Jaws vs Saving Private Ryan Essay

This paper seeks to compare and make a critical analysis of the political and social values in the United States as reflected in film. The premise is that the elements of identity and self-perception can be seen in the types of movies during specific periods. Two Steven Spielberg films will be used for this purpose: â€Å"Jaws† which was shown in 1975 and â€Å"Saving Private Ryan† which was played in theaters in 1998. First, let me tackle the movie â€Å"Jaws†. The film has a simple but absorbing plot – it shows how a peaceful summer town called Amity Island is turned upside down with the attacks by a Great White Shark. The new Chief of Police, Martin Brody, is one of the first persons to learn of the first attack, and has a gut feel that the incident should not be taken lightly, so he planned to have the beaches closed. Nevertheless, the first incident is brushed aside by the town Mayor since their locality depended so much on the revenues from tourists during the summer. Thus, Brody’s intuitions are disregarded and eventually, another shark attack ensues. As the story goes along, more incidents happen pointing to the fact that there is a shark frequenting the Amity Island beach. Shark hunters from all over the country gather together to catch the killer shark, where a big Tiger Shark is caught but was later found to be a dud. With the Mayor’s consent, a contractor/shark hunter named Quint, is hired to catch the shark and Brody goes along with him together with Hooper, an ichthyologist, who specializes in sharks. The three of them get to work together to catch the Great White Shark, although unfortunately, Quint also becomes one of its victims. In the movie’s climactic moments, Brody is able to feed an oxygen tank (used by divers) to the Great White Shark and shoot at it at the moment when it was already aiming to make him one of its meals. The tank explodes inside the shark, and its flesh splatters all over the area turning the dark blue sea into red. Hooper, whom Brody presumed dead, then emerges from the waters and they both become ecstatic because they have succeeded in killing the Great White Shark, and their mission has finally ended. Since the movie was shown in 1975, it was not surprising that the values shown in the film were reflective of the contemporary cultural and social values during that time. At the initial part of the film, a group of teenagers are shown gathered around a campfire. One teenager is shown smoking something which is presumably Marijuana. As the camera pans right, a couple is shown kissing. In the foreground, some teens are gathered together passing around one stick which again seemed to be marijuana. Then a teenage boy with a can of beer in his hand is focused; he was smiling at someone outside the fire, a girl who was also smiling back at him. Boy approaches the girl, girl runs for the beach, boy follows but passes out before he even gets to undress. This is the girl who becomes the first victim of the shark attack. The use of marijuana was rampant in the 1970s. Drug use was a new concept at that time and drug addiction was not considered an urgent concern then. It was the time of the hippies, sexual promiscuity and assertion of individuality. It was also in the ‘70s when the abortion rate was at its highest point in the US. Sexual liberation reached its peak levels to the detriment of the young adults during that time. This is shown in the way that the teenage girl was inviting the boy to swim in the beach, but undressing along the way further enticing the boy to follow her. The sexual overtones were evident being part of a culture that was more sexually predisposed during the said period. Although the concept of feminism was already brought up in the 1960s through the Women’s Liberation Movement, the 1970s saw a second wave of feminism which took place. However, this brand of feminism was not meant to be that successful yet as it was more slanted towards activism and asserting immediate social transformation. Hence, the portrayal of women in this film â€Å"Jaws† was still that of the inferior gender. An example of this is the typical housewife, like the wife of Brody who was portrayed as the one who kept the house and took care of the children. The character of Brody’s wife was portrayed as one who was supposed to be submissive, to cheer her husband up, to support him and be there for the kids. Another scene is shown where a media man was shouting instructions to a woman who was taking down notes like a secretary. Being a secretary is synonymous to being a servant or a slave, which was how women were regarded in the early times. Women are also depicted as sexual objects as seen in the way a girl was shown screaming on the beach because she was placed by a guy on his shoulders, and she was thrilled with being on top. Being viewed as a sex object is also tantamount to treating a woman on unequal terms. In the town meeting at the mayor’s office, the men (and some elderly people) are shown sitting down with the women standing at the back all throughout, thereby implying that women were still regarded as the less knowledgeable race – part of the audience but their opinion not really highly regarded. Actually, much of the important positions in the town were held by men, and most of the movie’s scenes were, for the most part, dominated by men. This implied a continued gender partiality which pervaded the social systems in the early days of government and is still seen on the film. Conversely though, the teenage girl shown as the one initiating the sexual move in the initial portions of the film shows that there were already some hints that the social culture was already changing, and that the film’s director was seeing signs alluding to the inevitability of feminism. This goes to show that concepts of feminism and gender equality were still in the process of being materialized and it would take a few more years for its full development and adoption into society. In terms of political insights, the movie also tackled the issue of the Chief of Police’s seeming helplessness under the Mayor’s authority. Despite the danger of possible shark attacks, the mayor denied Brody’s request to close the beach because of the anticipated loss of revenues. This denoted the irony of electing public officials who, instead of upholding the welfare of the local residents to whom they owe their place in public office, allowed even more lives to be endangered. Now, pertaining to the movie â€Å"Saving Private Ryan†, the movie as mentioned earlier, was shown in theaters in 1995, but the majority of the settings were in June 1944 in France, which was the beginning of World War II. The film starts with an old man going to a military cemetery with his family, and he breaks down as he faces one of the white crosses. His identity is not revealed nor is the name of the soldier who was buried on the grave he was facing. His face is held in close-up and a foreshadowing technique is used to bring up what happened in the past. Capt. John Miller (Tom Hanks) heads an infantry of soldiers who were sent to Omaha Beach in France as part of the US Military troops to fight against the French and the Germans in World War II. His troops are almost cut in half but they get to survive. Later on, Capt. Miller is given a mission by the Chief of Staff of the US Army, which is an instruction to find Private James Francis Ryan (Matt Damon) of Iowa and bring him back to his mother at all costs. This was because Private Ryan’s three brothers who were also soldiers have all passed away, and it was deemed imperative to bring him back alive for his mother, who had no other family left but his only living son. Capt.  Miller succeeds in finding Private Ryan but ends up having two of his men killed, and later on, he himself ends up sacrificing his life. Private Ryan is the old man who carries the guilt of having had three men to sacrifice their lives for his safety. He cries at the foot of Capt. Miller’s grave telling him that he tried to live his life well just so he may become worthy of the sacrifices they made for his sake. The genre of the film is mostly action, although there were emotional scenes as in the time when Capt.  Miller was trying to hide his sorrow from his other soldiers because of the death of his men. Leadership in the army is difficult because he always had to show his team that he was strong and always in full control of the situation. Other emotional scenes were: 1) one of his timid soldiers crying because he wasn’t able to do anything for his comrades because of his cowardice; 2) the army vehicle coming to the house of the Ryan’s where the news on the death of the 3 soldiers were to be informed to their mother; and 3) the time Capt.  Miller died. As a 1995 film, I could say that the movie tried to veer away from politics and other social issues and sought to focus on the theme of the horrors of war. Since almost 95% of the film was set in the 1940s during the war, the presence of women in the film was totally inappropriate, and hence most of the scenes were dominated by men. The film dealt with the fight scenes between US soldiers and their enemies, the goal of accomplishing their mission and finally, being able to save Private Ryan. No references were made to feminism or sexual issues, and there were no romantic scenes, or allusions to anything sexual in nature. There was one scene however when, there was a French song being played over the phonograph and translated by one of the soldiers who could understand the language. It was a melancholic love song and somehow, the conversation was directed to a memory remembered by one of the soldiers. It was about a woman who had big breasts and it was just one of those things that men talked about just to have a good laugh. Other than this, there were no other issues raised pertaining to gender inequality or incidents of treating women as inferior. The only time women were shown in the film was 1) at the beginning and ending, when Private Ryan was heading for the Army cemetery with his family; and 2) in the World War II scenes when a family was taken hostage by some French soldiers. In both instances, the women were shown as merely part of a family, but nothing was implied as to what role they had to play or what duties they were expected to perform. In other words, the director preferred to stay in a â€Å"safe zone† on the feminism issue. Regarding politics, no particular reference was made to the US government whether at the national or local levels, although the hierarchy in the military was certainly illustrated as the army soldiers had to follow the orders of their superiors at all times, even if it may cost them their lives. Such portrayal showed the strictness within the military – â€Å"obey before you question†, a popular adage among the uniformed personnel, is still practiced up to now. The making of a war film in the US during this time was perhaps influenced by the Gulf War, the war against Somalia, and later on against Haiti during the 1990s. It was also the rise of the internet, the beginning of the Information Age and the emergence of the Third Wave of Feminism. Although these three concepts were not tackled in this movie, it is particularly significant that Director Steven Spielberg chose not to inject modernity into this film. Instead, it sought to capture the violence, carnage and cruelty of war, and the devastation – both physical and emotional – which it creates in the hearts and minds of its victims. The emotional scars made by the war are irreversible, and the lives lost as a consequence of war can be very painful for those who are left behind. Comparing the two movies together, it can be said that Spielberg was good in eliciting fear from the viewer in both films – one due to the suspense from the shark attack, and the other because of the violence depicted during the time of war. Spielberg was excellent at showing the gore and aggression in two different film genres. Although movies are only make-believe representations of the real thing, Spielberg did a good job with regards to Jaws, where the editing is said to have been instrumental in making the illusion of the Great White Shark look very authentic. The boat scenes and the chase scenes between the humans and the shark were filled with suspense as the film approached its climax. In like manner, the war scenes in Saving Private Ryan are an improved version of the bloodiness portrayed in Jaws. Here, the soldiers who have been shot, the mangled bodies, detached limbs, and blood gushing from the wounds of the injured soldiers just seemed so real, you could almost smell and taste the blood gushing out. The climax of the movie was reached as the lead actor faced a tank with only a pistol on his hand. Similarly, both of the movies had happy yet tragic endings. In Jaws, the lead actor, Brody becomes triumphant as he succeeds in making the oxygen tank bit by the shark to explode and thus tear the shark to pieces. However, Quint, who is the shark hunter and who was actively in pursuit of the culprit, was not that lucky because he too was made into a meal by the shark. Conversely, the lead actor in the film Capt. Miller dies because of a gunshot on the chest which he takes in while protecting Private Ryan. The protected soldier, Private Ryan, gets to live his life well, until his old age and is eternally grateful to his benefactors (Miller and his 2 soldiers) for giving him the importance that he didn’t think he deserved. In comparing the social and cultural issues during the two periods, it can be said that the status of women in society has significantly evolved from Jaws to Saving Private Ryan. Moreover, the issues of feminism and gender equality have improved considerably from the older to the more recent film. As the quality of film-making was enhanced, so did the social and cultural issues become better in status. Politics and sexual issues which are considered sensitive concerns were not touched on in the 2nd film, perhaps due to the awakened realizations related to the current times – matters which were not taken into account during the filming of Jaws.

