Lesley Walker – Section 10
The Simpsons Continued.. Part 2: Maggie in Depth
As the youngest child of the Simpson family, Maggie represent so much more than just a baby sister on the television show. When examined with philosophy in mind, she is the perfect representation of East and West philosophy. Being that Maggie is a baby, her character on the show does not talk, but this does little to take away from her character, but rather adds that much more depth and meaning. In terms of Western Philosophy, Maggie is a baby who does not speak. This raises the question that if she, just as babies in the real world, cannot talk, can she think? Isn’t thought connected to words, and words are a spoken language? This same thought process, with Western philosophy in mind, draws us to think about the common phrase, “which came first: The chicken or the egg?” but rather the philosophical version, “which comes first, the language or the thoughts?” In the twentieth century, philosophers linked thought and spoken word, proposing the question “how do we think, if not in spoken words?” For Easter philosophy, silence and the unspoken words are much more important than the things we can say out loud. Two quotes that I found to be very important to Easter philosophy and unspoken words show just powerful silence can be. The Chinese philosopher Confucius says, “hear much, but maintain silence”. This quote makes me think back to the saying that we have two ears and only one mouth, so we should always be listening twice as much as we are speaking. According to Tao te Ching, which is a Chinese classic text that established the philosophical basis of Taoism, states that “Those who know don’t talk. Those who talk don’t know”. If we think about these two quotes and relate them to Maggie as a philosophical character, it is easy to believe that her silence was meant to represent so much more than a baby on the show. In various episodes there are situations where Maggie is involved, and her actions show she has more understanding of the world that what people around her believe.
The ending of this clip may explain why not only Maggie’s character does not speak on the show, but also why so many people in the world miss the important things in life by talking too much and not listening enough.
Maggie is also a representation of childhood and innocence. Just as we discovered and explored in class, philosopher John Locke believed that as babies, our minds are a blank slate and that all our knowledge comes from the different experiences we have throughout our lives. If this is the case and Locke is right, can Maggie actually have thoughts and understand different things in the world? In the two-part episode, “Who Shot Mr. Burns”, Maggie is the unsuspected person responsible for shooting the evil Mr. Burns who found a way to block the sun from shining on the town of Springfield. At the end of the episode, Maggie almost starts to speak to explain why she shot Mr. Burns. If Maggie had a good reason to shoot Mr. Burns, then surely that means that she can form meaningful thoughts in her mind, regardless of the fact that she does not speak. The fact that Maggie is the representation of childhood and innocence may also lead us to believe that she can also represent the idea of being enlightened in some ways. Even though she is a baby, we learn through the course of the shows episodes that Maggie has experienced many different things. It is said that to be enlightened is to return to our origins, to rid ourselves of worldly attachments and return to the infinite quiet of world. Though Maggie is still a baby, has she found a way to reach enlightenment as she is not yet attached to worldly things? Either way, there is much to be taken away from the importance of Maggie Simpsons character. As the authors of “The Simpsons and Philosophy : The D'oh! of Homer” stated, “Sometimes silence is a sign of complex thought and profound intuition. If we all practiced it more regularly we might just live a little easier.
Link to original project post:
Links to classmates posts I commented on:
Maggie is a close 2d to Lisa as the show's most admirable character, IMHO.
ReplyDelete