The Film, Elephant, Directed by by Gus Van Sant was Inspired by Real Life Events

Thankfully the run of Elephant's Graveyard at GCC has come to an end. The plays overly dark, cautionary tale about the evils of using wild animals to entertain the masses, left its audience depressed and deflated. While many playwrights have dark themes such as this play, they usually balance it with some levity and humor so that audiences are entertained as well as motivated to react to the playwrights cause. Unfortunately this play forgot to entertain, and neglected to offer any light.

Themes and motifs: The book, Water for Elephants, has a symbolic study of human need for love and acceptance. The primary symbols are revealed through unique characters that struggle to feed deep internal desires. Rosie, the elephant, is a big and powerful symbol. More than just being a performing animal, Rosie reflects the desperation of so many

In the beginning of the movie we learn that Brian, Andrew, Claire, John, and Allison attend Shermer High School in Shermer, Illinois, but are worlds apart due to the social cliques developed by peers and society. These social stereotypes have dictated the following labels for each individual: Brian is the reserved brain, Andrew is the typical athlete, Claire is the spoiled princess, John is the criminal/bully, and Allison is the artsy basket case. Each individual comes from a unique yet damaged background, but in some way similarities exist. These various backgrounds play a key role in the plot development later in the film and set forward the bond the adolescents will form before detention is dismissed.

“Shooting an Elephant” is a short anecdote written by George Orwell. The story depicts a young man, Orwell, who has to decide whether to bend the rules for his superiors or to follow his own path. George Orwell works as the sub-divisional police officer of Moulmein, a town in the British colony of Burma. He, along with the rest of the English military are disrespected by the Burmese due to the English invading their territory and taking over. Over time, Orwell, the narrator, has already begun to question the presence of the British in the Far East. He states, theoretically and secretly, he was “all for the Burmese and all against their oppressors, the British.” Orwell describes himself as “young and ill-educated,” bitterly hating his job. Orwell uses powerful imagery and diction to convey a depressing and sadistic tone to the story. At the end of the story, he faces a dilemma: to kill the elephant or not.

It has not been too long ago that I still remember my adolescent years. I always remember the unintelligent things I did that I wish could change, but this Psychology class made me realize that all adolescents go through the same things I experienced. Adolescents are known to try to find their identity, go through peer pressure, make mistakes, and try new things. The move I picked that closely represented what adolescents go through was “Mean Girls”. Some of the scenes in the movie seem a little exaggerated, but it has happened in certain high schools even though I had not experienced it personally.

When each of the students came into detention, they each had their own identities and their own underlying issues that no one knew about. When they started to open up and grow closer with each other, their identities changed all together. They were beginning to show their real personalities within each other and at the end of the film they all embraced who they really were on the inside and who everyone else was.

The modification of governments in human history will always evoke people what leadership is capable of doing to the citizens. The governments in human society are based upon a set of rules and regulations, created by other human beings. Often time, human nature provokes human nature’s desire for power, as a result the so-called the “government” can become oppressive and inhumane. Many authors and predecessors whom experience these governments create satirical works of literatures based on their experience. For instance, George Orwell writes, “Shooting an Elephant” and 1984 to portray how the governments are able to achieve their total power over people using oppressive treatments. I believe human society should not be governed through the

Two characters that will be examined from the film include Andrew Clark (played Emilio Estevez) and Richard Vernon (portrayed by Paul Gleason). The setting of the film takes place on a Saturday at a suburban Chicago high school. The students are arriving for a special session of detention that will take place all day. In the beginning, everyone is sticking with their traditional stereotypes that were formed from other perceptions (based upon the social group they belonged to). As the day progresses, everybody begins to realize that they are more than these commonly held views. Instead, each person has their own special skills and talents that make them unique. Moreover, all the students and adults are wrestling with similar challenges at

The movie that I have chosen is a classic film from 1988 called Heathers. Heathers is an American cult black comedy film written by Daniel Waters and directed by Michael Lehmann. The film portrays four teenage girls—three of whom are named Heather—in a clique and a teen named Veronica Sawyer who desperately wants to fit in, as well as a crazy and unstable boy named J.D that plans to ruin it all. The focus of this essay will be on three characters. Analyzing their internal and external battles, as well as their social interactions with loved ones and other members of their fictional society.

