Born in Boston, Massachusetts in 1951, grew up on the coast of New Hampshire, and he has been writing novels since the age of sixteen years. For several years he published mystery and suspense novels for adults. Two of his detective novels were nominated for the Shamus award. 'Brothers & Sinners' finally won the absolute Shamus in 1993. In the same year of his debut young adult novel 'Freak the mighty' won numerous awards and was eventually made in the film 'The mighty', starring Sharon Stone and James Gandolfini. 'Freak The Mighty' has become a selection of standard reading in thousands of classrooms around the world, and now has nearly three million copies in print. Philbrick's novel youth 'the man young and the sea' is based on his experiences
If a person of authority ordered you inflict a 15 to 400 volt electrical shock on another innocent human being, would you follow your direct orders? That is the question that Stanley Milgram, a psychologist at Yale University tested in the 1960’s. Most people would answer “no,” to imposing pain on innocent human beings but Milgram wanted to go further with his study. Writing and Reading across the Curriculum holds a shortened edition of Stanley Milgram’s “The Perils of Obedience,” where he displays an eye-opening experiment that tests the true obedience of people under authority figures. He observes that most people go against their natural instinct to never harm innocent humans and obey the extreme and dangerous instructions of authority figures. Milgram is well aware of his audience and organization throughout his article, uses quotes directly from his experiment and connects his research with a real world example to make his article as effective as possible.
Speak, by Laurie Halse Anderson, is a story written in the first person about a young girl named Melinda Sordino. The title of the book, Speak, is ironically based on the fact that Melinda chooses not to speak. The book is written in the form of a monologue in the mind of Melinda, a teenage introvert. This story depicts the story of a very miserable freshman year of high school. Although there are several people in her high school, Melinda secludes herself from them all. There are several people in her school that used to be her friend in middle school, but not anymore. Not after what she did over the summer. What she did was call the cops on an end of summer party on of her friends was throwing. Although all her classmates think there was no reason to call, only Melinda knows the real reason. Even if they cared to know the real reason, there is no way she could tell them. A personal rape story is not something that flows freely off the tongue. Throughout the story Melinda describes the pain she is going through every day as a result of her rape. The rape of a teenage girl often leads to depression. Melinda is convinced that nobody understands her, nor would they even if they knew what happened that summer. Once a happy girl, Melinda is now depressed and withdrawn from the world. She hardly ever speaks, nor does she do well in school. She bites her lips and her nails until they bleed. Her parents seem to think she is just going through a faze, but little do they know, their daughter has undergone a life changing trauma that will affect her life forever.
George Romero's reinvention of the zombie in night of the Living Dead (1968) is clearly a critique of elements of the American society, and the film as a whole is easily twisted into a warped view on the 'American Dream'. Themes throughout Romero’s film, dealing with controversial topics during the time that the film was made, are still, to this day debated by critics and film historians. Themes of racism and war are defined within the movie, hidden underneath the idea of carnal, cannibalistic zombies and over the top heroes who, eventually, succumb to the reanimated; despite their every effort. These themes are colored over and painted to hide beneath subtle references to the typical American Dream during this time, and Romero does quite the good job at it too. This dream, whilst continuously changing in the everyday lives of modern Americans, can be loosely defined as a national ethos of the United States, or a set of ideals dealing with freedom and the opportunity for success - an upward social status that can be achieved through hard work and effort.
In Daniel Wallace’s novel, Big Fish: A Novel of Mythic Proportions and Tim Burton’s film, Big Fish, the relationship between the dying protagonist, Edward Bloom and his estranged son, William Bloom, is centrally to the story in both the novel and film. Like many fathers in today's society, Edward Bloom wishes to leave his son with something to remember him by after he is dead. It is for this reason the many adventures of Edward Bloom are deeply interwoven into the core of all the various stories Edward tells to mystify his son with as a child. Despite the many issues father and son have in their tense relationship as adults, Daniel Wallace and Tim Burton’s adaptation of Wallace’s novel focalizes on the strained relationship between Edward Bloom and William Bloom. In both Wallace’s novel and Burton’s film, they effectively portray how the relationship between Edward Bloom and William Bloom is filled with bitter resentment and indifference towards each other. Only with William’s attempt to finally reconcile with his dying father and navigating through his father fantastical fables does those established feelings of apathy and dislike begin to wane. With Burton’s craftily brilliant reconstruction of Wallace’s story does the stories of Edward Bloom and his son blossom onto screen.
Sophie Treadwell’s Machinal is an expressionist play written in 1928, based on the real life trial and execution of Ruth Snyder.* Machinal tells the story of how the youthful spirit of a young woman can be suffocated to the breaking point amidst the harsh industrial 1920’s. If done in the style of the Epic Theatre, Machinal can take on a totally different meaning, especially when being staged for the audience of today. When staged in the Epic Theatre Machinal now reflects the complacent, non-beings of people living in modern day America. Modifying the text, staging in the style of Epic Theatre, and assuming the directorial practices of Bertolt Brecht support the new problem Machinal proposes to its audience. In this day and age, where American’s have incredible social pressure and freedom do we take advantage of the latter, or do we crumble under the former?
