The+Characters+of+Glee

 Glee



//Glee // is a television show about a high school show choir called New Directions and is directed by Will Schuester. At the beginning of the show not start many students want to join glee club because it will ruin their social statuses. One of the football players, Finn, joins the glee club and is then humiliated by the rest of the football players. Eventually as the show goes on, more and more kids begin to join, even the cool kids since Finn is in it. The cherleading coach, Sue Sylvester, is out to get the glee club because they are starting to use the money that she needs for her cheerleaders. She is also jealous of their talent because the cheerleaders used to be the stars of the school. New Directions now have several students to make a talented show choir and are ready to go and compete at Sectionals. Every episode consists of several songs and most of the songs given to the students have to do with their character or how people pursue them. I am going to focus on five characters: Rachel, Mercedes, Brittany, Kurt, and Puck. I will explain them and talk about how the songs they sing relate to their character and why those certain songs are chosen for each of them. By explaining this, it will show how all the characters are all very different people but still come together as a team and family.  The first character is Rachel Berry. In the show, Rachel is perceived as a diva who has full confidence that she will be on Broadway one day and that she is the best member of the glee club. She is the leader of the group, or at least tries to be, and most of the members do not like her for this. She is also portrayed as innocent and somewhat of a prude. Most of Rachel’s songs are powerful or very difficult for most people to sing. She sings a lot of Broadway or innocent love songs. One of the songs she sings is “Don’t rain on my parade” from the musical Funny Girl. She sings this at Sectionals all by herself on stage and gets to experience for a few minutes performing as if she were on Broadway. The lyrics of the song also have a lot to do with Rachel’s life and how she really is. The lyrics “ Don’t tell me not to live just sit and putter, life’s candy and the sun’s a ball of butter, don’t bring a cloud to rain on my parade,” means that she wants to go out and be a star and doesn’t want anybody or anything to stop her. That basically describes Rachel. Another song she sings, which actually she wrote called, “My Headband,” is literally a song about her headband. She is an innocent young girl and really has not experienced enough to be able to write a song that has much more meaning than a headband. In the episode where she sings this song, she starts to “live a little more” because Finn tells her she needs to get out more and experience life. She drinks and has a relationship with Blaine (Kurt’s love interest) because he is not sure if he is gay or not and then once he realizes that he actually is gay, she become thrilled because she now knows exactly what to write about. She finally experienced something deeper and interesting in her life that includes much more emotion than just a headband.  The next character is Mercedes Jones. Mercedes is also a diva, but the diva with a big heart who everyone loves. But she does not let anyone talk back to her and she does not take anything from anyone. She sings the big powerful songs or has the last note at the end of the songs belting out crazy notes. One of the songs she sings is, “And I am telling you” from the musical Dream Girls. She sings this to show everybody how good she really is and that Rachel is not the only good soloist in glee club. Another song she sings is, “Bust your windows.” She sings this when Kurt tells her that he does not like her (she at this point does not know that he is gay) and she throws a baseball the window of his car. It shows how she does not want anybody to mess with her and that she is a strong and independent woman.  The next character I want to talk about is Kurt Hummel. Kurt is the only kid at his school who is openly gay and has been having a hard time dealing with it. He has a much more feminine and sensitive side to him that not many guys have. He ends up leaving his school because he was being harassed by a bully for being gay. One song Kurt sings is, “I want to hold your hand” by the Beatles. He sings this because his father has heart attack and he does not know if he is going to survive (he ends up being okay). His sensitive side comes out because it shows how much he loves his father and just wants to have a special moment with him. The version that Kurt sings though is not the fast fun version that the Beatles sing, it’s a slower and more emotional version. It is sung the same way that one of the girl character’s from the movie Across the Universe sings it. Another song he sings is, “Baby, it’s cold outside” with Blaine (his love interest who is also gay) who goes to the all-boys school he now attends. This song is a “cute and romantic” Christmas song that they sing together. This song is originally sung by a boy and girl. Kurt sings the part of the girl which shows his feminine side and his romantic side which we do not see a lot from him because at his old school he was harassed or teased for it because he was not considered “normal.”  Now I would like to focus on the character, Brittany Pierce. Brittany is portrayed as the “dumb blonde” who is very carefree and fun and somewhat of a skank. She is on the cheerleading squad and she really does not know what is going on most of the time. Although, she is an incredible dancer and she shows off her talent mostly in the Brittany Spears episode. She is basically the star of this episode and sings the song, “I’m a slave 4 U.” She dances just like Brittany Spears, or better, and this is the first time we ever really hear her sing. It shows how she is a girl who wants to have fun but who is also promiscuous. She does not have a lot of clothes on for a few parts of the song and the title of the song says it all. Another song she sings is, “Tik Tok” by Ke$ha. Ke$ha is another singer who is fun and all about partying. Brittany is definitely this type of person. In one of the episodes where all the glee kids party together, Brittany is the one who starts dancing on top of tables and taking her clothes off. She is very carefree and is her own person who just wants to enjoy life and not take everything too seriously.  The next character I am going to talk about is Noah Puckerman aka Puck. Puck is the rebel of the group who is always getting into trouble. He gets Quinn pregnant who at the time is Finn’s girlfriend and later goes to juvenile hall for driving his mother’s Volvo into a store and then taking the ATM with him. He is also known as the “sex master” having hooked up with so many girls at the school. He is the “ladies man” of the show. One of the songs he sings, “Fat bottomed girls” is sung to one of the newest glee club members, Lauren Zizes. She is a little larger but Puck is in love with her because she plays extremely hard to get. He sings this song to her because the song is basically saying how the bigger girls are more attractive to him than the blond hair blue-eyed girls. This song is somewhat promiscuous which basically describes the type of person he is. Another song he sings that shows his sweet side a little more is, “Sweet Caroline.” He sings this song to Rachel when he is trying to hook up with her. He is very good with the ladies and knows how to get them to like him. He plays guitar and sings it for her at glee club which makes Finn a little jealous because he has always had a thing for Rachel.  This show has a lot of different and interesting characters. But everyone at the end of the day comes together and become a family in glee club. They all do not really relate but that is the whole point of the show. It focuses on a bunch of high school kids who in the beginning really only care about their social statuses and how important it is to be popular and accepted. But once they join glee club they realize none of that really matters and it is important to just be you and not let anybody get in the way of that. When teaching a classroom, the teacher must let the students all show their individual talents and let them express themselves. They will all then be comfortable with each other and be able to get along with each other and become one family. This is what happens in //Glee// and it a great lesson for students and teachers because it teaches us the idea of what it means to not compete against each other, but appreciate other people’s talents.