Abstract:
With the arrival of "Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End" this May, the world's pirate obsession will become magnified and multiplied to extremes. Throughout this thesis, the issues surrounding the creation of this obsession and the way in which it currently manifests itself will be discussed. This obsession is nothing new. It has been around since the original age of piracy itself, but it does not look to be going away any time soon. The thesis will begin with an examination of the role pirates play in popular culture including the way in which pirates are portrayed in movies and film and how close that is to reality. It will then begin to explain why people choose to believe the fiction in place of the fact. The paper will then conclude with a number of examples of how the pirate obsession is viewed and acted upon in today's society. The goal of this paper is to provide thoughtful analysis as to why this obsession with swashbuckling seamen has been able to sustain throughout centuries. And the analysis provided within these pages will begin to shed some light on that issue.
