I completely agree with the person below that the good/bad distinction is a distraction.
I think the biggest piece of evidence for this is the red herring (a type of fish) that Jacob kills, eats, and offers to the unnamed man in black.
For the non literature majors and non film school students, "red herring" refers to a narrative technique where the author distracts the audience, typically by playing on the audience's prejudices. For example, in the movie Home Alone, the man with the shovel and distinctive "bad guy" look appears to be shady and up to no good, but we find out later that he is a good guy who Maccauley Culkin befriends. Horror movies use the trick all the time as well to make the viewer think the guy with the hook for a hand that we saw near the beginning of the movie was the murderer, but it turns out he is not a murderer! It was the preppy looking college boyfriend all along!
"Red Herring" also refers to a type of argument that may be valid standing by itself but is not relevant to the argument at hand. Either way, the red herring refers to a form of distraction.
So the question I hope to answer is the following: What does the red herring that we see Jacob eating refer to?
I doubt the red herring that we were shown is irrelevant because it is such a unique type of fish to show Jacob eating. My best bet is the red herring refers to the good/bad distinction. I think the show is letting us know that there really are no good guys and bad guys. The teams may be divided along black/white, light/dark, heads/tails distinctions, but those distinctions do not contain judgmental values. Being put on Team B rather than Team A says nothing about the players--I could care less about which team I am on. But being put on team "good guys" rather than team "bad guys" says a lot about who is on which team--of course, I'd want to be on team "good guys!"
The other piece of evidence that the characters on Lost do not really divide into good guys/ bad guys is the conversation Frank has with Brama (sp?). Frank says he distrusts anyone who says they are one of the good guys. I argue that we the viewers should distrust anyone who says they are one of the good guys as well. More accurately, Lost is trying to tell us to just ignore the distinction between what is good and bad.
And finally, Ben said a while ago that he was one of the good guys. What does it mean to be a good guy? I doubt Ben is any form of a "good guy." Rather than say Ben is a bad guy, I am just going to say Ben has chosen a side but it is not necessarily the bad side. This is just another example of how the good/bad distinction is just a distraction.
This all leads me to my ultimate point: Instead of judging Ben, or anyone else for that matter, based on which team he is on, we should be looking at Ben and everyone else to examine his motivations and ask ourselves "Is Jacob or the unnamed man in black right about humanity?"
I think the biggest piece of evidence for this is the red herring (a type of fish) that Jacob kills, eats, and offers to the unnamed man in black.
For the non literature majors and non film school students, "red herring" refers to a narrative technique where the author distracts the audience, typically by playing on the audience's prejudices. For example, in the movie Home Alone, the man with the shovel and distinctive "bad guy" look appears to be shady and up to no good, but we find out later that he is a good guy who Maccauley Culkin befriends. Horror movies use the trick all the time as well to make the viewer think the guy with the hook for a hand that we saw near the beginning of the movie was the murderer, but it turns out he is not a murderer! It was the preppy looking college boyfriend all along!
"Red Herring" also refers to a type of argument that may be valid standing by itself but is not relevant to the argument at hand. Either way, the red herring refers to a form of distraction.
So the question I hope to answer is the following: What does the red herring that we see Jacob eating refer to?
I doubt the red herring that we were shown is irrelevant because it is such a unique type of fish to show Jacob eating. My best bet is the red herring refers to the good/bad distinction. I think the show is letting us know that there really are no good guys and bad guys. The teams may be divided along black/white, light/dark, heads/tails distinctions, but those distinctions do not contain judgmental values. Being put on Team B rather than Team A says nothing about the players--I could care less about which team I am on. But being put on team "good guys" rather than team "bad guys" says a lot about who is on which team--of course, I'd want to be on team "good guys!"
The other piece of evidence that the characters on Lost do not really divide into good guys/ bad guys is the conversation Frank has with Brama (sp?). Frank says he distrusts anyone who says they are one of the good guys. I argue that we the viewers should distrust anyone who says they are one of the good guys as well. More accurately, Lost is trying to tell us to just ignore the distinction between what is good and bad.
And finally, Ben said a while ago that he was one of the good guys. What does it mean to be a good guy? I doubt Ben is any form of a "good guy." Rather than say Ben is a bad guy, I am just going to say Ben has chosen a side but it is not necessarily the bad side. This is just another example of how the good/bad distinction is just a distraction.
This all leads me to my ultimate point: Instead of judging Ben, or anyone else for that matter, based on which team he is on, we should be looking at Ben and everyone else to examine his motivations and ask ourselves "Is Jacob or the unnamed man in black right about humanity?"
