Preview

Examples Of Dualism In Pleasantville

Good Essays
Open Document
Open Document
192 Words
Grammar
Grammar
Plagiarism
Plagiarism
Writing
Writing
Score
Score
Examples Of Dualism In Pleasantville
Gary Ross’ 1998 fantasy film Pleasantville explores the dualities of nostalgia in beautifully explicit ways. Produced by New Line Cinema, the film initially set in the 90s, shadows siblings and protagonists Jennifer and David in their profound journey into understanding society and self and the complexity of it all. Jennifer and David are, quite literally, opposite forces; Jennifer is made to be seen as superficial and shallow for her sensual confidence and ability to navigate the turbulent waters of teenagehood and high school, while David is made to be socially inept and virginal, channeling his libido into an obsession with an old 1950s television program by the name of Pleasantville. One evening, after a scuffle for the TV remote, fate,

You May Also Find These Documents Helpful

  • Better Essays

    The film, ‘The Castle’, directed by Rob Sitch, is an Australian satirical movie about the triumphs of an ordinary working class family. It is a comedy, and foregrounds the importance of family and loyalty, which are considered important in today’s Australian society. Although the audience is positioned to feel sympathy for the Kerrigan family because of their unfortunate situation, their story is told in such a comical manner that the audience can’t help but find it funny. The story is told through the perspective of Darryl Kerrigan’s son, Dale, but so much emphasis is put on Darryl that it is clear that he is the star of the story. The film uses techniques like camera shots, language and the use of narration to develop conflict between a decent, old fashioned suburban family, the Kerrigans and seemingly evil corporation called Airlink. Feature films like ‘The Castle’ are cultural products because they use attitudes, values and stereotypes about what it means to be Australian.…

    • 1543 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Better Essays

    In the film Pleasantville, David is obsessed with the 50’s sitcom Pleasantville. He uses this show as an excuse to escape from the harsh reality he is forced to deal with everyday. In relevance to society… if Pleasantville acted as a religious allusion, could humanity be turning to religion to provide them with a light in the dark when the going gets tough? Just as David looks to this unrealistic TV show to escape from the darkness surrounding his family, high school and teenage years? How is it that elements of a plot such as symbolism and allusions can hide the fact that Pleasantville may not be so pleasant after all? The main element in the structuralist criticism is semiology; the film Pleasantville has many subtle themes and meanings camouflaged by allusions and signifiers. This film takes many elements of religion, controversy and censorship into consideration; the film demonstrates these themes with symbols and allusions directly related to historical events that have been learned about for generations. In the upcoming paragraphs, these symbols, themes and meanings will be thoroughly discussed.…

    • 1679 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    The story of Jekyll and Hyde is one of the classic legendary stories. Two persons are in contradiction but also describe dualism within each human being that forms a unity as a whole person. Through his work Robert Louis Stevenson shows his genius unraveling the most basic traits of every human being. The hypocrisy of a man who does not want to sacrifice his reputation as an honorable creature but on the other hand churns out the desire to satisfy the desire of the darkest side of him. The evil side of his own personally consciously awful and destructive reputation can not be avoided as his adventurous side of the evil is so fun, stressful and makes life so excited.…

    • 148 Words
    • 1 Page
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    The main point of this essay is that Churchland's denial of the dualist position is based on shortsighted and ineffective views. Churchland poses an inadequate rebuttal by rejecting the position of dualism on false pretenses.…

    • 299 Words
    • 1 Page
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Good Essays

    Essay On Duality

    • 391 Words
    • 2 Pages

    The protagonist conceives his world in terms of dualities (inside/outside, black/white, human/monster), the fact that he avoids the temptation of the female vampires standing outside the house during night, is a way to understand the implicit racism of the novel. By avoiding the potential sexual encounter, he avoids the breaking between the boundaries of the dualities previously mentioned, thus preventing the mixture of blood, not only because of the bacteria, but also avoiding the mixture between races and keeping his body uncontaminated and pure. The lust he feels towards the female vampires, if we take into account the metaphor of the differentiation between white and black people, the sexual exploitation of black women carried out by white…

    • 391 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Substance dualism contends that there are two substances, which are separate from each other. When I say, “separate from each other”, I mean that, individually, they are able to exist or function without one another. On the contrary, property dualism contends that, instead of there being two different substances, there is only one substance (the physical substance), and within that physical substance, there are two different properties (a physical property, and the mental or non-physical property). Now, the non-physical property (within the physical substance) cannot and is not reducible because it cannot be found. For example, I cannot simply open up the brain and find non-physical properties such as qualia.…

    • 606 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    I will be arguing for Cartesian dualism in this paper. I will argue that Cartesian dualism offers a more reasonable explanation of reality than Darwinian monism. I believe that the mind and the body are two separate things. Life did not just happen by chance. Someone or someone’s mind, created this universe. For anything to take place someone has to have made the first move. “Now whatever is in motion is put in motion by another, for nothing can be in motion except it is in potentially to that towards which it is in motion.” (153) I agree with this because everything has to start somewhere from something. We are our minds, our bodies are just a place where our minds and souls takes place as long as the body function. I am not certain about what happens to our soul when we die however I know it is still somewhere in the universe thinking, feeling or affecting. The mind and body connection is like Rene Descartes explains that if you can think, like you are thinking when you are reading this, you exist. Moreover now when I think…

