I. Introduction The director of Calvary, John Michael McDonagh describes the film as an exploration of human themes, such as despair and death, for which the contemporary Irish social context and the reality of the churches in Ireland provide its stage. As a black comedy, this film seems to caricature the context in an exaggerated manner, yet it certainly features a secularized town of Ireland. However, at the same time, the director says that he wanted to make a movie about “a good priest.” It seems to me that what Father James pleads with his colleague Father Leary tells the viewer what being a good priest means: “integrity.” In my configuration of the plot, over the two weeks of time, Father James learns to be a good priest, who can genuinely empathize with the life stories of his parishioners, and, in so doing, leads them to authentic forgiveness (or reconciliation with the self and others). The movie certainly features the themes of empathy, forgiveness, and reconciliation. According to a film critic Cara Buckley, “Calvary is rived with dark humor, though its deeper themes of forgiveness and morality have prompted viewers to present Mr. McDonagh with philosophical struggles of their own.” In the film, we see forgiveness in action as father and daughter are reconciled with each other and reaffirm their love. Father James’ interactions with Fitzgerald are not rough. Yet finally, Fitzgerald sincerely confesses his sense of emptiness, and Father
In “A Good Man is Hard to Find”, Flannery O’Connor uses grotesque and flawed characters to reflect her own faith on the Roman Catholic Church. Set in the rural South during the 1950s, O’Connor takes readers on a journey from a satiric family comedy to a brutal cold blooded murder. An analysis of O’Connor’s use of religious symbolism and foreshadowing through characters and setting will be conducted in order to better understand her views and faith of the Catholic Church. This paper will also argue the belief that religious wisdom is the key for moral guidance.
According to Newman, sexism refers to “a system of beliefs that asserts the inferiority of one sex and that justifies discrimination based on gender.” This sexism has a large impact on the daily life of a women through things like social interactions, power differentials, and violence against women. Institutional sexism refers to the “subordination of “women that is part of the everyday workings of economics, law, politics, and other social institutions.” The media is one institution that communicates gender norms both directly and indirectly. Understanding gender role expectations and how they are reinforced through social institutions like the media is necessary in order to explain things such as the wage gap, segregation in the workplace, and how women are devalued on a global scale.
The documentary “Merchants of Doubt” directed by Robert Keener describes the unethical practices of manipulating scientific data to market unsafe products. It explains the use of public relations and media to divert the health risk involved in smoking in order to protect the industry. The documentary exposes how companies hire a third party, presented as credible scientific expert, to mislead people about the company’s unsafe products. Those people selling lies to cover for the company’s wrongdoing are called “merchants of doubt”. They create a sense of doubt in the veracity of the scientific data and results collected by the scientist. This strategy of creating doubt and confusion causes delay in government regulation. The documentary shows
Now let’s rewind 50 years, back to the desolate setting of Corrigan. Put yourself in the shoes of Charlie Bucktin, a young and frisky protagonist enduring a difficult journey whilst observing the morality of Corrigan’s people. Your pertinacious mind is an uncompleted jigsaw puzzle. Each integral piece desirably wishes to connect to another, to complete the entire picture. But nothing connects together, your mind remains barren with no clue on what the heck is going on. Then you start to change and think differently. Instead of focusing on connecting the pieces, you look at how each individual picture connects to another. You start to question the reasons as to why everything happens. Why? Why is Corrigan so afraid of the notorious Mad Jack Lionel? Why is discrimination against the Vietnamese a regular occurrence? Why is a half-caste so underappreciated amongst the community?
With the knowledge of war you have today, would you be willing to volunteer to sign up for the front line?
Making a mockery of another person can set their lives into a downward spiral. Demeaning somebody can impact their life decisions for the rest of their lives. Both, Hester Prynne and the “other” Wes Moore, were victims of public ridicule and unreasonable expectations, pushing them towards the wrong path. Hawthorne and Moore capture these similarities of characters by using similar literary devices in their writing. Both authors, Moore and Hawthorne, demonstrate how public ridicule and expectations can push you toward the wrong path using the literary devices of tone and diction.
The film Glory by Edward Zwick is one of the most well-known films of all time. The film itself is solely based upon the first formal unit of the Union Army during the American Civil War which consist of all African American men. They were essentially the very first unit of United States Colored Troops. They were formally known for their courageous attempts to and actions at Fort Wagner in 1863. The film is set in many different locations such as New York, Maryland, South Carolina and Massachusetts. In each of these different locations events took place that shaped our history. For example on November twenty seventh of 1862 Robert Shaw started to train soldiers. July eighteenth 1863 the Colonel Shaw and his troops attempted to take Fort Wagner, which didn’t succeed.
