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Grace Hancock
SPCM 437
December 3, 2015
Final Paper Assignment:
Magic, Dearie always comes with a price (Rumplestilskin, Once Upon A Time).
This show created by ABC Family has developed into quite the phenomenon during its
time on television. Using familiar characters, the plot reflects the accustomed notions of
good and evil and how people constantly are at odds with good when they have been
shown evil by the world. After watching four full seasons of this show and part of season
five, I have been able to take a look at why I appreciate the idea behind putting a modern
twist on fairy tale characters and recognize the reinforcement of our societies ideology.
Once Upon A Time accurately portrays Klostermans ideas about good and evil while
perpetuating ideology that is reflected in Cloud and Gunns argument that I have been
able to analyze my own subjectivity. This show presents very familiar characters as they
struggle in difficult situations and learn how to deal with good and evil and the forms
they take outside of the enchanted forest.
The basic concept of the ABC Family show, Once Upon A Time is to take fairy tale
characters out of the enchanted forest and many other fantasy characters and places
them in our world. To put the situation in perspective, the writers introduce Emma Swan,
the daughter of Snow White and Prince charming and send her to our world to protect
the people of the enchanted forest from a curse brought upon them by the Evil Queen.
Growing up in the modern world, Emma believes fairy tale characters to be, well, fairy
tales. This is important in the plot line because it helps take the iconic characters out of
their subjectivity by facing the truth that they exist purely because of a storybook. Emma

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on the other hand has to wrestle with the concept of believing in characters existence she
was told did not exist.
Throughout the now five seasons of the show, the plot line becomes more and more
in depth. The narrative that exists begins to develop during each episode is that it
parallels itself between the present, in the modern world town of Storybrooke, Maine
where the characters are sent after the curse, and the tales of the characters past in the
enchanted forest. With the fairy tale characters being brought into reality, the show also
has a large representation of the stories villains and many episodes are reflective of the
struggle between good and evil. Each season so far tends to have a main villain who
oppresses the characters as a focus for the plot point. Once Upon A Time has potential for
rhetorical critique because it has obvious representations of good and evil and how that is
represented in our own ideological notions of how to behave in society.
Once Upon A Time has ideas that are portrayed through Klostermans essay I wear
the Black Hat about how once upon a time represents good and evil and why the
representation of the villain can be very appealing to audiences. The essay questions the
concepts of good and evil and what they mean in our society. In other words there are
good people and there are bad people but those two designations are unreal. Within
this scenario would goodness still be something to aspire to (Klosterman, pg. 4)?
Klosterman recognizes that good and evil is about presentation, and how audiences tend
to create the context of what he is writing about, in this case the concept of good and evil.
The essay along with discussing the meaning behind good and evil also claims that
people are drawn to villainous characters because the characters reflect trendies that we
all have inside us and makes the villainous characters more intriguing.

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Along with portraying numerous representations good and evil in the different
characters, Once Upon A Time also supports the dominant ideology that comes along
with good and evil in our society about always doing the right thing. Cloud and Gunn in
the essay Introduction: W(h)ither Ideology state that lived experience is key to
understanding ideology and social representation. This is an important concept that is
presented in Once Upon A Time through the characters lived experience influence their
beliefs about being good or evil. Their essay also offers many critiques on how the
term ideology has been used and portrayed, and how dominant ideas are related to the
needs of different social and economic class and their interests. Ideology, and the
concepts of good and evil therefore go hand in hand with each other as the dominant
ideology reinforces the created meanings of good and evil.
The Cloud and Gunn essay continues to talk about the different portrayed concepts of
ideology and how dominate ideas are represented in societies. With this reading, the
analytical aspect of ideology allows for the notion of coming out of ones own subjectivity
to critically view the world they live in. A classically Marxist approach posits a
dialectical mutually conditioning relationship between ideology and lived experience,
such that reference to experience serves as resource in the creation of oppositional
consciousness (Cloud, Gunn, pg. 407). The relationship between ideology and lived
experiences is what can be analyzed through the text Once Upon A Time and how that
relationship affects the characters behavior. The essay also claims that the basic
underlying concept of ideology was founded in politics, and that is what fuels the
dominant ideas in a society.

