As the film American Beauty, released in 1999, comes to a close, Lester Burnham final arrives at peace as he realizes the beauty that is depicted in the title. Be as is may, he is suddenly met with his ultimate demise, but not before his penultimate realization. Although this film is coming upon nearly two decades old, the cinematography cannot be undermined, nor can the message as it becomes ever increasingly relevant in today’s society. For that, American Beauty is the quintessential movie that should be revered in the canon of great films. Constantly throughout the film, the recurring idea of beauty brings eventual peace upon some, while others are met with harsh realities; for them, the American dream becomes quite simply, a nightmare.…
The movie glory focuses on the 54th massachusetts regiment of all black soldiers during the civil war. It is based on letters sent by Robert Gould Shaw, who was born in Boston on October 10, 1837, to his parents. He was born to wealthy abolitionist parents, who had been aquainted with such people as Ralph Waldo Emerson, Nathaniel Hawthorne, Harriet Beecher Stowe and the famous abolitionist leader Frederick Douglass.…
In Behind the Beautiful Forevers by Katherine Boo, hope is a main central idea in the book. The purpose of the text is to show the tension between religion, power, sex and caste. Annawadi, a slum in India is filled with many children being born in already impoverished. One of these individuals includes Abdul, a young boy who scrambles through the garbage of upperclassman to recycle and sell for money. These individuals like Abdul, have hope in every circumstance to always look further than what they currently have.…
‘ he doesn’t tell me anything in his letters,’ my mother said. ‘he only complains. Here, look for yourself.’ She scanned quickly the letter the man had given her. ‘ Ah, perfetto, here – “Make sure Vittorio has some warm clothes for the winter.” And I should feel lucky he reminds me, because otherwise the poor boy would run around naked.’ (Ricci,…
In the beginning of Life Is Beautiful Guido’s son Giosue refuses to take a bath for his…
In the movie, Ordinary People, the Jarrett family face quite intense conflicts throughout their everyday lives after a son, and brother, of the family dies in a boating incident. The family’s overall dysfunction results from each person’s unhealthy way of grieving and not letting out their emotions and sorrow. Instances in which the family’s dysfunction was shown include: at the breakfast table, in the family’s backyard, when putting up the Christmas tree, at the mall, and when the mother, Beth, and the dad, Calvin, were on vacation. Beth Jarrett, especially, does not practice supplying Conrad, her son, with needs, such as those of Maslow’s Hierarchy of human needs, like love and belonging. She does this by examples like refusing to have a conversation about the death of Buck, the one who drowned in a boating incident. The father, Calvin, is quite distant and tries to reconnect with his depressed and suicidal son, but struggles to do so. Conrad, himself, copes with the help of his psychiatrist, Dr. Berger. The ways each member of the family uses fight and/or flight mode are a myriad, and this, along with possible conflict management strategies, which they could have utilized and have helped the Jarretts, will be expounded upon.…
This section will define key terms that will help to establish my thesis. Enduring is defined as an action of the verb endure, and means to last. Love is defined as to care, desire, cherish, show love to; delight in, or approve. These definitions put together therefore means to care everlastingly, to show affection, desire, or approve of, forever. Transformation is defined as an action of the noun transform, and means to change the shape or form of. This definition points out that something has been changed, their lives have been “transformed” into something else. Tragic is defined as calamitous, disastrous, fatal, or pertaining to tragedy which is defined as having an unhappy event, or disastrous with an unhappy ending. This definition points out that there has been a disastrous event that ends unhappily. It negates that love endures, that it lasts, because it has been changed into something else, transformed into something that doesn’t end happily. It is relevant for my thesis because it even if it was love that it…
“My hand shifted on my father’s arm. I had one thought- not to lose him” (Wiesel 27). Young boys look up to their fathers for protection and guidance, such as Elie does in Night. These boys love their dads and would be extremely devastated to lose them. In the novel Night, by Elie Wiesel, Elie the main character is a young Jewish boy who is put into a concentration camp with his family. Elie and his father are the only ones in his family who survive and journey on to many other camps. Elie expresses his need and love for his father as the book goes on, leading up to his father’s death and his releasement from the camps. This love between father and son is also expressed in the movie Life is Beautiful (LIB), by Roberto Benigni. In (LIB) the main character Guido is transported to a concentration camp with his son and wife. In order to protect his son from the harsh reality of the camp, Guido explains to him that the concentration camp is simply a game devised to win a new tank. Guido continues to act as if he was playing the game, resulting in his execution by a guard one day for misbehaving. Both Wiesel and Benigni focus on the hardships that took tolls on families during the Holocaust. Wiesel and Benigni use detailed settings and characters to show that family will always be supportive even in the most dehumanizing and sullen places.…
