City Of God Essay

Sometimes we have to look beyond what we see on the outside to understand something more deeply. In the short story Cathedral By Raymond Carver, the narrator has an attitude of being selfish, and jealous through the story. The narrator’s wife invites a blind man, Robert, to come stay in their house for a short time while the man visits family members of his own wife who recently passed. The narrator is not enthusiastic because blind people make the narrator uncomfortable, mainly because the narrator has no real experience with the blind. In addition, to his uneasiness with the blind the narrator is uncomfortable with the relationship his wife and the blind man have. The wife and Robert, the blind man, have maintained a close

The film, “City of God” portrays numerous of brutal acts of violence and crime. This film depicts the deviant acts of a sociopathic gang leader, Li’l Ze and his fellow members. He recruits numerous of young kids and teaches them how to become a hood. He kills those who try to stop him from getting what he wants, which is being the one and only drug dealer. He leaves the town of Rio in distraught and in fear of their own life. Even when someone tries to get out of the slum and wants to begin a brand new life, they are shot and killed. This gives the impression that there is no escaping the slums. Once you are a hood, you are always a hood. Though living in poverty, all but one of the characters, Rocket, beats the odds and decides to not be lured into the deviance. Although not all children are delinquents or have criminal tendencies, those who are learn from the intimate groups they associate with. These deviant acts are depicted in several sociological theories such as: Agnew’s General Strain Theory, Learning Theory, Merton’s Strain Theory, Reckless Containment Theory, and Labeling Theory.

Determined to help his audience - people who stereotype against and do not understand gang life - find commonalities with gang members, Fr. Boyle shares his experiences with gangs in Los Angeles. At the beginning of the novel, Fr. Boyle articulates his thesis and expresses his purpose for sharing his experiences when he states, “Though this book does not concern itself with solving the gang problem, it does aspire to broaden the parameters of our kinship. It hopes not only to put a human face on the gang member, but to recognize our own wounds in the broken

After reading The Other Wes Moore, I have realized that the two Wes Moores had similarities in their lifestyles especially in their neighborhoods. Although they were living in similar neighborhoods, their outcomes of how their life ended up being were different. One Wes ended up in jail serving a life sentence for killing a police officer in an armed robbery. The other Wes became a Rhodes Scholar, business mogul, army officer, and White House Fellow. I think the way they lived and the people that were in there lives manipulated how their lives would end.

Eisenhower, John S. D. So Far From God: The U. S. War with Mexico 1846 – 1848. New York: Random House, 1989, xxvi, 436.

In the same way that audience becomes captivated by the highly stylized introduction, Rocket’s depiction of the early years of the favela and the Tender Trio. His recounting of the story takes form through a series of flashbacks, in which the story dissolves into his personal memory enhanced by the persistent narration, in which the juxtaposition of his character amidst the developing plot further serves to justify his burning desire to become a reporter. Given the introduction of the primary characters of the Tender Trio and their accomplices, Rocket reflects that “I was always too chicken to join my brother.” In these moments of self awareness, Rocket again foreshadows his secondary role as an observer in the larger narrative, leaving his character quite static throughout while the world around him develops for better or worse. Through Rocket’s youthful eye, these memories retain an almost playful tone further enhanced by Meirelles’ deliberate use of high-key lighting palleted by warm yellows from the sun. As these memories prolong in length, Rocket’s use of narration extends past what his character remains present to witness creating complexities in the unfolding chronology of events. As the story moves past the Tender Trio, events such as the Miami Motel become pivotal to both character and narrative development.

