"He's a profit and a pusher.
Partly truth partly fiction.
A walking contradiction." - Kris Kirstofferson
In Martin Scorcese's Taxi Driver, Travis Bickle repeatedly expresses two ideas that are central to the film. First, Travis has an undying wish to purify the world. He wants to rid his city of all the evil and scum that currently inhabits the city's cold and damp streets. Second, is the method by which Travis tries to obtain his goals. Travis Bickle tries to clean up his city by methods similar to those of religious figures. He even takes on a role as a savior figure. Travis Bickle's quest to save the world via religious ideas fails, and instead results is a bloodbath.
The first place where we are introduced to the theme of scum inhabiting New Youk is in the very first frame of the film. Here, we see nothing more than steam billowing out of a sewer. This image is repeated in almost every scene. Perhaps Jack Kroll said it best, "Out of a cloud of steam, hissing and spuming from a manhole, the snout of a New York taxi emerges" (Kroll 186). The ooze that seeps through these sewers is exactly what Travis wishes to rid his world of. In his mind, he is enveloped by the hell filled with the scum and filth that surrounds him.
The viewer need not look farther than Travis's first monologue in order to see his innermost thoughts on the city. His journal acts as an outlet for these often crude yet telling feelings. "Thank God for the rain which has helped wash away the garbage and the trash from the sidewalk... All the animals come out at night. Whores, skunk pussies, buggers, queens, fairies, dopers, junkies... Someday a real rain will come and wash this scum off the streets." This rain that Travis speaks of e...
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...ame quotation. "Betsy is wrong. He is not a contradiction but a thing of disconnected parts, any one of which can take momentary precedence until another disconnected part, or another influence, a word, or mutant perception, jars momentarily into place." (Kolker 229) Travis is a multifaceted character, whose quest for purity ultimately ruins him. While his intention may have been good, the means bywhich he tried to obtain them were far from appropriate.
Works Cited
Kael, Pauline. "Underground Man." The New Yorker 9 Feb. 1976.
Kolker, Robert. A Cinema of Loneliness. New York: Oxford Press, 2000.
Kroll, Jack. "Taxi Driver." Newsweek 1 Mar. 1976.
Magill, Frank N.. Magill's Survy of Cinema, Vol. 4. Englewood Cliffs: 1980.
Peary, Danny. Cult Movies 2. New York: Dell Publishing Company, 1983.
Schickel, Richard. "Taxi Driver." Time 16 Feb. 1976.
A storm such as Katrina undoubtedly ruined homes and lives with its destructive path. Chris Rose touches upon these instances of brokenness to elicit sympathy from his audience. Throughout the novel, mental illness rears its ugly head. Tales such as “Despair” reveal heart-wrenching stories emerging from a cycle of loss. This particular article is concerned with the pull of New Orleans, its whisper in your ear when you’ve departed that drags you home. Not home as a house, because everything physical associated with home has been swept away by the storm and is now gone. Rather, it is concerned with home as a feeling, that concept that there is none other than New Orleans. Even when there is nothing reminiscent of what you once knew, a true New Orleanian will seek a fresh start atop the foundation of rubbish. This is a foreign concept for those not native to New Orleans, and a New Orleanian girl married to a man from Atlanta found her relationship split as a result of flooding waters. She was adamant about staying, and he returned to where he was from. When he came back to New Orleans for her to try and make it work, they shared grim feelings and alcohol, the result of which was the emergence of a pact reminiscent of Romeo and Juliet. This couple decided they would kill themselves because they could see no light amongst the garbage and rot, and failure was draining them of any sense of optimism. She realized the fault in this agreement,
settling down life in the city after the rainstorm without loose open brush work showing his
He does not provide statistics or matter-of-fact statements to present the outcomes of Katrina. Instead, Rose writes about what he himself experiences as a result of the storm. This author is not weaving together a tale of imaginary faces in an attempt to gain sympathy. He writes as himself experiencing instances of tragedy, camaraderie, and despondency. There is no logical format for what subject matter he may explore. In this anthology of articles he utilizes dark humor, such as when he writes of the stench and subsequent war of refrigerators; optimism, such as when he describes the characters that remain and the absoluteness of Mardi Gras; nostalgia, such as when he reflects upon memories with his children and his first visit to New Orleans; and dejection, such as instances when he himself begins to lose hope and realize the poor outlook for his
In everyday society, we are faced with diverse issues that force us to make a decision. Whether or not our decisions are right or wrong. In the movie “Dead Man Walking”, directed by Tim Robbins, he exemplifies the following actions throughout the film. Faith and doubt is a recurring theme in the course of the film. Where we see Christians, in essence, questioning their faith. We also notice a contradiction between the Christian bible and the Hebrew bible or as most people have come to know it as the Old and the New Testament. Conflicting themes have been argued about the Old and New Testament throughout the centuries. Also, humility is a key aspect to the film. The director discreetly implies it at the end of the film so we can make a connection with the main characters. In Tim Robbins “Dead Man Walking” he entails religious ideals to allow the viewer to recognize both sides of evil.
