doesn't mean they're not white.
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Karen! You can't just ask people why they're white!
haha sorry I can't resist a Mean Girls quote when the opportunity arises, even barely...
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Just because Jake and Rachel are somewhat Jewish doesn't mean they're not white.
No, but the point is that he's not the stereotypical "Good ol' boy" white guy.
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tell me more
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And I think that says something good about America: that the normal all american guy-Jake and-and the pretty all american girl-Rachel-belong to minorities-in fact to the ultimate and most persecuted minority on earth, like I was reading in Claudia Roden's 'the book of jewish food" (WHICH IS THE BEST COOKBOOK I OWN) that the all american national dishes (cheese cake and apple pie but especially cheese cake) were orginally jewish dishes, and bagels with salmon (america's favourite breakfast according to roden) and a lot of other jewish dishes have entered the American mainstream... symbolic of America's greater acceptance of this most unfairly persecuted minority) (sorry tangent-but does my point make sense that the all american jake belongs to a minority) Also the pathetic loser character (Tobias) is the only true WASP...
Funny thing as well: Cassie is black/african american/insert fashionable politicallly correct label of your choice, and statistically speaking is likely to be a baptist, pentecostal etc (or stereotypically speaking) now it could be that the authors didn't do the research and probably is, but perhaps it indicates that Cassie's family was originally from Louisiana/New Orleans/Baton Rouge before the Civil War, which could help in the creation of Cassie's surname.
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I think judging Cassie's ancestry by the fact she is black and she prays might be a tad too much liberty, but otherwise I agree. There is definitely an American acceptance of Jewishness like you said, though I still think Lucky Charms and Pop-Tarts beat out bagels and lox for most Americans. Good thoughts, though
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I thought it was a little weird that there weren't any Asian kids in the group, but on the other hand I feel like it would have been a forced multi-culti band of people and that would have just made it weird and forced more stereotypes on the group.
It was pretty stereotypical, but I thought it was cool that they went out of their way to include people.
In the beginning I thought it was stupid how Marco's family was the only one whose mother had left them, but then we later learn why. [spoiler](But then, I wonder if making Marco's mom Visser Uno was used to cover up the fact that she had left? It's a pretty big stereotype that Latino families usually have one parent.)[/spoiler]
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Guys, guys, guys... Jake and most of the others are clearly quite racist... Don't you remember the beginning of MM3??? It's like, how can you miss something like that... Even Cassie owns slaves! Duh!
I think it's obvious that this blatant political incorrectness is proof positive of KA's radical right wing upbringing and political views, and this series is designed to teach young teens that people of different races are inferior...
Atrocious...
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Nah, I think Marco's mom was planned from the beginning. That's like saying rachel's parents were the divorced ones because only white people get divorced. Wasn't Marco's dad implied to be white
anyway?
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Nah, I think Marco's mom was planned from the beginning. That's like saying rachel's parents were the divorced ones because only white people get divorced. Wasn't Marco's dad implied to be white
anyway?
Mm, I suppose. We have a pretty large Latino population here, so it's something I'm pretty sensitive to.
Yeah, I'm pretty sure his dad was white and his mom was Latina.
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When the Animorphs started out, they weren't a group. Jake and Marco were best friends, Rachel and Cassie were best friends, Jake thought he had a crush on Cassie, Tobias was the loser, and through chance and circumstance they just happened to be all walking home together from the mall when Elfangor's ship landed at the construction site.
As it turns out, what race the characters are seems to be as random as them happening to become the Animorphs.
Think about it. The characters' race is mentioned briefly in the first one or two books when they're being described, and that's about it. MM3 is the only other book I recall race being mentioned, and its mentioning kind of shocked me just because KA never mentioned it otherwise. (I think David also jokes that Tobias is a "bird racist" in one of the books, but since it's birds and not people that doesn't really count.)
In fact, the only way you know what race the Animorphs are after the first few books is by looking at the models on the cover.
If K.A. was trying to make a statement at all as to race in the Animorphs, it would probably be that race really didn't matter to them, because they were working together to fight against the Yeerks for the freedom of the human race as a whole. They didn't care who was this color or that, who was disadvantaged and who wasn't, they were trying to accomplish something. That's a lesson from a kids book that a lot of adults could learn.
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Yeah, I also thought it funny that the only actual WASP (White Anglo-Saxon Protestant) was the loner and loser of the group. ;D
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There's a trope called the token white guy that I think Tobias might fit in.
http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/TokenWhite
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not that Cassie prays (sorry i suffer from not writing down my thought properly) I meant to say:
In book 12 (the horse one) Cassie's parents send her to 'father banion' or are worried about her spending time with jake and so they are thinking about sending her to father Banion. Which indicates that Cassie's family is catholic, as I said earlier it is statistically more likely that Cassie is Baptist or Pentecostal (according to Demographics), now it is more likely that the authors didn't do the research, but that her family is catholic might indicate that they came from Louisiana before the civil war. this is not fact but a possible aid for fanfiction writers when looking for a 'cassie surname' ie just go for a surname from that area.
shall return to the other points after dinner.
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I thought it was a little weird that there weren't any Asian kids in the group, but on the other hand I feel like it would have been a forced multi-culti band of people and that would have just made it weird and forced more stereotypes on the group.
It was pretty stereotypical, but I thought it was cool that they went out of their way to include people.
In the beginning I thought it was stupid how Marco's family was the only one whose mother had left them, but then we later learn why. [spoiler](But then, I wonder if making Marco's mom Visser Uno was used to cover up the fact that she had left? It's a pretty big stereotype that Latino families usually have one parent.)[/spoiler]
Balanced by Rachel's Dad leaving!
Guys, guys, guys... Jake and most of the others are clearly quite racist... Don't you remember the beginning of MM3??? It's like, how can you miss something like that... Even Cassie owns slaves! Duh!
I think it's obvious that this blatant political incorrectness is proof positive of KA's radical right wing upbringing and political views, and this series is designed to teach young teens that people of different races are inferior...
Atrocious...
The beginning of MM3 was set in an alternate universe created by Visser 4 with the Time Matrix. Jake et al had been contaminated by their altered culture.