George Orwell describes to us in “Shooting an elephant” the struggle that his character faces when to win the mobs approval and respect when he shoots down an innocent animal and sacrifices what he believes to be right. Orwell is a police officer in Moulmein, during the period of the British occupation of Burma. An escaped elephant gives him the opportunity to prove himself in front of his people and to be able to become a “somebody” on the social

Elephants have been victims of not just the incessant poaching but also of the civil wars; ultimately making them to fight back. The killing case have gone over the roof, as the “singular perversity” (Siebert 353) of the attacks. In India, “nearly one thousand people have been killed by elephants between 2000 and 2004” (Siebert 353). Several frequent attacks were recorded in Africa and other villages where the denizens were forced to evacuate their houses. ‘nearly one thousand’ which accentuates the gravity of the situation in 4 years had gained a lot of attention from the elephants researchers. Seibert’s prime third perspective, Gay Bradshaw, Oregon State psychologist, claims that that “everybody pretty much agrees that the relationship between elephants and people has dramatically changed” (Siebert 353). The choice of diction ‘dramatically’ indicates that elephants are not being violent towards human beings but they are also doing it intentionally. Dramatic behavior changes over the years are now being explained in the elephants. “Bradshaw and several colleagues argued that today’s elephant populations are suffering from a form of chronic stress, a kind of species-wide trauma” (Siebert 354), due to “decades of poaching and habitat loss” (Siebert 354). Elephants are becoming more destructive and Bradshaw looked into combining “traditional research into elephant behavior with insights about trauma drawn from

Anyone who has ever been a high school student can probably find some way to relate to the characters in the film. The movie revolves around 5 students who for various reasons have been sent to Saturday detention by principle Vernon. The principle asks each of the students to write a one-page paper on who they think they are. As the day progresses, we see the teens begin to bond with each other and find out about each other and themselves.

A concept of a stereotypical teenager in the 20th century was to grow up through childhood but not surpass the values, beliefs and attitudes of a typical adult. In the 1998 film, the audience is shown a great selection of characters, symbolism and setting which reinforces the idea of a teenage role that shows a new perspective that affects society.

The Breakfast Club movie is about five high school students from Shemer High School with different backgrounds. It’s the story of “a brain (Brian), an athlete (Andrew), a basket case (Allison), a princess (Claire) and a criminal (Bender).” The purpose of the movie is to captive the feelings and perspectives on what other people have experienced and learned from each other. The analysis about The Breakfast Club is about the common insecurities and challenges of the teenager during high school. The Breakfast club is a movie to convey emotions, fears, and companionship that everyone can relate to. However, with new knowledge comes new perspective and emotions. This movie opens up a world of abstract thoughts because none of the five students know each other and it helps to create an interpersonal communication, they revealed to each other how their lives actually are. This movie is about Social Judgment Theory, Interpersonal conflict, self-disclosure, Social Comparison Theory and an unresolved life conflicts of a teenager life by finding their identities.

Van Sant’s film represents the reality of high school, focusing on the look of its beauty, characters, while also ignoring the basic grime inherent on most campuses. Van Sant takes pride in portraying a valuable image. What’s in the room really touches you if it is closely examined. The hallways and the fields of the school are in pristine condition, staying abnormally clean, almost too clean for a school. Despite this seeming glorification of the building, the hallways are kept as a constant secondary to the sharply focused characters the camera constantly follows. This really takes the focus away from the bare walls and empty hallways and places it directly on the students. The film isn’t about the location that it occurred, but more about the people that it happened to. The focus is on the students of the film, both figuratively and literally. The camera appears to look like it’s never stop moving. It does halt for brief pauses that seem to relax the viewer. There is some frustration upon watching because you can’t collect all the data you need to deconstruct the film. However the scenes do go go back and forth with each other sometimes. At one point you may notice that you’re following a student and it will cut into the perspective of another student whom will pass by the student that was originally being followed. This sort of filming can cause confusion but employs a nice twist to the film. The plot doesn’t post the events in chronological order. When a