Symbolism in the 2001 Movie: A Space Odyssey Essay

Imagine this. Sand pelts at your suit and the glass dome that surrounds your head. Wind whips violently all around, and the air is stale. You crack your eyes open to a dry, barren-land with a chill running down your spine, and only one knowledge comes to mind. You are alone. This is how it would feel to step into Mark Watney’s shoes. Told in a comical and thrilling science fiction novel, “The Martian,” by Andy Weir creates a situation in which Mark Watney, the main character, is accidentally left on Mars due to a violent sandstorm, resulting in NASA having to evacuate their mission early without him. Where Mark is thrust in a situation where he must survive, I believe that when thrown into a situation like so, moping only fails you, and perseverance

From this scene until the end of the sequence, Kubrick plays with different editing techniques. When this ape is observing skeleton, the shot cuts to a low angle shot of the monolith. This shows the audience that the ape is thinking about the monolith. When the ape smashes the skull with the bone, it cuts to a shot of a dead tapir. The quick-cuts of the crushed bones and another cut of a beaten tapir illustrates that the apes are no longer scared of tapirs or any other predatory creature. It gives the apes a sense of power and dominance over their so called predators. This method of editing not only becomes an insight to an ape’s thoughts but it also seen as a depiction of mankind’s predatory instincts. The music also invokes the feeling of power because it indicates a connection between the outskirts of space and this major breakthrough of human evolution. As a result of evolution, the apes have a newly-developed intelligence as well as a dietary change that primarily consists of

     The following paper will analyze the movie, “2001: A Space Odyssey” by Stanley Kubrick” and “The Centinel” by Arthur C. Clarke. Although there are many themes present between the story and the film, the following are the most dominant. I will be discussing Scientific themes, Religious and Moral Themes, and Clarke’s development of the short story into a full-length film.

In every society there are rebels that oppose what the majority thinks is normal. Many of these people seek shelter in nature. In Jon Krakauer’s novel Into the Wild, Krakauer uses symbolism to show Chris McCandless’s struggle between society and nature. Chris sets out into the Alaskan wilderness in an attempt to escape civilization and find himself, knowing that at some point he will need to rejoin society. His trip to Alaska ended up being his last and when going through Chris’s belongings, the rescuers found a diary that revealed some of Chris’s thoughts.

What defines a “good” or “bad” person? The answer is complicated because we all have different perspectives on what we believe to be right and wrong. We as individuals have our own set of ethics by which we try to use when making decisions. However, when a person encounters a difficult dilemma, that choice can impact and even alter a person’s life. “Good People” by David Foster Wallace is an informative and insightful story of a young, unwed, Christian couple that are facing the conflicts of an unplanned pregnancy. Although outwardly this story seems to focus on “to abort” or “not to abort,” the underlying theme focuses on the internal conflicts the young man faces when weighing out the consequences of a decision. David Foster Wallace uses symbolism and an omniscient third person point of view in “Good People” to illustrate the internal battle one faces when dealing with the moral and religious dilemmas such as an unplanned pregnancy.

The novel 2001: A Space Odyssey written by Arthur C. Clarke applies many literary devices and stylistic features to humanise one of the main characters, Hal. Some examples of the literary devices and stylistic features used in the novel are the atmosphere and mood, characterisation, dialogue and diction, repetition, analogy, the point of view and the overall plot of the story. 2001: A Space Odyssey is a story of evolution, the future of mankind, space exploration and the thirst for knowledge, technology and Utopian society. The novel was originally written as a film script, however in the 1960s it was adapted into a novel.

