Mean Creek Essay

Relations between sympathy-empathy expressiveness and fiction have become a significant issue in the debate on the emotional responses to the film fiction. Due to their complexity many scholars found it useful to diagram them. With his essay, “Empathy and (Film) Fiction”, Alex Neill tries to develop new theory for analyzing the fiction and, especially, the emotional responses from the audience on it. The project of this essay is represented with an aim to show the audience the significant value of the emotional responses to the film fiction. From my point of view in the thesis of his project he asks a simple question: “Why does the (film) fiction evoke any emotions in the audience?”, further building the project in a very plain and clever

“Analyse, evaluate and compare the techniques used to dim the horror of the real life events discussed in the novel The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas and the film Life is Beautiful.”

Like the vasculature of plants shrouded by bark, innocence is shrouded and further internalized as social influence compiles. Thus, Morrison effectively illustrates both the presence of innocence and its inherent definition via careful diction in this scene.

The river represents the period between life and death. Another part of this symbol is the air representing life and under the rocks and waterfall representing death. Just as the transition from life to death is in motion, so is the rushing of the water. Both have a beginning and an ending point, but the part in the middle is constantly moving, swirling and churning. As the girl loses hope for survival and the waterfall is approaching, the narrator states, “[S]he becomes part of the river” (45). The girl now crosses over the borderline of life and death, and she is about to be swallowed up by the falls of death and can never return to life. However, when the diver goes into the river to save her, he comes out saying that “he’d never enter that river again” (47). He encounters the spiritual eccentricity of the edge of death when he looks into lifeless girl’s animated eyes, and he can not fathom that experience. Another symbol that is introduced twice is the gurgle of the aquarium, which symbolizes the attempt to understand nature’s cycle of life. As she floats downstream, the girl remembers “her sixth-grade science class, the gurgle of the aquarium at the back of the room”(45). During this moment, all of her thoughts are puzzled, and she cannot understand the death awaiting her. Later on, after sleepless nights, the diver is in the empty school where “the only sound the gurgle of the aquarium” (48). This moment is the point at which he decides

Pilgrim at Tinker Creek, written by Annie Dillard, is a novel based on the writers

I enjoyed the book Medicine River, by Thomas King as well as the movie, which was based on the book. Although there were profound differences between the two, they were both pleasantly constructed. Having been instructed to read the book first, I was able to experience the full effect of the story and the message that the author intended for his readers. Although the book and the movie clearly relayed the same story, I would’ve better enjoyed the movie if it had included more incidents from the book, such as the visit from Harlen Bigbear’s estranged brother, and the ‘bridge jump’. I also wish the producer would have incorporated the many flashbacks that the main protagonist, Will, had from his youth. For example, the

When Fish ‘feels the death coming unstuck from him with a pain like his guts are being torn from him’ his longing to stay with the water becomes evident. Coming back to life is described through the simile of ‘the most awful sickfeeling in him like his flesh has turned to pus and his heart to shit.’ Through Fish’s longing of death, Quick’s despair with life is emphasised through the metaphorical argot of ‘lonelysick wakefulness.’ The despair etched into Quick and Fish’s relationship is mirrored in the personification of the house ‘twisting its joists, hugging inwards, sucking in air.’ The agony Quick feels over his brother’s inability to grow up is reflected in his relationship with Fish, along with Fish’s despair for the water. The mirrored agony is the essence of the relationship, which can be closely understood by society’s desire for closure and peace.

