Christianity in Lars and The Real Girl
When I saw Lars and the Real Girl on the choices of movies for this project, I knew exactly what I wanted to write about. I really enjoyed this movie and its uniqueness. This movie has the most unique plot I have ever witnessed in a film. At the end of the movie, Margo says to Lars, “There will never be one like her” in reference to Bianca. In reality, there will never be a movie like this one. What I enjoyed most about this film was it was a Christian film but wasn’t a Christian film. What I mean by that is that it didn’t just throw Christianity in your face while watching it. Nothing about this film seemed fake. It never seemed as if the writer was trying to tell you one specific message of the film. The writer was simply telling a story, and leaving it up to the audience to figure out what the message of the story was for that particular person. The writer left it up for the audience’s interpretation. Everything in this film seemed genuine and real. It was something that I really could see happening at my church community. I will be honest when I first read the initial plot before I watched the movie; I was skeptical of how this movie would involve Christianity, but after watching the whole movie I saw that there were elements of Christianity all throughout the movie. From the perception of the church to the common beliefs of the characters, the Christian faith was shown in all aspects of the movie. Lars and the Real is not only a movie, but it is a lesson that through faith and the strength of a community a troubled soul can be healed. There are four specific items I am going to address in this paper: the message of the film regarding the Christian metanarrative, the way Christianity was...
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...hree specific messages in Lars and the Real Girl that reflect the Christian metanarrative. These messages are that genuine love enables us to reach out to those who are different from us and treat them as if they were members of our family, the healing power of the community, and the persistent love of God. From the earliest scene of Lars playing with the action figures in the church to the very last scene of Lars at Bianca’s funeral, this film shows many Christian beliefs and practices. The film had so much to offer and so much to teach each person that watched it. It teaches people to go to extremes to show love to others and that sometimes it is better to be selfless and put aside your own issues to help someone with theirs. Lars and the Real is not only a movie, but it is a lesson that through faith and the strength of a community a troubled soul can be healed.
Some works show their true colors right away. Gene Edward Veith’s book, Reading Between The Lines, addresses philosophical ideas, literary sub genres, and reader criticisms in order to ascertain a Christian’s role in literature. He also goes through various historical periods and examines their more prominent works and schools of thought. While a select few of his conclusions about Christianity in relation to the arts have merit, others contain more damaging implications. Specifically, his statements regarding television represent inaccurate and offensive thinking.
achieving his goal of placing doubt into the minds of the religious. Making this a poorly-argued film due
...fter Rebekkah is very depressed and lonely. Within the novel Christians are also portrayed in a different way. Lina, who is Christian, is churchgoing and still bathes everyday despite what usual Christians do. In the end Lina’s religious views helps out Rebekkah. With such tension dealing with religion it is hard for one to have any freedom without being judged.
The novelist with Christian concerns will find in modern life distortions which are repugnant to him, and his problem will be to make them appear as distortions to an audience which is used to seeing them as natural; and he may be forced to take ever more violent means to get his vision across to this hostile audience. When you can assume that your audience holds the same beliefs you do, you can relax a little and use more normal ways of talking to it; when you have to assume that it does not, then you have to make your vision apparent by shock to the hard of hearing you shout, and for the blind you draw large and
In conclusion, I found a quote from Michael Medved that I thoroughly agreed with, he says, “This same habitual blindness to spiritual, substantive dimensions of every significant challenge continues to handicap Hollywood”. I believe what he wants to get across here is that the Hollywood industry always misses the mark when it comes to spirituality and this is his whole meaning throughout the book. Whether I agree with his wording or not, I am a Christian, and I should be concerned with the way the media is influencing the mind of the world around me. I am called to be the light in this world, and I do believe that is the one area Medved and I agree; in some way, we both believe that the world is under attack and it is our job to show the light to this darkened world.
To conclude, the movie is filled with hatred, evil, faith, doubt, love and so on. While watching the movie, we see how the director has involved transcendence, metaphors, and striking images that the viewer is drawn to. Helen had something to accomplish with Matthew, which is the need for redemption and the sacraments of the Christian church. We notice the religious people and there actions throughout the movie. It shows us how different faith is to each individual and the way they see the Old and New Testament. Surprisingly, many follow the Old Testament but do not chare any thoughts with the New Testament.
Douglas Light said that our imagination is better than any answer to a question. Light distinguished between two genres: fantasy from fiction. He described how fantasy stimulates one’s imagination, which is more appealing, but fiction can just be a relatable story. In the same way, Books and movies are very different entities. In the short parable Doubt, the readers are lured in to the possibility of a scandalous relationship between a pastor and an alter boy. The readers’ curiosity is ignited because they are not given all the details. Therefore, their mind wanders further than the plot to create a story and characters that acted on one’s imagination; thus, the story became entertaining- flooded by the questions of what? Who? How? By which the reader can only answer. At this point, the readers create their own movie in a way. They will determine important aspects: how the character speaks, looks like, and reacts. Whereas, in the movie, the reader has no choice but to follow the plot laid out in front of them. No longer can they picture the characters in their own way or come up with their different portrayals. The fate of the story, while still unpredictable, was highly influenced by the way the characters looked, spoke, and presented themselves on screen. The movie leaves little to viewers' imaginations.In order to be entertained by literature or art, the viewer needs to feel that they can use their imagination and not be confined to a plot that reveals all.
