The Faustus of Modern Times: The Paparazzi

From the beginning of history, people have always had some goal or wish in mind. In the case of Faustus, he wished for eternal power and knowledge and sold his soul for it. In modern times, I do not know if anyone would necessarily sell their soul for something that they wanted so desperately; however, I was thinking about people who try very hard to accomplish a task and go to the extremes to do so, and paparazzi came to mind. I was probably singing the song Paparazzi by Lady Gaga but that is beside the point. They do fit this topic. They are always going to great lengths to get any celebrity “dirt” even if it means following stars, chasing after them, or even making stories up. They line up outside celebrity homes and restaurants to get the best shot or story. I can imagine them selling their soul because the job of paparazzi is to get a shot that no one else will get, so with the powers of the Devil, they could always know what celebrities are doing and can get the best pictures of them doing their personal business or something controversial. It is similar to the character, Peter Parker in the movie “Spiderman” in which he took the best photos of Spiderman because he knew where he was at all times. The paparazzi would make a lot of money because they would sell off their photographs to magazines which want the hottest gossip before any other source gets it!
The modern shape that Mephostophilis would take on is a dollar bill. It would mock the constant desire for money and that overrides everyone’s common sense. Sound decision making turns into greed. All the paparazzi want is money for taking the best shot or getting the most interesting-not always truthful-story. Money is made of paper and paper has no feelings nor does it care about the feelings of others. The paparazzi do not care about how bothersome or intrusive they are of celebrities; all they want is the money they get for doing their work.