The second struggle in this short story is man vs. nature. Most of the elements of nature and environment are against Andy, primarily the rain. It both prevents passerby from lending him a hand (“She [the old woman] did not hear Andy grunt...the rain was beating a steady relentless tattoo on the cans.”), and makes his physical situation even more uncomfortable (“With the rain beginning to chill him...”). Also, t...
If they knew him like I do, they'd realize that Travis is an individual with an incredibly sweet personality and a tough out look on the world.
... The Web. 18 Nov. 2011. Dirks, Tim. A. The "Film History of the 1970s.
As the journey to the destination begun the atmosphere is horrid as they passed cheap motels half deserted streets and sawdust motels it all set a very bleak tone of lifelessness, to support this claim, “like a patient etherized upon a table.” (Eliot 368) although they also encountered a yellow fog most likely caused by industrialism it took a form of animal imagery finding comfort in its surroundings to support this claim, “The yellow fog that rubs t back upon the window-panes, the yellow smoke that rubs its muzzle on the window-panes, Licked its tongue into the corners of the evening.” (Eliot
Anderson, Elijah 1999, Code of the Street: decency, violence, and the moral life of the inner city, W.W. Norton and Company, Inc., 500 Fifth Avenue, New York, N.Y. 10110
Ascher speaks to her readers through the use of pathos. As she portrays the homeless – wretched, stained, and noxious – Ascher is permitting her audience to imagine them. Depicting the experiences between
Older, Daniel Jose. “Gentrification’s Insidious Violence: The Truth About American Cities.” Salon. Salon, 8 April 2014. Web. 19 May 2014.
who are black. Travis who is stay in dismay and is confused waits at home while
“Chicago,” by Carl Sandburg wrote a poem that the great city of Chicago that embraces everything that the city has to offer, from hog butchers to railroads, from construction sites to prostitutes. The poem paints a portrait of a vibrant, cunning, wicked, joyful, laughing place. The speaker begins the poem by telling the reader about all of the negative aspects of the city of Chicago but ends in the exact opposite stance. The poet feels that Chicago will face the future ready to fight and win. Sandburg can show how Chicago holds many of the same qualities as an immature young man: both are vibrant and active, but both also have many flaws. Sandburg also celebrates the many types of workers that helped the city grow, from the hog butchers that feed the populace to the people that build the
Barsam, Richard. Looking at Movies An Introduction to Film, Second Edition (Set with DVD). New York: W. W. Norton, 2006. Print.
When someone mentions religion, words such as God, church, and purity most commonly come to mind. One must ask just how far religion affects the purity of its adherents. To put it in sociological terms, how far does religion go in reducing and eradicating deviance in those who practice? Sociologist William Sims Bainbridge, who is well-known for his work in the sociology of religion, has researched this theory in his essay “The Religious Ecology of Deviance” published by the American Sociological Association.