Similarities Between Paris Burning And Tongues Untied

This movie Directed by Paul Haggis who also directed Academy Award Winning "Million Dollar Baby" and had also won an Academy Award for this movie as well puts a twisted story in this film. This movie is trying to symbolize what goes on in the world today in regards to racism and stereotypes. He tries to make a point on how societies view themselves and others in the world based on there ethnicities. This movie intertwines several different people's lives, all different races, with different types of beliefs. Such ethnicities include Caucasians, African Americans, Hispanics, Asians and Middle Eastern. This movie includes conflicts on both sides of the picture from cops and criminals as well

Thesis: In The Village, Orwell’s 1984, and Bradbury’s Fahrenheit 451, the government brainwashes their citizens to prevent individuality to gain power over society. The government uses fear, propaganda, and brutal force to gain control of their citizens. Keeping citizens uninformed made it easier to control society. Utopias are unrealistic and often fail, It is impossible to form a perfect society.

It’s been said that the truth hurts, but a lie is worse. Fahrenheit 451, by Ray Bradbury and “By the Waters of Babylon” by Stephen Vincent Benét connect in many ways, one of the many would be by theme. Although some differences between the two books are evident the similarities are pronounced. The similarities would be how the past is kept from the people with lies in both stories, also how both are curious and want to find the truth, and lastly how they both have a character change.

If you have ever read Fahrenheit 451 and “By the Waters of Babylon” you could say the main characters are a lot closer than you think. I’ll be comparing the similarities between Montag from Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury and John form “By the Waters of Babylon” by Stephen Vincent Benét. The similarities between Montag and John are striking and they deserve thorough investigation. Montag and John have a lot of similarities including when they got the knowledge they seek and how they were amazed, how they both went against society, and they both went on a journey to enlightenment. I’ll be digging deep with the similarities to show you how close they actually are.

The flames and wrath of war linger in Gene´s mind, fully aware that one day, he will take part in that bloodbath. For Montag, the flames are released voluntarily through the flamethrower he wields. Although Montag is not burning people, he is burning every book that surfaces in his city with the ultimate goal of eradicating all books. Their differences may seem substantial, but it is their similarities that strongly connect them. Gene in A Separate Peace, by John Knowles and Montag in Fahrenheit 451, by Ray Bradbury are similar due to living in their own false realities, having a dramatic emotional shift, and losing the person closest to them.

The novel A Separate Peace by John Knowles and the movie Dead Poet’s Society both present an abundant array of similarities. There are examples of alike characters, events, themes, and symbols; some specific examples of resemblances are Phineas and Neil, Gene and Todd, and Mr. Hadley (Brinker’s father) and Mr. Perry (Neil’s father).

The movie’s main focus is racism in the southern United States. It was at times hard to hear the KKK members in the movie describe African Americans in such vile words. The movie accurately portrays racism in the south; a good portion of whites really believed that blacks were the scum of the earth. Blacks were separated from the population, and routinely harassed, beaten, and sometimes killed because of their race.

Many, if not all, novels portray a theme, a subject of discourse, discussion, meditation, or composition, within them. The theme is the heart of the story. It is used as the central focus, and expresses the intended lesson, conclusion, message, or point of view of the author. Countless novels share communal themes, some of which include Fahrenheit 451 and Oryx and Crake. These are two distinct novels with many dissimilarities, yet they share common similarities within them, both carrying parallel themes. Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury paints a dystopian future where the government has forbidden books and orders them to be burned through the work of fireman. These firemen include the likes of Guy Montag, who begins to question his life after an encounter with his young neighbor. Oryx and Crake by Margaret Atwood takes a whole different turn, her story centers on Snowman, who used to be known as Jimmy before the world was wiped out by a deadly plague. Snowman, who’s now the only human to survive, is tasked with conveying his wisdom and morals onto the Crakers. Although these novels seem to be completely diverse, they both are about the fall of society through the censoring of information.

