Pirate Costume for a Halloween Party - Essay Example

30th October 2006 TOPIC PROPOSAL The object of evaluation is a pirate costume for a Halloween party. The category or that this placed in is Halloween costumes. The evaluative claim I'm making: A pirate is the best costume for a Halloween party as it is the only costume that meets all the stated criteria. 2) The costume will be judged according to certain criteria, namely its historical significance, what it represents and aesthetic entertainment value. Perhaps the single most important criterion in making a judgment is the costume's historical significance and the least important would be its entertainment value. 3) The argument is aimed at the general audience, some of whom may have differing opinions about the appropriateness of the pirate costume for a Halloween party. But they need to consider the validity of the costume keeping in mind the historical backdrop of pirates and how pirates still exist today, although in different guises. Some may find other costumes more appropriate and reject the idea of a pirate costume altogether. But the point to be noted for this discussion is that other costumes fail to satisfactorily meet all the criteria. 4) In forming the argument, I aim to base the validity of using a pirate costume from real life historical events and how many of the other costumes are borne from fiction and fantasy and not reality. In researching this topic, I refer to historical records pertaining to the age where much of the world's commerce was derived from ship farers and how high sea robbers spent much of their time chasing these ships for bounty. 5) The argument will be organized by first comparing the origins of some of the other costumes, (whether they came from fantasy or reality) with the pirate costume which is clearly based on historical fact. By focusing on the 'reality' aspect of pirates, explaining the fact that such bandits actually existed in the past, some credibility is given to the idea of a pirate costume. I also aim to give a short historical account of how traditional Halloween costumes have been supplemented with additional costumes worn by characters from TV and film. Also mentioned is how the actions of a historical figure named Jack who came to be associated with Halloween, resembles the actions of a pirate. The argument will strive to give credence to the pirate, highlight the characteristics of strength, courage and daring that were the hallmarks of a pirate's personality and life. Comparisons will also be made with others costumes, against the different criteria and whether or not they are met. 6) The audience are both readers who like to believe that a pirate is the best costume for a Halloween party and to other readers who think otherwise but who would gain extra understanding from the argument proposed here. PAPER OUTLINE The introduction will enquire as to what is the best costume for a Halloween party and asks as to what are the different criteria to be used to base the argument on. A claim will be made about a pirate costume being ideal for a Halloween party. A selection of different criteria will be stated that are to be met in order for a pirate costume to qualify as being the ideal costume. The body of the final paper will set out to explain what various costumes represent, giving examples about whether the costumes originate from real life or fantasy. Next, the origin of wearing costumes in the context of Halloween is detailed and how the practice came about. Also a mention will be given to the justification of wearing a pirate costume for a Halloween party when clearly a pirate costume was never originally a part of the tradition of Halloween. This part will also look into the liberation a mask or costume can provide and how a pirate costume can enable the wearer to freely act out the role, thus providing some entertainment value. Comparisons with other costumes will also be made, even those that share similar 'qualities' with the pirate costume. A mention will also be given to the link that a pirate's traits has with a particular element of Halloween. The conclusion will wrap up with the successful meeting of the criteria that were mentioned in the introduction. This will reinforce the idea that a pirate costume is indeed the best costume to be worn at a Halloween party. ROUGH DRAFT What can be considered the best costume for a Halloween party Costumes can come in all shapes, sizes and colours but what are the qualities that would make a particular costume stand out. If we consider one criterion such as appearance, then quite a few other costumes may overshadow a pirate costume. But when other criteria are considered such as historical significance of the costume, its origins, whether it is based on fantasy or reality and what it brings to the party, we may find that a good looking aesthetically pleasing party dress may not meet all the criteria. Most costumes mirror the professions that exist in the real world or they take after those characters that have appeared in TV and film. Generally people dress up in familiar costumes that are popular in the entertainment media. Some costumes come from science fiction or fantasy. These are recent creations from the last century. Aliens are a prime example. No one has seen an actual alien but our imagination allows us to picture a theoretical form which we assume is what an alien would look like if a real one was ever encountered. On the other hand, a pirate costume has some real historical basis. The olden days were rife with piracy on the high seas when trading vessels were forcefully taken over and the ship's crew held at knife point or slaughtered and all their possessions taken away from them. The pirates managed to steal valuable treasure, such as gold and diamonds and lived their lives from the trade of their riches. The pirates showed daring and courage, risking their own lives to strike rich. Thus a pirate's costume is representative of the qualities of courage and daring. Superhero costumes although exhibit similar qualities are purely fantasy. No such hero has actually existed, and one has to suspend belief to view the exploits of such