Symbolism is also used in the idea “time” in various areas of the film. At the start of the film, there is a terrifying clock with Gargoyle like creatures surrounding it. This represents that time is the controlling

“2001: A space Odyssey” opens in the African Rift Valley, where a tribe of hominids encounter a stone monument which has obstructed on their domain. This stone monument transmits radio waves that end up expanding their IQ 's, teaching them weaponry and other tool uses to help them live, as they proceed to defeat a rival tribe. Four million years later, we see the luxurious space travel that the vintage science fiction of the 1960’s, with space stations for air terminals and such. Dr. Heywood Floyd is heading to Clavius Base, a United States lunar station. Along the way, he finds out about gossipy tidbits about an unidentifiable disease going around on the Clavius Base and his responsibility to study a four-million-year-old structure. Floyd

Symbols are important in each story to define the theme. Close observation of the symbols within each story proves to one their

How does Hosseini use symbolism in ‘The Kite Runner’ to present key relationships? You should consider different reader responses and the extent to which your critical approach assists your interpretation.

Recently, our class read the book and watched the movie 2001: A Space Odyssey. The book is written by Arthur C. Clarke and the movie was directed by Stanley Kubrick. The book was written as a framework for the movie, so the two are mostly the same. But, while there were similarities, there were also some major differences.

Most of the movie is taken in Joel’s mind or his memory removal process. Starting from his nearest memory that they broke up till his last remaining memory of Clementine that they first met at a beach. I think the most possible reason the movie is called Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless mind is referring to the deepest memory (or say, soul) survived and reserved in their both minds that brought them back to the beach and met each other again. This title quotes entirely from Alexander Pope’s poem which know as describing a very contradictory mood from the unattainable love. So does it, the movie shows Joel wants to remove all memory of Clementine while he still loves her, but then during the process he changes mind and want to try his best to keep these memory which is the “spotless mind”. In my mind, the soul theory is the personal identity that the movie most engage. According to the soul theory, to have a same identical, it’s not necessary to have a same memory, but it’s necessary and sufficient to have the same soul. In the movie, though Joel erased his memory, he still has his soul which makes him fall in love with Clementine again, even in theory he can never love her then. On the other hand, this movie seems to intensely against Loke’s memory theory that sharing a memory of an experience is necessary and sufficient to be a same person. And I think the movie also presents its own personal identity that for one person to be identical to the other person, they should have

(R.B) - Well, symbolism is what creates a meaning throughout a film. It gives the audience hints and clues on upcoming events the characters will partake. This Film really takes symbolism to another level, due to the different genres and themes throughout the film. For e.g. we see Forrest Gump in his early stages of life, coupled to some leg braces. This is what made Forrest different from everybody else even though his mother would tell him otherwise. The braces are a symbol of many limitations Forrest had to overcome, however when he broke of them, it all changed. His perspective on life changed as soon as he broke out of this invisible barrier that made him seem weak. Symbolism brings out the emotions of the film, so the audience can directly adhere and relate to it. Overall making it a more engaging watch.

This reality moves many mainstream filmmakers to choose universal symbols to reach the widest possible audiences. While this may seem like a disappointing obstruction in the creative freedom of filmmakers, it doesn’t stop them from adding their personal symbols throughout the film, albeit subtly. Filmmakers such as Stanley Kubrick and Ingmar Bergman overloaded their films with deft symbolic imagery. Kubrick created dense visual Matryoshka dolls of films, characters represented human constructs and the classical music he habitually used had strategic purpose, taking account that piece of music’s history to add subtle undertones of historical reference. Ingmar Bergman uses water repeatedly throughout such films as “winter light” where the rushing, sparkling stream contrasts with the still body of a man who has killed himself. A movie like Alien, directed by Ridley Scott and written by Dan O’Bannon, at first look appears to be about the will of a strong heroine soldier in the face of a devastating alien adversary. But look a little closer and you will start noticing that this film is filled with symbolic imagery that embodies birth and rape. The alien’s form is phallic in nature, its head is essentially a penis, down to the way it kills its victims, it’s stabbing second mouth

In the movie, "A Beautiful Mind", the main character, John Nash, is a mathematician who suffers from schizophrenia. Schizophrenia is actually the most chronic and disabling of the major mental illnesses and it distorts the way a person thinks, acts, expresses emotions, interprets reality and relates to others.