Big Fish and The Educated Imagination Reflection
Northrop Frye is the author of The Educated Imagination. The book talks about literature and methods that improve and enthralls the reader from common fallacies, to how an author can manipulate what is put in the text. These lesson can be put to use outside in the real world such as advertising. These can also be connected to other media pieces such as other books and movies. The movie Big Fish directed by Tim Burton is one of those media pieces that can be connected to Northrop Frye work. The movie is about a son who trying to learn more about his dying father by listening to stories and myths about his life. The purpose of this reflection is to show that in the educated imagination the chapter
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Justified by the fact that we need to modify the story to make them seem much better and greater than they seem to be in actuality. Examples of this are from some media sources like movies and books. Titanic being a prime example of this, the titanic was a real event but the love story was a modified addition that was added to keep the movie interesting. This is the twisted truth, a term used to actual factual people but fictional events that occur with them. This is add interest to the person or the event by adding something that did not occur on that day or during the event. Historical figures are greatly Exaggerated with that common miss conception that makes them seem a lot better than most people. This is not true though historical figures are just like normal people but are greatly exaggerated because of the events they are associated …show more content…
With giant in time the idea is that the historical figures in this case Edward, are greatly modified to make them seem larger than life.In the movie his father also tells him, he makes himself a hero and more than the orginary man. Larger than life, a giant in every story and reimaging of his life. All the things that happen in Edward’s life is told to make him seem a lot more interesting. Though all the misadventures that Edward goes through life, is massively exaggerated and altered to make him look much more likeable and interesting as a character. This is far from the truth and is the main problem with the movie story line.Will, Edward’s son wants to know who is father truly is behind the stories and myths that his father use to tell him as a child and uncover what this giant is really like before his time is out. This is the twisted truth about the story, some the events that happened are fiction if not maybe all the events that transpired are fiction and all made up to keep Will and others entertain but Edward is just a normal man that tells stories about himself and blante figurative events that could not possibly happen at all if you look at it from a different
In the articles, “Are These Stories True? (Nope.)” by Kristin Lewis and “The Story That Got Away” by Debby Waldman, the appeal of fake news and counterfeit stories is explained. One reason why people may find it interesting is because they are re-telling stories that they have heard before, but with a slight twist to make it seem worse than it was. For example, in the folktale “The Story That Got Away”, it gives an illustration of why it is appealing by saying, “At the schoolyard, Yankel told his friends his latest story. ‘Reb Wulff put salt in the rugelach. Not sugar! Salt! Imagine that!’ Yankel said. ‘Those rugelach tasted like stones!’” (Waldman, 14). The boy, Yankel, was recounting what he heard in his father’s shop, which may have seemed
In the fictional story the Scarlet Letter, Nathaniel Hawthorne tells the story of a woman tormented by the townspeople for committing adultery. With fiction the author can paint a story in any way to deliver the right emotion to the audience. However, nonfiction must stay to the actual facts of the story. Typically, nonfiction stories contain eye-opening details that wouldn’t be believable if written as fiction. For example, the story of Tonya Harding and Nancy Kerrigan were 2 olympic ice skating athletes trying to win gold. Tonya Harding had someone try to break Nancy Kerrigan’s legs so that she couldn’t compete. It is unbelievable as nonfiction, but as fiction it would seem too far out there to
Tim Burton: Exuberant, unique, witty, with his movies bring smiles to faces all around, young and old. The talents this man has are numerous; the films directed flawlessly.
Discoveries are driving forces to our views of the world. The process requires us to think over and reconsider our ideas of the world and may be unexpected, or intentionally provoked. Ang Lee’s film, “Life of Pi”, and Isobelle Carmody’s short story, “The Pumpkin-Eater”, provides insight to the audience of renewed perspective of the world through the discoveries seen through the protagonists, self-discoveries that challenge the world they know through tragedies of loss, and reconsidering what they believe about the world. Through narration, foreshadowing and the use of metaphors and symbolism, we learn the of the nature within discovery, and change that may take place.
Big Fish is like an incomprehensible film, which never ceases to stop surprising its viewers. The story is an amazing fantasy created by Tim Burton, which transports the viewer to another dimension by means of the main character’s experiences and adventures through the film. In the story the viewer finds a father, Edward Bloom, and a son, Will Bloom. The father is an extravagant storyteller, in which his son grew up hearing his tales and begins to doubt their credibility. Throughout the film the viewer can catch a glimpse of numerous acts of magical realism, but overall identifies the characteristic of mirror reversals which adds a special touch to the story when intertwined with the father and the son as they undergo a life changing journey.
To say that historicity is of the utmost importance may seem extreme. Yet to understand a work, it is important to know if these were fantastic, yet true tales, or if they came from the mind of an author. Some may read a deeper significance into a fictional work. The fact that a story was ‘invented’ usually mean that it was created for a specific purpose. An author would be more prone to using certain literary devices, even in the story line, then fate, or whatever one believes creates the true stories. A completely fictional story may have more use of symbolism, and to search for the meaning of this symbolism, it might be important to know the environment in which it was written.