characters. A pirate's actions however are completely believable. When looking at what a pirate costume represents, we see that compared to other costumes, a pirate represents the positive qualities of bravery, daring and adventure. On the negative side, greed, laziness and cunning. The allure of a pirate lies in its positive characteristics. These qualities are found in very few other costumes. A Ninja costume can also have some of these traits but in a more subdued level. Whereas a pirate costume is more flamboyant, Ninja costume has very little aesthetic appeal. There is justification for the use of a pirate costume for Halloween. The history of Halloween is lost to today's generation who view the day purely for recreational or entertainment purposes. But Halloween began with the Celts in the olden days when the 1st of November marked the beginning of the New Year. The previous day was thought to be a time when dead souls awoke and mixed with the living. To scare them away, people would dress up as witches, goblins, and other creature to ward off the evil spirits. Today, Halloween is seen as a non-serious 'light' holiday. People have dropped much of the restrictions of tradition and accepted new costumes as a part of Halloween. The fact that new contemporary costumes are being included into Halloween parties seems also to justify a pirate costume being used in such a party. The pirate costume has a greater entertainment value than most other costumes. Since masks and costumes allow people to hide their true character and display a profoundly different one, a pirate can allow the person to act in a bizarre fashion befitting the costume. No longer repressed or saddled with self-consciousness, the wearer is free to act out the role should the occasion demand. Many other costumes do not allow the wearer to show the full range of characteristics that a pirate costume allows. A pirate can show bravery, cunning, greed and physical action using swords. At first a pirate costume may not seem to have any connection with the history of Halloween but a closer look at one aspect of the origins of Halloween reveals that they do share a common element. In the olden days, the Irish had a story of a man named Jack who was lazy and never did a day's work. Gambling was his favourite past time and he spent his life engaged in this activity. When it came for him to leave this world, he made a bet with the devil. Jack won and managed to extend his life by another year. The following year, he won another bet but the devil won the third time when he took Jack's soul. Jack was not accepted into the kingdom of heaven and the devil too rejected him from entering hell, offering only a burning coal in a hollowed out pumpkin as a light to aid Jack to roam the ends of Earth. Jack's laziness and get rich quick ideas are very similar to a pirate's life. Very few costumes have connections to the original version of Halloween. When we compare various party costumes against three criteria we see that only a pirate costume is able to satisfy each condition. Other costumes may share some traits with the pirate costume and meet one or two criteria but not all. The pirate costume has entertainment value, a historical significance and represents the human traits of bravery, adventure and daring. FINAL COPY Introduction When we deliberate the best costume to wear for a Halloween party, we consider what it is about the costume that makes it 'the best' and suitable for the party. Is it the colour, size, shape, decoration, the thing it represents, its entertainment value for a party or its real historical significance I argue that a pirate is the best costume for a Halloween party. The criteria I'm basing this argument on is its entertainment value for a party, what the pirate costume represents and its historical value. We know that party costumes are representative of the professions, vocation or livelihoods of people existing not only in the real world but also from the world of fiction and fantasy. For example, a fireman costume is obviously considered representative of a real occupation. On the other hand, an alien outfit is derived from science-fiction and not based on anything that can be studied for real. Their identity and characteristics come from their depictions in the visual media. A pirate costume is not based in science-fiction or fantasy but on real world history as there is much historical evidence to support this. In the olden days when shipping routes were navigated by treasure laden wooden ships, the opportunity to amass instant wealth was extremely tempting. Daring sea robbers would intercept cargo ships and using swords and daggers overpower them after a minor skirmish. These were pirates, robbers of the high seas; swaggering audacious individuals ripe with courage and gusto, their only livelihood came from the forceful takeover of possessions and not from any form of hard labour. Although dated, the allure of an old fashioned pirate is still appealing as they display very human down-to-earth traits and skills. On the other hand superhero costumes are purely fictional character representations, possessing unrealistic powers. Borne out of comic book fantasy, they bear little or no resemblance to anyone present or past. A pirate however, is grounded in reality and has some basis for being there. The tradition of wearing costumes and lighting bonfires, in the present context, dates back to Celtic times in England, Scotland, Wales and Ireland. The Celts celebrated November 1st as the New Year and the night before was thought as the time when the dead returned to intermingle with the living. The practice of wearing masks and costumes came from a need to scare away the evil spirits. But the ancient spiritual and mystical version of Halloween has been lost to the modern scientific age and people today consider wearing costumes solely for entertainment purposes. Scaring away evil spirits have very little to do with it. Thus a pirate costume very much factors with the present day entertainment theme of Halloween, perhaps more than the traditional costumes. There is ample justification for a pirate costume to be included in a Halloween