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Although the acting in Once Upon A Time can be questionable, the actors do their
best with the sometimes corny and clich writing of the show, the enticing plot line and
character develop continues to make the show intriguing. By mixing the details of each
specific characters past, with the happenings in the present, the show provides its
audience with detailed explanations for why characters behave the way they do. The
motivation for becoming an evil character is therefore examined in Once Upon A Time,
as Klosterman examines this concept by reflecting on his own lived experiences as a part
of his inherent ideology. Klosterman observes how ideologies can become represented
good and evil and how that is described by power.
There has been one notion of good and evil that would argue that the basis of
someone who commits acts of evil is done in the name of power. In his essay,
Klosterman confronts this topic by discussing Niccol Machiavelli and his thoughts and
ideas that he put forward in The Prince.
His name has come to stand for cynicism and deviousness and ruthlessness and
power politics, all because of this little book, The Prince. But this is a profound democrat
. . . he wrote not about how he would like things to be like, but how power actually
worked, through what he had observed (Klosterman, pg.13).
This is a concept that is I identify with as being inherent in societies ideologies, as there
are many, many representations of how this is reflected in Once Upon A Time.
Throughout the show, the main characters and their family faces continuous evil that
takes a different form in every season, but the most complicated villain of the show
would have to be Rumplestilskin, as The Dark One.
As Machiavelli observed the relationship of how power can control those around
you through his lived experience with the Medici family, there is a similar parallel with
the characters experiences in Once Upon A Time. The show highlights the story of how

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Rumplestilskin became The Dark One based on the events from his past. The show pits
Rumplestilskin or as his Storybrooke name, Mr. Gold, as one of the main villains who
appose Snow White and Prince Charming and their family. Emma Swan enters the fairy
tale hamlet of Storybrooke in season one brought there by her biological son whom she
gave up for adoption. Throughout her time in Storybrooke, after accepting the existence
of fairy tale characters, Emma and her family have to deal with many threats from Gold,
despite her having falling in love with his son and the product being the kid who brings
her back to Storybrooke.
Amidst this complicated plot and cast of fairy tale characters and their unusual
relationships with one another, the characters, specifically Emma observe Mr. Gold as he
becomes consumed with power. The most recent season however, there are some changes
as Emma Swan, previously known as the savior takes on the role of the dark one. This
is comparable to Machiavelli because as Emma becomes the dark one she learns from
what she observed from Mr. Gold as he portrayed the villain. The use of magicboth
"light" and "dark" is, of course, nonstop. But it also sets up strong distinctions between
good and evil. (Asay, Isaac, TV Series Review) . This notion is a major underlying
theme throughout the plot of the show, as characters with magical abilities (Emma Swan)
struggle to fight off the influence of dark magic.
The theme of good and evil and light and dark is something that humans have
struggled with for years, it is a major part of the ideology that exists in our contemporary
society. Many authors have written on the concept of good and evil, including Nietzsche,
who claimed that goodness comes from power and those who believe themselves to be

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mighty in a sense are the essence of goodness. The opposite is true from those who are
viewed as villains, although they would argue that they did not create this conception of
themselves as the more powerful members of society may have labeled them this way.
Nietzsche further notes that in many languages the root meaning of the word good is
often similar to aristocrat and spiritually privileged, while bad is commonly derived
from words such as common and plain (Buchholz, Mandel, pg. 134). This concept and
ever-difficult theme is represented constantly in Once Upon A Time and the show does an
excellent job portraying how the lines between good and evil are not a black and white,
as they may seem.
Although this show is intriguing, slightly comical due to the clich dialogue, and
the rich story lines are not enough to keep me fully invested in the show, but also because
despite the characters being based off of fairy tales it is relatable and resonates with is
audience. Once Upon A Time, in my own personal use has been not only for personal
interest and entertainment purposes, but has helped me recognize the underlying themes
of the show and how relevant to life they can be, even if the show is about fairy tales.
Perhaps most importantly, through its fairy tale proxies, the series communicates a very
important truth: We're all more than we seem. We can be worse than we want. But we can
also be better than we are (Asay, Isaac, TV Series Review). This review did an excellent
job of summing up how the show makes a person feel after watching it.
Subjectively, Once Upon A Time has made me as a viewer think about how I
perceive myself in the world around me. Not necessarily as in the question of good and
evil but of the fact that the characters in the show, especially Snow White always present
the idea that we can always be become better versions of ourselves. To me personally,

