Creating the World (if five days)

Big Themes:

Memory.
Memory is a theme that is brought up in the book The Road. I believe memory is used because it is something for the man and boy to think about since their is nothing in their lives now except for survival. The man has a lot of memories. One of his first memories could very well be the happiest passage of the book. The man is remembering being at the lake by his uncles farm. He describes a beautiful scene of a lake and trees and a boat. He ends this passage by saying "This was the perfect day of his childhood. This the day to shape days upon" (13). Even though the scene described in his memory is very happy it comes after the man says "You forget what you want to remember and you remember what you want to forget" (12). I think that this means that the father wants to forget his perfect day with his uncle because it makes him sad. It makes him remember how life used to be. Now however, the man and the boy really have nothing  to look forward to. I think the boy also doesn't like these memories. When the man tries to take him into his childhood home the boy is very scared and really wants to leave. I think for the boy these images are creating another world that is strange and mysterious to him and that he doesn't like.

The World of The Road:
The World McCarthy has created is very bleak and dark and sad. One of the passages that really caught my attention was in the very first paragraph of the book where McCarthy says: "Nights dark beyond darkness and the days more gray than each one that had gone before" (3). This being one of the first sentences of the book really sets the tone for the whole book. You get a sense that this is bleakness and darkness beyond anything we could imagine in our life today. I think one good way McCarthy created this world through his writing was with sentence fragments and a lot of space between each paragraph. McCarthy says "Barren, Silent, Godless" (4). With these short sentences without any action or subject give a sense of being broken up. The Space also helps with that.

My Creation:

"He walked out through the woods to where they'd left the cart. It was still lying there but it had been plundered. The few things they hadn't taken scattered in the leaves. Some books and toys belonging to the boy" (70). I see this scene as a single shot from the mans point of view walking out of the woods. I would see a long level shot on the cart lying in a dirt road surrounded on all sides by a pitch dark forest. The camera would then zoom in slowly in on the cart and then to a few individual things that had been left behind by the people who ravaged it.

Double Indemnity vs. L.A. Confidential

Double Indemnity shot #49
L.A. Confidential shot #91

In the shot from Double Indemnity we get a close up of Keyes bending over to help light Neff's cigarette while Neff bleeds out waiting for the cops to come. In the shot from L.A. confidential shot we see Ecksley shooting Dudley Smith in the back while they wait for the cops to come. This is a long shot of Dudley and a close up of Ecksley's gun in the corner of the screen. The DI shot is important because for the whole movie Neff has been lighting cigar's for Keyes and now the tables have turned. We now see Keyes towering over Neff after he has caught Neff. These shots are similar because they are both the pivotal scene in the movie. We see the bad guy in each film caught at this moment and get what they deserve. Both Neff and Smith thought they were in the clear and going to get away with what they had done.

It's a Bird Section 5

Fate vs. Free Will

In this graphic novel, Steven is obviously fated by Huntinton's Chorea. Although he is unaware as to whether or not he will get it, he still feels fated. I believe that is where the fate stops. It is his choice to become a recluse and refuse to answer calls. It is his choice to tell Lisa that he does not want children. However he does so because he feels like there is nothing left for him to do. He is haunted by the words his father said "...because if we'd known about the goddamn disease we'd never have had David and Steven in the first place!" Steven lets this hit him close to home and when he tells Lisa he doesn't want children I think he is turning into his father a little bit. Steven is battling anger for what his father said and for feeling the same way. Much like Oedipus, Steven was born and after his father learned about Huntington's Chorea, he realized he should not have children. Much like when Oedipus' father learns about what his son is supposed to do, he tries to get rid of him.

It's a Bird Section 4

Will the Stephen Seagle Please Stand Up?

The beginning of section 4 starts with a large frame of Steven punching the writer Joe Allen in the face over a fight about super man. I think this frame in itself shows how even at this point in his life Steven is still haunted by that day at the hospital. I think that by jumping back to his childhood and that day at the hospital specifically we get a sense of how important it is to him. As a reader I notice the contrast between how innocent Steven is and how ignorant he is to the situation around him. As an adult, Steven knows a lot. He knows almost too much about Huntington's and I think that make's him ignorant in a different way. He is living in a world of his own, thinking about Huntington's and the affect it may have on his life. He is being very closed and rude to people around him.

It's a Bird Section 3

Words, words, words...

A couple of frames that stick out are on page 32 when Steven's boss mentions that everybody has secret identities. He tells Steven that everyone has secret identities and then asks "don't you" very casually as if he knows the answer. We then get a great shot of half of Steven's face. This is a point where we don't get any words just a picture. I think the pictur answers the question of "don't you" perfectley. By hiding half of his face we are meant to belive that Steven does have some secret identities that we don't yet know about. I think these secrets will be very important to his story and his superman.

