Hotaru No Haka—Grave of the Fireflies
Grave of the Fireflies, is a 1988 Japanese animated drama written and directed by Isao Takahata and animated by Studio Ghibli. It is based on the 1967 semi-autobiographical novel of the same name by Akiyuki Nosaka who—like the main character of the drama—was a boy at the time of the firebombs, whose sister died of hunger and whose life has been shadowed by guilt. It is alleged to be the most serious and heart-wrenching of studio Ghibli's movies.
Grave of the Fireflies opens on the evening September 1, 1945, following Japan's surrender at the end of World War II. In a train station scattered with the various bodies of sick, dead or dying children, the main character—fourteen year-old Seita—dies alone. This animated picture tells the story of two young children—Seita and Setsuko— fighting to survive in war torn Japan during World War II. It follows the last few death and starvation riddled weeks in the lives of the siblings before they succumb to their own untimely deaths . The film showcases several definitive aspects of Japanese cinema and anime including its unique character design and visual emphasis, the targeting of an audience of older teens and adults, violence, and also a hint of surrealism.
Japanese character design as well as emphasis on visuals are obvious throughout Grave of the Fireflies. Anime characters tend to have large expressive eyes, a feature most noticeable in the character Setsuko—Seta's much younger sister. Also noteworthy are the visuals used throughout the film. Interestingly, before the animated film was created, Grave of the Fireflies author Akiyuki Nosaka felt that it would be impossible to create the barren, scorched earth—that was to be the backdr...
... middle of paper ...
...oes seem to be a sense of surrealism depicted in the film. This is illustrated by the spirits of both Seta and Setsuko, both of whom make several various appearances throughout the movie. We know that the children are both deceased at the beginning of the story, yet we see them throughout the picture—always happy and well-fed with clean faces and all of their original clothing. It appears that they are revisiting their own personal memories of what they lived through before they succumbed to their deaths, and this is how we are told the story—though these memories.
Grave of the Fireflies received near universal acclamation from film critics. The film review website Rotten Tomatoes reported a 97% approval rating and offers the consensus: "An achingly sad anti-war film, Grave of the Fireflies is one of Studio Ghibli's most profoundly beautiful, haunting works".
Another characteristic of deindividuation is aroused emotion. They boys in Lord of the Flies are often in a frenzy and become one large group. [T] For example, when Piggy urges (v) Ralph to reassemble the group of boys, they come “together on the sand and were a dense black mass that revolve[s]” (Golding 92). [6] The boys become one mass. [5] Because of aroused (adj) emotion, the boys are no longer individuals, but one unit (pn) of deindividuation. Also, when the pig game goes too far with Robert, he starts “screaming and struggling with the strength of the frenzy” (Golding 114). [2] In the pig game, the hunters reenact the killing of the first pig. The boys deindividuated within the large group because (cl) they become aroused by the setting,
Daughters of the Dust, was a movie about traditions, and the history of the women in a black family carrying these traditions. The movie starts in 1902, in an island where a family has lived for generations, since the slavery times. Part of this family, wants to leave the Island, but another part wants to preserve the traditions staying in the island. So the whole movie is about the struggle of the members of this family, in relation to leaving or not leaving the Island. The oldest women of this family, is the wisest of that family; she carries the traditions deep in her heart. Another woman, she is in her forty or so, and has two daughters, she is the other side of the coin. She wants to leave the island and break with the traditions...
Released in 1995, the film “Dead Man” is set in the West in the latter half of the 19th century. The film is a genre-combining work. Although “Dead Man” is a Western, it brings in many elements from the Comedy and the Thriller. The movie is set in the west, yet the audience finds themselves laughing at many comical incidents as well as anticipating what will happen to Blake next.
Deadman appears to be a play on the typical Western genre. It opens with a train scene, a familiar enough scene in a Western, and uses such expected devices as the use of the moving train wheels and pistons to represent the movement of time as well as quick blackouts which permeate the movie. We watch Blake as he views the other characters on the train, at first attired as we would expect in frontier type clothing, but slowly the characters and their clothing change. At first there are men and women, but slowly we get more men and then nothing but men. As this change continues the people begin to wear more clothing and appear more rugged as is proven by the scene of Neanderthal like men who wear bear skins and shoot buffalo from the train window.
The book Lord of the Flies has changing symbolic values in objects and places. These values reflect humanity's nature to become savage. This is demonstrated by the symbols in their mirroring of the boys. In Lord of the Flies, by William Golding, the meaning of symbols evolve throughout the story with the conch standing for civilization and then the breakdown of order in society, Piggy’s specs meaning knowledge then Jack’s power, and the fire first representing hope then ultimately destruction.