To the United States, World War II is believed to be a good war, and why wouldn’t it be considered as such? During World War II, in addition to stopping mass genocide and stopping the spread of Nazism and Fascism, the United States beat Japan after their attack on Pearl Harbor. As a result, the U.S. was no longer in the Depression and the United States became a world power. However, in “The Best War Ever,” Michael C.C. Adams argues that as a result of Hollywood’s glamorization of the war, government propaganda/censorship, and the widespread of economic prosperity, Americans were kept in the dark about the truth regarding World War II resulting in the popular belief and myth that World War II was a good war.
Loads and loads of works have been written with the sole intention of honouring one O’Connor and trying to shed some light on her literary genius. Unlike many writers of her time O’Connor did not write to entertain or edify. She was not a modernist either something that influenced her writing style towards grotesque shock other than gentle persuasion Her literature sought to reorder the way we perceived the love of God at the same time maintaining the integrity if her artistic writing style. O’Connor can be put in the same literary class as the likes of Sophocles depicting her as a post-modern classic writer. In her fictions work, she does not shy to criticize spiritual apathy and materialism critiquing the modern-day rationalism’s nullification to the need for a Christian faith (Whitt 122). She
A tomboy. A “negro”. An outsider. In Harper Lee’s To Kill A Mockingbird, Maycomb is filled with prejudice and stereotypes. Much like today, people believe there is a certain way things are meant to be. Prejudice and stereotypes have only evolved throughout the past 90 years.
Flannery O'Connor remained a devout Catholic throughout, and this fact, coupled with the constant awareness of her own impending death, both filtered through an acute literary sensibility, gives us valuable insight into just what went into those thirty-two short stories and the two novels: cathartic bitterness, a belief in grace as something devastating to the recipient, a gelid concept of salvation, and violence as a force for good. At first it might seem that these aspects of her writing would detract from,
In “War and Massacre” by Thomas Nagel, Nagel argues that there are limits on what can be done to an enemy even its for the sake of overall good. He believes that such an idea is grounded on the principles of Absolutism, where morality is determined by the action itself (deontology). This is contrary to the view of Utilitarianism, which relies on the premise that Morality is determined by its consequences (Consequentialism). Although could one in fact generate such a moral structure around war? Do the ends justify the means in War? Through identifying with a real-life example, I will look to expand on Nagel’s account where an action taken by a country in war would be prohibited even if it were for the overall good.
John Keegan describes his book, The Face of Battle, as "a personal attempt to catch a glimpse of the face of battle." This personal aspect that Keegan mentions is essential to his book and is excellently articulated, driving home his point. Keegan, who taught at Royal Military Academy Sandhurst for over 25 years, begins by acknowledging his uneasiness with the fact that even though he taught British cadets military history, "I have not been in a battle; not near one, nor heard one from afar, nor seen the aftermath . . . And I grow increasingly convinced that I have very little idea of what a battle can be like." Keegan is clear to state his proposition that almost all military history has functioned simply as a “battle piece” description in which one can see all the larger moving aspects followed by the outcome. However, this sort of recounting fails to acknowledge the personal side of war, the experience of battle. What really ensues when a cavalry unit meets an infantry unit? What are the vital features in determining whether soldiers stand and fight or turn and run?
In this print source, O’Connor explains how her Catholic faith influences her writing in a positive manner. She also explains her views on the importance of the church, as well as its positive and negative actions and consequences. She claims that one must cherish the world while they struggle to endure it. Sally Fitzgerald studied briefly at Stevens
The novel "The Blind Assassin" by Margaret Atwood is a short story about Iris Chase Griffen and how she starts writing the story of her life for her granddaughter during the time of World War I. She tells the story with scenes from her present life as well as many flashbacks throughout her life. In the story, the protagonist, Iris Chase Griffen, has difficulty with the death of her sister, her unhappy marriage to her husband and her affair with Alex. During the story, she encounters her sister’s journals and ultimately learns that her husband, Richard was raping her sister Laura. Literature is to be known to have an emotional impact on the reader and this novel by Margaret Atwood is no different. There are several conflicts in this work, and they all help to convey themes of human nature vs. society and herself.