party. Halloween is surrounded by symbols and imagery and the present image of the tradition is due largely to a century of artistic and film work by movie directors, writers and artists. The commercial interests of Hollywood have influenced the tradition of Halloween into encompassing a more diverse range of ideas and themes (Wikipedia 2006). The tradition is painted as dark and mysterious involving the subjects of death, magic and resurgence of myth. Various creatures and themes have been traditionally associated with Halloween but many have been added over several decades through the medium of books, television and film; haunted houses, crows, ghosts, aliens, skeletons, mummies, zombies, werewolves etc. The modern era has tended to embrace tradition as well as augment it with contemporary themes. Traditional Halloween costumes have always been vampires, witches, devils, ghosts and monsters. But recently it has become fashionable to encompass the traditional with the contemporary and include costumes of characters from the entertainment media. It is not uncommon for people to dress up as real life personalities such as presidents or politicians. The popularity of a costume depends largely on the character's public image at that time. When a popular superhero movie is released, millions of children dress in the hero's outfit. The release of a successful pirate movie will inspire people to dress up like a pirate. This justifies the inclusion of a pirate costume in a Halloween party. The entertainment value that the costume generates is the amount of amusement that can be delivered by the wearer of the costume based on the costume's characteristics. Wearing a mask or costume partly frees the wearer from the clutches of his or her own personality, inhibitions and self-consciousness, giving the wearer the freedom to act out his alternate characters which may be locked away inside. Assuming the wearers of the various costumes were fine actors and were made to act out the roles represented by the outfits, the best all round performance would probably come from the pirate. This costume allows the wearer to act out an alternate character, create a new voice and develop other mannerisms. A person can disappear into a pirate costume and act totally out of character to his own. This is not to say other costumes don't enable the wearer to act similarly, but the range of 'behaviours' that a wearer of a pirate costume can exhibit is wider. The wearer could provide comic relief with one-liners, jokes and actions mimicking that of real pirates. He can act drunken, talk gibberish and people would believe it befitting of the costume. Few other costumes allow wearers to become someone else. Most tend to narrow the behavioural width that the wearer can exhibit. A witch's costume for example allows only a seedy, sly character to surface. Even the wearer of a Dracula costume is limited in his range of mannerisms, acting out the role with a lot more restraint. When considering what the pirate costume represents, we can compare it with other costumes such as a skeleton. The skeleton evokes the sense of death and decay. The aesthetic quality, although appropriate for the overall image of Halloween, may not evoke many fond feelings in the eyes of the general public. A skeleton can never really do much, and any uncharacteristic action performed by the wearer would only be looked on with mild amusement. A pirate on the other hand embodies the traits of daring and courage, of risk taking and valour even if in a negative sense. The wearer of a pirate costume can 'perform', mimic, act and dance and none of his credibility that the costume represents would be lost. A wearer of a skeleton costume, performing similar acts, would only be ridiculing its overall image. Also in comparison, a Ninja costume may also be considered as having some historical value. These were Japanese warriors of old, trained in guerrilla tactics, espionage work and assassination missions. But the aesthetic value of a Ninja costume looses much of its appeal simply because of its simplicity - plain black outfit where the wearer's face remains partially hidden. Though some historical value can be attributed to it, the image of daring and courage cannot dismiss the fact that it remains an uninspired costume to wear for a Halloween party. Further, the wearer's personality cannot really shine through behind the black dress. Although not traditionally associated with Halloween, a pirate has more in common with a certain aspect of the tradition, particularly with the Jack O'Lantern, than some of the other character creatures associated with Halloween. According to the Irish story, a villager named Jack who had a reputation for shrewdness as well as laziness, spent his whole life trying to escape working and earn money the easy way, especially through gambling. At one point he made a deal with the devil and tricked him into adding an extra year to Jack's life. Jack never repented and when the devil finally took his life by surprise, Jack was not accepted into the kingdom of God. At hell's gate too Jack was dismissed and was forced to walk the Earth guided by the light of a pumpkin with a burning coal in its hollow (American Catholic Org). It is doubtful a pirate would have ever repented. His life, in some ways similar to Jack's, would be a string of adventures for the acquisition of treasure without engaging in any real work. In this regard a pirate costume and what it represents has more connections to Halloween than most other costumes. Conclusion A pirate is the best costume for a Halloween party because it meets all three criteria; these being - the entertainment value of the costume, what the costume represents and its historical value. When other costumes are judged against these criteria, a few meet some of the criteria to a certain degree, but not all the criteria satisfactorily whereas a pirate costume successfully can. WORKS CITED 1. American Catholic Org. All Hallows Eve. The Tale of Jack O'Lantern. 2006. 28-10-06 2. ASU. Arkansas State University. Evaluation. 29-10-06 3. Clancy. Rhetoric 1101. 29-10-06 4. Wikipedia 2006. Halloween. 28-10-06 Read More