In ‘unreliable narration’ the narrator’s account is at odds with the implied reader's surmises about the story’s real intentions. The story und...
or be used in real life. In Red Kayak Brady goes through a tragedy which causes him to realize to always tell the truth. realistic fiction is a story that has credible events, authentic characters, real settings, true-to-life themes, and believable dialogue. Credible events are things or actions that could happen in real life. Having authentic characters is when the characters in the story act like real people that you would meet in everyday life. Authentic characters also use believable dialogue. This is when whatever that character is saying seems realistic and like something normal people that age would use in daily life. Next, true-to-life themes means
In the novel Big Fish by Daniel Wallace, we are told the story of Edward Bloom, a man of many adventures, who is somewhat of a myth. Big Fish is a collection of the tall tales Edward tells his son about his life, and also of the effect his tales had on his son. The novel comes from an American author from Alabama, while the movie comes from Hollywood and is directed by Tim Burton, who is also American. This story is not an ancient sacred text, so the story’s function(s) is to entertain and to make money.
Why do people tend to falsify tales when in a tragic setting? Many authors of great books have credited their amazing stories to the human behavioral tendency of fabricating stories and having dreams to distract them from reality. Krik? Krak! Is a collection of such stories, in which every story is somehow linked in a not-so-obvious way.
Edward is pretty scary on the outside but like the T-rex his inside is harmless, he's a sweet person who makes bushes into child fantasies, like the T-rex, but you can't see his inside unless you look past the outside. The audience can see that the T-rex is out of place and that edward was the one who cut it to be like that. The audience probably was a kid once, some probably obsessed with dinosaurs making them understand that edward is a kid at heart. It makes them understand he wasn't trying to cut out a scary monster, he was just cutting out a cool dinosaur that is extinct now. His intentions were pure just like when a kid paints a picture of their family on the wall. Its overly obvious that it's out of place which was the director's intention, he didn't want you to have to find a hidden meaning, he wanted it to clearly be seen and make it easy to relate it to edward. We as humans judge people who don't fit in or are different in certain ways. This setting is where they patronise Edward, speaking with kindness yet looking down upon him like dirt, we do that a lot in our society. We always have this feeling that we are superior to everything and anything, even if that's not the
The first thing to pop into one’s mind when they hear The Little Mermaid is most likely the Disney animated movie starring the beautiful red haired mermaid, Ariel. However, as with most Disney films, The Little Mermaid is an adaption of an original story written by Hans Christian Andersen in the 1830s. The creation of this classic fairytale into an animated feature required alterations from the Disney corporation, leading to a final product that is reminiscent of Andersen’s original story with added layers of American culture, sexism, and musical numbers. The initial release of Disney’s The Little Mermaid was highly successful both domestically and overseas, resulting in a total box office revenue of about 180 million. Although the film received rave reviews and substantial profit, I argue that the Disney adaption loses the fundamental elements of Andersen’s original story and presents a new narrative laced with negative values and inferior moral lessons. The changes in the Disney remake are closely connected to cultural and social aspects of America in the late 1980’s, making it arguably more relatable and successful for current audiences of the time. However, Disney’s adaption of The Little Mermaid perpetuates negative American ideals and incorporates classic Disney fairytale elements, ultimately erasing the positive moral overarching theme of Hans Christian Andersen’s original story.
Imagine a scene in which a small, wooden boat is peacefully floating on the ocean. Now, imagine that the scene is panning out to reveal the boat is merely a tiny speck, the ocean reaching out endlessly around it. Suddenly, the peaceful quality of the boat has been replaced by a feeling of consuming meaninglessness. Stephen Crane, a naturalist writer and reporter in nineteenth century America, often used nature to prompt readers into questioning their purpose and place in the universe. In “The Open Boat,” complex symbolism allows Crane’s characters to reflect humanity's shared experience regarding existence and self-worth.
When we read any work of fiction, no matter how realistic or fabulous, as readers, we undergo a "suspension of disbelief". The fictional world creates a new set of boundaries, making possible or credible events and reactions that might not commonly occur in the "real world", but which have a logic or a plausibility to them in that fictional world. In order for this to be convincing, we trust the narrator. We take on his perspective, if not totally, then substantially. He becomes our eyes and ears in this world and we have to see him as reliable if we are to proceed with the story's development.
... point of view, and irony. Crane use these techniques to guide the reader in the course of the struggles, both internally and externally, of mans great endeavor against nature. The tone sets the suspense of the story by building the impending doom upon the crew. The stories point of view allows the reader to gradually understand and expect the indifference of nature upon people’s lives. The reality of nature is expressed through the use of different kinds of irony. The universe is represented by the power of the ocean, and the small boat in this ocean is symbolic of man in this giant universe. The immaculate power of the ocean is very indifferent to the small boat, just as our great universe could not care less for man.