The Dark Knight as a Re-telling of the Book of Job

I'm taking Bible as Literature right now, and we've been assigned the task of writing a 15-20 page critical essay that somehow relates to what we've studied in class. I was lost for a topic, but when I was researching The Dark Knight for my thesis research about Tricksters, I noticed quite by accident that this movie is, in fact, a re-telling of the Book of Job. I love it when life offers a subject to write about on a silver platter!

So follow me here: The Joker is Satan, Batman is God, and Gotham City is Job. And for some New Testament zest, you could interpret Harvey Dent as Jesus Christ. If you don't believe me, watch it again. You'll see!

Here's the thing though. Being a creative writer, it's really easy for me to hammer out 20 pages of a story. I was kind of dabbling with my fan-fic tonight, not even seriously, and squeezed out 10 pages. But critical essays have this unnerving power to turn me into Rainman. I don't know what it is about them that makes me short-bus special, but they do.

I developed a strong, rhetorical outline and improved my thesis, so the work is coming a little bit easier. Even still, I think what's hindering me is knowing my audience. My teacher has high expectations, so even before I put pen to paper, I can hear her criticizing me. Of course, this is mostly my own neurosis - we're our own worst critics - but even still that fear of failure stifles me. Furthermore, it doesn't help that my subject ventures into uncharted territory. It's not like there's a thousand scholarly sources about The Dark Knight as the Book of Job to inform my research. The closest scholarly essay I got to was how the movie depicts evil.

On that note, it's been fun writing about the Joker. I've addressed him in a couple of different essays from different angles, and he never fails to offer me material. The hard part, at least where this particular essay is concerned, is being as excited to talk about Batman as God and Gotham as Job. Don't get me wrong, I have plenty of material for them both, but they're just not as fun to write about!

So, my goal is to finish my rough draft tomorrow. Wish me luck!