At the beginning of Clint Eastwood’s Mystic River, Dave Boyle is a normal young boy growing up in Boston, Massachusetts. The movie begins as all classic Hollywood narratives begin, with a clear equilibrium and a well established social order. Dave and his friends are seen as happy kids, playing a game of hockey in the street, laughing and smiling. Everything is normal and, moreover, everything is good, what Stephen Neale would describe as “a condition of total plenitude.” It’s a scene that can be witnessed nearly anywhere, when the weather is right and the world is quiet but for the sound of children playing, and everything seems safe and steady. In the sense of equilibrium being established, Mystic River definitely follows the classic Hollywood narrative. In the style of classic Hollywood narratives, Mystic River’s story is pushed along by a mysterious force that sets out to create a disequilibrium within it. The children lose their ball and then, as if their eyes are following the invisible string of the storyline, they see a block of wet cement on the sidewalk. This cement block becomes an engine of the enigma, a tool it uses. The enigma itself is a child …show more content…
In this second jump from balanced to unbalanced, it fits more with Neale’s description of the detective genres, which is a genre Mystic River could easily be filed under. “For example,” Neale states, “in the western, the gangster film and detective film disruption is always figured literally – as physical violence.” In Mystic River the physical violence that initiates this second disequilibrium is the brutal murder of Katie Markum, the daughter of one of the boys from the start of the film, Jimmy Markum, who had been somewhat of a leader of the children. The enigma is a mystery, though the film hits at the now grown-up Dave Boyle, who has been severely affected by his childhood
Floridians lives on top of a limestone foundation that was once upon a time was a shallow coral sea and is now riddled with caves. In the film Water’s Journey: Hidden Rivers of Florida there were divers tracking the path of water through underground caves, specifically Florida’s aquifers. They were navigating through the complicated system of undergrounds rivers from where water disappears underground to where it resurfaces in the springs of Florida.
Barry defines the Mississippi’s unpredictability through an “uncoiling rope.” One cannot experience an act such as that of an uncoiling rope, in it’s smooth, but quick movements. Its destination cannot be anticipated and its course of action can only be speculated. By using a single phrase, like “uncoiling rope,” Barry guides his audience to a complete picture of the fascinating Mississippi. He gives life to the Mississippi by relating it to a snake. His snake-related diction, such as “roils” and “uncoiling” present the river with lifelike qualities that extend Barry’s purpose in saying that the incredible river can actually stand on it’s own. Furthermore, Barry describes the river in similes in order to compare the Mississippi to a snake, in a sense of both power and grace. The river “devours itself”, “sucking” at the surface around it, and “scouring out holes” in its depths. Barry’s combination of personifying diction and similes provide his audience with a relation in which one understands the Mississippi’s paradox of strength and unpredictability, and
During the mid-1900`s, mental illnesses were rarely discussed in mainstream media due to negative stigma surrounding mental illnesses. As a result, characters in film rarely had mental disorders because of the directors` worries of audiences` reactions to how the illnesses were portrayed. Director, Edward Dmytryk, however, attempted to diminish the stigma through his film Raintree County (1957) with Susanna Drake Shawnessy`s mental instability. Elizabeth Taylor`s portrayal of Susanna, however, heightened the stigma surrounding mental illness as Susanna constantly acted immature and childlike.
Norman Mclean’s A River Runs Through It explores many feelings and experiences of one “turn of the century” family in Missoula, Montana. In both the movie, directed by Robert Redford, and the original work of fiction we follow the Mcleans through their joys and sorrows. However, the names of the characters and places are not purely coincidental. These are the same people and places known by Norman Mclean as he was growing up. In a sense, A River Runs Through It is Mclean’s autobiography. Although these autobiographical influences are quite evident throughout the course of the story they have deeper roots in the later life of the author as he copes with his life’s hardships.
The Russian river is a place in California where Dave and his family would usually go for a vacation. He remembers this place as a quiet and peaceful place. He remembers how he and his brothers would play, how his mother would to hug him, and how they would all watch the sunset together
To some this story might seem like a tragedy, but to Christians this is a beautiful story. Although young Harry dies at the end, he is accepted into the kingdom of God, which is far superior to anything on Earth. A non-religious family raises him and the first taste of Christianity he gets makes him want to pursue God. In Flannery O’Conner’s short story, The River, the allure of Gods grace and the repelling of sinful ways are shown heavily through Harry.
Water, like age, continues without stopping until reaching an obstacle which ends the flow completely. In The Power of One by Bryce Courtenay, Peekay, the protagonist and narrator, retells his life story starting at age five. Courtenay separates Peekay’s life into three sections divided by books, representing childhood, adolescence, and adulthood. Each section of his journey corresponds to a cascade in the waterfall mind trick revealing that waterfalls are a metaphor for his own life, ultimately suggesting that his life and the mind trick end together.