Slavery and Successful Slave Revolt

Prompt: Analyze changes and continuities in long-distance migrations in the period from 1700 to 1900. Be sure to include specific examples from at least TWO different world regions. The first migrations to the Americans were by cattle. The North had more slaves than the South. The South had a successful slave revolt. Trains in Russia caused the serfs to run faster. Teepees were mobile homes for Indians. Bantus migrated to California for the movie industry. Main technology that remained the same in migrations was shoes. Butterfly migration Chinese migrated to escape the weather. Migration is when a group of girls go to the bathroom together. There is no significant evidence and analysis of immigration to Antarctica. Think about it. Would you rather ride a camel or walk on hot sand? Land migration took longer because animals had to have restroom breaks. The Bantus always had nourishment and body parts to use for economic reasons. Stalin also put outrageous quotas on goods and if the quotas weren’t met, he cut off the limbs of your child. People came to America by cattle. Bantus migrated to Hawaii, where they brought new products. Adventures of penguins migrating from Antarctica. European pheasants migrated to America Ancient Egyptians migrated to South Africa every summer. When a Chinese person arrives in Egypt, the Chinese norms will be adopted by the Egyptians. When the invention of the train exploded, people were spread all over the world. The Vikings were Jewish. They became Christian when they invaded Europe. Australia was a pit stop for traders. If it wasn’t for the slave trade, President Obama wouldn’t exist and without expansion, Hawaii wouldn’t be a state, so Obama couldn’t be President. What’s so special about 1700 to 1900? Nothing. This should be enough. The Amish converted to Muslim and had to leave Amish territory. Jews would run from Germany to America. The Jews who came included Isaac Newton, who helped the U. S. invent the atomic bomb. Some things remain the same when it comes to migration. The Himalayas were located in India and still are. A problem with long-distance migration was in the space from Arica to America had water and other interruptions. Coastal regions were located near water. Sea migration was faster because you could just float. Bantus migrated to escape forced conversion to Islam and were introduced to Communism, bringing bananas. I hope you liked this break from the boring crap you usually read. Slaves were shipped to American through the Bermuda Triangle. The Bible migrated a lot. Peasants were treated like pets. The Mongols were like a hockey team, going from place to place to annihilate. Zombies will always migrate in search of brains. Trains were s low. Sometimes you could outrun them. Man y came to North America for job opportunities like trapping the French. The Bantus migrated to America in the 1800s. It took three years. There are no records of this. Birds migrate south for the winter and have been doing so for a long time. When slaves ran away, they often didn’t make it back to Africa. If people migrated through the Arctic, they would be cold. Romans migrated to Southern Connecticut but found life there to be difficult. People are bipolar so they move. Slaves caught the Underground Railroad.

Bag of Bones CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE

For men, I think, love is a thing formed of equal parts lust and astonishment. The astonishment part women understand. The lust part they only think they understand. Very few perhaps one in twenty have any concept of what it really is or how deep it runs. That's probably just as well for their sleep and peace of mind. And I'm not talking about the lust of satyrs and rapists and molesters; I'm talking about the lust of shoe-clerks and high-school principals. Not to mention writers and lawyers. We turned into Mattie's dooryard at ten to eleven, and as I parked my Chevy beside her rusted-out Jeep, the trailer door opened and Mat-tie came out on the top step. I sucked in my breath, and beside me I could hear John sucking in his. She was very likely the most beautiful young woman I have ever seen in my life as she stood there in her rose-colored shorts and matching middy top. The shorts were not short enough to be cheap (my mother's word) but plenty short enough to be provocative. Her top tied in floppy string bows across the shoulders and showed just enough tan to dream on. Her hair hung to her shoulders. She was smiling and waving. I thought, She's made it take her into the country-club dining room now, dressed just as she is, and she shuts everyone else down. ‘Oh Lordy,' John said. There was a kind of dismayed longing in his voice. ‘All that and a bag of chips.' ‘Yeah,' I said. ‘Put your eyes back in your head, big boy.' He made cupping motions with his hands as if doing just that. George, meanwhile, had pulled his Altima in next to us. ‘Come on,' I said, opening my door. ‘Time to party.' ‘I can't touch her, Mike,' John said. ‘I'll melt.' ‘Come on, you goof.' Mattie came down the steps and past the pot with the tomato plant in it. Ki was behind her, dressed in an outfit similar to her mother's, only in a shade of dark green. She had the shys again, I saw; she kept one steadying hand on Mattie's leg and one thumb in her mouth. ‘The guys are here! The guys are here!' Mattie cried, laughing, and threw herself into my arms. She hugged me tight and kissed the corner of my mouth. I hugged her back and kissed her cheek. Then she moved on to John, read his shirt, patted her hands together in applause, and then hugged him. He hugged back pretty well for a guy who was afraid he might melt, I thought, picking her up off her feet and swinging her around in a circle while she hung onto his neck and laughed. ‘Rich lady, rich lady, rich lady!' John chanted, then set her down on the cork soles of her white shoes. ‘Free lady, free lady, free lady!' she chanted back. ‘The hell with rich!' Before he could reply, she kissed him firmly on the mouth. His arms rose to slip around her, but she stepped back before they could catch hold. She turned to Rommie and George, who were standing side-by-side and looking like fellows who might want to explain all about the Mormon Church. I took a step forward, meaning to do the introductions, but John was taking care of that, and one of his arms managed to accomplish its mission after all it circled her waist as he led her forward toward the men. Meanwhile a little hand slipped into mine. I looked down and saw Ki looking up at me. Her face was grave and pale and every bit as beautiful as her mother's. Her blonde hair, freshly washed and shining, was held back with a velvet scrunchy. ‘Guess the fridgeafator people don't like me now,' she said. The laughter and insouciance were gone, at least for the moment. She looked on the verge of tears. ‘My letters all went bye-bye.' I picked her up and set her in the crook of my arm as I had on the day I'd met her walking down the middle of Route 68 in her bathing suit. I kissed her forehead and then the tip of her nose. Her skin was perfect silk. ‘I know they did,' I said. ‘I'll buy you some more.' ‘Promise?' Doubtful dark blue eyes fixed on mine. ‘Promise. And I'll teach you special words like â€Å"zygote† and â€Å"bibulous†. I know lots of special words.' ‘How many?' ‘A hundred and eighty.' Thunder rumbled in the west. It didn't seem louder, but it was more focused, somehow. Ki's eyes went in that direction, then came back to mine. ‘I'm scared, Mike.' ‘Scared? Of what?' ‘Ofi don't know. The lady in Mattie's dress. The men we saw.' Then she looked over my shoulder. ‘Here comes Mommy.' I have heard actresses deliver the line Not in front of the children in that exact same tone of voice. Kyra wiggled in the circle of my arms. ‘Land me.' I landed her. Mattie, John, Rommie, and George came over to join us. Ki ran to Mattie, who picked her up and then eyed us like a general surveying her troops. ‘Got the beer?' she asked me. ‘Yessum. A case of Bud and a dozen mixed sodas, as well. Plus lemonade.' ‘Great. Mr. Kennedy ‘ ‘George, ma'am.' ‘George, then. And if you call me ma'am again, I'll punch you in the nose. I'm Mattie. Would you drive down to the Lakeview General'-she pointed to the store on Route 68, about half a mile from us ‘and get some ice?' ‘You bet.' ‘Mr. Bissonette ‘ ‘Rommie.' ‘There's a little garden at the north end of the trailer, Rommie. Can you find a couple of good-looking lettuces?' ‘I think I can handle that.' ‘John, let's get the meat into the fridge. As for you, Michael . . . ‘ She pointed to the barbecue. ‘The briquets are the self-lighting kind just drop a match and stand back. Do your duty.' ‘Aye, good lady,' I said, and dropped to my knees in front of her. That finally got a giggle out of Ki. Laughing, Mattie took my hand and pulled me back onto my feet. ‘Come on, Sir Galahad,' she said. ‘It's going to rain. I want to be safe inside and too stuffed to jump when it does.' In the city, parties begin with greetings at the door, gathered-in coats, and those peculiar little air-kisses (when, exactly, did that social oddity begin?). In the country, they begin with chores. You fetch, you carry, you hunt for stuff like barbecue tongs and oven mitts. The hostess drafts a couple of men to move the picnic table, then decides it was actually better where it was and asks them to put it back. And at some point you discover that you're having fun. I piled briquets until they looked approximately like the pyramid on the bag, then touched a match to them. They blazed up satisfyingly and I stood back, wiping my forearm across my forehead. Cool and clear might be coming, but it surely wasn't in hailing distance yet. The sun had burned through and the day had gone from dull to dazzling, yet in the west black-satin thunderheads continued to stack up. It was as if night had burst a blood-vessel in the sky over there. ‘Mike?' I looked around at Kyra. ‘What, honey?' ‘Will you take care of me?' ‘Yes,' I said with no hesitation at all. For a moment something about my response perhaps only the quickness of it seemed to trouble her. Then she smiled. ‘Okay,' she said. ‘Look, here comes the ice-man!' George was back from the store. He parked and got out. I walked over with Kyra, she holding my hand and swinging it possessively back and forth. Rommie came with us, juggling three heads of lettuce I didn't think he was much of a threat to the guy who had fascinated Ki on the common Saturday night. George opened the Altima's back door and brought out two bags of ice. ‘The store was closed,' he said. ‘Sign said WILL RE-OPEN AT 5 P.M. That seemed a little too long to wait, so I took the ice and put the money through the mail-slot.' They'd