It's a Bird Section 2

Frames

In the second section of the graphic novel, I began to notice the frames were all similarly shaped when in present time. However, when he goes back in time to something he remembers, the frames get bigger, they lose their borders. I think this is meant to make the past occurences stick out more because they are obviously very important to the narrator. Another thing to notice is at the beginning of a scene or section, the frames tend to be bigger. However, once the scene has been established the frames all become the same size. When Steven first goes to his mother's house the frames are very big. Once they begin to have casual conversation the frames get smaller. I think this is meant to introduce the reader to the new scene and characters. 

"It's a Bird" Section 1

Images
The opening few pages of "It's a Bird" are what the narrator remembers of a visit to the hospital. In these opening sequences the only people shown in focus are the narrator and his brother (and occasionally his parents). Everything else is just simple representations of what one might see in a hospital. In the background we get to see a doctor pushing a hospital bed around and really not much else other than the waiting room. I think this is meant to focus on the narrator and the situation he is in. His family is not happy and he is not happy to be in the hospital. At the end of the hospital scene the only thing that really jumps at you is the Superman comic and the superman like S on a paper from the hospital. it is the only thing in color here. This as we learn later is a very important comic to him. It reminds him of this time in the hospital.

Minority Report Photo Analysis

https://lh5.googleusercontent.com/-POxC3KQyj9w/TIb6v7tf91I/AAAAAAAAAJk/1GlIj6fYqz4/d/janus-shot.gif

The attached picture from Minority Report is a picture of John Anderton and Agatha in the lobby of the Hotel right before John is supposed to kill a man. Agatha is trying to tell Anderton that he has a choice and that he shouldn't confront the man and that he should leave. Anderton explains that he won't kill the man because he has never met him. This Picture is a two shot and is a Close Up shot. The shot is also not at an angle, it is level. It shows only the faces of Anderton and Agatha. In the photo you only see half of their faces and they are facing different ways. I belive this is meant to symbolize their differing oppinions. Agatha is trying to tell Anderton one thing but he is telling her another. There seems to be more light surrounding Agatha which I think is meant to symbolize that she is right that he should leave. Andertons face is darker and more shaded symbolizing that he is about to do something bad. 

Summer Reading Responses

1. To what extent is Oedipus responsible for his own fate in the Play?
Oedipus is responsible for his fate firstly by not believing Tiresius who told him that he is responsible for Laius' death. Oedipus continues to get angrier and angrier but he cannot accept the fact that the man he killed was Laius. Towards the end of the book he also could have listened to Jocasta and not ever found out who his true parents are and he would have been hidden from the terrible reality that Jocasta is his mother.
2. How good of a king is Oedipus? In what ways does he excell? In what ways does he fall short? Oedipus is made out to be a very good king at the beginning of the book. He was the king every one wanted. He listened to his people and their every needs, and was willing to do anything he could to make thebes a better place. I think he becomes a much worse leader when he starts denying Tiresius' prophecy that he is the one who killed Lauis, he begins to get angry and begins to only think aboout himself.
3. What is Kind Oedipus' tragic mistake?
I believe his tragic mistake is insisting that he know who his true mother and father are. This brought the realization that his feared prophecy had come true. He now realized that everything he had devoted his life to avoiding he had accidentally done.
4. In what ways does Minority Report support or refute Oedipus' notion of destiny?
I believe that the movie both supports and refutes the notion that you cannot control your destiny. In the scene where John "kills" Mr. Crow it happened just like the procog's had said it would, even though John didn't actually pull the trigger. But at the end of the movie the Precogs predicted Lamar killing John and just when the police show up, Lamar kills himself. I think both of these scenes show that you have a predetermined destiny, but that it can be changed slightly.
5. In what ways are eyes used for?
1) Precogs: The precogs can see things that will happen in the future, mainly  murders.
2)John Anderton: His eyes are mainly used so that people can determine who he is. They are used to get him into special places and later so the police can try and find him, which is why he gets new eyes.
3)The Culture of the world: The world's eyes are scanned all over so add's and computers can talk to them and sell them things, or just remember things about them.
6. In American culture today there are many things that we have that are similar to the movie, such as screens we can manipulate with our hands. iPhones seem very similar to the screen John uses however we just simply touch it with our hands. I think that in the next 44 years we are definitely headed for some major technological advances. Most likely not like in the movie where we can predict murders, however technology is moving at a fast pace. I think that in preparing for the future we don't necessarily lock us into one fate or another, I just think it will keep us pointed in a certain dirrection.

Movie's I Watched This Summer

At Home: 
Sound City
42
Deep Water
Ted
Life of Pi
Borat
Superbad
Anchorman
Gran Torino