Of the many symbolic masks, the Guy Fawkes mask stands out as one of the most effective, often being used as a “masked identity” in order to make profound statements. Not only does this secret identity create more attention to the “masked one” but it also diverts attention to the cause rather than the identity. Literally using a mask, Fawkes was the main influence of the character “V”, in James McTeigue’s, V For Vendetta. V’s connections and motivations to Guy Fawkes, his attempt to justify himself as a terrorist, and V’s concealment of his true identity, collectively define the message that V conveys to his audience: to break parliament and take control of their own country.
Guy Fawkes’ actions act as a dominant influence in V’s life, motivating V to make a step towards justice in hope that others may follow. Fawkes’ actions, as portrayed by the Gunpowder Plot, were an attempt by himself and other conspirators to blow up parliament for the rights of the many English Catholics in the area (Herber). It is evident in that V uses this as motivation in his own personal life, as he too attempts to blow up parliament in belief that the government running his country was not only failing to make the country better, but also deliberately doing acts that were demoralizing their people. This relationship between V and Fawkes is illuminated in these similar acts against the governments they rebel against, Parliament for Fawkes and Norsefire for V. “Resistance is possible whenever we think outside our collective boxes and sacrifice our immediate wants for a long-term vision of a better future.” (Cudd 188) Both feel as if their people are being oppressed and therefore show resistance against the ruling force. V and Fawkes both also experie...
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...rifice of death for the sole purpose that his idea would continue to live on.
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Imagine a world where civil liberties have been stripped away, a bare façade of civilization left behind. This is a world that is inhabited by people who were once free-willed and strong-minded. These people have become weak and obedient, easily bent to the will of their oppressive government. The world that these words have conjured up in your mind is the same existence that the characters occupy in Edwidge Danticat’s “A Wall of Fire Rising” and Alan Moore’s “V” for Vendetta. Danticat’s story is about a small family living in present-day Haiti with their small, ambitious son. The country is a mish-mash of people amassing obscene fortune while the rest scrape at the bottom of the proverbial barrel just to make ends meet; the class gap is seemingly far apart. In Danticat’s story, the husband spends his days either working at the sugarcane mill or searching for work elsewhere. Each day the husband watches the mill owner’s son take a hot air balloon up into the sky, and each day becomes more envious of the freedom attached to that action. After complaining to his wife about his exhaustion with their current situation he claims that he wants to take the hot air balloon for himself and leave Haiti for a far-away and better place. The following day, the husband makes good on his word, abandons his family, and takes the hot air balloon up into the sky. In James McTeigue’s version of “’V’ for Vendetta”, the country is a futuristic and dystopian London. Corrupt politicians control every aspect of the country and the citizens within. The main character, a masked vigilante by the name of V, grows tired of his country’s lack of freedom and decides to destroy an historic courthouse at midnight on the morning of November the 5th. The building i...
Stewart R. W. (2005). American Military History (Vol. 1). The United States Army and the
V for Vendetta is a great movie to watch in Civics class. It is a perfect film to discuss issues related to civics as it talks about citizen’s duty to overthrow corruption and more. As it is set against the ‘futuristic landscape of a totalitarian Britain’, this story focuses on a young working-class woman named Evey. In the event of being in a life-death situation, she meets V who rescues her. V makes her realize that she has the potential to do anything she desires and discovers the truth about herself as well as V. This movie is covered with various relations to Civics.
Estlund, David. "On Following Orders in an Unjust War*." Journal of Political Philosophy 15.2 (2007): 213-234.