closed for Royce Merrill's funeral, of course. Had given up almost a full day's custom at the height of the tourist season to see the old fellow into the ground. It was sort of touching. I thought it was also sort of creepy. ‘Can I carry some ice?' Kyra asked. ‘I guess, but don't frizzicate yourself,' George said, and carefully put a five-pound bag of ice into Ki's outstretched arms. ‘Frizzicate,' Kyra said, giggling. She began walking toward the trailer, where Mattie was just coming out. John was behind her and regarding her with the eyes of a gutshot beagle. ‘Mommy, look! I'm frizzicating!' I took the other bag. ‘I know the icebox is outside, but don't they keep a padlock on it?' ‘I am friends with most padlocks,' George said. ‘Oh. I see.' ‘Mike! Catch!' John tossed a red Frisbee. It floated toward me, but high. I jumped for it, snagged it, and suddenly Devore was back in my head: What's wrong with you, Rogette? You never used to throw like a girl Get him! I looked down and saw Ki looking up. ‘Don't think about sad stuff,' she said. I smiled at her, then flipped her the Frisbee. ‘Okay, no sad stuff. Go on, sweetheart. Toss it to your mom. Let's see if you can.' She smiled back, turned, and made a quick, accurate flip to her mother the toss was so hard that Mattie almost flubbed it. Whatever else Kyra Devore might have been, she was a Frisbee champion in the making. Mattie tossed the Frisbee to George, who turned, the tail of his absurd brown suitcoat flaring, and caught it deftly behind his back. Mattie laughed and applauded, the hem of her top flirting with her navel. ‘Showoff!' John called from the steps. ‘Jealousy is such an ugly emotion,' George said to Rommie Bissonette, and flipped him the Frisbee. Rommie floated it back to John, but it went wide and bonked off the side of the trailer. As John hurried down the steps to get it, Mattie turned to me. ‘My boombox is on the coffee-table in the living room, along with a stack of CDs. Most of them are pretty old, but at least it's music. Will you bring them out?' ‘Sure.' I went inside, where it was hot in spite of three strategically placed fans working overtime. I looked at the grim, mass-produced furniture, and at Mattie's rather noble effort to impart some character: the van Gogh print that should not have looked at home in a trailer kitchenette but did, Edward Hopper's Nighthawks over the sofa, the tie-dyed curtains that would have made Jo laugh. There was a bravery here that made me sad for her and furious at Max Devore all over again. Dead or not, I wanted to kick his ass. I went into the living room and saw the new Mary Higgins Clark on the sofa end-table with a bookmark sticking out of it. Lying beside it in a heap were a couple of little-girl hair ribbons something about them looked familiar to me, although I couldn't remember ever having seen Ki wearing them. I stood there a moment longer, frowning, then grabbed the boombox and CDs and went back outside. ‘Hey, guys,' I said. ‘Let's rock.' I was okay until she danced. I don't know if it matters to you, but it does to me. I was okay until she danced. After that I was lost. We took the Frisbee around to the rear of the house, partly so we wouldn't piss off any funeral-bound townies with our rowdiness and good cheer, mostly because Mattie's back yard was a good place to play level ground and low grass. After a couple of missed catches, Mattie kicked off her party-shoes, dashed barefoot into the house, and came back in her sneakers. After that she was a lot better. We threw the Frisbee, yelled insults at each other, drank beer, laughed a lot. Ki wasn't much on the catching part, but she had a phenomenal arm for a kid of three and played with gusto. Rommie had set the boombox up on the trailer's back step, and it spun out a haze of late-eighties and early-nineties music: U2, Tears for Fears, the Eurythmics, Crowded House, A Flock of Seagulls, Ah-Hah, the Bangles, Melissa Etheridge, Huey Lewis and the News. It seemed to me that I knew every song, every riff. We sweated and sprinted in the noon light. We watched Mattie's long, tanned legs flash and listened to the bright runs of Kyra's laughter. At one point Rommie Bissonette went head over heels, all the change spilling out of his pockets, and John laughed until he had to sit down. Tears rolled from his eyes. Ki ran over and plopped on his defenseless lap. John stopped laughing in a hurry. ‘Ooofl' he cried, looking at me with shining, wounded eyes as his bruised balls no doubt tried to climb back inside his body. ‘Kyra Devore!' Mattie cried, looking at John apprehensively. ‘I taggled my own quartermack,' Ki said proudly. John smiled feebly at her and staggered to his feet. ‘Yes,' he said. ‘You did. And the ref calls fifteen yards for squashing.' ‘Are you okay, man?' George asked. He looked concerned, but his voice was grinning. ‘I'm fine,' John said, and spun him the Frisbee. It wobbled feebly across the yard. ‘Go on, throw. Let's see whatcha got.' The thunder rumbled louder, but the black clouds were all still west of us; the sky overhead remained a harmless humid blue. Birds still sang and crickets hummed in the grass. There was a heat-shimmer over the barbecue, and it would soon be time to slap on John's New York steaks. The Frisbee still flew, red against the green of the grass and trees, the blue of the sky. I was still in lust, but everything was still all right men are in lust all over the world and damned near all of the time, and the icecaps don't melt. But she danced, and everything changed. It was an old Don Henley song, one driven by a really nasty guitar riff. ‘Oh God, I love this one,' Mattie cried. The Frisbee came to her. She caught it, dropped it, stepped on it as if it were a hot red spot falling on a nightclub stage, and began to shake. She put her hands first behind her neck and then on her hips and then behind her back. She danced standing with the toes of her sneakers on the Frisbee. She danced without moving. She danced as they say in that song like a wave on the ocean. ‘The government bugged the men's room in the local disco lounge, And all she wants to do is dance, dance . . . To keep the boys from selling all the weapons they can scrounge, And all she wants to do, all she wants to do is dance.' Women are sexy when they dance incredibly sexy but that wasn't what I reacted to, or how I reacted. The lust I was coping with, but this was more than lust, and not copeable. It was something that sucked the wind out of me and left me feeling utterly at her mercy. In that moment she was the most beautiful thing I had ever seen, not a pretty woman in shorts and a middy top dancing in place on a Frisbee, but Venus revealed. She was everything I had missed during the last four years, when I'd been so badly off I didn't know I was missing anything. She robbed me of any last defenses I might have had. The age difference didn't matter. If I looked to people like my tongue was hanging out even when my mouth was shut, then so be it. If I lost my dignity, my pride, my sense of self, then so be it. Four years on my own had taught me there are worse things to lose. How long did she stand there, dancing? I don't know. Probably not long, not even a minute, and then she realized we were looking at her, rapt because to some degree they all saw what I saw and felt what I felt. For that minute or however long it was, I don't think any of us used much oxygen. She stepped off the Frisbee, laughing and blushing at the same time, confused but not really uncomfortable. ‘I'm sorry,' she said. ‘I just . . . I love that song.' ‘All she wants to do is dance,' Rommie said. ‘Yes, sometimes that's all she wants,' Mattie said, and blushed harder than ever. ‘Excuse me, I have to use the facility.' She tossed me the Frisbee and then dashed for the trailer. I took a deep breath, trying to steady myself back to reality, and saw John doing the same thing. George Kennedy was wearing a mildly stunned expression, as if someone had fed him a light sedative and it was finally taking effect. Thunder rumbled. This time it did sound closer. I skimmed the Frisbee to Rommie. ‘What do you think?' ‘I think I'm in love,' he said, and then seemed to give himself a small mental shake it was a thing you could see in his eyes. ‘I also think it's time we got going on those steaks if we're going to eat outside. Want to help me?' ‘Sure.' ‘I will, too,' John said. We walked back to the trailer, leaving George and Kyra to play toss. Kyra was asking George if he had ever caught any crinimals. In the kitchen, Mattie was standing beside the open fridge and stacking steaks on a platter. ‘Thank God you guys came in. I was on the point of giving up and gobbling one of these just the way it is. They're the most beautiful things I ever saw.' ‘You're the most beautiful thing I ever saw,' John said. He was being totally sincere, but the smile she gave him was distracted and a little bemused. I made a mental note to myself: never compliment a woman on her beauty when she has a couple of raw steaks in her hands. It just doesn't turn the windmill somehow. ‘How are you at barbecuing meat?' she asked me. ‘Tell the truth, because these are way too good to mess up.' ‘I can hold my own.' ‘Okay, you're hired. John, you're assisting. Rommie, help me do salads.' ‘My pleasure.' George and Ki had come around to the front of the trailer and were now sitting in lawn-chairs like a couple of old cronies at their London club. George was telling Ki how he had shot it out with Rolfe Nedeau and the Real Bad Gang on Lisbon Street in 1993. ‘George, what's happening to your nose?' John asked. ‘It's getting so long.' ‘Do you mind?' George asked. ‘I'm having a conversation here.' ‘Mr. Kennedy has caught lots of crooked crinimals,' Kyra said. ‘He caught the Real Bad Gang and put them in Supermax.' ‘Yes,' I said. ‘Mr. Kennedy also won an Academy Award for acting in a movie called Cool Hand Luke.' ‘That's absolutely correct,' George said. He raised his right hand and crossed the two fingers. ‘Me and Paul Newman. Just like that.' ‘We have his pusgetti sauce,' Ki said gravely, and that got John laughing again. It didn't hit me the same way, but laughter is catching; just watching John was enough to break me up after a few seconds. We were howling like a couple of fools as we slapped the steaks on the grill. It's a wonder we didn't burn our hands off. ‘Why are they laughing?' Ki asked George. ‘Because they're foolish men with little tiny brains,' George said. ‘Now listen, Ki I got them all except for the Human Headcase. He jumped into his car and I jumped into mine. The details of that chase are nothing for a little girl to hear ‘ George regaled her with them anyway while John and I stood grinning at each other across Mattie's barbecue. ‘This