The thriller film ‘Witness’, directed by Peter Weir in 1985, tells about cultural conflicts between the Amish of Western Pennsylvania and Modern American corruption and violence. Philadelphia Police officer, John Book was obligated to hide from the three brutally and corrupt police officers as they were looking for a little Amish boy, Samuel Lapp. The boy witnessed the brutal killings and identified the killer as the three police officers. The ‘Witness’ strongly displayed many images of people and incorporated several techniques and images in various scenes to portray the contrast between two different worlds.
The scene depicts the peaceful and calm surroundings of the Amish. This is most apparent in the scene where a slow panning
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The journey of Rachel and Samuel Lapp to Boston to visit Rachel’s sister becomes quite an experience. The varieties of camera shots give the audience Samuel’s perspective of Philadelphia station. Harsh and loud noises from large crowd contrasts with the high level angle shot of people walking around independently in the train station, increase the individualism of the modern world. In contrast, Amish community is a collective group. Within the murder scene at Pennsylvania train station, Samuel, a young, innocent and naive Amish boy views a horrific murder. The close up shot of Samuel’s terrified eyes is strongly contrasted with the camera shots were moving back and forth from Samuel’s face and the horrific event happening in front of him, the shots kept increasing in speed demonstrating Samuel’s beating heart. This is an unnatural scene to Samuel, one he would never have to experience within his Amish world. This emphasises the culture different views on violence in such a violent way. In the Amish society everyone is considered to be equal and taking of another people’s life will be shunned. However, this scene reinforces that violence has no place within the Amish culture, whereas the Western world would resort to whatever is necessary. Weir’s choices of urban
There are moments where our surroundings bring out certain emotions in us, sometimes impacting the way we live and view life. Robert Butler portrays this use of setting in the story "Christmas 1910" through the life of a girl named Abigail. All throughout this piece, the author is symbolizing how the country setting is affecting Abigails life, conveying loneliness and feeling disconnected with the outside world.
The movie “Falling Down”, released in 1993, depicts an unemployed defense worker who becomes frustrated with society and unleashes that frustration on the Los Angeles community. The movie follows William through is destruction as well as the impact his actions has on other characters in the movie. It becomes apparent that the events and characters in the movie are ideal illustrations of the criminological theories anomie and social control.
The figures that were shown to the prisoner in the cave could be viewed as idols praised by the prisoners and puppeteers. Religion can be viewed by some as a cave. Being kept in the dark of there religion and forced never to see the light. Some religions brain wash there followers to see things only there way. If you don’t see, act or think how there religion views you should be. they may kill you. The Amish religion can be view like the prisoners in the cave. They are taught from a small age that God is all you need and the everyday life most Americans live is a blasphemy of God. They live a simple life most have no electrical devices and choose to dress modestly and in plain colored clothing. Some Amish travel to towns for supplies but most tend to grow everything there self. Children are shielded from the outside world until there teenage years when they participate in rumspringa. This event is where teenagers are given the choice to stay within the Amish culture or they choose to be an outsider. In summary the Amish are similar to the prisoners in the cave being told what to do and how to act there whole life until the day they can see the world and make their own choices. One important note most Amish teenagers choose to stay within the Amish community. Cults are similar to the Allegory of the cave. Members are kept in the dark, from what
Tiller Russell’s enthralling film “The Seven Five” is shameful yet engaging that it gives a valuable lesson. The documentary focuses on the occurrences in the 75th precinct of East New York during the dark days of the 1980s and the true-crime deeds of Michael Dowd, a corrupt officer, through interviews with Dowd himself, investigators, Dowd’s partners, and drug dealers. Joined the New York Police Department in 1982 when he was 20 years old, Michael Dowd became a patrol officer for 10 years and 5 months, and within that decade, he confessed into using his authority to commit crimes and acts of corruption in violation of his sworn duty to uphold the law.
The first example of society behavior is used through the story of a late thirties white man name Benhard Goetz who shoots four black youths on a subway cart in New York. This anecdote is significant to the novel because it takes place in the mid-80s where society is pointed by drugs, and violent brutality wreaks havoc through the city of New York. Leaving his Manhattan apartment, Goetz hops on the subway and notices four African American youths “horsing around,” and “acting rowdy.” According to the story, Troy Canty, one of the boys, asked Goetz for five dollars. Out of instinct James another one of the boys, “gestured toward a suspicious-looking bulge in his pocket, as if he had a gun in there.”