This book has not changed my views on ethics in combat nor in garrison. In the many years I have been in the military and the over seven combat deployments, I must disagree with Mr. Couch. Instances of unethical behavior are not encouraged to the degree he thinks nor as widespread. Of course, as with any organization where people are present, there will always be outliers
Through this dramatic irony Orwell is trying to picture to the audience the selfishness of the pigs, and so criticizing the selfishness of Stalin and the leaders of the Russian Revolution. The selfishness of totalitaristic leaders is also depicted in V for Vendetta. James McTeigue draws this idea into V for Vendetta through allusions to the Nazi Party and Hitler. This allusion is established throughout the film, with direct representations, such as the close up of the Nazi flag in Gordons house and through the symbolism of the finger men logo which vaguely resembles the swastika. Allusions to Hitler are also drawn straight from Sutler himself. The rhyming of Hitler and Sutler as well as during flashbacks of
people who are unable or limited to conform to them), they have to be subsequently removed through rebellion. To be more specific, the film V for Vendetta (2006), directed by James McTeigue, symbolically reveals the idea of rebellion against injustice and forced conformity (V for Vendetta). The main character V set himself apart from society (i.e. showing characteristics individuality), and gave the Guy Fawkes mask a meaning of anti-establishment and hope for the country. As a result, this idea vastly spread throughout the country, and eventually became a purpose for everyone to eliminate the establishment and liberate themselves by symbolically destroying the Parliament building. However, in reality people do not destroy buildings to eliminate a norm, but express their dissatisfaction about a political issue through protestations. As a comparison, the Civil Rights Movement was a rebellion against race segregation and inequality created by white Southerners (Pelak 306). This rebellion was necessary for the African-Americans to overcome racist oppression and be able to conform in society (Ling 18). As a result, one of the most influential leaders, Martin Luther King Jr, stood up and
V for Vendetta shows a very damaged character, who goes by the name V, doing what he thinks is right for his country. But what he thinks is right, is terrorism. The entire storyline is based on the fact that V is actually a terrorist for a seemingly good cause. But even though he may actually be a “good guy”, he still is a terrorist. It’s also arguable that he isn’t even a good person. He blows up two different building, takes a news station hostage, gets one of his hostages shot, and fake captures his friend and tortures her for months just so she can learn to not be afraid anymore. And V isn’t even doing everything for his country and the people in it, he’s doing it for him.
Cruel Intentions The film Cruel Intentions, directed by John Hughes, is a fast paced. glimpse into the lives of the young New Yorkers whose entire existence. revolves around power, sexuality and to some extent class A drugs. Hughes The direction for the movie concentrates on those who prey on innocence.
The film Cruel Intentions is a narration based on a bet between two step-siblings exploring society’s sexual boundaries. We are first introduced to Sebastian, a fifth year high school Senior with no respect for anyone/ thing except his own reputation of sexual conquest. His stepsister Kathryn is, well, as she puts it “I'm the Marsha fucking Brady of the Upper East Side”. A quick summary, Sebastian wants to have sex with Annette, the new head master’s daughter who wrote a manifesto on why she intends to wait until marriage. Kathryn makes a bet with he that he won’t be able to, and spends the rest of the movie trying to corrupt innocent little Cecile who is her ex’s new infatuation. Cecile is in love with the cello teacher of a different race, but through Kathryn’s temptation is learning the arts of sex from Sebastian. There is a trip up in the end for Sebastian falls in love with Annette which doesn’t go over too well with Kathryn and they all bite the dust in the end, (except for maybe Cecile).
Anscombe, Elizabeth. (1981) “War and Murder”. In Ethics, Religion, and Politics. University of Minnesota Press. pp. 51-71.
The film "12 Angry Men" exemplifies many theories of social psychology. Using ideology from psychologists, Muzafer Sherriff, Salomon Asch, and others...The film features a group of jurors that pledge guilty and non-guilty on a declared murder. The unraveling of this twelve men arguing demonstrates some of the nature and causes of individual behavior in social situations.
The most memorable references to Jacobean England in the play, however, are those which chronicle events of the notorious Gunpowder Plot--a conspiracy by Catholic sympathizers to blow up the Parliament building and all the heads of state on November 5, 1605, approximately one year before Shakespeare's play was written. On that date, Guy Fawkes and his band of Jesuit-sponsored papists smuggled an immense amount of gunpowder into a vault under the Parliament, which would have killed everyone in the building in a fiery cataclysm had the king not detected the explosives prior to their detonation. According to a recent book by Garry Wills, Witches and Jesuits (New York: Oxford University Press, 1995), James claimed to have discovered the plan by "inspiration" from God, who wished to save England from Rome's "Popish plot." Through popular mythology following the event, Jesuits were branded as "equivocators" who had tried to attack both England and the Reformation through a perverse use not only of gunpowder ("the devil's invention"), but also of the very nature of language, which they employed in double and triple entendre to hide from the king and his court their fiendish intentions.
Roberts, Adam, and Richard Guelff, eds. Documents on the Laws of War. Clarendon Press: Oxford, 1982.
-The graphic novel form complicates V because it gives you a lot of information at once that you must absorb and retain.