Paris is Burning is a film that takes place in New York city during the 80’s. It documents the underground balls, drag scenes and its contestants. Although the common race we see in the film in African American we also see other different races such as, White’s and Latino’s. Therefore, I will analyze this documentary from the perspective of African American rhetoric.

The idea of dystopian societies have drawn readers and authors alike for decades, each work of literature captivating millions. Books in the genre, of course, are classified by the world in which the main characters live. Although society is initially presented as perfect, beneath the surface it is deeply flawed in the eyes of the author. Although many books follow this formula, we will focus in on two specific pieces that carry very different storylines: Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury, and Graceling by Kristin Cashore. First, we will identify what ideas and themes the two books represent, and how these ideas are similar to concepts we can identify in modern societies. Following the identification of themes, we will be able to isolate

Ivy Edgington September 25, 2015 Douglas Crews LGBT I&P Tongues Untied Tongues Untied is about intersectionality, specifically between being black and being a gay man. It is a semi-documentary based on the filmmaker, Marlon Rigg’s, life. Tongues Untied only runs about an hour long, and completely devoid of plot, but still has a very powerful message. Much of Tongues Untied’s message comes from the cinematography, close up on lips as a black pastor preaches about the “sin of homosexuality”, shots look like double-vision or cross eyed while the narrator discusses being a double minority. The sound design also plays into the meaning very heavily, there is a small tapping noise that grows louder and louder until by the end of the film, you feel like you have a headache.

Mississippi Burning is a gruesome reminder of some of the pain and hardship that African Americans in the South dealt with because of their skin color. If your skin color was anything other than white, then you were classified as dirty, impure, ugly, and all the degrading names you can find. Having colored skin subjected you to racism and hate crimes as portrayed by the sheriffs and the Ku Klux Klan’s in the movie.

Paris is Burning shows the struggle of young gay adults in the world of 1980s New York City. This was a world where homosexuality did not exist as a part of daily life, and as a result, many gay individuals were beaten and ridiculed for their sexuality. Due to the lack of acceptance towards homosexuality, many parents disowned their children, forcing these teens out onto the street with nowhere else to stay. A specific example arises in the documentary when a drag member interviews a thirteen-year-old and a fifteen-year-old as they walk the streets of New York City at 2:30 in the morning. When asked where their mothers are, the one teen responds with, “I don’t have a mother. . . she’s gone. . . [my father’s] gone

While hooks believes that black women cannot identify with Sapphire as a black women when "visibly constructed, [she] was so ugly", she finds from her conversation with black women that they actually claimed Sapphire as a "symbol of that angry part of themselves white folks and black men could not even begin to understand" (97). The contrasting perspectives amongst minorities lead to further division among subaltern and makes it increasingly difficult to include the historically marginalized in mainstream culture.  Mercer, however, sees this diversity as a means to combat the burden of expression, rather than an impasse in the issue of representation. In his essay, he analyzes Marlon Riggs' Tongues Untied, and the effects of the dialogic voicing that is used in the film. In Tongues United, Riggs speaks from the specificity of his own experience as a black gay male, and simultaneously illustrates the degree to which black cinema attempts to present one heterosexual voice for the entire black race. By forgoing the master codes of documentary in favor of a personal non-representative story, Mercer asserts that Riggs successfully challenges the “heterosexual presumption that so often characterizes the documentary realist aesthetic in black cinema”.  Mercer further notes that by following this dialogic strategy, Riggs is able to presents a story that does not simplify or attempt

In the movie “Paris is burning” they portrayed a certain concept of a “meaningful life”, which was that “this is a white man’s world”. They portrayed the ruling class as capitalist, patriarchal, and that being white is only meaningful life that there is. This idea of whiteness is shown throughout the movie in scenes at the ball and on the streets. It is also heard in many conversations with participants, and many of those conversations reinforce marginalized disenfranchised minority groups. As much as I really like this movie because I like the participants and it seemed fun, in many ways I found it sad because none of it was real. They had great support for one another and were connected within the group but were so disconnected from society.