FRQ #3

FRQ #3, Blood Rites

Sex that is a need instead of a want leads to the creation of evilness within a person. In the world of the Dresden Files there are three main types of vampires, one of them being the white court who, instead of feeding off of blood, feed off a human’s sexual emotions. It is lead by an evil vampire who has multiple vampire children, whom he controls, and Harry Dresden attempts to take down the lead vampire with his wizardly abilities and companionship with others. The lead white court vampire has been alive for a long time and has controlled the white court for most of his life. He sees himself as greater than any human and when he feeds he gains the vampiric powers of having incredible strength, increased reaction time, and the ability to heal quickly. Because he gains powers when he feeds he strives to keep the power so that he remain uncontested while ruling his court. Consequently it creates a power dynamic within him that he has to stay strong and powerful and sees the cost of that power as insignificant to what he achieves from it. Therefore he becomes the evil monarch of the white court due to his coldness and power he had gotten and continue to gets by feeding off of people he deems insignificant. Although if someone is unexposed to the power that can be felt through it they remain free of the evilness that comes along with it. The head of the white court’s youngest daughter is in her early twenties and has not yet been exposed to the powers that she can have. She remains to be free from the desire of sex and the power that comes with it. Because she does not know of the power that could be unlocked from inside of her she still has the innocence of being pure from sex. Since she is still innocent she is not inherently evil like he father had become. Thus the symbol of sex is used as evilness by comparing two people who have different wants of sex, how one of them who has not had sex is innocent and the other who has is evil. 

Although sex is portrayed as evil in the book some of it is a necessary evil. By controlling wants it allows for people to focus on their needs and what must happen so that the best outcome can happen. Thomas, who is a son of the head of the white court, has a girlfriend who he loves but sometimes has to feed off of so he can stay strong. She accepts that he does this and that she gets weaker every time he feeds. Thomas gets severely hurt in a battle and inorder to survive he needs to feed. His girlfriend sacrifices herself to him so that he can survive to help take down his father. Because Thomas only feeds when he absolutely needs to he has a greater control over himself. Consequently his greater control allows him to defy the evil he faces and to have a better grip on his own actions. Therefore Thomas’ conscious of his actions helps him to defeat his father eventually due to him controlling his wants and accepting his needs. Evil can also be used against itself. The main right hand of the white court leader is his daughter, who is described to have immense beauty and alure and strong vampiric abilities. In the end she uses her powers to control her father into doing her bidding and to stop his tyrannic control over their family. Because she only uses her powers when she is taking down her father it shows that she only uses them when absolutely necessary as she did not use them throughout the book. Since she only uses them when absolutely necessary she is able to keep her strength and keep a conscious clear from evil on where it is best used. Thus sex has a duality in that it shows the difference of what can happen to a person when they chase their evil wants instead of only inducing evil when absolutely necessary. 

The symbol of sex in the book reveals that it can happen in two different ways, when it is wanted for desire and when it is needed for health. Through the desires of evil the leader of the white court gets through his power it highlights how his desire for his power makes him evil and the ones who need there desires use them for good.

FRQ #3, The Aeronaut's Windlass

The use of characteristics of the characters helps to demonstrate how characters feel they have to prove themselves. There are multiple social class houses, with two of them being a very esteemed house Lancaster and the old and forgotten house Taigwyn. Gwen Lancaster, confident and cocky, and Bridget Taigwyn, laidback and non confrontational, both join the navy and end up being put together in the same platoon. They both fight alongside each other but also with each other so that they can prove their houses and themselves to be better than each other. Because Gwen picks a fight with Bridget and she fights back shows how both are still childish due to their focus not being on the greater fight that is happening. Consequently their childish actions impact what they do to prove themselves because they both then have to do more inorder to prove themselves. Therefore their childish characteristics make them have to do more actions that would not have been necessary due to them acting like children. Both end up coming to terms eventually and get over themselves so that they can fight the greater battle of the enemy invasion. The invasion of the enemy spire had a goal of retrieving a certain book from a library. They are able to steal the book and set fire to the library. Bridget and her squad come across the burning library and Bridget runs into the building to save anyone left alive. Because she decides to run into the burning library it shows how she is a good person. Since it shows that she is then a good person it helps her to prove that her house was not lost to time and she is a good soldier. Thus the use of character’s personalities help to demonstrate how much people will do so that they can prove to other people that they are worthy or more worthy of what they deserve. 

It is not only their personalities that they use. Butcher also uses the characters physical traits to highlight how they try to prove themselves using them. At the start of the book Bridget picks a fight with a commanding officer because he disgraced her houses name. The officer challenges her to a dual and Bridget is able to pick the weapons. Since she worked with her father moving heavy objects around she is very strong and physically capable so then chooses fists to fight the officer. The fight does not end up happening because there is an air raid right as they both get ready to fight. Because Bridget doesn’t back down it shows how she will not accept the mistreatment of her name. Consequently she wants to prove that her name is not worthless and that her name is still a prestige. Therefore her physical abilities enable her to help prove her name due to her strength and size. Its not just humans that have to prove themselves either. All the cats in the book are sentinel, can speak, and have made houses of their own. Bridget’s cat, Raul, has to talk to the cats of the underground so that they can help them find the invaders. He asks the other house of cat’s leader for help and he first says no but Raul makes the agreement that him and his house are better and that if he takes down their brawler in a dual they should help him. The leader agrees and Raul ends up winning even though the brawler has bigger claws. Because Raul has been trained to be a great physical fighter he was able to demonstrate how his size and abilities are able to outmatch the brawler. Consequently he gains more merit for his house and himself because of how he took down the other cat. Thus the use of physical traits is able to help characters further prove themselves and their houses names and show how much they will do so that they are not put down. 

House Lancaster, House Taigwyn, and the house of cats that Raul is a part of are all used to show that it doesn’t matter what house you are a part of you still have to prove yourself as a person. Butcher uses the characters personalities and physical attributes to show how they will run into burning buildings and fight fellow friends just so that they can prove themselves and their houses.