In a country that is the melting pot for many cultures, it is hard to interact with all of them. Tony Hillerman educates readers about one culture, the Navajos, through his novel, The Ghostway. After a shooting occurs in the quiet Indian reservation, a Navajo police Jim Chee, officer overcomes many obstacles physically, mentally, and spiritually to sort the case out and protect a young girl. He is constantly struggling with his identity, whether or not he should continue living his life as a Navajo or cross over to mainstream “white” life. Although the book’s main plot is about a murder and police investigations, a theme that the book is always making references about is cultural differences and how these mere differences can make things rough on people’s lives.
After a journey into the dark history of Europe and Africa with Sven Lindqvist, I found myself shocked. It’s earth shattering. Ideas and historical events are presented through a journal/proposal of his unique view on racism. Lindqvist raises questions as to where racism was spurred and why what happened in late 1800’s and early 1900’s lead to the holocaust. Including religion, personal human values, advanced warfare and even societies’ impact as a whole. His travels through the Sahara and Africa in the early chapters show a more current day view of society over seas. The description of the desolate continent and harsh conditions paints a picture of what previous civilization lived through. He explains that part of the reason he has traveled to the desert is to feel the space all around him, a definite emptiness if you will. As his travels progress he introduces his own family life that pertains to the human emotion, which is also a big focus point in this book. Childhood beatings over taking the lord’s name in vain, dropped calls from his daughter that leave him torn and sad. He does an excellent job on taking the reader on a personal journey with him through his current day traveling and even his early life. Linking these personal experiences and tying in histories misconceptions of “right and wrong” is what makes this book so valuable. Lindqvist gives a relevant and educated answer to the question of how racism became such a terrible tribulation in all parts of the world.
An estimated six million Jewish people were killed during the Holocaust, and many were thought to have survived due to chance. Vladek in Art Spiegelman’s graphic novel, Maus, is one of the few Jewish people to survive the Holocaust. Though Vladek’s luck was an essential factor, his resourcefulness and quick-thinking were the key to his survival. Vladek’s ability to save for the times ahead, to find employment, and to negotiate, all resulted in the Vladek’s remarkable survival of the Holocaust. Therefore, people who survived the Holocaust were primarily the resourceful ones, not the ones who were chosen at random.
Perhaps no other film changed so drastically Hollywood's perception of the horror film as did PSYCHO. More surprising is the fact that this still unnerving horror classic was directed by Alfred Hitchcock, a filmmaker who never relied upon shock values until this film. Here Hitchcock indulged in nudity, bloodbaths, necrophilia, transvestism, schizophrenia, and a host of other taboos and got away with it, simply because he was Hitchcock.
The story begins abruptly, as we find our mock heroes out in the desert en route to the savvy resort of Las Vegas. The author uses a tense hitchhiker as a mode, or an excuse, for a flashback that exposes the plot. An uncertain character picked up in the middle of the desert who Raoul Duke, the main character, feels the need to explain things to, to help him rest easy. They had two bags of grass, seventy-five pellets of mescaline, five sheets of high-powered blotter acid, a salt shaker half-full of cocaine, and a whole galaxy of multicolored uppers, downers, screamers, laughers....Also a quart of tequila, a quart of rum, a case of Budweiser, a pint of raw either, and two dozen amyls. They were on assignment from a fashionable sporting magazine in New York, to cover the 4th Annual "Mint 400" dirt bike and dune buggy race.
The Black Lagoon is a Fantasy and Fictional Series for kids in the first, second, and third grade. One interesting thing about the books is that the main character Hubie thinks every person who works at the school is a monster. Our opinion about these stories is that it is perfect for kids with great imagination. One reason to support my opinion is that kids with great imagination love stories that are fiction. Kids love to daydream but when reading these books it’s like you're dreaming with another person with your imagination. All these books are made by Mike Thaler and I would recommend these books to primary grade students with a big
"Any critical reading of a text will be strengthened by a knowledge of how a text is valued by readers in differing contexts."
Breathless is in many ways the antithesis of the classical Hollywood cinema; the changes have a direct effect on the relationship the film has with the viewer. Classical Hollywood cinema includes standards such as continuity editing, highly motivated, character-driven stories and a coherent narrative structure. Breathless defies these elements of traditional filmmaking, instead defining what we know as French New Wave.
In the beginning of the story, Steve Leonard, a friend of Darren’s, steals a flyer from his brother’s room. The flyer advertises the Cirque du Freak, an illegal traveling freak show which will be performing in his town. Darren and his friends play a game of chance to see who would go with Steve to the show, Darren suprisingly wins. The two boys sneak out to see the show at an abandoned theater. They see many amazing and terrifying acts, including a man named Larten Crepsley, who performs with a venomous tarantula named Madame Octa. After the show, Steve tells Darren to go home without him, but Darren climbs the stairs to the theater's balcony to spy on him. He sees Steve confront Mr. Crepsley, claiming that he recognized him as a vampire and asking to become a vampire himself. Mr. Crepsely initially agrees, but after tasting his blood, he claims that Steve has "evil blood" and refuses to make him a vampire, telling him that vampires are not evil monsters. An angry Steve runs away, leaving a shocked Darren to return home in the cold, dark night.
Born on 30th of July 1970 in London United Kingdom to a British father and American mother. Because of that he has both British and American citizenship and has been living in both London and Chicago since his childhood. He found his passion for filmmaking at early ages and at age 7 he made his first short film with his father’s camera. Eventually just like most directors he did not attend film universities, instead he went on to study English literature in London, his hometown. One of his early short films which is probably his best also, is ‘Doodlebug’ which he made in