Barrett, The Honors College Thesis/Creative Project Collection
Barrett, The Honors College at Arizona State University proudly showcases the work of undergraduate honors students by sharing this collection exclusively with the ASU community.
Barrett accepts high performing, academically engaged undergraduate students and works with them in collaboration with all of the other academic units at Arizona State University. All Barrett students complete a thesis or creative project which is an opportunity to explore an intellectual interest and produce an original piece of scholarly research. The thesis or creative project is supervised and defended in front of a faculty committee. Students are able to engage with professors who are nationally recognized in their fields and committed to working with honors students. Completing a Barrett thesis or creative project is an opportunity for undergraduate honors students to contribute to the ASU academic community in a meaningful way.
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- All Subjects: Avatar: The Last Airbender
- All Subjects: Pleasure Principle
- Creators: Loebenberg, Abby
This project analyzes the undying appeal for one of Avatar’s most notable characters: Prince Zuko. It discusses the already clear and established appeal for his character among fans. To complement this conscious appeal, it proposes there is an unconscious appeal for Zuko that the audience is unaware of. Using Kleinian theory discussing childhood development, there is a new angle of relatability that can be explored between viewers and Prince Zuko’s character. Specifically, Zuko experiences a shift and oscillation in Kleinian positions: the paranoid-schizoid and depressive positions. Zuko also demonstrates what Klein defines as seeking reparation. With this explanation, an unconscious perspective of appeal is revealed. This appeal is due to viewers relating to the struggles he endures because they lived through them as well.
This essay analyzes the immense popularity of the online video game The Sims through the lens of Sigmund Freud’s theories about desire. Specifically, it utilizes the concepts of wish fulfillment, the pleasure and reality principles, and the life and death drive to draw conclusions about why the game is so appealing. The two main aspects of the game that this essay analyzes are the game’s extreme customization of the mundane and its endless design. It asserts that these aspects provide a unique opportunity for players to choose to engage in wish fulfillment, in either the pleasure or the reality principle, or in either the life or the death drive. These choices are unique to the game because, in the real world, these principles are inextricably linked, so the separation of these principles from each other allows players to fulfill their desires in unique ways. The essay challenges Freud’s theories by exhibiting how these principles appear differently in a virtual space, compared to reality. It explores how these challenges improve the player experience by providing a space for them to explore their desires and drives in a safe and controlled setting in their customizable, virtual world.