By Alex Sanchez, “The God Box” tackles the issue of Christianity and homosexuality. The story is told through Paul/Pedro, a devoted high school senior who has dated his best friend Angie since middle school, and they're good together. They like singing in their church choir, and go to Bible club together. But enter Manuel, a charismatic and openly gay transfer student with a charming dose of humor. As they became friends, Manuel challenged traditional Christian beliefs and Paul’s views about himself by presenting a new but warmer perspective. A take that makes Paul struggle to suppress his “not so Christian” feelings, and begins to question his own sexuality: “How could I choose between my sexuality and my spirituality, two of the most important parts that made me whole?” (Sanchez 64).
Under those circumstances, identified in the book are a few purposes of the writing: the desire to shift log-jammed debates into more fruitful possibilities by suggesting other ways issues might be lined up, as well as opening up a crucial question, how do different visions of Jesus relate to different visions of the Christian life? Agreeing that discussions and conversations about Jesus should be open and in the public sphere, Borg and Wright act on this shared aspiration, and reveal a conversation that is both interesting and refreshing, for the underlying purpose of igniting dialogue between others, Christian and non-Christian alike (ix-x).
The perception of religion is different for everyone and for the grandmother in the story, “A Good Man is Hard to Find”, being a lady with good Christian values was how she defined herself. The grandmother’s innocence of the evil existing in the world cost her and her family their lives. The story “Cathedral” however, has a more positive outlook on faith. The narrator, “Bub”guided by a blind man named Robert was able to visualize and draw a picture of a cathedral, without really knowing what one was. This essay will examine how the outcomes of both stories were affected by the beliefs of those involved.
It is crucial that we try our best to develop well-informed, respecting views of all peoples, Christians included. The way the makers of Noah defeated the purpose of the biblical Noah story by turning it into a gory, hate-filled film was utterly impertinent of them. An inconsiderate action like this could easily affect the American society. Pew Research says that 33% of Americans, including Christians, are already denying that the Holy Scripture is the Word of God, which used to be a fundamental belief of Christianity (“Religious Landscape Study”). We can’t say that inaccurate biblical movies are to blame for all negative trends and views associated with Christianity, but we also can’t deny that they do affect it. Media is a powerful force; it can change the opinions of an entire nation. Especially in this age, the effect is larger than ever as American media spreads throughout the world. Therefore, the urgency for realistic, accurate presentations of every topic and view is at an all-time high. Most media is made to convince or sell an idea or
The presentation of Jesus Christ in Mel Gibson’ The Passion of the Christ, while certainly dramatized, largely stays faithful to the presentation of Jesus in the canonical Gospels. The majority of the differences between this film and the Gospels can be considered creative choices that do not substantially change the narrative, making this film by and large an accurate representation of the scenes in the Bible. However, its near-exclusive focus on Jesus’ trial and death omits much of the context and significance of this event in the life and teachings of Jesus and his greater mission of the salvation of humanity.
C.S. Lewis was the 20th century’s most popular proponent of faith based on reason. As a child, he created an imaginary world where personified animals came to life, and later, he wrote the book, Chronicles of Narnia. How did he transform from a boy fascinated with anthropomorphic animals into a man of immense faith? His transformation to the Christian religion happened as his fame began to flourish. People wrote him, asking him about his claims about the truth of Christianity (Belmonte, Kevin). As I attended the drama of Freud’s Last Session, I was engrossed into the plot of the play and was constantly thinking about how it pertained to the objectives of the World Literature class. I not only connected the content of the play to its context, but I also reached out to apply the context to a discussion on a broader scale. I then discovered why the context of literature is imperative for true understanding of the w...
of influence in both the characters and gender roles of people in our society. The films have brought about the shaping of morals, behaviors and characters of not only children, but also adults in todays society, through engaging them in a constant series of unthinking consumption. In addition, most of the films in Disney bring out many different gender roles and people who grew up watching them have been influenced greatly by the content in the films (Blum 13). This paper will involve the various roles played by the characters in the films and how their roles have influenced the society at large.
The Chronicles of Narnia are veritably the most popular writings of C.S. Lewis. They are known as children’s fantasy literature, and have found favor in older students and adults alike, even many Christian theologians enjoy these stories from Lewis; for there are many spiritual truths that one can gleam from them, if familiar with the Bible. However, having said this, it is noteworthy to say that Lewis did not scribe these Chronicles for allegorical didactics of the Christian faith, but wrote them in such a well-knit fashion that young readers might understand Christian doctrine through captivating fantasy and thus gain an appreciation for it. With this in mind, and in the interest of this assignment, the purpose of this paper is an attempt to analyze one of the many doctrines of the Christian faith from The Lion, The Witch, And, The Wardrobe (LWW), namely, temptation and how Lewis illustrates it through an individual character, Edmund.