O Brother, Where Art Thou? was phenomenal, and I found myself laughing an abundance of times throughout the movie. After viewing the film and the video essays, I agree that part of the reason why this story is truly successful is because Joel and Ethan Coen play with morality and in some ways, punish the characters repeatedly. Every time that something good occurred for a character, I was on the edge of my seat waiting for the next bad thing to follow. I feel that their constant play on morality kept the audience 's attention and left them wanting more. It also added a more humorous aspect, as Everett, Pete, and Delmar would grow confident and let their "seven deadly sins" (i.e. Everett struggled with pride) arise once again when they …show more content…
When I saw Everett, Delmar, and Pete together in the opening scene, hiding in the grass with every step, I had the impression that the plot would be amusing since they immediately seemed to resemble The Three Stooges. Every character also appeared as exaggerated and almost unrealistic or too good to be true because they were so funny! For example, at the beginning of the film, they ride on a handcar on the railroad driven by a blind African American man who tells them a prophecy. For me, his prophecy felt so randomly placed to me and I laughed because I thought it was so ridiculous! Little did I know, the rest of the film continued to feel this way, but it was a very effective and well-done in adding a comedy to the film. "Big Dan" resembled the cyclops in Homer 's Odyssey, which I found hilarious because not only did he look strange, but his character seemed so exaggerated that I found that he was meant to be this film 's version of the cyclops straightaway. There were other characters, like George Nelson, Homer Stokes, the midget, and the little boy with the gun, that aided in making this story become a more modernized version of the fictitious occurrences within the Odyssey. New ridiculous characters were continually added and discovered as the story progressed, just like the …show more content…
As the Coen brother 's persistently punished them as the "gods of morality", I discovered that Everett, Pete, and Delmar struggled with some of the seven deadly sins. For Everett, he struggled with pride. The audience remembers Everett 's character because he was the brightest out of the trio, but was always concerned about his appearance and hair, specifically only using his "Dapper Dan" hair pomade. Thus, Everett struggled with the deadly sin of pride. This is evident when Everett prays when they are about to be killed, and water rushes over them, cleansing away his Dapper Dan cans (representing his sin of pride). Pete dealt with lust in the film, as he stopped the car in order to see the three attractive women who were washing clothes in the river. As a result, they are punished by being drugged with the corn whiskey, Delmar is tricked into believing he was turned into a toad, and Pete returns to being in a chain gang. Pete also seems to be the second smartest character in their trio. Lastly, Delmar is the most gullible and foolish of the three. When he sees the frog jump out of Pete 's clothes, he believes he was transformed into a toad and needs a wizard to save his friend. He also sees a group of Christians being baptized in the river, and runs over to be baptized while Everett cringes. Not only was it hysterical seeing Delmar 's reaction as he was dunked under the water, but he says he is saved
Though individuals live by and react similarly to various situations, not all people have the same morals. I can relate to instances where I have supported a belief, regardless of the criticisms that arise, all because my choice is based upon personal morals. The same can be said regarding Debra J. Dickerson as she expresses in her novel, An American Story. In Carol Gilligan’s “Concepts of Self and Morality,” she states, “The moral person is one who helps others; goodness in service, meeting one’s obligations and responsibilities to others, if possible without sacrificing oneself” (170). After considering this statement, I strongly feel that Gilligan’s proposal lacks the depth to accurately characterize the moral person, but I am able to accept the argument raised by Joan Didion. Her essay entitled, “On Morality,” clearly provides a more compelling and acceptable statement in describing the moral person by saying, “I followed my own conscience, I did what I thought was right” (181). Joan Didion’s proposal is precise and acceptable. It is obvious that as long as people follow what they believe is the right thing to do, and approach the situation maturely, their actions can be considered examples of morality, and they can then be considered moral human beings.
The book To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee is about a black man named Tom Robinson who is being charged with the rape of a white girl named Mayella Ewell. While the lawyers are giving their closing statements, Atticus Finch, the lawyer for Tom Robinson, makes his closing statement using ethos and logos persuasive methods to show that Bob Ewell and Mayella Ewell were lying. The logo is the principle of reason and judgment. Ethos is appealing to somebody's emotions. These persuasion methods were effective because Atticus uses this technique a lot one example of this is when he uses logos and asks Bob Ewell to put his signature on a piece so that he could see what Bob Ewell's dominant hand was because according to heck Tate her right side
Society establishes their own rules of morality, but would they be accepted in these days?
In Harper Lee’s book To Kill a Mockingbird, most of the younger characters show growth throughout the book and Scout Finch showed the most growth in becoming mature. If it weren’t for her family, acquaintances, and people she saw regularly every day, her personality and growth would have been extremely different. The people that lived in the town of Maycomb had the biggest impact on how Scout grew up and became the person she was.