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this is what makes the show appealing. The good characters present the idea there is
always hope for people to be better versions of who they are, even if they have
committed acts that can be deemed evil in the past. Usually, after watching an episode
of Once Upon A Time, unless it has a big plot twist or something important is happening
in the story, I tend to feel like I can accomplish a lot more with my life than I originally
had decided what I was going to do.
This overarching theory that is presented in Once Upon A Time provides a viewer
with the idea that despite the dreary reality of our every day lives, there is a fairy tale that
can be found among them. I think this is such a powerful idea that it can help shape our
own society to a better future based on the concept of hope that is the driving force
between good and evil. The very idea of hope implies lack of certainty. If we were sure
what the truth is, or what the future would someday hold, why would we need hope
(Stivers, pg. 227)? Culturally, this is how I have come to interpret the importance of
Once Upon A Time and why it has such a large following. If viewers of the show were to
really focus on the message that the characters are presenting though their lived
experiences then there is always the inherent hope in our society that is the main ideology
for preforming acts of goodness.
Through examining Once Upon A Time from a rhetorical perspective, has allowed
me to consider that pop culture has a very big impact on how we as a society learn about
our own ideology and subjectivity. The pop culture texts that we choose to engage in
reflect our own subjectivity in how we come to experience the world in a human way. I
say choose because although we get to decide which texts we would like to take part in
viewing and observing, it can be argued that the texts are not what we would engage with

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if given the full choice because they are representations of our own society. This is
perhaps different than a text that someone would create if they were given full creative
license to do whatever they wanted with whatever they wanted within no parameters of
societal norms and expectations. This interpretation however does consider that the texts
that do exist are representations of how we as a culture perceive the world around us.
Once Upon A Time presents to us therefore a more positive image on our societies
outlook. If we look at the skirmish between good and evil, and hope that persists in that
ideology. Then we accept that the series presents our world in a good light promoting
that feeling of hope in our ideology. scrutinizing the way the words and images of Pop
Culture shape what we as a society do, think, or believe (Fitts, 95). Therefore, Once
Upon A Time helps perpetuate our notions of good and evil, and that although the words
themselves may be socially constructed, the concept and ideas behind them are so
engrained in our society that they have the ideas associated with them have become
inherently believed and assumed. My viewership of this show has given me new
perspectives on these very common place themes and ideas that help shape my own
subjectivity into someone who hopes the best for the world and that people can always
strive to become better versions of themselves.
In conclusion I have found Once Upon A Time to be a very interesting show
because of its social commentary on modern society but it spins it in a good light as a
focus for the theme of good and evil. The characters lived experiences reflect on why
they are categorized as an evil character compared to a good character. Through my
spectatorship I have discovered that the Once Upon A Time has such a following with it,
popular enough to last five seasons, because it inspires its viewers though the underlying

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message of goodness and hope and being the best version of yourself as something to
strive towards being. By analyzing the show, I have discovered how good and evil are
social constructs, but they are so powerful that they are engrained in our cultures
ideology. The concepts that are presented in this show are extremely powerful ideas that
help shape the way we think about and view the world around us through these notions of
good and evil and hope and how they are presented in our culture through texts like Once
Upon A Time.

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Works Cited
Asay, Paul, Isaac, Steven. TV Series Review. Once Upon A Time, Web December 7, 2015.
Buchholz, Ester S., and Joshua K. Mandel. Reaching for Virtue, Stumbling on Sin: Concepts of
Good and Evil in a Postmodern Era. Journal of Religion and Health 39.2 (2000): 123
142. Web. Dec 7, 2015.
Cloud, Dana L. Gunn, Joshua. Introduction W(h)ither Ideology? Western Journal of
Communication Vol. 75, No. 4, JulySeptember 2011, pp. 407420.
Fitts, Karen. Ideology, Life Practices, and Pop Culture: So Why is This Called Writing Class?
The Journal of General Education 54.2 (2005): 90105. Web Dec 7, 2015.
Klosterman, Chuck. I Wear The Black Hat. Scribner Division of Simon & Schuster Inc. New
York, New York. 2013.
Stivers, Camilla. The Ontology of Hope in Dark Times. Administrative Theory & Praxis 30.2
(2008): 225239. Web Dec 7, 2015.

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