is great, isn't it?' John said, and I nodded. Mattie came out with corn wrapped in aluminum foil, followed by Rommie, who had a large salad bowl clasped in his arms and negotiated the steps carefully, trying to peer over the top of the bowl as he made his way down them. We sat at the picnic table, George and Rommie on one side, John and I flanking Mattie on the other. Ki sat at the head, perched on a stack of old magazines in a lawn-chair. Mattie tied a dishtowel around her neck, an indignity Ki submitted to only because (a) she was wearing new clothes, and (b) a dishtowel wasn't a baby-bib, at least technically speaking. We ate hugely salad, steak (and John was right, it really was the best I'd ever had), roasted corn on the cob, ‘strewberry snortcake' for dessert. By the time we'd gotten around to the snortcake, the thunderheads were noticeably closer and there was a hot, jerky breeze blowing around the yard. ‘Mattie, if I never eat a meal as good as this one again, I won't be surprised,' Rommie said. ‘Thanks ever so much for having me.' ‘Thank you,' she said. There were tears standing in her eyes. She took my hand on one side and John's on the other. She squeezed both. ‘Thank you all. If you knew what things were like for Ki and me before this last week . . . ‘ She shook her head, gave John and me a final squeeze, and let go. ‘But that's over.' ‘Look at the baby,' George said, amused. Ki had slumped back in her lawn-chair and was looking at us with glazing eyes. Most of her hair had come out of the scrunchy and lay in clumps against her cheeks. There was a dab of whipped cream on her nose and a single yellow kernel of corn sitting in the middle of her chin. ‘I threw the Frisbee six fousan times,' Kyra said. She spoke in a distant, declamatory tone. ‘I tired.' Mattie started to get up. I put my hand on her arm. ‘Let me?' She nodded, smiling. ‘If you want.' I picked Kyra up and carried her around to the steps. Thunder rumbled again, a long, low roll that sounded like the snarl of a huge dog. I looked up at the encroaching clouds, and as I did, movement caught my eye. It was an old blue car heading west on Wasp Hill Road toward the lake. The only reason I noticed it was that it was wearing one of those stupid bumper-stickers from the Village Cafe: HORN BROKEN WATCH FOR FINGER. I carried Ki up the steps and through the door, turning her so I wouldn't bump her head. ‘Take care of me,' she said in her sleep. There was a sadness in her voice that chilled me. It was as if she knew she was asking the impossible. ‘Take care of me, I'm little, Mama says I'm a little guy.' ‘I'll take care of you,' I said, and kissed that silky place between her eyes again. ‘Don't worry, Ki, go to sleep.' I carried her to her room and put her on her bed. By then she was totally conked out. I wiped the cream off her nose and picked the corn-kernel off her chin. I glanced at my watch and saw it was ten 'til two. They would be gathering at Grace Baptist by now. Bill Dean was wearing a gray tie. Buddy Jellison had a hat on. He was standing behind the church with some other men who were smoking before going inside. I turned. Mattie was in the doorway. ‘Mike,' she said. ‘Come here, please.' I went to her. There was no cloth between her waist and my hands this time. Her skin was warm, and as silky as her daughter's. She looked up at me, her lips parted. Her hips pressed forward, and when she felt what was hard down there, she pressed harder against it. ‘Mike,' she said again. I closed my eyes. I felt like someone who has just come to the doorway of a brightly lit room full of people laughing and talking. And dancing. Because sometimes that is all we want to do. I want to come in, I thought. That's what I want to do, all I want to do. Let me do what I want. Let me I realized I was saying it aloud, whispering it rapidly into her ear as I held her with my hands going up and down her back, my fingertips ridging her spine, touching her shoulderblades, then coming around in front to cup her small breasts. ‘Yes,' she said. ‘What we both want. Yes. That's fine.' Slowly, she reached up with her thumbs and wiped the wet places from under my eyes. I drew back from her. ‘The key ‘ She smiled a little. ‘You know where it is.' ‘I'll come tonight.' ‘Good.' ‘I've been . . . ‘ I had to clear my throat. I looked at Kyra, who was deeply asleep. ‘I've been lonely. I don't think I knew it, but I have been.' ‘Me too. And I knew it for both of us. Kiss, please.' I kissed her. I think our tongues touched, but I'm not sure. What I remember most clearly is the liveness of her. She was like a dreidel lightly spinning in my arms. ‘Hey!' John called from outside, and we sprang apart. ‘You guys want to give us a little help? It's gonna rain!' ‘Thanks for finally making up your mind,' she said to me in a low voice. She turned and hurried back up the doublewide's narrow corridor. The next time she spoke to me, I don't think she knew who she was talking to, or where she was. The next time she spoke to me, she was dying. ‘Don't wake the baby,' I heard her tell John, and his response: ‘Oh, sorry, sorry.' I stood where I was a moment longer, getting my breath, then slipped into the bathroom and splashed cold water on my face. I remember seeing a blue plastic whale in the bathtub as I turned to take a towel off the rack. I remember thinking that it probably blew bubbles out of its spout-hole, and I even remember having a momentary glimmer of an idea a children's story about a spouting whale. Would you call him Willie? Nah, too obvious. Wilhelm, now that had a fine round ring to it, simultaneously grand and amusing. Wilhelm the Spouting Whale. I remember the bang of thunder from overhead. I remember how happy I was, with the decision finally made and the night to look forward to. I remember the murmur of men's voices and the murmur of Mattie's response as she told them where to put the stuff. Then I heard all of them going back out again. I looked down at myself and saw a certain lump was subsiding. I remember thinking there was nothing so absurd-looking as a sexually excited man and knew I'd had this same thought before, perhaps in a dream. I left the bathroom, checked on Kyra again rolled over on her side, fast asleep and then went down the hall. I had just reached the living room when gunfire erupted outside. I never confused the sound with thunder. There was a moment when my mind fumbled toward the idea of backfires some kid's hotrod and then I knew. Part of me had been expecting something to happen . . . but it had been expecting ghosts rather than gunfire. A fatal lapse. It was the rapid pah! pah! pah! of an auto-fire weapon a Glock nine-millimeter, as it turned out. Mattie screamed a high, drilling scream that froze my blood. I heard John cry out in pain and George Kennedy bellow, ‘Down, down! For the love of Christ, get her down!' Something hit the trailer like a hard spatter of hail a rattle of punching sounds running from west to east. Something split the air in front of my eyes I heard it. There was an almost-musical sproing sound, like a snapping guitar string. On the kitchen table, the salad bowl one of them had just brought in shattered. I ran for the door and nearly dived down the cement-block steps. I saw the barbecue overturned, with the glowing coals already setting patches of the scant front-yard grass on fire. I saw Rommie Bissonette sitting with his legs outstretched, looking stupidly down at his ankle, which was soaked with blood. Mattie was on her hands and knees by the barbecue with her hair hanging in her face it was as if she meant to sweep up the hot coals before they could cause some real trouble. John staggered toward me, holding out a hand. The arm above it was soaked with blood. And I saw the car I'd seen before the nondescript sedan with the joke sticker on it. It had gone up the road the men inside making that first pass to check us out then turned around and come back. The shooter was still leaning out the front passenger window. I could see the stubby smoking weapon in his hands. It had a wire stock. His features were a blue blank broken only by huge gaping eyesockets a ski-mask. Overhead, thunder gave a long, awakening roar. George Kennedy was walking toward the car, not hurrying, kicking hot spilled coals out of his way as he went, not bothering about the dark-red stain that was spreading on the right thigh of his pants, reaching behind himself, not hurrying even when the shooter pulled back in and shouted ‘Go go go!' at the driver, who was also wearing a blue mask, George not hurrying, no, not hurrying a bit, and even before I saw the pistol in his hand, I knew why he had never taken off his absurd Pa Kettle suit jacket, why he had even played Frisbee in it. The blue car (it turned out to be a 1987 Ford registered to Mrs. Sonia Belliveau of Auburn and reported stolen the day before) had pulled over onto the shoulder and had never really stopped rolling. Now it accelerated, spewing dry brown dust out from under its rear tires, fishtailing, knocking Mattie's RFD box off its post and sending it flying into the road. George still didn't hurry. He brought his hands together, holding his gun with his right and steadying with his left. He squeezed off five deliberate shots. The first two went into the trunk I saw the holes appear. The third blew in the back window of the departing Ford, and I heard someone shout in pain. The fourth went I don't know where. The fifth blew the left rear tire. The Ford veered to that side. The driver almost brought it back, then lost it completely. The car ploughed into the ditch thirty yards below Mattie's trailer and rolled over on its side. There was a whumpf! and the rear end was engulfed in flames. One of George's shots must have hit the gas-tank. The shooter began struggling to get out through the passenger window. ‘Ki . . . get Ki . . . away . . . ‘ A hoarse, whispering voice. Mattie was crawling toward me. One side of her head the right side still looked all right, but the left side was a ruin. One dazed blue eye peered out from between clumps of bloody hair. Skull-fragments littered her tanned shoulder like bits of broken crockery. How I would love to tell you I don't remember any of this, how I would love to have someone else tell you that Michael Noonan died before he saw that, but I cannot. Alas is the word for it in the crossword puzzles, a four-letter word meaning to express great sorrow. ‘Ki . . . Mike, get Ki . . . ‘ I knelt and put my arms around her. She struggled against me. She was young and strong, and even with the gray matter of her brain bulging through the broken wall of her skull she struggled against me, crying for her daughter, wanting to reach her and protect her and get her to