In contrast to the film, the book portrays its settings with a more emotion and purpose. At the start of the book, before George and Lennie enter, the setting is introduced. The sandy bank and verdurous trees of the Salinas River are described in a tranquil manner, where “the water is warm,” as “it has slipped twinkling over the yellow sands in the sunlight before reaching the narrow pool” (Steinbeck 1). The description stimulates a sense of relaxation and comfort, which in turn creates a peaceful mood within the scene. Unlike the film counterpart of this setting, the book conveys a positive outlook on the riverbank, which is met with bittersweet irony at the closing chapter of the novel. On a closer basis, the mood of the second setting in

In front of the low horizontal limb of a giant sycamore there is an ash pile made by fires; the limb is worn smooth by men who have sat on it” (2). This portrayal of the river that George and Lennie will eventually arrive at paints the picture of a place that has been visited by various types of people for various types of reasons, but most importantly that those people have left. For example, boys went to the river to swim, less fortunate and often homeless men and women went there to sleep, and other people just went there to relax and sit on the trees. There are traces of these people there exemplified by the fact that ashes from the fire are still there, but the space demonstrates the feeling that the river is a place for brief encounters, but a place for nobody to stay. Thus, To Be in a Rushing River takes place at the river to further encompass the theme of what is temporary.

The world of Ernest Hemingway’s “Big Two-Hearted River” exists through the mostly unemotional eyes of the character Nick. Stemming from his reactions and the suppression of some of his feelings, the reader gets a sense of how Nick is living in a temporary escape from society and his troubles in life. Despite the disaster that befell the town of Seney, this tale remains one of an optimistic ideal because of the various themes of survival and the continuation of life. Although Seney itself is a wasteland, the pine plain and the campsite could easily be seen as an Eden, lush with life and ripe with the survival of nature.

Vertigo is an intriguing film throwing several philosophical themes at the viewer, including the ideas of love, appearance/reality, and subjective/objective personality. By the use of camera shots, editing, colour, and more, Vertigo provides viewers to immerse themselves into these themes and ponder over what these messages mean and apply to their individual ways of thinking. An interesting concept from the film that I want to dwell on more is the theme of appearance vs. reality. The film creates a conflict between these two opposites, mainly by the physical form of Gavin Elster’s wife “Madeleine” (also known as accessory to murder “Judy”) to the protagonist of the film, John “Scottie” Ferguson as he tries to unravel the mystery of who she really is.

However, he doesn't know how his life will end, as you cannot see the ending of the bridge for it is covered by fog. This work is trying to communicate its message through symbolism. This work makes me feel cold, gloomy, and alone, because of the damp wetness that comes across in the colors, water, wet cement, and there is no civilization depicted in it. This work has psychological value, because when I meditate on it, it imbues me with a certain

In the riveting documentary Audrie & Daisy, husband and wife director team Bonnie Cohen and Jon Shenk retrace the events leading up to the harrowing sexual assaults of three teenaged girls; Audrie Pott, Daisy Coleman, and Paige Parkhurst, and expose the agonizing after effects and exploitation of the assaults. Subsequent interviews with family members, friends and law enforcement officials give important details about the aftermath of the events, and introduce viewers to possibly the biggest villain of all, Sherriff Darren White of Maryville, Missouri. Throughout the documentary White appears smug while he states that “as County Sheriff, “the buck stops here” (Darren White), and when asked about the crimes committed by Maryville’s football star, he rebuts with “was there a crime?” (Darren White) As the film moves through the twists and turns of the cases, the settings, conflicts, and tragedies are enhanced by the use of montage, long and subjective shots, close-ups and personal sketches that submerge the audience into the victim’s point of view. At the conclusion of the film, the viewer is left to decide what constitutes sexual assault and rape, and if society and law enforcement are to blame for the today’s ‘rape culture’ acceptance and the continued victimization of young girls. It also reveals how much can be hidden from parents, and how disconnected parents become from their children in a social media world.

By exploring the theory of the “abject”, horror and the role of gender instability within film with regards to The Silence of the Lambs, this essay will attempt to explain the characteristics of the aestheticisation of abjection.

Analysis of an aspect of visual form in the film ‘Repulsion’ In the 1964/65 film ‘Repulsion’ by Roman Polanski, the story is about the conflict between reality and fantasy or sanity and insanity inside the main character’s mind – Carol played by Catherine Deneuve. Therefore the narrative technique of symbolism is used to display visually to the film’s audience what happens to Carol’s mind. In this particular instance, the degeneration of Carol’s state of mind is symbolised.