    • 462 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Better Essays

    Dualism is the belief that reality consists of two different, separate substances: that of the mental and that of the physical. "In philosophy of mind, the belief that the mental and physical are deeply different in kind: thus the mental is at least not identical with the physical." It directly opposes materialism, as dualism dictates that the mind is unidentifiable to the body, as opposed to stating that the mind and body exist as one. The concept of dualism is not only fundamental in philosophy, but also affects our thoughts on science, religion and psychology: for example, if a convincing rejection of dualism can be formulated, the materialist approach of modern science will be vindicated. If, conversely, dualism can be convincingly maintained, then our evidence obtained from studies of the brain would simply not suffice in gaining any form of insight into the human mind. Dualism is a logical necessity: sustained as a question that does not need to be answered as it can be fulfilled a priori, owing to the fact that humans have the ability to seek introspection regularly. Indeed, we experience the separation between our body and mind, which would support the notion that they are separate entities and empirical evidence is not required to prove such a concept. However, this does not mean that dualistic theory is foolproof: for example, can our experience be enough to prove such a concept? Indeed, many philosophers are not in favour of dualistic ontology. In the course of addressing this question, the origins of the mind and body problem will be discussed, which will then permit a fully focussed evaluation of the strengths and weaknesses of Cartesian Interactionist Dualism. Whilst looking at the support for Descartes' theory I will explore arguments from Madell, David Chalmers and T.H Huxley amongst others. Conversely, whilst addressing the criticism of Interactionist Dualism, I will explore the works of Ryle, Hume and Williams. Finally, the wider implications that…

    • 4596 Words
    • 13 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Good Essays

    Arguments Against Dualism

    • 442 Words
    • 2 Pages

    The first argument I put forward to support dualism is; the brain and mind of human beings are different from each other. They both have unique properties and distinctive roles in human beings. The brain has definable characteristics that can be observed and analysed (Robinson, 2012, p.2). For example the activity of the brain when sleeping is examinable on electroencephalograms (Marieb & Hoehn, 2013, p.452). A magnetic resonance imaging reveals the location of different functions of the brain (Marieb & Hoehn, 2013, p.432¬). When dissected, the brain’s physical properties, such as size, shape and colour can be analysed (Robinson, 2012, p.2). On the other hand the mind is not discernible to science, it does not have physical properties like the brain. The mind is a mental awareness of the interactions occurring within and around the human body (Robinson, 2012, p.7). It observes and moderates our thoughts, emotions and reactions (Robinson, 2012, p.2). The mind is the human body’s mental state. It is private and only observable to other humans, by that human’s behaviour, actions and voiced output…

    • 442 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    About eight o’clock mother came after me—frantically searching the theater.” The 1920s brought on a new phenomena of immersion through the motion picture realm. Movies has a way to resonate with its audience even after it finishes; “ I remember one time seeing a movie about an awful fire. I was terrified by the reality of it and for several nights I was afraid to go to sleep for fear of a fire and even placed my hat and coat near by in case it was necessary to make a hasty exit. Pictures of robbery and floods have affected my behavior the same way.”…

    • 1176 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Better Essays

    Argument of Dualism

    • 1045 Words
    • 5 Pages

    Dualism is the theory that mind and matter are two distinct things. The main argument for dualism is that facts about the objective external world of particles and fields of force, as revealed by modern physical science, are not facts about how things appear from any particular point of view, whereas facts about subjective experience are precisely about how things are from the point of view of individual conscious subjects. They have to be described in the first person as well as in the third person.…

    • 1045 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Good Essays

    The film that I have chosen for my final presentation tackles the themes of stereotypes that have been logged into the minds of film viewers and just people in general, for many eras. Crazy/Beautiful (Stockwell, 2001), a film produced by John Stockwell, was released on November 13, 2001, and starred Kirsten Dunst, Jay Hernandez, Bruce Davison, Lucinda Jenney and Taryn Manning, is one that not many people are familiar with, nevertheless it is a film that I truly believe is fantastic. Mainly for the use of stereotypes that most of our generation has become accustomed to flipping it on its head. This is a film like most of the coming of age; teen love story, films that we have become familiarized to in the last few decades with a story that we…

    • 1253 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    Dualism

    • 450 Words
    • 2 Pages

    The focus of the article “Dualism Defended” by J.P. Moreland is the conflict between Physicalism, the idea that the only thing that exists is matter, and Dualism, the idea that not just a body exists, but a mind/soul as well.…

    • 450 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    Dualism

    • 1476 Words
    • 6 Pages

    Question: In dualism about the mind and body a more plausible view than the view that we are purely physical beings? Give reason for your answer.…

    • 1476 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Good Essays

    By examining dualism, idealism, and physicalism, it becomes clear that idealism has the best arguments in its favor and has the fewest philosophical problems. George Berkley, Rene Descartes, and J.J. C. Smart were philosophers who were trying to understand the relationship between the mind and the body. George Berkeley believed there are no mind independent objects, and that everything that exist only exist through one’s perceptions. Rene Descartes thought that the mind and body had a causal relationship. J.J.C Smart believed that all there is are psychical things, and that everything could be explained through physical terms.…

    • 422 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays

Related Topics