safety. ‘Mattie, it's all right,' I said. Down at the Grace Baptist Church, at the far end of the zone I was in, they were singing ‘Blessed Assurance' . . . but most of their eyes were as blank as the eye now peering at me through the tangle of bloody hair. ‘Mattie, stop, rest, it's all right.' ‘Ki . . . get Ki . . . don't let them . . . ‘ ‘They won't hurt her, Mattie, I promise.' She slid against me, slippery as a fish, and screamed her daughter's name, holding out her bloody hands toward the trailer. The rose-colored shorts and top had gone bright red. Blood spattered the grass as she thrashed and pulled. From down the hill there was a guttural explosion as the Ford's gas-tank exploded. Black smoke rose toward a black sky. Thunder roared long and loud, as if the sky were saying You want noise? Yeah? I'll give you noise. ‘Say Mattie's all right, Mike!' John cried in a wavering voice. ‘Oh for God's sake say she's ‘ He dropped to his knees beside me, his eyes rolling up until nothing showed but the whites. He reached for me, grabbed my shoulder, then tore damned near half my shirt off as he lost his battle to stay conscious and fell on his side next to Mattie. A curd of white goo bubbled from one corner of his mouth. Twelve feet away, near the overturned barbecue, Rommie was trying to get on his feet, his teeth clenched in pain. George was standing in the middle of Wasp Hill Road, reloading his gun from a pouch he'd apparently had in his coat pocket and watching as the shooter worked to get clear of the overturned car before it was engulfed. The entire right leg of George's pants was red now. He may live but he'll never wear that suit again, I thought. I held Mattie. I put my face down to hers, put my mouth to the ear that was still there and said: ‘Kyra's okay. She's sleeping. She's fine, I promise.' Mattie seemed to understand. She stopped straining against me and collapsed to the grass, trembling all over. ‘Ki . . . Ki . . . ‘ This was the last of her talking on earth. One of her hands reached out blindly, groped at a tuft of grass, and yanked it out. ‘Over here,' I heard George saying. ‘Get over here, motherfuck, don't you even think about turning your back on me.' ‘How bad is she?' Rommie asked, hobbling over. His face was as white as paper. And before I could reply: ‘Oh Jesus. Holy Mary Mother of God, pray for us sinners now and at the hour of our death. Blessed be the fruit of thy womb Jesus. Oh Mary born without sin, pray for us who have recourse to Thee. Oh no, oh Mike, no.' He began again, this time lapsing into Lewiston street-French, what the old folks call La Parle. ‘Quit it,' I said, and he did. It was as if he had only been waiting to be told. ‘Go inside and check on Kyra. Can you?' ‘Yes.' He started toward the trailer, holding his leg and lurching along. With each lurch he gave a high yip of pain, but somehow he kept going. I could smell burning tufts of grass. I could smell electric rain on a rising wind. And under my hands I could feel the light spin of the dreidel slowing down as she went. I turned her over, held her in my arms, and rocked her back and forth. At Grace Baptist the minister was now reading Psalm 139 for Royce: If I say, Surely the darkness shall cover me, even the night shall be light. The minister was reading and the Martians were listening. I rocked her back and forth in my arms under the black thunderheads. I was supposed to come to her that night, use the key under the pot and come to her. She had danced with the toes of her white sneakers on the red Frisbee, had danced like a wave on the ocean, and now she was dying in my arms while the grass burned in little clumps and the man who had fancied her as much as I had lay unconscious beside her, his right arm painted red from the short sleeve of his WE ARE THE CHAMPIONS tee-shirt all the way down to his bony, freckled wrist. ‘Mattie,' I said. ‘Mattie, Mattie, Mattie.' I rocked her and smoothed my hand across her forehead, which on the right side was miraculously unsplattered by the blood that had drenched her. Her hair fell over the ruined left side of her face. ‘Mattie,' I said. ‘Mattie, Mattie, oh Mattie.' Lightning flashed the first stroke I had seen. It lit the western sky in a bright blue arc. Mattie trembled strongly in my arms all the way from neck to toes she trembled. Her lips pressed together. Her brow furrowed, as if in concentration. Her hand came up and seemed to grab for the back of my neck, as a person falling from a cliff may grasp blindly at anything to hold on just a little longer. Then it fell away and lay limply on the grass, palm up. She trembled once more the whole delicate weight of her trembled in my arms and then she was still.

Applewood auto group Coursework Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Applewood auto group - Coursework Example The range for profits was calculated as a difference between the maximum and the minimum profit for each location. The results are presented in the table below. The last row presents the results for all sold vehicles (Black, 2012:52). 2. a. To construct the histogram for the profits, the Data Analysis toolkit is used. The option â€Å"Histogram† permits to create the table and the graph for the distribution of profits (Anderson, Sweeney and Williams, 2014:106-180). b. The results show that the data is normally distributed with the small sqewness. The most frequently obtained profit is between $ 1,800 and $ 2,000. The rarest profits are within the range between $ 294 and $ 900. The profits of more than $ 3,100 are also very rare. More than 70 % of profits are within the range of $ 1,200 and $ 2,800. 3. a. To build the boxplot for variable age, the option â€Å"Histogram† in the Excel Data Analysis Toolkit can be used (Anderson, Sweeney and Williams, 2014:106-180). The results are given in the table and in the graph below. The boxplot shows that the variable age is normally distributed. The mean and the median are almost equal. The average age of the buyer is 46 years. The most of the buyers are in the age between 33 and 60 years. The youngest buyer has 21 year and the oldest buyer is 73 years old. b. The data on the graph does not support the idea that the older buyers purchase cars on which the higher profits can be earned. It is seen from the scatterplot that buyers purchasing vehicles on which the high profits can be earned are in every age group. The scatterplot does not show the presence of the relationship between the age of the buyer and the earned profit. c. The option â€Å"Add Trend Line† in Excel can be used to get the trend line and the coefficient of determination. The coefficient of determination R2 is equal 0.0684. The correlation coefficient is the square root of the coefficient of determination R = 0.2615. The results

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Electric Power Usage - Research Paper Example The table depicts the energy consumption in a week; this will eventually be translated into a year. Since energy is billed in Kwts per hour, the energy consumption of this household in the last one month, which is consistent with the billing policy that is sent every month, the total power consumption is 750-Kilo watts/hour in this household. Assuming that the trend is uniform and the average of the power consumption in the one month is used to reflect the annual consumption then this will be 9000-Kilo watts/hour in a year. This wattage expressed in duration per second will be; 9000Kwts * 3600 (second in 1 hour) =32400000 joules/ sec. (32.4 Mega joules per second). In relation to the information above it can be appreciated that the energy consumption per household is quite high and apart from electricity, it is hard to sustain the energy demand more so using other non-renewable energy sources like coal. It is therefore vivid that the amount of coal required to produce the stated energy can be calculated. It is known that the energy released by coal can be calculated in Kilowatts per hour for a defined mass of the coal compound (Stoyke, 2007). This is 6.67Kwts/hr/kg; this cannot be efficiently transferred to usable power since the thermodynamic efficiency of coal to transfer the energy is about 30%. This is about -2.0 Kwts/hr/Kg. thus the energy that is efficiently transferred is 4.7 Kwts/hr/Kg (Meier, 2006). To sustain an annual energy demand in a household, a total of about 1915 Kilograms of coal is required. In regard of the above table of power consumption, the top five energy consumers in a household comprise of cloth washers, microwave ovens, driers, refrigerator, and dishwashers. This is not the only energy consumption in a household, there are other energy consumptions that do not take place within the household though at

The Impact of Mobile Banking on the Accounting Profession in Banking Research Paper - 1

The Impact of Mobile Banking on the Accounting Profession in Banking Environment - Research Paper Example It is worth noting that Hello Money, like other mobile banking services, is different from mobile payments, which entail the use of mobile devices to pay for goods. Mobile banking is performed through mobile web or SMS. The service has been particularly facilitated by the evolution of an array of technologies, such as smartphones and web-based technologies, which create the allowance for installation of special features that support mobile banking. The full adoption of mobile banking implies that accounting systems would be automated and this would significantly accounting workplace. The crucial question is then how these changes would affect the banking environment workplace. The trending developments regarding mobile banking are well documented. According to SWIFT (2005), mobile banking is still considered as one of the pertinent topics in the finance industry, as well as for banking institutions. This has been exacerbated by the growing ubiquity of mobile phones across the global population. In a population of about 7 billion people, as many as 5 billion people will be in the possession of mobile phones. At the same time, out of all that population, only 2 billion people will be holding the bank accounts. Consumers are now increasingly using their mobile phones in making payments and bank their money. Mobile banking is described as a growing business, with users expected to increase to about 900 million while the transaction value is expected to exceed 1 trillion dollars by 2015. Many banks have come up with brands of mobile banking. However, the main concerns are inherent challenges. Various entrants, such as PayPal, Vodafone and Google are looking to mobile banking and transactions. However, the business is still immature, considering that only a few initiatives have succeeded in attracting a significant base of users.  