The Holocaust is one of the most horrifying things to have happened in the 20th century. About 11 million people died because of discrimination, this is not something to joke about. But the movie Life is Beautiful took a comedic perspective of the Holocaust; and casted comedic actor Roberto Benigni for the part of Guido, the main character of the film. Guido is an Italian Jew whose whole family was taken to a concentration camp. His son, Joshua, is with Guido the entirety of the film and is under the protection of Guido. Once all the children, except for Joshua, are murdered in a gas chamber, Guido must make an even larger effort to protect Joshua from death. So, he makes up a game with many rules for hiding and protecting Joshua; and this game results in Joshua’s survival of the Holocaust. Despite how deadly a situation is, survival is dependent on every effort to make living obtainable.…
In the movie, Ordinary People, the Jarrett family struggles with Buck’s death as their s struggling with survivor's guilt. The living son, Conrad, spends months in a hospital recovering from attempt at suicide and sees a psychiatrist, Dr. Berger, in attempt to recover from the boating tragedy. Conrad and his father, Calvin both want to talk about the death of Buck, but the mother, Beth, wants to avoid all conversation with his name involved. Though they have difficulty with this event the family does in fact communicate, but it is very less than good and often strained with some form of violence that is often easily fixable if they create safety and allow another to talk about how they feel.…
Imitation of Life deals with two separate story lines, Lora Meredith and her daughter trying to achieve a typical white successfulness and Annie Johnson and her daughter trying to overcome a racial problem of a black child looking white and ashamed of a black mother.…
“You should never regret anything in life. If it’s good, it’s wonderful. If it’s bad, it’s experience” (Unknown, n.d.). This quote symbolizes how everything in life can be cherished and turned into an experience. The only way people learn is through experience, which makes life better and wonderful. In Elie Wiesel’s (2006) novel Night and the movie “Life is Beautiful” (2000), there are two completely different perspectives on life in the worst of times. Both the book and the movie show life during the Holocaust and how it has impacted father and son relationships. Each story shows how the fathers and sons are impacted through two different types of experiences spent in a concentration camp during the Holocaust. In the memoir Night and the…
All of the qoutations pretty much tells the same message. But for me Rabbi Barry H Block's qoutation most strongly captures the essense of the film. As i read the qoutation ''hope and laughter can bring light into even the darkest corner'' affect me,it is because our country is in the list of poorest countries in the world. We need to work everyday under the sun just to buy food for our families.One thing that i am proud of being filipino is you can't really tell if we have a problem because we are always smiling. One thing that makes every filipino happy is a karaoke machine,there is no family who doesn't have one. I remember when I was still in the Philippines we sing for forever until we get the 100% score and we even sing until dawn. Thats why were proud of Jessica Sanchez 2nd runner up of American Idol because she get to show other people what filipinos got.Even if people don't have any food or money in there we have our neighbours who shares what they have,that is love and were still smile and laugh even though deep inside were not. I focused more on the word ''laughter'' because it is really the best medicine. This response is more on emotional that intelectual because i experienced it before.…
1- Referring to your notes on the film, Imitation of Life, explain how having the ability to pass is a blessing and a curse. Make sure to be specific and provide one blessing and one curse.…
Sitting in a university classroom, coming from a fairly privileged socioeconomic background it is difficult to image the experiences of inhabitants living in Indian slums. Katherine Boo’s novel, ‘Behind the Beautiful Forevers’, coupled with course material helps begin to depict a story of poverty that many North Americans have been sheltered from. Therefore, in this paper chapter’s one and two from Boo’s novel will be analysed based on theoretical content presented in the first half of the ‘Development and the City’ course. Discussing such topics as socio-economic relations, gender differences and aspirations of those living within slums, this paper will attempt to highlight some of the constraints these individuals encounter. In addition,…