Imagine being on the borderline of not being able to sustain your children for lack of money or making the money you need through an illicit way. Frozen River, a film directed by the Grand Jury Prize winner, Courtney Hunt, and released in 2008, takes place during a cold East Coast winter. The film focuses in the stories of two single mothers, who go far and beyond in the search of financial stability, to be able to make ends meet, and offer better living conditions to their sons. Single mothers, Ray and Lila, everyday lack money to support their family, leading them to work as smugglers of aliens, disregarding the consequences this work can bring. Hunt shows through the cinematography, the script, and the scenery that Ray and Lila—as single
...ttle between feuding families, a young boy named Buck is shot and his corpse is found floating in the river. Huck's companion, Jim, shows the deep welts of a whipping he's been subjected to. During a mob scene, a shooting and a stabbing occur. Repetitive risky behavior
The novel River God by Wilbur Smith is set in Ancient Egypt, during a time when the kingdoms were beginning to collapse and the Upper and Lower Egypt were separated between two rulers. The story is in the view-point of Taita, a highly multi-talented eunuch slave. At the beginning of the story, Taita belongs to Lord Intef and helps manage his estate along with caring for his beautiful daughter, Lostris. She is in love with Tanus, a fine solider and also Taita’s friend. Unfortunately, Lord Intef despises Tanus’s father, Lord Harrab, and Intef was actually the one who the cause of the fall of Harrab’s estate, unknowingly to Lostris and Tanus. Taita’s goal is to bring back Egypt to its former glory, but with so many bandits and invaders it would be a difficult task.
In Joseph Boydens short story “Abitibi Canyon”, the narrator is the mother of Remi, a child with a mental disability. They live in a reserve where the people argue about the construction of a dam in their river. She is against it because it will ruin the place where she likes to camp with her Shirley, Mary and Suzanne. The way she sees the dam is an important image. She pictures it as a “concrete monster lying in our river and controlling it like some greedy giant” (364). The dam will ruin a place that has a lot of personal significance to her.
“How can you buy or sell the sky-the warmth of the land? The idea is strange to us. Yet we do not own the freshness of air or the sparkle of the water. How can you buy them from us? We will decide in our time” (Chief Seattle: 1855). In the Documentary “Flow – for the love of water” it visualizes the global crisis we face on Mother’s Earth as it pertains to the diminishing of fresh water. The Documentary portrays along with the help of experts that this global crises is affecting each and every one of us in today’s society including animals. The film shows us that water is constantly being wasted, polluted, and privatized by big co operations. Prime examples of these greedy companies were mentioned in the film such as Nestle, Thames, Suez, Vivendi, Coca Cola and Pepsi.
The movie I decided to analyze for this course was American History X (1998), which stars Edward Norton. Though this movie isn’t widely known, it is one of the more interesting movies I have seen. It’s probably one of the best films that depict the Neo Nazi plague on American culture. The film takes place from the mid to late 1990’s during the Internet boom, and touches on subjects from affirmative action to Rodney King. One of the highlights of this movie that really relates to one of the key aspects of this course is the deterrence of capital punishment. Edward Norton’s portrayal as the grief stricken older brother who turns to racist ideologies and violence to cope with his fathers death, completely disregards the consequences of his actions as he brutally murders someone in front of his family for trying to steal his car. The unstable mentality that he developed after his father’s death really goes hand-to-hand specifically with Isaac Ehrlich’s study of capital punishment and deterrence. Although this movie is entirely fictional, a lot of the central themes (racism, crime punishment, gang pervasiveness, and one’s own vulnerability) are accurate representations of the very problems that essentially afflict us as a society.
In Green River, Running Red, author Ann Rule describes a killer without remorse, who is the product of both personal and social influences, in effect forcing him to murder women and to continue to do so for over a decade as a fulfillment of his fantasies. When endeavoring to rationalize the causes of such a mind, theories of deviance, when separated into two distinct categories, positivist and constructionism. Positivist theories, such as the general theory of crime, allows for individual's to piece together events in the life of Gary Ridgway, the Green River killer which would undeniably lead him to a twisted sense of reality, combined with sexual fantasies and a tendency to justify perverted acts of murder. Constructionist theories, specifically conflict theory, are able to shed light on the lives and decisions made by the victims, who were all led to such lifestyles through outward sources. In determining the causes and motivations behind both the offender and the victims, theories of deviance leave little to be speculated on when placing blame on either psychological or social factors.
Truth is constantly sought out in Fountain and Tomb. Our young narrator is often like a detective, listening attentively to conversations, making keen observations of situations, and seeking out answers to questions he doesn’t know. “The day is lovely but redolent with mystery,” our narrator says, identifying all the unknowns in the world around him (Mahfouz, 15).