Tiger Woods has been a household name for over a decade. Our generation has grown up with perhaps the most dominating athlete to ever grace this planet, and we’ve been able to follow him from that initial triumph at Augusta, to the stunning performance at Torrey Pines in 2008 (ironically destroying the “Cinderella” story that would have been, Rocco Mediate). American’s tend to view many celebrities lives as fairy tales, and this distinction perhaps fit nobody more than it did Woods. He had been considered a prodigy since the age of 2, and his career took off at an extremely early age. He has earned an incredible amount of money through his successes on the course, as well as numerous endorsements, that also served to make him even more recognizable to the American public. He seemed perfect, and for many of his fans, those who stood in his path were villains just waiting to be vanquished (because they bad guys always are in fairy tales, right?)
Then, in late November last, everything changed. An Escalade, a golf club, a tree, and a beautiful Scandinavian woman quickly put Tiger Woods in a new place. He was being scrutinized and now Woods became the villain. We learned that this perfect athletic specimen, with a beautiful wife, two children, and more money than any of us could fathom, decided that this wasn’t enough. A busted face and a few weeks in a sex rehab clinic later, we still don’t know how this story will end. Is this a restoration tale that we are only in the middle of? Or is this one of the most blessed men in the world doing his best to show us that fairy tales really don’t exist in real life? I’m an optimist and I love to think about the reality of fairy tales, so I’m predicting a Tiger comeback. And let it be a dramatic comeback, a big victory at the Masters, the site of his first triumph.
http://www.hulu.com/watch/113210/saturday-night-live-tiger-woods-accident
What does it take for a celebrity's life to be called a "rags to riches" tale? We usually associate such stories with Cinderella, but why? Did she really work her way out of a life of poverty to one of wealth? Do "rags to riches" stories have that much in common with fairy tales which involve magical means of changing one's life?
ReplyDeleteI think that we call Cinderella's tale "rags to riches" because she DOES work hard by cleaning up after her nasty step sisters and putting up with their general abuse before she becomes a princess. The case of Tiger is interesting because of all the intense training he underwent as a child (under the supervision of his father) to achieve his status as a golf legend. I certainly hope that Tiger's story is only half-way done, because I absolutely love watching him play (and I have tickets to the 2010 PGA Championship that I bought solely for the purpose of seeing TIGER). However, I think what can be learned from this real-life rise tale is that the rise to stardom and wealth is not a permanent state, and that the fall can be quite dramatic. Additionally, the fall doesn't have to be the end of the tale, because isn't it the American way that we can all rise from our own personal downfalls to become better versions of ourselves?
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