In the film version of The Big Sleep, Howard Hawks invents scenes and characters that do not appear in Raymond Chandler's novel. No rare bookstore trist, no rough and ready female cabdriver, no winking cigarette girl grace the pages of his book; Marlowe and Vivian never talk of horses; and Carmen's always naked. But not in the film. In the film, she wears clothes, Marlowe is a jockey, Vivian is a horse, and all these characters appear. Faulkner, Brackett, and Furthman write these elements into the screenplay. But they do not develop ideas the text does not already suggest. The ideas are there--just evolved into new species that echo the original animal. Hawks had to do it, for the Production Code forbid directors to present any material that was overtly sexual, violent, vulgar or otherwise, profane. Therefore, since the Hays Office regulated what Hawks could present on film, his writers embedded the censored material in new forms. Todd McCarthy explains that, "the writers . . . and director . . . extract[ed] the maximum character and suggestiveness from every situation" (387). In other words, they invented and modified scenes and created characters while Hawks manipulated the mise-en-scene to suggest the forbidden ideas in Chandler's novel.
Three tenets of the Production Code impact the film directly. The Hays Office states as follows:
1. Sadism, homosexuality, incest, etc., should not even be hinted at in motion pictures.
2. The treatment of low, disgusting, unpleasant, though not necessarily evil, subjects should be subject always to the dictate of good taste and a regard for the sensibilities of the audience.
3. Complete nudity is never permitted. This includes nudity in f...
... middle of paper ...
...tes, but he does not present everything. Nor can he, for the Production Code restricts what he can represent on film in 1946. For this reason, Hawks eliminated some ideas--i.e. Geiger's homosexuality, Vivian's violent aggression--entirely. But he kept the one element he felt he could not omit. In the novel, Carmen's nude figure possesses an incalculable amount of energy. Hawks wanted that energy to carry the film. Therefore, he employed writers who would help him inject the power of her image into the film in ways the Hays Office would accept.
Works Cited
Chandler, Raymond. The Big Sleep. New York: Vintage Books, 1939.
McCarthy, Todd. Howard Hawks: The Grey Fox of Hollywood. New York: Grove Press, 1997.
Moley, Raymond. The Hays Office. Indianapolis: The Bobbs-Merrill Company, 1945.
The Big Sleep. Dir. Howard Hawks. Universal, 1946.
... dook you/ gold cup and wine/ pass it ‘round circles” (29-33), the sardonic attitude is illustrated once more. The ironic tone is not only addressed through the use of Christianity, but the speaker also discusses how it ironic it is that it becomes acceptable for “whitemen” (14) to build sweat lodges. The speaker uses satire to convey the disgusted feelings of how her culture has been altered and combined with a loss of meaning.
In the poem “The White Judges” by Marilyn Dumont, the speaker is aware of how her and her Indigenous family are constantly being judged by white society. The poem juxtaposes the family with the encircling colonialists who wait to demean and assimilate the group. The family internalizes a sense of shame and guilt while being surrounded by the primarily white population. Consequently, the family faces the pressures of being judged for their cultural practices. Dumont’s use of prose and lyrical voice distinctly highlights the theme of being judged by white society. Her integration of figurative language enhances the Indigenous tradition and cultural practices throughout the poem. As well as her use of anaphora and musicality which amplifies the
But those ways are gone. Those gods are dead. We need to take my son to the priest so that he can be returned to the bosom of Christ” (Wagamese 31-32). The natives are forced to deal with cultural confusion because they have not been properly assimilated into society, and do not know about their heritage since they were forced to stop following their culture in the residential school. Afterward, during Saul’s time at the residential school he is forced to deal with the deaths of the other native children. After his experience with the fish, Saul talks about the gruesome experiences at the residential school, “I saw young boys and girls die standing on their own two feet.... That would never stop, never change so long as that school stood in its place at the top of that ridge as that school stood in its place at the top of that ridge, as bush and from the arms of their people. So I retreated. That’s how I survived” (55). Saul is forced to deal with these experiences, where the other native children take their own lives which teaches them to ignore the situations they do not want to deal with. Finally, the racism causes the religious figures of the residential school to implement their negative thoughts on the culture of the native children which makes them feel like lesser beings. After Saul sees the Iron Sister, he describes the effect of
morals are acquired, and conformity to a standard of right is attained. In the novel The
Armstrong, Isobel. 'A Music of Thine Own': Women's Poetry. in: Joseph Bristow, Victorian Women Poets. Emily Bronte, Elizabeth Barrett Browning, Christina Rossetti. Basingstoke and London: Macmillan Press Limited, 1995, 32-63.
