The fictional Sons of Anarchy motorcycle club were based off of the real life motorcycle club that existed mainly on the west coast of the United States. There were also other MCs (motorcycle clubs) in several European countries and the club was founded in the 1960s. The Sons of Anarchy follow the path that Hell's Angels set including running guns and muling drugs. However, they were a respected symbol around the United States and Hell's Angels were famous for providing security during the Rolling Stones concert at Woodstock.
Dear Reader,
I originally was having a difficult time choosing a topic to research for this project. I pondered over what topics to choose because it was such an open ended project. I thought of what I was interested in, and suddenly it hit me, Sons of Anarchy. I began doing research on the show that I had spent hours on end watching, mesmerized by the life that the sons were living. I found after a small amount of research that the plot of the Sons of Anarchy follows the plot of Shakespeare's Hamlet practically identically. I had a hard time creating the parallels between the two, however after reading the plot summaries of the two tales the similarities became clear as day.
Before I began researching the Sons of Anarchy most of what I knew was about the show itself. I was more interested in the elements of Hell's Angels that was used in the Sons of Anarchy. One character in the show Happy who is played by David LaBrava was a real life Hell's Angel. I know we aren't supposed to use Wikipedia, but here is a link to David Labrava to learn more about his background... http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Happy_(Sons_of_Anarchy). If you don't like Wikipedia here is one more link to David's life and his role in the show... http://sonsofanarchysamcro.blogspot.com/2012/11/sons-of-anarchy-actor-david-labrava-as.html. After researching the show more and more my view shifted and I found that I was more interested in the plot similarities between Hamlet and the Sons of Anarchy than the similarities between the Sons of Anarchy and Hell's Angels.
My research questions consisted of mostly things like, what activities did the two clubs engage in? or what does the life of a son/angel consist of? However, after a short amount of research I became quite fascinated with Shakespeare's work and how the writer of the Sons of Anarchy, Charlie Hunman, used the classic plot lines of Shakespeare's work to create a successful TV series. I just found it very interesting how he was able to create a present day Hamlet in a fictional town in California called Charming.
I learned many new things while researching my topic that I had never considered before. The thing that stood out the most was obviously the parallels between the show and the olde English play. I also stumbled upon some very cool information and some very cool pictures about the Hell's Angels. I found some cool pictures from some motorcycle rallies in the United States along with some from over seas.
here is a link to some Hell's Angels stuff: http://www.hells-angels.com/?HA=pictures
I was really glad that I chose this topic for my project. I found out so much interesting information that I never would have known if I had not chosen Sons of Anarchy as my topic for the research project. Initially I thought I had just found an easy topic that I could write a lot about and enjoy writing about, I found out that I was right about enjoying the topic, just not the way that I had intended. However, I would like to send a shout out to The Reg for helping me brainstorm toward something that I would really love to write about. I can always count on her to help me find my passion for literature.
Sincerely,
Cody Polifka
I originally was having a difficult time choosing a topic to research for this project. I pondered over what topics to choose because it was such an open ended project. I thought of what I was interested in, and suddenly it hit me, Sons of Anarchy. I began doing research on the show that I had spent hours on end watching, mesmerized by the life that the sons were living. I found after a small amount of research that the plot of the Sons of Anarchy follows the plot of Shakespeare's Hamlet practically identically. I had a hard time creating the parallels between the two, however after reading the plot summaries of the two tales the similarities became clear as day.
Before I began researching the Sons of Anarchy most of what I knew was about the show itself. I was more interested in the elements of Hell's Angels that was used in the Sons of Anarchy. One character in the show Happy who is played by David LaBrava was a real life Hell's Angel. I know we aren't supposed to use Wikipedia, but here is a link to David Labrava to learn more about his background... http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Happy_(Sons_of_Anarchy). If you don't like Wikipedia here is one more link to David's life and his role in the show... http://sonsofanarchysamcro.blogspot.com/2012/11/sons-of-anarchy-actor-david-labrava-as.html. After researching the show more and more my view shifted and I found that I was more interested in the plot similarities between Hamlet and the Sons of Anarchy than the similarities between the Sons of Anarchy and Hell's Angels.
My research questions consisted of mostly things like, what activities did the two clubs engage in? or what does the life of a son/angel consist of? However, after a short amount of research I became quite fascinated with Shakespeare's work and how the writer of the Sons of Anarchy, Charlie Hunman, used the classic plot lines of Shakespeare's work to create a successful TV series. I just found it very interesting how he was able to create a present day Hamlet in a fictional town in California called Charming.
I learned many new things while researching my topic that I had never considered before. The thing that stood out the most was obviously the parallels between the show and the olde English play. I also stumbled upon some very cool information and some very cool pictures about the Hell's Angels. I found some cool pictures from some motorcycle rallies in the United States along with some from over seas.
here is a link to some Hell's Angels stuff: http://www.hells-angels.com/?HA=pictures
I was really glad that I chose this topic for my project. I found out so much interesting information that I never would have known if I had not chosen Sons of Anarchy as my topic for the research project. Initially I thought I had just found an easy topic that I could write a lot about and enjoy writing about, I found out that I was right about enjoying the topic, just not the way that I had intended. However, I would like to send a shout out to The Reg for helping me brainstorm toward something that I would really love to write about. I can always count on her to help me find my passion for literature.
Sincerely,
Cody Polifka