“Lord of the Flies”, the first of many novels by Nobel Prize-winning author William Golding. Although Golding’s first book started off sluggish, it later lead to a greater accomplishment, and was given many titles from different magazines like TIME, and media companies like BBC. Today “Lord of the Flies” is considered one of the finest modern classic books. Goulding wasn’t just an author but he was also a part of the royal navy in world war two, and was involved in the pursuit and sinking of the German battleship Bismarck. When scrutinizing the book’s cover there are many assumptions that can be drawn of what the novel is going to be about. From observing the cover page, one can get a hint of how the story is going to be, for instance one can use the description
Death is always present in one's life and is looming in the corners of our mind as a bystander. It waits for one's own demise or for the foul deed of witnessing a person's inner evil come out of its usually permanent state of hibernation and take the life of another. The fear of death or even the desire to control death can transform someone into a savage like being who tries to play death and use it to satisfy a craving within themselves.Within Lord of the Flies, William Golding does exactly that by having givenven very symbolic meaning to the murders of the boys on the island and uses their demise to display that even those who would deem innocent in nature, have a dormant evil within them that is capable of coming out and taking over one'se
It is often said that civilization begins with order and grows with liberty and dies in chaos. In the novel “Lord of The Flies,” by William Golding, a group of young boys progress from well behaved orderly children hoping to be rescued, to who have transitioned into bloodthirsty hunters that no longer wish to return home. There is a conflict between the impulse to be civilized, well-behaved, to follow moral commands and to honour the good of the group against the instinct to value one’s own needs and to obtain dominance throughout the novel using symbols. The symbols presented time and time again in the text were Piggy’s glasses, the conch shell, as well as the fire.
After reading the first three chapter, and knowing some of the background of the book and the story because it was pass down to me from the story telling back where my parents are from; The Dominican Republic, the title of the book captures my attention although it also makes me ask question as to why did the author right the story this way. A sister that survived the tragedy, the giving it the name"In the time of the butterflies". I couldn't help to capture in chapter 1; pages 7 and 8 the dad is talking about his girls future and how this is what he going to make the family grow perhaps taking them out of the country and into the city where things are much modern, when the father starts to tell each one of them what they are going to be in
William Golding, author of Lord of the Flies, uses symbolism in his novel to express the theme. But what are symbolism and theme? Symbolism is defined as the use of highly personal symbols to suggest ideas, emotion, and moods. A symbol is a person, place, thing, or event that stands both for itself and something beyond itself. Theme is defined as a universal message to all readers. One theme in Lord of the Flies is to never give up hope for it may payoff in the end; another is the dark side of human nature can cause the downfall of humankind.
The humor in Blazing saddles dates back to the 70's type of satire that was used. The jokes that were made in blazing saddles would definitely be problematic in today's sensitive audience. Jokes for example calling people the N word for fun can cause issues today , while back in the 70's it was okay to say it all the time. Senseless humor like the sign that said "Knock on barb wire first to come in", was so ridiculous that it made it funny. One good example that showed how dated the humor was, is when Mr. Hedley wanted a way to get rid of the people of Rock Ridge. The conversation between Mr. Hedley and a railroad official had a funny joke that started off with "we'll kill the first born child of every household ow wait that's too Jewish".
“He's an innocent in a lot of ways. He’s a very simple person who really doesn't have the resources or the strength, ultimately, to handle the situation.” In the book, Lord of the Flies, these English school boys who were sent away because of World War 2 and their plane crashed on an island in the Pacific. These British school boys didn't have any adults with them on the island and they try to create their own rules to survive. They tried to follow the rules but since they are so young that backfired really quickly. The boys lost their innocence when they killed a momma pig, attacked and killed their classmate, Simon, and chased their leader, Ralph with plans to murder him.
...r, this movie is lack of depth of storyline. The audiences can even predict what will happen in the next scenes. Moreover, the ending of this movie is too cheesy and irrational according to me. If only they change the ending to become more interesting and rational, I will give a four or five stars out of five. In spite of a lame twist ending, this movie is a perfect example to show that managers should be able to motivate and challenge their employee. It is important to remember that a happy employee means a productive employee.
Lord of the Flies is “an attempt to trace the defects of society back to the defects of human nature” (Themes). Many times society will trump human nature, and other times it may be engulfed by it. Freud Sigmund Psychology expresses these thoughts using the terms id, ego, and superego. Freud states that the id is the instinctive and primitive part of a personality, and ego is “that part of the id which has been modified by the direct influence of the external world” (Freud). Sigmund Freud also uses superego to represent the values and morals that are taught through someone else. Golding wrote the novel Lord of the Flies during a time of war. In times of war, people become killers and savages to “protect” the country they are fighting for.
Riots in the streets, people looting stores left and right, complete chaos. Could this be true human nature, with a sophisticated society being only an illusion we trick ourselves with? In William Golding’s Lord Of The Flies Main characters Jack and Ralph fight for power of the island they crash landed on with Jack representing complete savagery and Ralph representing well-mannered individuals. the boys and their followings get along in the beginning, but as time progresses Jack becomes increasingly more and more savage. Golding created the character of Jack to represent what human nature truly is; Complete savagery. Savagery such as this is depicted many times throughout the novel including how Jack responds to the situation with the “beastie”,