The systematic racism and discrimination in America has long lasting effects that began back when Europeans first stepped foot on American soil is still visible today but only not written into the law. This racism has lead to very specific consequences on the Native people in today’s modern world, and while the racism is maybe not as obvious it is still very present. These modern Native peoples fight against the feeling of community as a Native person, and feeling entirely alone and not a part of it. The poem “The Reservation” by Susan Cloud and “The Real Indian Leans Against” by Chrystos examine the different effects and different settings of how their cultures survived but also how so much was lost for them within their own identity.
And that is precisely why The Big Sleep is a novel that has a hard time coming off as a pleasant reading experience. If the reader has to sift through all the repetition of Marlowe's observations, then it subtracts from the novels overall themes, which I believe are the most captivating parts. Perhaps if it were a short story or if Chandler displayed mercy on our souls by using similes lightly, then the novel would produce a stronger effect.
The purpose of this essay is to analyze and compare and contrast the two paired poems “My Last Duchess” by Robert Browning and “My Ex-Husband” by Gabriel Spera to find the similarities presented within the pairs. Despite the monumental time difference between “My Last Duchess” and “My Ex-Husband”, throughout both poems you will see that somebody is wronged by someone they thought was a respectable person and this all comes about by viewing a painting on the wall or picture on a shelf.
In her book American Indian Stories, Zitkala-Sa's central role as both an activist and writer surfaces, which uniquely combines autobiography and fiction and represents an attempt to merge cultural critique with aesthetic form, especially surrounding such fundamental matters as religion. In the tradition of sentimental, autobiographical fiction, this work addresses keen issues for American Indians' dilemmas with assimilation. In Parts IV and V of "School Days," for example, she vividly describes a little girl's nightmares of paleface devils and delineates her bitterness when her classmate died with an open Bible on her bed. In this groundbreaking scene, she inverts the allegation of Indian religion as superstition by labeling Christianity.
...ing message and provide an emotional punch to equal the book's resonance, which would have probably made a longer film, but added to the continuity if the film.
Talented writers can take another’s work and expand it further into new potential. By adding details or introspection, a director or writer of an adaptation can achieve in pushing the boundaries of the original piece. In the case of Where the Wild Things Are, a children’s picture book written and illustrated by Maurice Sendak, was expanded into a far more complex and emotionally developed work. The novel’s world flourishes into an intricate story through both the film adaptation and its novelization counterpart. Spike Jonze and Dave Eggers offer a darker, yet vivid variation of Sendak’s classic book by crafting a more dynamic version and cultivating the story with rich character depth and development. Through their choices in writing and direction,
Many of the first film elements that can be found in this movie work as an introduction to the two main characters of the story. These elements are meant to force the spectator- even one who had never heard speak of, or seen the two Hollywood stars shown on screen- to focus their attention on them.
The question that causes division among many regards disgust’s role in morality. Those whom have opinions on the matter are making a prescriptive claim rather than a descriptive one. The question is not about what role disgust actually has in morality, rather, it is about what role disgust ought to have in morality. In addition to arguing why or why not disgust reactions are reliable in the moral spectrum, each side also appeals to a particular view of the nature of disgust itself.
In the text “Seeing Red: American Indian Women Speaking about their Religious and Cultural Perspectives” by Inés Talamantez, the author discusses the role of ceremonies and ancestral spirituality in various Native American cultures, and elaborates on the injustices native women face because of their oppressors.
Rossetti’s use of repetition emphasizes the idea that the artist is able to set expectations for women by controlling who they are, what they do, and what they feel by recreating them through art. Rossetti shows us a woman who is repeatedly being depicted in the artist’s paintings. Repetition of the word “one” (1,2,8) conveys a sense of homogenization: many women