All for Love Essay Example for Free

All for Love Essay A parent-child relationship involves a lot of complexities. Basically, parents are responsible to provide for their children’s needs, whether material or immaterial. They are expected to perform duties to their children in spite of personal issues they have to deal with. Conversely, for children, there is the constant struggle to win their parents’ approval. These complexities in the parent-child relationship are illustrated in Sherman Alexie‘s, â€Å"Because My Father Always Said He was the Only Indian who Saw Jimi Hendrix Played ‘The Star-Spangled Banner’ at Woodstock† and D. H. Lawrence’s â€Å"The Rocking Horse Winner. † Analyses of the characters’ traits and motives provide a better understanding of how these complexities affect the relationship between parents and children. In addition, plot analyses help draw out a possible solution to the conflict. Told in the first person, â€Å"Because My Father Always Said He was the Only Indian who Saw Jimi Hendrix Played ‘The Star-Spangled Banner’ at Woostock† is a short story that talks about a father-son relationship. The son named Victor, serves as the narrator, who gives a picture of his father’s relationship with him and his mother by revealing his father’s character—his racial ideologies, hobbies, and behavior. In his revelation, the narrator gives a lighthearted view of the conflict zeroing on his father’s irresponsible behavior. Citing his father’s claim that he was the only Indian who watched Jimi Hendrix play the national anthem, the son establishes his father’s uniqueness and at the same time, his hippie attitude. Likewise, his father’s appearance to famous magazines as he knocks down an officer in defense of his political ideologies, illustrates the father’s aggressive and violent nature. Moreover, the accident the father suffers from while riding a motorcycle demonstrates his adventurousness. In sum, these descriptions show signs of the father’s irresponsible behavior, the wrong decisions he makes throughout his life. Particularly, the claim he makes regarding the concert of Jimi Hendrix demonstrates the tendency of the father to create and amuse himself with lies. Moreover, as Victor implies, his father is preoccupied with his own ambition and adventures, and he covers up his shortcomings by telling stories, and attributing his life-long search for meaning to his cultural origins. The father reasons out that his being an Indian affects him to behave the way he does. He uses his cultural origin to justify his weaknesses as a father, his obsession for music, and his erratic behavior. Parenting proves to be a difficult task for the father, mainly because of his confinement to his own affairs, his irresponsible nature. His attempt to establish individuality makes him unable to perform his obligations to his family. His acts of merrymaking with his friends and continuous search for adventures show his unpreparedness and incapability to fulfill his role as a husband and father. The difficulty of becoming a good parent is likewise tackled in D. H. Lawrence’s story. However, unlike the personal issues that the father deals with in Alexie’s story, the conflict is associated with the mother’s materialist disposition. Due to the extravagant life she is used to, the mother always feels the need of the family to produce more money. Even the house is personified as someone who whispers, â€Å"There should be more money. † Hence, the mother is always preoccupied with the thought of finding money, or as she tells her son, to being â€Å"lucky. † The excessive materialism of the mother causes her to feel indifferent towards her children. The narrator states that deep inside, â€Å"she knew that at the centre of her heart was a hard little place that could not feel love, no, not for anybody. † This indifference is what Marx (111) refers to as â€Å"alienation† in his â€Å"Economic and Philosophical Manuscripts of 1844. † In simple terms, Marx implies that as people’s material needs grow, the need to produce money and to work becomes greater. In this process, workers or proletarians such as the mother soon lose control of their lives and their selves, just as they lose control of their work. Although the mother in the story is not characterized as a usual worker, her materialist needs make her a victim of the materialistic society in which she belongs. Considering this, the alienation she experiences is one that dehumanizes her, and disables her to establish emotional connection with her children. Considering the mother’s attitude of living beyond their means, the story closely mirrors Veblen’s (â€Å"The Theory of the Leisure Class†) view of the consumerist world. As the author claims, the consumerist equate personal happiness with consumption and the purchase of material things. In his â€Å"Theory of the Leisure Class,† the author discusses that people waste money and resources in order to display a higher status than others. In the story, the family â€Å"lived in a pleasant house, with a garden, and they had discreet servants. † Although they cannot afford such luxury, the parents maintain a high standard of living in order to feel superior to their neighbors. Acknowledging the need to produce more money, the mother works â€Å"secretly† in town, designing dresses for women. Even this effort of the mother reflects her consumerist attitude. As Veblen views, for the consumerist, the woman’s role is limited to that of a housewife, as this would show off a mans success. In the story, the wife works secretly in order to pretend that the family has enough means support their needs. As Veblen proposes, by not allowing the wives to take outside professions, a man could show off his economic status, although in the story, these are all a facade invented by the mother. Like the father in Alexie’s story, whose individuality seems to come first before all aspects in the world, the mother possesses a selfish attitude, which considers everything alright as long as her material needs are met. This submission to material things illustrates nothing but her selfishness. According to Stebbins (82-83) â€Å"the person who has the least interest in continuing the relationship normally possesses the greater power and is most liable to resort to exploitative behavior. † In the two stories, we see the parents as those who are less interested to continue their relationship with their children. In â€Å"The Rocking-Horse Winner,† the selfishness of the mother is best reflected in her request to withdraw the full amount that Paul secretly endows her. Although the mother uses the money to provide better education to her children, these are all due to her pride, her ambition to be regarded as superior to their neighbors. Moreover, her disinterest to find out whoever bequeaths her the big sum proves her ingratitude and materialist disposition. Furthermore, her insensitivity to her son’s condition, the fact that the three collaborators, the son, the uncle, and the servant are able to continue their deals without the knowledge of the family, provides a more lucid proof of the selfish nature of the mother. As the story relates, the selfish behavior of the mother drives the son to eagerly and desperately please her. Snodgrass (191) offers Freudian analyses of Paul’s character, claiming that the son’s effort to win his mother’s affection is Oedipal in nature. However, one may note that there is no established feud between Paul and his father. In fact, not much is said about the father; therefore, this claim cannot be fully established. Nevertheless, through the selfishness of the mother, one may see why the son becomes obsessed in the betting game. Ultimately, it is the mother’s materialistic ambition that drives the son to engage in the betting habit. It is also that, which leads him later to lose his senses. It can be noted that during their conversation, when Paul inquires about luck, the mother points out, Its what causes you to have money. If youre lucky you have money. Thats why its better to be born lucky than rich. If youre rich, you may lose your money. But if youre lucky, you will always get more money. This statement makes the son realize the importance of money and luck. As the mother equates luck with having money, the son struggles to find luck in order to please his mother. As the narrator reveals, the children in the house feel the indifference in the look of their mother. Thus, Paul, imbued by a son’s inherent desire to gain approval and be loved, forces himself to be lucky. More than the competition that some critics establish between the father and the son, it is the son’s emotional needs that move him to create something to please the mother. The same need for affection and approval motivates Victor. As he illustrates the sacrifices he and his mother bear just to please his father, one gets the notion of a one-way relationship where the father is at most on the advantage. The attention Victor gives his father justifies this notion. Specifically, his effort to listen and learn his father’s music, the acquired love for Jimi Hendrix, and the mere belief that his father was the only Indian who watched Hendrix’s performance of the â€Å"Star-Spangled Banner† attest to the son’s struggle to win his father’s affection, and to keep the bond between them. The problem of winning their parents’ affection is very visible in the two stories. Although this issue may look petty for some, it is revealed to be a serious issue in the two stories, especially â€Å"The Rocking-Horse Winner. † As the story shows, this conflict is what makes Paul go insane, rocking his toy horse unceasingly until it gives him the idea of who will win the race. At first, one can imagine that the habit of the son may just be a simple game he plays, but at the end, as the mother witnesses his son rocks his toy horse like a madman in the middle of the night, one can sense the psychological damage that results from the child’s longing for his mother’s love. The behavior and illness that the son shows at the end demonstrate the psychological damage he undergoes. Particularly, as the races draw near, the child develops some anxiety to come up with a forecast of who will win the race. As he already loses in the first two races, his anxiety grows worse, realizing that he has only one chance left to win during the season. As such, the simple anxiety then grows worse into a General Anxiety Disorder (GAD), affecting his whole system, making him unable to sleep and eat, gain consciousness, or in other words, continue with his normal life. In addition to GAD, psychologists may also agree that Paul develops psychological gambling. According to Franklin (Psychology Information Online), psychological gambling is an â€Å"impulse control problem which consists in persistent maladaptive gambling that creates serious life problems for the individual. † It is different from recreational gambling in that it affects seriously the way one lives, suggesting failure to function normally as an individual. As the story portrays, Paul seemingly lose his senses as he rocks his toy horse in the middle of the night. He also shows abnormal behavior as he repeats, â€Å"Malabar,† the name of the horse that will win the final race.

