Lisa

Lisa Simpson is one of the main characters in the TV-series the Simpsons. She is the middle child in the Simpson family, and despite her young age of eight years, she is one of the most intelligent persons in Springfield, her family’s hometown. In some of the episodes she is the protagonist of whom the story circulates around. However – in some episodes she is never or little present.

Lisa Simpson is a yellow little girl with an IQ of approximately 156 or 159. She is next to always wearing a red strapless dress and white pearls, signalizing her girly personality. Her hair is large and jagged, causing her classmates to give her names like “Poindexter Pointy-head”. However, due to her enviable brains and moral sense, being mocked in school is a part of her daily life. Her classmates have also named her “Geekazoid” and “The Brain Queen”. Her intelligence and political engagement is one of a kind in the family, and mostly in Springfield at large. Her knowledge covers a wide range of subjects you wouldn’t expect an eight-year-old to know. Even as an infant she managed to change her own diaper. media type="custom" key="684277" Lisa has gotten in detention quite a few times, mostly because of her acrimonious and insubordinate attitude. She holds a tendency to rebel against social American norms. For instance is she a vegetarian, an environmentalist, feminist, a member of The Free Tibet Movement and a practicing Buddhist. She is generally considered a socially liberal, and she has stood up against political corruption, Laramie Cigarettes, Whacking Day and the sexist Malibu Stacey Dolls (all though they are still her number 1 collecting items). Despite her brains and engagement Lisa is often found too young to be taken seriously. A middle child often tends to get forgotten and ignored in the real world. This is also the case in the Simpson family. Homer and Bart consistently ignores her and her demur, yet Marge, who often encourages her to speak up, uttered in “Lisa vs. Malibu Stacey”; “Lisa, ordinarily I'd say you should stand up for what you believe in. But you've been doing that an awful lot lately”. Still, Lisa is able to bring sense and moral into the family, often through her mother Marge, whose influence on the family of course is wider than her daughter’s. Lisa is also the one who brings new ideas and distinct culture into the family. I.e. she plays the sax, and has tried ballet on several occasions. She is also the only Simpson practicing Buddhism. She takes a look outside the “Simpsons-box” and collects input from other domains than the rest of her family. But when she presents her beliefs and opinions she tends to pull a kind of know-it-all attitude, preventing the listeners from agreeing with her, as typical of wiseacres. Lisa’s obsessed with revealing the truth; yet she understands the value of a myth, as she enunciates in “Lisa the Iconoclast” – in this episode she understands what Ibsen said – "Deprive the average human being of his life-lie, and you rob him of his happiness”. Lisa has unveiled the crucial truth – she even holds evidence – but she desists from telling the inhabitants of Springfield because she realizes that the verity will ruin her hometown.

Many has said that Lisa takes after both Marge and Homer Simpson – she has her mother’s morals – hard work ethics, sympathy and common sense – and she has her father’s last name. But – no matter how much she denies being anything like her father and brother – she is still a Simpson. As seen in the intro she is just as quick to rush in front of the TV after school as the rest of her family, and even though she never would dream of doing it herself, she finds Bart’s prank calls to Moe’s Tavern highly amusing. Still, Lisa enjoying childish activities like this are less seen in the later series, so even though her age and grade never changes, she grows mentally during the series. These arguments make her a round dynamic character – she changes and develops, and we get to see both her childish and mature side. Through watching how her family treats her and getting to know her we also understand how she’s become this way, and what drives her. We can also see that she may be a stereotypical precocious nerd, or typical idealist – always searching the truth and trying to understand things an eight-year old are not expected to grasp. Still, she devitalizes these labels by showing us another, more childish, less mature side. I believe this is what makes Lisa so alive, unlike the rest of the characters in Springfield – we get to know her faults. Her mistakes and flaws are revealed – we often see her cry, and her disastrous love life is unmasked over and over again. Lisa’s urge to enlighten herself and the inhabitants of Springfield is her mainspring, the motivation that drives her to investigate and reflecting upon just about everything. She is determined to do the right thing, and who knows what this young lady might be able to do? After all, she has been predicted a future as a President of the United States of America. Her faith is in the hands of G... no, wait - Matt Groening?

Sources: http://thesimpsons.com/index.html http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lisa_Simpson http://www.snpp.com/guides/lisa.file.html http://simpsonspedia.net/index.php?title=Lisa_Simpson http://www.simpsonschannel.com/ [|http://www.btinternet.com/~thecouch/chars/lisa.html] http://monstermovieblog.blogspot.com/2007/07/meet-simpsons-lisa-simpson.html

Carina Tangeraas