One of the most foul-mouthed individuals on “True Blood” is Tara Thornton played by the wonderful actress Rutina Wesley (who is nominated with her co-star Adina Porter, Lettie Mae Thornton, for the Tressie Souders Award. You can see my post and a link to cast your vote at this link: “Two True Blood Actresses Nominated For The Tressie Souders Award” ). In “True Blood” Tara plays Sookie Stackhouse’s (Anna Paquin) best friend, perhaps her only friend. Tara has a lot of emotional baggage that prevents her from developing close relationships with anyone. She hides the hurt, her fears and disappointment by the façade that she creates.
Out of the anger words that come out of her mouth is a woman plagued by hurt and uses these defense mechanisms to protect herself. To understand this character better and know what makes her tick you have to put yourself in her shoes. The show examines the hurt emotions that most of us experience in our lives and how we cope. It allows people to explore within themselves and ponder whether they can learn something from their experiences or do they use them as a crutch to keep them from moving forward?
Tara is a product of an alcoholic, absent-minded mother who was and still is incapable of providing the nurturing that she needs. Tara seems to take the path of self-depreciation which in turn becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy for her. In her mind she believes that if her own mother could not love her why would anyone else even herself. With all the darkness that surrounds her past and her own views of herself and the world around her you still see a glimmer of hope inside of her.
As she tries to open herself up to others and move forward by letting others in, fears grips her and takes over. The end result is she shut the doors to any possibility of happiness. When we look in our own lives we can see that we can relate to Tara on some level and understand her fears. If we have been hurt too many time we tend to take the stance of “I‘m never going to let anyone hurt me again”. At first the idea seems to be perfect but in the long term the person becomes more bitter about life and of people to the point that they create their own prison that is difficult to escape from. Disillusioned by everyone and everything life is not lived, just merely a passing of time.
Without giving out any spoilers to the many readings who still have not seen Season 1 or will be tuning in once “True Blood” premieres in their country, sometimes it takes life changing events to make you re-examine your life and what you want out of it. Tara seems to grasp at this concept and finally realizes that the current path that she is taking is leading to a downwards spiral, out of control and if she doe not take that control back she will never be able to. Once she is able to take some control back in her life and take responsibility for her life she starts to see that all this time it was within herself to make the changes. All she had to do is take the chance and let go of her fears. Tara’s character demonstrates so well that nothing is impossible and no matter how bleak our lives may be at times it is within ourselves to take control and ask “Am I going to let my emotions control me or am I going to control my emotions?” Which one is chosen will define whether you will look at life with an air of contentment and acceptance or live in a self-imposed prison of emotions heartaches. It seems that Tara has chosen to take control and to take a chance.
Out of the anger words that come out of her mouth is a woman plagued by hurt and uses these defense mechanisms to protect herself. To understand this character better and know what makes her tick you have to put yourself in her shoes. The show examines the hurt emotions that most of us experience in our lives and how we cope. It allows people to explore within themselves and ponder whether they can learn something from their experiences or do they use them as a crutch to keep them from moving forward?
Tara is a product of an alcoholic, absent-minded mother who was and still is incapable of providing the nurturing that she needs. Tara seems to take the path of self-depreciation which in turn becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy for her. In her mind she believes that if her own mother could not love her why would anyone else even herself. With all the darkness that surrounds her past and her own views of herself and the world around her you still see a glimmer of hope inside of her.
As she tries to open herself up to others and move forward by letting others in, fears grips her and takes over. The end result is she shut the doors to any possibility of happiness. When we look in our own lives we can see that we can relate to Tara on some level and understand her fears. If we have been hurt too many time we tend to take the stance of “I‘m never going to let anyone hurt me again”. At first the idea seems to be perfect but in the long term the person becomes more bitter about life and of people to the point that they create their own prison that is difficult to escape from. Disillusioned by everyone and everything life is not lived, just merely a passing of time.
Without giving out any spoilers to the many readings who still have not seen Season 1 or will be tuning in once “True Blood” premieres in their country, sometimes it takes life changing events to make you re-examine your life and what you want out of it. Tara seems to grasp at this concept and finally realizes that the current path that she is taking is leading to a downwards spiral, out of control and if she doe not take that control back she will never be able to. Once she is able to take some control back in her life and take responsibility for her life she starts to see that all this time it was within herself to make the changes. All she had to do is take the chance and let go of her fears. Tara’s character demonstrates so well that nothing is impossible and no matter how bleak our lives may be at times it is within ourselves to take control and ask “Am I going to let my emotions control me or am I going to control my emotions?” Which one is chosen will define whether you will look at life with an air of contentment and acceptance or live in a self-imposed prison of emotions heartaches. It seems that Tara has chosen to take control and to take a chance.
