1970's Bound To Vengeance

In The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao, the reader gets a sense of what the expectations are of Dominican men and women. Junot Díaz uses Oscar in contrast to the other male characters to present the expectations of the Dominican male. On the other hand, Díaz presents the women in the text, especially Belicia, La Inca, Lola, and Jenni, as strong characters in their own rights, but the male characters, with the exception of Oscar, have a desire to display their masculinity to maintain power over these women. It would be unfair to say that the women bring the abuse unto themselves, but rather it is their culture that makes the abuse acceptable and almost to a certain extent—expected.

We live in a society where visual images are becoming increasingly significant, as most information in the media is presented as a combination of pictures and words. Visual representations enable individuals to interpret and evaluate texts that communicate with images more effectively. Distinctively visual techniques are used to enhance and challenge the way an individual understands personal experiences and the world. The way that they perceive these experiences can be shaped through distinctively visual techniques, as the vivid images can allow them to make sense of the world and provide diverse perspectives on how they view it. John Misto’s play ‘The Shoe-horn Sonata’ (1996) utilises powerful visual and language techniques

At the start of “La Llorona Loca: The Other Side,” Palacios describes growing up when her mother would tell her scary stories about Llorona Loca. In the first paragraph we see a common theme or image found in the Latinx cannon: the image of motherhood and tradition. Palacios mother’s retelling follows the traditional narrative of La Llorona Loca retelling in which a woman, traditionally a mother, drowns her children and then feels remorse. Although many authors would choose to further develop on this image, Palacios through her reflection on her up brining demonstrates opposing views to the dominant ideology, in the way in which she critiques these societal expectations of women. As the story continues, Palacios articulates a critique of gender roles and expectations demonstrated through the following lines of her mothers La Llorona retelling:

My initial reaction to the film was of utter shock at the brutally raw reality of the film. Upon reflection and commentary from other sources, the film’s simple yet vastly effective filmmaking techniques of developing the explicit and implicit meaning of the film. The explicit meaning, as

A new and alarming trend that has been occurring in American society is the increase of violence committed by young women. The documentary Girlhood offers an insight on the emotional, psychological, and social reasoning behind the girl’s actions. Girlhood focuses on the life of two young juveniles, Shanae Owens and Megan Jensen both incarcerated for violent crimes. Shanae and Megan both experienced similar circumstances that yielded different outcomes. They were followed for a period of about three years which allowed viewers to really see what kind of role the justice system, family and peers have on the success of an at risk juvenile.

This essay will be discussing how gender is portrayed in the films Todo Sobre Mi Madre (All About My Mother) and Tacones Lejanos (High Heels), both directed by Pedro Almodóvar. The use of the theatre and performance, along with the audiences that come with it, enables these films to explore the manner in which gender is unstable. Gwynne Edwards writes that Almodóvar often pays tribute to the stage . Almodóvar dedicates All About My Mother “to all the actresses who have played actresses, to all women who act, to men who act and become women” , which is also relevant to High Heels. He uses the stage setting as a platform to show the instability of gender, not only on a physical stage but also in the characters’ lives: “The dialogue of his films has the cut and thrust, and very often wit, of stage plays. There are also soliloquies, and one of them – in All About My Mother – is even delivered to the audience from the stage of a theatre” . Russell Jackson suggests that this is done as a method for the characters to “find the sometimes onerous ability to deal with and describe their past, and to create a future in the face of death and desertion.” The character ‘La Agrado’ in All About My Mother as well High Heels’ Femme Letal (Letal), will be considered - both the manner in which they carry themselves throughout the film, as well as the their performances on stage. In the following paragraphs, I will illustrate how performance and the stage are vital in Almodóvar’s exploration

There are many layers of themes that are subtlety imbedded into the film. The political theme of the film is a truly intriguing portrayal of life in Spain during this tense time. The underlying message of the film is one of defending the freedom of expression. It explores the importance of gaining knowledge through one’s own personal experiences. Culture is used as a pathway to achieve personal freedom. In addition, the film attempts to break some of the taboos surrounding an adequate education, focusing instead on this education through experience. Observation is used as a way to awaken the senses. Another theme that was imbedded in the film was childhood with the inclusion of a vast number of topics. The film not only contains scenes that deal with war but it includes scenes that include family, love, and

