Stranger Than Fiction Conventions

In the world, society teaches people to fear the unknown. Tim Burton uses many techniques to show a misfit character and would agree that there are many misfits in the world. In Burton’s films he shows that those misfits are looked down on and shamed upon. In Burton’s films he uses the style elements of misfit protagonists and snobby antagonists to convey to the viewers that society wrongly teaches people to fear the unknown.

Both the 2011 drama film adaption of Kathryn Stockett’s The Help (1960s setting), directed by Tate Taylor, and the 1879 three-part play, A Doll’s House by Henrik Ibsen, challenge their audiences to consider the theme of society and class within their respective time periods. Both creators focus on female protagonists who set out to turn against the demands of their society and class to vocalise their values and beliefs. Taylor encourages the viewer to evaluate this concept, through the use of cinematic techniques that illustrate the impact of one character’s beliefs on multiple characters’ rebellion against their perceived society and class, in 1960 America. Conversely, through literary techniques, Ibsen challenges his audience to consider the possible psychological effects of conforming to one’s society and class, by focusing on the notion of female oppression as a Norwegian societal norm during the nineteenth century.

One way Harold Crick had character development was what the “narrator” or Caryn Stiffle had said about him. Harold was a little OCD, he had a schedule, a number of brush strokes while brushing his teeth, and wearing a neatly pressed suit to work. He worked for the IRS, and didn’t like working there.

The camera angles are very crucial in forming Harold’s stance; the low-slung angle shot looking up at him efficiently captures the important figure he is in the conversation. This is shown twice when they meet for the first time and again during the intense argument, both showing his confidence and strength as a character despite what she had planned for him. When Harold knocks on the Karen’s door and is given glimpse of the inside through a circular hole is actually an influential message symbolizing never-ending opportunities and ideas unlike a square, which had been limiting him and how he has been described as throughout. A powerful interpretation that stems from this scene would be how Harold Crick, who was created by a dull author (Karen), ends up defining himself and not by her. Harold is mellowed when he reads the story and understands the importance of his death and realizes it is actually poetic which serves as a turning point in accepted his death, “You have to die. It’s a masterpiece”. Throughout the film we see Harold is faced with his incapacity to change his fate. His wristwatch is key in the sense that it seems to be the only thing he does have control over by precisely setting the time to be able to see his future. However, when only a few minutes are mistakenly given to him to reset his watch, his near future he is unsure of. The movie represents free

The three theatrical elements; the macaroons, the letter and the Christmas tree all contribute to explore the problems Nora faces in the household as she is protagonist, in the three-act play. The macaroons suppress Nora as she rebels the rules Torvald creates for her. The letter written on Krogstad symbolically exposes Nora’s potential moral corruption. The Christmas tree represents the secrecy of Nora as she hides many lies and deceits from her husband, Torvald as their relationship crumbles into pieces. Ibsen creates symbols in A Doll’s House in order to help explore inner problems and emphasize these issues in Nora and Torvald’s

In Sherwood Anderson’s three short stories “The Book of the Grotesques”, “Hands” and “The Teacher” we confront the beauty and difficulty in existing amongst multiple beautiful, harsh truths in a world where so many choose and push only one. These stories in succession reminded me of Mark Edmundson paraphrasing William Carlos Williams: “People die miserably every day for lack of what is found in despised poems” (1). But what Anderson brings us is another version of a small, poetic, dangerous layering of truths. Adolf Myers, Kate Swift and their students live in a world of small, lowercase t truths, where affection given and received is not automatically perverse. Their ruin comes from the fact that they are denied permission to have this affection

In analyzing Kaufman’s intricate approach to this challenge the viewer is shown how life and writing are constantly evolving as conflict brings about challenges of adversity. In writing there is a continual flow that the

Forster demonstrates this theme throughout the novel through the circumstances

Time Will Tell Do you ever feel that your life becomes so routine that everyday you do the same thing over and over? Think about Harold’s life in Stranger Than Fiction, and how it is one of consistency and routine. We see that he is unhappy with his routine life, and maybe that’s the case with yours too. Stranger Than Fiction is a quality movie, with an even better lesson. However, this movie is one that you have to dig deeper within your mind to figure out what it is trying to tell you.

The culture in Owen Marshall’s short story named ‘Mr Van Gogh’ reflects today’s society by describing a man named Frank Reprieve Wilcox who is constantly isolated by his local community for openly living a different lifestyle and embracing a different culture opposed to the vast majority of society surrounding him. The subtle points described in this short story explicitly reflect the actions of today’s society when a character with an independent behaviour is disengaged and exposed by society. Frank Reprieve Wilcox is isolated by society and those submitting to the pressure of acceptance because the majority of society is convinced that he is an outcast who lives a completely foreign lifestyle to others. This becomes apparent when the author,

Personal judgment in Peter Shaffer’s Equus and Albert Camus’ The Stranger, though internal in the first and external in the latter, mirrors society’s judgment of those who differ from the norm. The two postmodernist authors both use judgment as a tool to promote the postmodern idea that society oppresses and criticizes people who are not like everyone else. Camus and Shaffer place specific motifs and elements into their novels in order to push the idea of societal judgment on the reader. However, while the ideas may be the same, Camus and Shaffer use them contrastingly. Shaffer tends to use judgment of the self while Camus leans towards judgment of others, but the judgment ultimately leads back to people who do not conform to the norm.

“Irrational Man” is an existentialist trifle engendered by Woody Allen, likely the most prolific director in the active nowadays. Even counting on a talented cast, which includes Joaquin Phoenix, Emma Stone, and Parker Posey, Mr. Allen was unable to put up his latest idea in a way we could easily remember it. And the reason is simple: “Irrational Man” blends romance devoid of chemistry with commonplace drama with a murder case that, in any occasion, feels gripping. Typically in Allen’s universes, the dialogues are abundant, but this time around, often vapid, relying on recurrent philosophical bullshit to mask its lack of ideas. The story revolves around a depressed, radical, alcoholic, and self-destructive professor called Abe Lucas (Phoenix)

To paraphrase the great William Shakespeare, it is imperative that no matter what life may bring, you must stay true to yourself. After all, with billions of people around the world living their lives, only you can be your self to its full capacity. However, what happens when one does not want to be themself? What happens when the appeal of living someone else’s life becomes so strong that you would give up everything to live it instead of your own? To what extent does one’s own identity play a role in their life? These issues are featured in both Patricia Highsmith’s The Talented Mr. Ripley and Paul Auster’s City of Glass. While each of the protagonists, as well as several other characters in the case of Auster’s novel, take on

Ibsen uses stage directions on a visual and aural level within “A Doll’s House” to expose the marital discord between Nora and Torvald Helmer in a patriarchal society. This can be seen through Nora’s isolation within the relationship, the emotional and physical disconnection between the protagonists and the patronising nature of Torvald as he asserts his dominance.

The sense of flux, conflict and coalescence in form is gauged within the novels first pages. A very traditional epistolary style is adopted only to be overtly abandoned in six pages, calling into question Forster’s position on modern literary techniques from the outset. It is said Forster was already