     The City of God is based on actual events that occurred in Rio de Janeiro during the 1960’s and 1970’s. The movie is about the rise and fall of a fearsome sociopath gang leader Li’l Ze, who reigned as king of the drug lords during the 70’s. The first part of the movie illustrates some of the forces that mold Li’l Ze into the man he becomes, while the second half shows his ruthless leap to power, followed by the war he wages against opposing gang leaders Carrot and Knockout Ned. The film is narrated by Rocket, a photographer who exists on the outskirts of Li’l Ze’s circle of dominance and control. In the film the city is filled with ruthless acts of delinquency and is basically in

On November 18, 1978 more than nine hundred people died in one of the largest mass murder/suicides in history. The man that implemented and carried out that atrocity was James Warren Jones, otherwise known as Jim Jones, a self proclaimed Second Coming (God). His exposure to an intensely emotional Pentecostal church service influenced and shaped his future beliefs and actions. In 1960, despite his lack of theological training, Jim Jones became an ordained minister. He made racial equality one of goals. Jim Jones also used fear arousal to recruit his followers by Genocide and thermonuclear war.

Laughter Out of Place: Race, Class, Violence and Sexuality in a Rio Shantytown- Donna M Goldstein

City of God is a depicts the reality of the narrator’s life growing up in the slums on the outskirts of Rio. What was meant to be a small film project became a success in many ways. Although it quickly became an international sensation winning numerous awards the filmmakers were also successful with their use of various components of cinematography. One critic said that “City of God is a wildly entertaining film. The sheer energy of the movie is never less than compelling. Meirelles pulls out every filmmaking trick in the book, utilizing freeze-frames, montage, flashback, quick-cutting, and even strobe lights” (Millikan 1). I will analyze various scenes from the film and explain how each successfully applied film techniques. “The

“City of God ‘has nothing to do with the Rio you see in the postcards’. It is a 1960s-style housing project that, in tandem with increasing drug dealing, became, already by the 1980s, one of the most dangerous places in Rio. It is a place abandoned by God and justice, where police hardly ever come and where residents’ life expectancy does not considerably exceed the twenties”EXPAND (Diken 2).

Christianity is the religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus Christ. Most followers of Christianity, called Christians, are members of one of three major groups--Roman Catholic, Protestant, or Eastern Orthodox. These groups have different beliefs about Jesus and His teachings. But all consider Jesus central to their religion. Most Christians believe God sent Jesus into the world as the Savior. Christianity teaches that humanity can achieve salvation through Jesus.

Through out history, as man progressed from a primitive animal to a "human being" capable of thought and reason, mankind has had to throw questions about the meaning of our own existence to ourselves. Out of those trail of thoughts appeared religion, art, and philosophy, the fundamental process of questioning about existence. Who we are, how we came to be, where we are going, what the most ideal state is....... All these questions had to be asked and if not given a definite answer, then at least given some idea as to how to begin to search for, as humans probed deeper and deeper into the riddle that we were all born into.

We learn about Rocket starting in the 1960’s when is a young boy of about 7 or 8 (the movie does not clearly specify) and we follow him for the next 3 decades as we see the ins and outs of his life in the one of Rio de Janerio’s favelas. At first watch one could take the movie as projecting and creating stereotypes of the slums in Brazil, however upon more careful consideration and research it’s easy to see that was is projected in the movie is real. Although the movie was not actually filmed in the real City of God, according to the London Observer the movie was filmed in another “shantytown” on the northern outskirts of Rio de Janerio named Cidade Alta that has a number of the same social and political issues. The Observer says, “Until recently Cidade Alta was best known for its fictional violence. It was here, amid the sprawling mishmash of tower blocks and breezeblock shacks, that the Brazilian director Fernando Meirelles shot much of his Oscar-nominated film City of God, a tour through the violent underbelly of gangland Rio.”

“An UNCOMMON community of followers of Christ who loves as God loves, serves as God serves, and moves as God moves so the Kingdom of God is lived wherever we go.”, read the website of The Wesley Foundation. Like the website cited, Wesley Foundation is a campus ministry on a non-church owned and operated campus. The Weslians, as I like to call them, are the members of this subculture. They are the group of people that are devoted to spread out the message of Christ through service and prayers.