In analyzing portrayals of women, it is appropriate to begin with the character of Margarita. For, within the text, she embodies the traditionally masculine traits of bravery, resilience, and violence as a means of liberating herself from an existence of abuse and victimhood. Even more, the woman plays upon stereotypes of femininity in order to mask her true nature. The reader witnesses this clever deception in a scene where the character endures a “wholesome thrashing” from her huge, violent, and grizzly bear-like husband, Guerra (81). Although Margarita “[submits] to the infliction with great apparent humility,” her husband is found “stone-dead” the next morning (81). Here, diction such as “submits” and “humility” relate to the traits of weakness, subservience and inferiority that are so commonly expected of women, especially in their relationships with men. Yet, when one

Cléo from 5 to 7, directed by Agnes Varda, is a film about one woman’s struggle to come to terms with the possibility of her potential illness. Not only is Cléo struggling with her physical health, but she is also dealing with her beauty and the consequences of being an attractive woman in the modern world of the 1960s. When examined through the lens of Laura Mulvey’s “Visual Pleasure and Narrative Cinema” theory, another aspect of the film comes to light. The film seems to objectify Cléo and thus trivialize her struggles with others’ perceptions of her throughout the film by adhering to the construct of the male gaze. Although Cléo from 5 to 7 appears to play into the construct of the male gaze through the repeated objectification of Cléo, it actually subverts this idea and instead confronts the viewer, and the notion of women as passive objects to be viewed.

In this film, it also shows how important their loved ones are to them. Like when the three girls get taken away, they used their hands to bang against the window, showing their sadness of separation, and their connection of their love and wanting to be close with their family at every time possible, because every time they were together was a moment each treasured. Their grandmother felt the pain they were feeling, of desperation, frustration and powerlessness, and that is shown to us when she hits herself with a rock on her head to make her bleed. Also the howling sounds she makes shows the pain she feels and makes us feel her pain, too.

In this essay, female oppression in La Casa de Bernarda Alba will be discussed and analyzed. However, in order to be able to understand the importance of this theme and the impact it has had on the play, one must first understand the role of female oppression in the Spanish society in the 1930s.

Misto uses an array of projected images on stage to illustrate the horrors of war to the audience. The photographs projected behind the women, as they retell their struggles, supports their stories by transporting them and the audience back into the past and

Lynn Nottage’s play, “Ruined”, is an eye-opening story that takes place in the Democratic Republic of Congo during the Civil War. The play is centered around women who have been sexually abused, and are living and working in a brothel owned by the protagonist Mama Nadi. The play gives deep insight to the hardships women had to go through during that time. The play is a melodrama and a great example of a contemporary version of realism. This play also illustrates three important characteristics of storytelling we discussed in class: stories teach, stories allow us to personalize issues, and stories build compassion.

This is achieved through the use of pan shots, combined with non-diegetic sounds. In the scene where Brandy was reading her diary, a pan shot was used to show that she was living in a poor neighbourhood and the negative conditions associated with it. When her dad aggressively pulled her mum through the room and out of the house she described the violence the family experience at the hands of her dad. A mid shot was used to express the anger in the dad's face but also the tears and screaming in her mum’s face. This focuses the audience's attention on the domestic violence that Brandy experiences. The director portrays this through Brandy’s voice over dialogue, “ I watched my mother being half beaten to death…..” This is a powerful use of non diegetic sound combined with a pan shot. This allows the audience to see that the whole family was living in a small house with one bedroom. The reason why the director combines the panning effect with sound is to have a stronger effect and draw stronger emotions from the audience. The use of voiceover and non diegetic sounds create a stronger and more realistic mood for the audience. The use of voiceover during the scene of her mum getting violently pulled and pushed is mixed with panning shots to also show the reaction of the rest of the family as they witnessed the violence. Through the use of these techniques the director encourages audience to think about and emotionally understand what a lot of young people in abusive families go through and the struggles which make them who they are

Lynn Nottage’s Pulitzer Prize winning play Ruined takes place at Mama Nadi’s brothel in the Congo where a civil war is being waged and coltan is the new gold being mined from the earth. Mama Nadi reluctantly takes Sophie and Salima into her establishment to work alongside Josephine as entertainment for miners and soldiers. Before coming to Mama Nadi’s, Sophie, Josephine, Salima all experienced rape. The word rape is so common in our society that it has lost its intensity and heinousness to a person who has not experienced it. Rape is a general term to describe what the women experienced but it does not give any hint to the struggle that comes after the event. For example, what it does to a person’s mind, the lasting scars on someone’s body, and how it can change a person’s personality. Many critics assume that rape is the tragedy in the play, but Nottage’s use of the word “ruined” emphasizes that the real tragedy is the consequences of those soldier’s actions on these women 's lives and how it affected their interactions with society.