User blog:Fullmetal Fan/Sibling Rivalry

This is an essay I wrote for my English 1100 class. We had to write a comparison and contrast of television, minimum 1250 words. I chose to do my essay on Bart and Lisa. I hand it in tomorrow, so I'll let you know how I did on it soon. Enjoy!

Sibling Rivalry—A Comparative Review of Bart and Lisa Simpson

If you were to ask the average person on the street to tell you the similarities between Bart and Lisa Simpson, you will most likely get a quick answer of “not much.” But that’s correct, isn’t it? Lisa is an intelligent, forward-thinking jazz saxophone player, while Bart is a prank-loving skateboarder with a bad boy attitude. How can these two be the same in any way whatsoever? A closer look reveals the deeper truths about this brother and sister team. The attitudes and behaviour of these two often intersect far more often than most people realize. These two pranking, bright siblings are in fact very much the same, perhaps to the point that their similarities outweigh their differences.

The differences between the two, of course, are still highly prominent. While Lisa is the type to put people before money, Bart is a child of the power of right-wing American Capitalism. In Lisa the Tree Hugger, Lisa criticizes Bart for his job of hanging Thai menus on doors and all the trees cut down to make those menus, to which Bart replies “I know, but I just gots to get paid!” Another form of this, albeit one less black-and-white, is seen in the Season One episode Moaning Lisa. Throughout the first part of the episode, Lisa is saddened by all the evil in the world. When a note is sent home to tell her parents that she is too sad for gym class, she is sent for a hot bath while Bart is forced to do her normal chore of vacuuming the living room. In the complaining that follows, Lisa makes a comment about Bart “only [thinking] about himself.” In these two episodes, it can plainly be seen that while the world of Bart revolves around him and only him, society and the betterment of humankind provides the centre of Lisa’s universe.

Of course, no programme that has been on as long as the Simpsons can have characters as shallow as these two appear to be. Lisa, despite being as smart as she is, is still only eight years old. In the episode Bart of Darkness, the Simpson family gets a pool, much to the excitement of the neighbourhood children. Lisa is happy that she is finally popular, until she thinks that they are all just using her for her pool. Without a moment’s hesitation, Lisa comes up with a reply of “shut up brain, I don’t need you anymore, I have friends now!” This shows how Lisa’s intelligence is more the product of her loneliness than anything else, and can disappear the moment that what is missing in her life appears. Similarly, the normally stupid Bart can often show signs of intelligence. In the episode I Am Furious Yellow, Bart creates a comic strip portraying Homer as a character who’s only emotion is rage. When Homer tries to act kind in an attempt to stop the town from laughing at him, Bart creates a highly elaborate trap in order to bring out Homer’s wrath. Both of these cases show how the mannerisms of Bart and Lisa are a product of their attempts to fit into society as a whole. Just as the seemingly lazy Bart can work hard in order to keep a high standing among his peers, the normally intellectual Lisa will quickly drop what makes her Lisa if presented with the opportunity of a life that is more in line with that of other children.

To most viewers, Bart Simpson is a bad-ass punk that care about himself and only himself. Many episodes, however portray him as much more caring than meets the eye. In his book “Planet Simpson”, Chris Turner calls Bart a “Punk Icon.” There is more to this title than there appears to be, for not only is Bart an icon of punk, he is also an icon in a way that has nothing to do with punk. While most good parents would be inclined to disagree, Bart can at times be an excellent role model. Crank calls of Amanda Hugginkiss to Moe the Bartender notwithstanding, Bart shows numerous bouts of compassion toward his friends and family throughout the series. In fact, the bratty Bart attitude is about pleasing his peers just as much as it is about annoying the adults in his life. This starts, in a way, during his first year of school. When he learns that he is unintelligent (through the Kindergarten teacher saying that he was “not college material” due to adding an extra clap to “Bingo Was His Name-O”), Bart falls back on the cushion of jokes to entertain his peers. From this point on, all of Bart’s pranks are underlined with a bit of caring, a caring that often comes to be when he is around his sister. In the episodes Lisa on Ice and The Secret War of Lisa Simpson, Bart demonstrates this caring for Lisa in a very powerful way. Both episodes have Lisa in a place where she is uncomfortable, the hockey rink and military school respectively. While she eventually learns to love hockey, becoming the best goaltender in the city, the physical exertion of military school eventually becomes too much for her. When a distraught Lisa is forced to cross “the Eliminator” to receive a passing grade, Bart keeps her hopes high by telling her “you can do it, I believe in you!” despite the fact that he is committing social suicide. He does a similar thing in Lisa on Ice when he has to take a penalty shot against his sister, deciding not to shoot after remembering all the good times the two had. From this it can be seen that rather than just caring for himself, Bart has a kind of ‘funnel’ of caring, with him at the top, followed by his friends, and finally his sister at the bottom, more concentrated than the rest.

Lisa is also the type of character that can be the opposite of what she seems. While her most common demeanour is a kind-hearted, caring young girl, she often shows times of utter cruelty, especially to Bart. One of the best examples of this is in the episode Bart Gets Famous. In this episode, Bart teases Lisa because he gets to go on a field trip and she doesn’t. Lisa ignores him and thinks of a future where she is one of the most famous writers in the world and Bart lives jobless with her, cleaning her many trophies. When Lisa finishes her latest book, Bart is depressed that he will soon have to polish another award. Lisa angrily says “hush field trip boy!” and kicks him in the back, causing him to fall onto a big spiked award. “Hm,” Lisa finishes, “impaled on my Nobel Peace Prize. How ironic.” Here, the normally quiet Lisa is exceedingly happy to be one of the most powerful writers in the world, enough so that she can throw her kindness out the window. In another episode dealing with the future, Bart to the Future, Lisa has become president of the United States. Here again she abuses her considerable power, having a marching band follow her in to supper and later sending Bart away to get him out of her hair, rather than just taking the time to talk to him. Like Bart, Lisa hides a different character within the façade of a sweet eight year old. She often takes her inner strength too far, crossing that fine line between being the best she can be and shaping others into the worst they can be.

When Bart and Lisa Simpson look at each other, it is like they are staring into a mirror. This mirror image goes far beyond the simple ideas of an exact replica or even an opposite. In fact, the mirror between them creates a merger between these two ideas. Each of them are very different at the same time that they are the same. The only real difference is the order in which their attributes come. While Lisa is a kind-hearted intellectual on the surface, deeper down she is a mean and even stupid person. Likewise, Bart appears to be dense and uncaring, but can in fact be thoughtful and smart if he is given the chance. These two sibling are actually very similar in their personalities, they are cut from the same cloth and overlap more often than not, creating a connection between them that is hard—if not impossible—to break.

Works Cited

“Bart Gets Famous.” The Simpsons. Fox. February 3, 1994.

“Bart of Darkness.” The Simpsons. Fox. September 4, 1994.

“Bart to the Future.” The Simpsons. Fox. March 29, 2000.

CHRIS TURNER. PLANET SIMPSON. TORONTO, ON: RANDOM HOUSE CANADA, 2004

“I Am Furious Yellow.” The Simpsons. Fox. April 28, 2002.

“Lisa on Ice.” The Simpsons. Fox. November 13, 1994.

“Lisa the Tree Hugger.” The Simpsons. Fox. November 19, 2000.

“Moaning Lisa.” The Simpsons. Fox. February 11, 1990.

“The Secret War of Lisa Simpson.” The Simpsons. Fox. May 18, 1997.