Almodovars All About My Mother Analysis Film Studies Essay

Almodovars All About My Mother Analysis Film Studies Essay Pedro Almodovar is an auteur in Spanish national and art cinema. His films always explore the issues such as sexuality, transgender and womens life where friends and lovers replace the parents and family. In a post-feminism point of view, he disestablished the feminism but highlights the positions of both female characters and actress. His works are more targeted to women and give female audience a resonance on motion. All About My Mother is a film Almodovar made in 1999. It stills an impressive work to discover the deep feeling of women when suffering from the dead of son and lover. The storyline describe a single mother Manuela witness his son die in a car accident when he run to ask for an autograph. And then she wants to find the father in Barcelona. In Barcelona, she meets her transgender friends, the lesbian couple and a young nun Rosa. The whole film interspersed with these several womens interesting and dumbfounding stories. Some of them encounter the issues of transsexual or AIDS which make their characteristics more rounded. This title not only refers to Manuela but also point to women who were and would be mother, as well the actress. The opening scene is a smoothly and masterful camera movement in hospital. It follows the plastic infusion tube, with the blurred background and a sad music to heighten the atmosphere. The cast list in a bloody color fade in and out like the blood flowing. Without saying any word, just use a montage skill to show there is a patient or accident. Almodovar are the master of using misn-en-scene. The next scenes are still using camera movement show the medical machine. After the still of ECG, Manuela suffers the pain from death and faces others organ donation which she need to solve later (her sons organ donation). Almodovar emphasises not only the mise-en-scene, but also the collocation of color. I think it is the aesthetics of Almdovar. The scene that Manuela cooking in the kitchen, the blue cupboard and the red cloth and tomato join together make a strong Almodovar style. Gathering blue and red maybe is a habitual technique of Almodovar. The sons clothe is also blue and sit together with his mothers red. In the bedroom of Esteban, this style gets more highlights. The red wall assembled with the blue bed and chair. I can see red everywhere for instance later Humas hair and cloth as well. The film is filled with references. At the beginning, Manuela and her son sit on sofa and watch the old Hollywood film All About Eve (Joseph L. Mankiewicz, 1950, USA). That movie talking about the actress named Eve, the same way was used to reflect the story in All About My Mother, it talk about mothers and women who have relationship with acting. In All About Eve, they also mention the fans and acting issues. When watching the film, the son Esteban finds that the Spanish television station always changes the title of the movies and use dub instead of original sound track which are references from the society. In this scene, Esteban writing on his notebook has a brilliant camera angle. The camera use both the POV of Esteban and the notebook, we can see Esteban writing Todo sobre mi madre (original title in Spanish) from his hand moving. Then the title of this film appeared very smoothly. After watching the film, Manuela shares the only half photo she took when she was a actress. The camera follows the cracks and down while shows Esteban looking at the picture and later he will mention that the other half would be his father. And the play prepared for Estebans script in the hospital course, Manuela act a mother whose husband already dead and only have a son to bring up. Thats make me confused weather it is true at the first time, but I recognized that is a self-reference again. The background music and Manuelas skillful acting make it so really. Then it is the classical scene of the whole film. Manuela waits Esteban on the other side of the street. The panoramic view show the poster so big that even the pixels can be seen very clearly. This classic Almodovar poster becomes greatly popular in the film industry. I saw many books about the Spanish film use this as a cover. The car accident was shot very different with others or Hollywood movies. Last second I saw Manuela smiles and next second I heard the shocking screaming. Usually, in the classical Hollywood films, the directors often make it the opposite sequences which first the crash and then the screaming. Thats the obvious difference exist between art cinema and Hollywood cinema. Almodovar also used the POV of the driver cross the blurred window to catch the Esteban running on the street in the rain. And then the shaking and rotation camera movement (POV of Esteban) to represent Esteban were hit by the car. Through the eye of Esteban, I saw Manuela shouted and run toward s to her son but without synchronized soundtrack. This is a way to stress the sadness of Manuela rather than film and acting. The play A Streetcar Named Desire (Tennessee Williams, 1948, USA) within drama were shown and Manuela have acted a role in a same name stage play years before when meet the father. Both the stage play and the film are narrate the pain and the perplexed about life. Manuela acted Stella while met Estebans father who act Kowalski. The idea in this play is the same as the film in some degree. Both show the confusion in womens heart. The film mention the word escape, for instance, Manuela escape to Madrid Barcelona, and 17 years later, she go back to Barcelona still because she want escape. Escaping to a new circumstance is a turning point of characters life and plot. Then those subplots mess together with the exaggerated circumstances reference from the main story. Manuela meets her friend Agrado and through her knows the kind-heart nun Rosa. In Barcelona, Manuela watchs the same stage play again. When she looks at the other side of the road, we through her POV see the recall and illusion of Esteban. But when the camera turned to her, the seat beside her is empty (through the audiences POV). These editing skills touched me because the mother misses the son so much. This is the very treasure and common feeling in the world so it can be very easy to reach the deep emotion of audience. As an assistant of Huma is the new job of Manuela. When she help Huma to find Nina, Huma said: Whoever you are, I have always depended on the kindness of strangers (a street car named desire), that is a small reference but this idea lead the whole story. Rosa got pregnancy is a big twists and turns. Manuela tells her own story to Rosa when accompany her to hospital. She said: Women will do anything to avoid being alone. That is the same as the desire of Blanche in A streetcar named Desire, but the most time the reality always goes opposite with desire. Nina got drug gives Manuela a chance to go back to stage to review her history. And her acting got a big success. This gets the contradiction of Manuela and the couple. Manuela said: A streetcar named desire has marked my life. In my opinion, this sentence summarised her life on not only her life content but life style as well. The prostitute, transgender, drug additions, lesbian and AIDS these sensitive issues are all point out by Almodovar. These elements make the film more exaggerated. Sometimes make us feel fun, but next second move us make people cry. The scene Agrado entertain the audience with her life story, I saw it is a helpless action no matter on the show cancellation or spending money on her body. I do not know whether she want to be a women or not, but it is true that she need the money and live. Everyone in the film has a burden. In the darkness of life under pressure, the new things always mean the change and getting better such as the escape (I mentioned above). When Rosa wants to name the child Esteban, it is to memorize the only two male characters in the main story. Esteban is the Lura, Manuelas son and Rosas son. In the end, the baby do not have AIDS, give us the hope to new birth and put the history down. Like Almodovar write in the end: To all actresses who have played actresses, to all women who act, to men who act and become women, to all the people who want to be mothers, to my mother. Almodovars  Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown This Spanish comedy film is also an Almodovars work. It was made in 1988 and won many awards. This film is the It still tells a story about women suffering from the life and troubles. This one is a more melodrama which will contains a lot if music and romance. The emotion using is stressed in this kind of film. This film is around a mans three lovers. Pepa is on the verge of a break up with her lover Ivan. She wants to find him and to know why he is left. She even asks his wife and his son, but they do not know as well. Almodovar always want to describe a complex narrative. This work as well. Pepas friends Candela ask help from because the criminal actives her boyfriend involved. And Ivans son and his crazy wife comes one after the other. They make a ridiculous and humor story together. It is said that this one is Almodovars favorite one. Women issues, complex relationships, weird appearance, brilliant colors, soap-opera styling setting and the Spanish folk music are the reflection of the unique Almodovars style. (baidu) This film got a self-reference in Almodovars new film Broken Embraces in 2009. And it also reinforces the establishment of Almodovars female director. Voice actor who dubs the foreigner films is what Pepas work. The dub film issue is again in the All About My Mother (when showing All About Eve, dub film is common in Spain, the director related to the Spanish film industry). The film is still related to acting. Pepa fainted after dubbing is a represent that she got too deep in her acting, still almodovar explore the womens acting world. She thought she was talking to Ivan. In Almodovars film, women like to create illusion. The conversation also shows the statues of their relationship. The black and white scene at the beginning is so special that let audience know the personality and job of Ivan. Pepa said: I hate tranquil and throw the sleeping pills into the tomato juice. (In Almodovars film, the red tomatoes often show up because the tomato stands a place in Spanish culture, a Spanish characteristic.) This sentence give the same meaning as the women will do anything to avoid being along in All About My Mother. They need accompany as Almodovar explore in his female films. Then she burns her bed. She wants to forgot the unhappy things and start from new. Pack up the suitcase for Ivan while crying. In Almodovars world, although the powerful, women are weak on the emotional problems. The scene Pepa waiting outside is still a reference from the Rear Window of Alfred Hitchcock. With a strange music, it almost build a atmosphere of suspense that where is Ivan really going. To observe the people in the window let Pepe know his son. These many ridiculous and humor stories are linked together closely. The contradictions between Pepa and Lucia then the lawyer, Carlos and Marisa are the interspersion. Pepa is affectionate as in the end she stops Lucia to kill Ivan and gives up to get him again. Lucia is the craziest women. Her clothing style is always so bright which like a young girl. The scene she rides on the motorbike is boring if without her explosive hair style and the smoked makeup. The crazy avenger is send to hospital in the end. She needs to put her passionate emotion down and clam. She also admits that she has the mental illness. This let think whether she is still ill or she just want to back to the hospital to get peace. The lawyer is just a supporting role. There is not many descriptions about her. When the disc is thrown to her head and the record box is throw on her car very coincidently make all audience laugh. She is just a represent of the women in Ivans life. Candela is weak and young girl. She often makes audience laugh. For instance, her jumping, her trouble and her call to the police. Her love to men seems just about sex. The stupid behaviors make her likes a child who needs help. As the customary practices of Almodovar, the mise- en-scene and the color are the significant issues in shooting. From the opening scene I can see the colorful posters and many signs of women such as the high heel, lipstick, beautiful hands and red flowers. Many alarm clock in Pepas bedside cabinet shows she is not a clam