Morality is defined as "beliefs about what is right behavior and what is wrong behavior (Meriam-Webster). In The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain, the main character, Huckleberry Finn evolves throughout the book. Although Huck begins as a reckless and uncivilized boy, he turns into a person with justifiable moral values and a good sense of what's right in the world.
“Learn to deal with the fact that not everyone is perfect, but everyone deserves respect, honesty, justice and equality, I’m for truth no matter who tells it, I’m for justice no matter who it is for or against” (anonymous)
Over time people have constructed the universally accepted idea that integrity is strictly being honest and being a person who can do no wrong. Integrity has become a moral trait, however, it is so much more than that. The powerful tale To Kill a Mockingbird by acclaimed author Harper Lee supports the fact that there is a wider definition of integrity than honesty and morality. From characters like the righteous Atticus Finch to the fierce Mrs. Dubose to the innocent Boo Radley the real definition of integrity is shown throughout the novel. Integrity is not strictly about being honest or ethical but it is about being able to pull everything together, to make it all happen no matter how challenging and about being consistent in values and principles.
In addition, Scout learns about morality from Atticus after she is taunted at school. Cecil Jacobs begins giving Scout trouble at school because Atticus is defending a black man. Scout isn’t sure what he means by that or why it is such a bad thing, so she consults Atticus to learn more about the matter. Atticus explains to Scout that he is defending Tom Robinson, a black man, in a trial. Atticus says he has to do it although he knows he isn’t going to win, he says “‘ If I didn’t I couldn’t hold up my head in town, I couldn’t this county in the state legislature. I couldn't even tell you and Jem not to do something again’’’ (100). Atticus wants to fight for what he believes is right, even if there is almost no chance of him winning. In addition, Atticus asks Scout not to fight when someone makes comments about him or this case. Through Atticus actions, Scout learns to have integrity, even if it means making tough decisions. For example, Scout walks away from a
“Real integrity is doing the right thing, knowing that nobody's going to know whether you did it or not,” says Oprah Winfrey. Integrity is shown through unyielding support of ideals on morals, while being complete or deliberate. In To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee, there are several strong examples of integrity. The author in To Kill a Mockingbird illustrates integrity fully and completely through two characters that really stood out to me: Atticus and Mrs. Dubose.
The film O Brother, Where Art Thou? is a reinterpretation of the epic poem The Odyssey. The Coen brothers, writers and directors of the film, did not over analyze their representation. “It just sort of occurred to us after we’d gotten into it somewhat that it was a story about someone going home, and sort of episodic in nature, and it kind of evolved into that,” says Joel Coen in Blood Siblings, “It’s very loosely and very sort of unseriously based on The Odyssey” (Woods 32). O Brother, Where Art Thou? contains ideas from The Odyssey for the sake of modernization and entertainment of an audience that comprehends the allusions to the epic. The Coen brothers utilize elements of Homer’s The Odyssey to improve and to give direction to O Brother, Where Art Thou?, a reinterpretation which was made simply to show that an epic-adventure such as The Odyssey could be modernized to apply to modern times.
Homer’s Odyssey is the iconic story of a man’s episodic journey home. The film, O Brother Where Art Thou, is a justifiable homage to the Odyssey because of the many parallels between some of the major characters depicted in the movie and the epic poem. The movie is set in the 1930s in the state of Mississippi, changing the characters in social demeanor, but retaining their motivation and major plot points.
William Shakespeare’s tragic drama Othello presents to the audience a picture of many different shades of morality and immorality. It is the purpose of this essay to elaborate in detail on this thesis.
The Film "O brother, where art thou?" The film O brother, where art thou? is set during the Great Depression of the 1930’s and emphasizes the struggle between the upper and lower classes by using a variety of cinematic devices. Through the use of these cinematic devices and comedic relief, the realities of the Depression are viewed without creating a stark, melancholy, documentary-styled film. Examples in this film of these cinematic devices used to show these realities include: bleak colors contrasting light and dark colors.
No matter where we go in the world, we will always be surrounded and tempted by sin. These temptations test our character and morality, and they prove that our human nature inherently causes us to fall to the sins that encompass us. Even though the world is a dark and immoral place to live, we all value our lives and are prepared to do almost anything to protect ourselves from harm’s way. In Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, the green girdle serves as symbol that highlights Gawain’s incessant love for life that tempts him to stray from his knightly code of chivalry.
If one day you were to discover your entire life has been an elaborate lie, how would you react? Would you continue to live in the made up society? Or would you go out and search for the truth? In the 1998 film, The Truman Show, Truman Burbank is unaware that he has been living in a constructed society that is displayed on T.V. for the world to see. The show is called “The Truman Show” and it stars Burbank as the main character. The manipulated reality of the hit show causes millions of people to tune in on the 24/7 broadcast, of a man living in a picture perfect society. The ethics depicted in the reality of the “The Truman Show” are morally wrong as it illustrates the idea that a “perfect” life means happiness, unexpected and unplanned circumstances are not the norm, and the idea that there is nothing in the world worth going out and discovering.