The short story “In a Grove” written by Akutagawa Ryūnosuke was turned into a film called “Rashomon” made in 1950. According to the urban dictionary Rashomon “is the effect of the subjectivity of perception on recollection, by which observers of an event are able to produce substantially different but equally plausible accounts of it. This simply means when the same event is given inconsistently told by different individuals. Both the short stories and film share similarities and differences that I was not able to comprehend on my first reading. The short story produced background information about the city’s condition, while the film was based on multiple testimonies given before a high police commissioner on the discovery of a samurai’s body in the grove. Nevertheless both of these adaptations are more than stories complied to make a great film. But Rashomon can be seen as the imperfections of humanity as the perspective of who had committed the crime changed on account by each witness. The combining strategies such as the narrative and the cinematic elements contributed to the final elements of the film.
While reading “Rashomon” and “In a Grove” the background information of the Rashomon Gate describes the city, state “over the last two or three years there had been a series of disasters in Kyoto” (Rasomon). This gate had been damaged by whirlwind, fires and famine. A lowly servant appears wearing a navy-blue kimono under the gate waiting for the rain to stop. This was
Before reading the third chapter of “The Forest and the Trees”, I remember learning in the second chapter about symbolism, ideology and the construction of life in different cultures and societies around the world. For example, something interesting I remember learning was how every social system has a culture, consisting primarily of symbols (including words), ideas and practices. I believe this also connects and refers to how we tend to build our own sense of reality through the words and ideas that we use to mean something and people may use to name interpret what they experience and how cultures consist of symbols of ideas or words being portrayed. Based on what I read in the second chapter and the title of the third chapter, “The Structures
"Children of the Forest" is a narrative written by Kevin Duffy. This book is a written testament of an anthropologist's everyday dealings with an African tribe by the name of the Mbuti Pygmies. My purpose in this paper is to inform the reader of Kevin Duffy's findings while in the Ituri rainforest. Kevin Duffy is one of the first and only scientists to have ever been in close contact with the Mbuti. If an Mbuti tribesman does not want to be found, they simply won't be. The forest in which the Mbuti reside in are simply too dense and dangerous for humans not familiar with the area to enter.
The book "The Baron in the Trees," by Italo Calvino is about the Baron Cosimo Piovasco di Rondò, or simply known as Cosimo, spent almost all of his life living up in the trees of Ombrosa after refusing to eat the disgusting plate of snails that his sister had made for the family dinner one night when he was twelve. Cosimo kept to his word "I'll never come down again!" (Calvino 13) and he never set foot on the ground again. Cosimo was not bound to one tree though; he was able to travel to many parts of Ombrosa by tree, and lead a very adventurous and full life. The main point of my essay is to discuss the ongoing relationship between Cosimo and the environment.
Out of “The Jumping Tree” and “The Ravine, Rey and vinny both had to make a decision. Vinny had to make a decision about jumping and not being called a wimp or be made fun of. Rey on the other hand wanted to be in a group with his cousins. I think Vinny made the best decision out of both of them.
In many fairytales, we are given characters who set out on an adventure to better themselves whether they know that they are on one or not. In A.S. Byatt’s “The Thing in the Forest” we are taken on such an adventure, but this is more than just a children’s fairytale. Through figurative language we are shown that the main characters, Penny and Primrose, are dealing with more than just a creature in the forest, and that with this use of symbols as a way to express a larger meaning to objects in the story, we better understand how Penny and Primrose are dealing with being away from their family during a time of war in England.
In Allen Johnson’s “The Forest, The Trees, and The One Thing”, he expresses that in order to understand sociology we need to be able to understand the relationship between biography and history. To explain this, Johnson uses five rules to sociology called the sociological imagination. These rules explain how an individual relates to social systems.
Characters overcome what life brings them and finding meaning in the things that they have in The Samurai's Garden by Tsukiyama. Stephan who experiences this watches as Matsu and Sachi work in their gardens. The gardens represent their gardener’s soul because they nurture and dictate everything that happens within the gardens walls.
Catastrophic events such as war tear down nations, cities and families in an unimaginable fashion while also causing sorrow, suffering and misery throughout its course. In A.S. Byatt's short story, The Thing in the Forest, we can get a feeling of the crisis people were going through in England during World War 2.
The Wild Trees is a book by Richard Preston about a small group of botanists that are curious about what the canopy of the redwood holds. The redwood tree comes from the sequoia family and is the largest single organism in the world. A group of people that include Michael Taylor, Steve Sillett, and Marie Antoine. Michael Taylor came from a wealthy family. His father did not want Michael to grow up spoiled. He tried to raise him as a middle class child who did not get whatever he wanted. Eventually when Michael went to college he did not pass his classes and decided to change his major. Michaels father was not very happy about this and gave him one last chance. Eventually when the time came again, Michael did not complete his classes for the
Secrets fill the garden. In Gail Tsukiyama’s novel “The Samurai’s Garden”, she uses metaphors to show the audience the garden and its’ curator in a mysterious light. Tsukiyama’s character Stephen gazes upon Matsu’s garden with wonder and amazement. He compares it to another world, “The garden is a world filled with secrets… Matsu’s garden whispers at you, never shouts; it leads you down a path hoping for more, as if everything is seen, yet hidden” (Samurai 31). Tsukiyama creates another world within the fences of the garden. She integrates the secrets of its’ caretaker into the aura of the garden. The metaphor to another world impacts the reader by allowing the reader to see the mystery and beauty that shrouds it. The cloak of beauty shows
Good afternoon and welcome to Poetry Week. Today I will be talking to you about the topic of urban life in Australian poetry. During this presentation, I will discuss the poem Tree in the City by Thomas Shapcott and its representation of urban life. This will then be followed by how the poetic devices of metaphor and imagery are used in the poem and finally, I will compare it to the taught poem Phasing Out the Mangroves.
In Toni Morrison's novel Beloved, each character holds a special connection to trees and each places different meaning in them. The motif of trees and plants represent a calming force, escape from hardship, and circle of life that can heal the wounds of slavery. Paul D and Sethe are two characters in particular who place unique meaning in plants and use them as a way to escape their painful memories and the horrors of slavery.
In his murder novel, The Willow Pattern, Robert Van Gulik chronicles the work of the semi-fictional historical figure Judge Dee: a statesman and detective of the Tang court. In the midst of a mysterious plague that had overtaken the capital city of Chang’an Judge Dee seeks answers to the murder of two wealthy aristocrats. Over the course of his endeavors, he encounters many attributes and acts characteristic to the Tang Dynasty. DESPITE THE FICTIONAL NATURE OF HIS NOVEL, GULIK PAINTS A HISTORICALLY PLAUSIBLE PICTURE OF THE TANG DYNASTY THROUGH DEPICTIONS OF THE COSMOPOLITAN CULTURE, THE JUSTICE SYSTEM, AND ADHERENCE TO CONFUCIAN, LEGALIST, AND BUDDHIST BELIEFS.
After having read the novel “The House on Mango Street” by Sandra Cisneros I will now concentrate on the background of the novel that moved Sandra Cisneros to write it by investigating the novel with special regard to its different dimensions.
In Charles Chesnutt’s novel, The House Behind the Cedars, there are divides between individuals in the black community based off of skin tone. It reflects on the experience of John Warwick and his sister Rena Walden as they attempt to pass as white. Rena leaves home to come with John Warwick back to his home in South Carolina where he works as a white lawyer and Rena takes on the role of a white woman. But they face the reality that their attempt at passing comes with limited success.