person. And they walking so fast also show them a bit of crazy. The burned bed, red nail polish and cloth is also a kind of signs that people are easy lead by their emotion. In color, Almodovar still likes using red. The cloth and tomatoes red are everywhere in his movies. And the balconys scenery seems so faked. I feel it like a indoor studio. The red ground and the so blue sky. Again, this color collocation. In her house, the domestic birds cage is a dumbfounding props. Her hope for the bird couples are better is a kind of helpless after break up. The telephone is the bridge of communication between Ivan and his lover. Because Ivan always lies and that makes him shamed and be afraid of facing to those women love him. Like the voice actor job, he uses voice to cover the truth. He is afraid to see those women. For example, when he gets the suitcase back he does not want to see Pepa. And the most interesting and brilliant props is the Mambo taxi (he looks like Almodovar himself). The taxi driver makes it like a small home with enough entertainment such as newspaper, gossip magazines and snacks with broadcasting a relaxing airy pop music. This taxi shows three times just like a humor flavoring in the crazy story. Each time is very brilliant design. And the driver said a classical word: I thought it would only appear in the film. Just like a self-reference reflect the difference between the film world and the reality. The second time, the driver cry while Pepa crying. The last time Mambo taxi appears when they follow the Lucia. Pepa said that you would never know men, learn how to drive is much more than learn mens psychological. Like at the beginning Ivan ask have you had to forget? and Pepa answer As many as the women you remember. The whole film shows the women are weak in the emotion though they are open to love and sex. It make me feel happy and warm though this noisy story is like a soap opera. Vittorio de Sica  Bicycle Thieves This film is directed by the Italian neo-realism director Vittorio de Sica. It is also his most famous work. The Italian neo-realism is an important movement in European film industry. It made film history like the German expressions. And then it made a significant influence on the later movement such as French new wave and British social realism. It was raised after the WWII, and it was a response to the society. It aims at breaking the conventions of the traditional Italian film and reflecting the reality in the nation. Many people were suffering from the unemployment, shortage of housing poverty and deprivation. These issues are represented very obviously in this film. The film was revised from a novel. There is no child in the novel. I think the son is added by the director to heighten the atmosphere and evoke compassion and the emotional resonance. It tells a story about a poor father wants to find a job in Roma. But he needs a bike to support his working. Then the bike gets stolen. The father and his son walking around Roma try to find the bike. In the end, they disappear in the crowd with helpless. The plot is filled with several helpless scenes to show the peoples really mentality situation in that special time period. The opening scene is located in the labor exchange. So many people compete for job vacancies. And the job Antonio gets is posting. In that time, people were suffering the much unemployment and deprivation because the consumption of the war. Not only the food, but also the water was running out. Next scene is Antonio finding his wife Maria when she is queuing to get water for the whole family. These social determined characters are the lower class; and they do not have enough money to afford bike even food. It has a obvious comparison when Antonio take Bruno to the restaurant. Bruno and the rich familys child look at each other. As least, I can see the child look down at Bruno. The stolen scene is a good design. When the young wife sees the fortune teller to prospect the new life, Antonio just tells the playing boy to take care his bike instead locking. I think this is the time the bike may be stolen. But I was wrong; the bike is stolen very straightly later. The director focused on the feeling of Antonio rather than the stealing. The director makes suspense which let audience to follow the plot. This is closer to the Hollywood style (linear progression and continuity editing) though it is Italian. To see a fortune at that time was forced by the hard and difficult life. People need some intimation and encourage to building their confidence and belief. Most of them are women which have a lower position than the men. At the first time, Antonio thinks this is a ridiculous and absurd thing. Because the new job has already gave him motivation. But after looking for the bike without any result, he loses heart and only gets a useless word from the fortune teller. If you cannot find today, you will not find it forever. Antonio finds the deal between the thief and the old man. He follows the old man into a church. The meeting in the church is hold by the rich people. The same as to pay for the fortune teller, people just experienced a terrible war. They need the spiritual restoration. The police show many times in the film. First time is the police station, the officer just give Antonio a reference number and let Antonio to find by himself. A bike lost is just a small thing in their eye. I feel resonance at this time, because I suffer the same thing when I am new in UK when I lost money. The second is in the bicycle market, Antonio want to see the number of the painted bike. The last time is to search the thiefs house. All the polices action is useless but justice. It is sure that there is no evidence. Polices role is not very clear at the post-war time. In the end, Antonio tries to steal a bike but be caught soon in front of his son unfortunately. The owner forgive him because saw Bruno crying and shouting his father. It is so impressive. This is a thief behavior, but I use the word unfortunately to represent the sympathy. In my opinion, Bruno crying not for his father stealing, but for nobody helps and understands them. One of the most important reasons of this film got big success is its emotional resonance. There is something worth attention. One is the little son is only one worker who has income before his father gets the job. At the post-war reconstruction time, I can know that most children like the son Bruno were employed. Children were forced to working on the street or begging for money. And the poster is an advertisement of the American movies, Gilda (Rita Hayworth). The Hollywood movies are flooded to Italy after the war. People may admire the life in America. There are some features of neo-realism in this film. The film is location shooting. One reason is this is the way to represent the reality and next is: after the WWII, the directors do not have enough money to build studio. But this film is expensive result as the massive people were all paid. Both the father and the son are non-professional actors. I heard that the father is an unemployed in Italy. The director likes his gloomy expression and atheistic appearance. But helpless, when he finished his acting in this film, he still unemployed. All in all, this film represents the Italian social reality and personal emotion in a very brilliant way. So it is praised till now. As it evokes my resonance, I love it very much. Garrone  Gomorrah Gomorrah is directed by Matteo Garrone and revised from Roberto Savianos novel. This is a classical Italian neo-realism crime film. It is different with the traditional crime film such as the famous Italian American gangsters God Father. It is more truth than God father. Also, it is not the postmodern gangsters for example Pulp fiction. It describes a heavier theme than Pulp Fiction. I saw some comment on this brilliant work from Italian audience themselves. They are proud of this work. I think maybe it represent a classical spiritual symbol on that contemporary society. The title refers to the Bible story about Sodom and Gomorrah. And camorra also means an Italian mafia organization in Naples which is the oldest city in Italy. It destroyed and corrupted all levels and orders of the normal society. From the cameras eye, the circumstance of their living place is dirty. People who living there must chose a group seems have already become a default system. No one save there. Crime, drugs, fighting and shooting happens on the street every day. The setting here is like an urban nightmare. You will never know when you die. However, people have already used to face these issues. Toto is only a common teenager. But the connection with the mafia leads him to the drug trfficking life. In one scene, Toto ask how can I get working with you? show his desire to join this dangerous system and to represent his brave. From the young boys to the old man wants to take charge but failed because they live under the violence controlled system. That also refer to machismo which is a world constructed by the men and masculinity. They advocate the violence. The gangsters take crime as an ambitious signs which worth showing off. This idea is reflected on the two boys. Ciro and Marco always dream to own the world. They are crazy about violence. They shout I the best and the world is us in the obsolete building like they are the scarface. The poster use them shooting and plating with guns in the river. They are screaming and exciting when they make trouble and crime. In the film, I only saw the police for a few times. I was wondering that there is no law or police to manage the crime. I know it is just a film which will be faded and blurred the function of the police and regulations in the mainstream society. Then the true gomorrah must be more dark then the film describing. Gaetano is just an accounting of the mafia. He just wants peaceful life and do not want to be involved in the war. Because be afraid of shooting by other who want his money, he need to wear body armor. Pasquale has troubles only for having a lecture for the Chinese textile factory. There is an interesting scene that the Chinese boss let him seat in the trunk. I was confused at the first time why he needs to do this. Then I know it is necessary to avoid other people seeing and to protect Pasquale. They young man Roberto finds out the boss instigate the teenagers to fill the land illegally. He gave up and follows the justice. These three are more mature than the three young boys. The representations of them are more helpless because the pressure they build themselves and the ethical and mental burden. They are struggle and hesitate in their heart about the good and bad, punishment and retribution. These emotion and the trivial make them rounded. Dialogue is not so important. The emotion is much more significant. A skill was being used in the film to highlight the characters emotion. The scene the Chinese boss asks Pasquale to give lessons to his factory. The bosss face is blurred all the time while Pasquales expressions are recorded with details. It inspired by Italian neo-realism. Location shooting is obvious. It is a documentary shooting to describe five stories about different people. There is no main character. Each of the five stories has its own major characters and detailed with their psychological activities. The whole gathering makes a loose and episodic plot. The film likes an excerpt from the life of Gomorrah. The life there still continuing and the film ended with an open ending. The free camera movement seems handhold. The indoor scenes are all dark with no artificial light. Sometimes we cannot see the characters face very clearly without the three points light. And outdoor, they use the natural sunlight instead of the artificial ones. Actually, at the first 30minutes or more, I do not know what the director want to say. Without any beautiful view, so many characters and shooting all the time make me confused. Much more is the trivial things. But in the end, audience will sigh for the life. Gomorrah is a symbol and metaphor. Realist strategies: Context Characters Narrative Purpose Style / mise-en-scene The gangster as (doomed) hero Gangs and gangsters inside and outside (mainstream) society; crime and the law Codes of behaviour: Good vs evil, loyalty, betrayal, ambition; punishment and retribution †¦ Godard  Pierrot Le Fou Filmography: All About My Mother Pedro Almodovar 1999 Spain Others: All About Eve Joseph L. Mankiewicz 1950 USA Broken Embraces Almodovar 2009 Spain Plays: A Streetcar Named Desire Tennessee Williams