The timing for the presence of a make-believe house that never existed in the town of Georgia determined the destiny of a family of five. The protagonist and the protagonist are center for the actions of good and evil. Whether good or evil is used for a beneficial or evil ways, they both go hand in hand. In accordance to the grandmother, she used the form of good to manipulate a criminal into think that he had good left in him deep down. She also used the sense of goodness in her desperate time of need for survival when she was standing in her grave face to face with the Misfit. On the other hand, the Misfit commits such violent acts to survive and had the necessary necessities to prolong his life. He only acts in violence because it brings good to him a way. The Misfit who has no one and no family and las lost all sanity does what he has to do to be alive. The story has a foundation of family, the influence of manipulation, and good vs. evil. Which are the characteristics and the personality of the protagonist and the antagonist. In a way, the main characters play the role of god. The grandmother plays the role of a judge on who is “good” and who is “evil” she considers herself a good Christian and the Misfit is just Evil in his actions. The Misfit plays the role of god by taking innocent lives and thinking it is okay because he says the punishment and crime never match with the person committing it. He was punished for the killing of his father, which he did not commit. Humanity is destined to be flawed and is capable of both actions. Even though good is always within reach, so is evil at the same time. Both main characters were stripped with what they valued the most and were left alone with nothing. The Misfit was a social outcast on the run from the system and the Grandmother was left alone in a devastating state
William Attaway’s novel, Blood on the Forge, displays a family torn apart as a product of systematic exploitation. In the compelling narrative, the Moss brothers, Big Mat, Chinatown, and Melody, migrate to the north in motivation of Big Mat committing the murder of his riding boss. As they begin to adjust, their perception of the north’s assumed and rumored opportunities quickly conforms to the reality of what is actually offered. Through plot lines of the very act of migrating, acclimating to regenerated labor and norms, and, finally, the dissolution of the brothers’ identities and close family connection, it is observed that their exodus to the north is just as empty of benefits as the south. Attaway accomplishes depicting an accurate account of the contrasting exploitation that occurred in both the north and the south by portraying the Moss brothers’ demise as a result of their migration from a systematic, rural setting to an industrial, diminishing, and, ultimately, unfamiliar environment along with how the two regions parallel in similarities concerning economical and social consequences, permanently affecting the brothers altogether mentally and physically. Where there was great potential for a rebirth of opportunity and success, the result was a contrasting reality of misery and permanent damage.
When a young author from New York City decides to take a trip to the southern city of Savannah, he finds himself falling in love with the town and ends up renting an apartment. He encounters many different characters, including Danny Hansford and Jim Williams, that gives the reader a good look into the aura of Savannah. The main conflict in the book occurs when a murder happens in an old mansion located in the town. The book follows the progression of the trial and the outcome following the court’s decision.
This story begins to drive the sense of emotion with the very surroundings in which it takes place. The author starts the story by setting the scene with describing an apartment as poor, urban, and gloomy. With that description alone, readers can begin to feel pity for the family’s misfortune. After the apartments sad portrayal is displayed, the author intrigues the reader even further by explaining the family’s living arrangements. For example, the author states “It was their third apartment since the start of the war; they had
Smoke Signals and Arrow of God have similar archetypes, patterns of conflict and philosophies. Events after each protagonist’s birth are considered unusual, requiring the heroes to leave home and confront their egos. Along the way the protagonist’s each face patterns of conflict. With each heroes return the individual has been ‘reborn’ psychologically. Both heroes are affected by decolonization; therefore stoicism is prominent throughout the two tales.
It was the mugshot seen everywhere. The case the shook a decade and changed the way the U.S public handles the crimes of celebrities. In 1994, then America’s sweetheart Orenthal Simpson better known as O.J Simpson was arrested and charged with the murders of his estranged wife Nicole Brown Simpson and her friend Ron Goldman. There had never been a phenomenon like this before. It further separated an already divided nation and sparked a conversation on the obsession and idealizing of America’s elite. There have been many depictions of the crime and following court case, but only few correctly capture the essence of the race, celebrity, and power that lied at the center of the case. Ezra Edelman’s OJ: Made in America is one of the better documentaries. Edelman’s OJ: Made in America uses technical codes, specifically music and editing to explore the “Hollywood-esque” magnitude and celebrity of the OJ Simpson murder case and unbiasly connect viewers to the case.
Holcomb exists as an isolated town in the middle of nowhere. Small towns like Holcomb, remote Midwestern towns, often represent innocence and the American Dream. A stereotypical ideal materializes that in a small, secluded town a person knows their neighbors exceptionally well and there is complete trust and faith in every individual. Often, a strong sense of community and overall safety occurs among the townsfolk. The murders are a rude awakening to nearly the entire town, that not everyone is as innocent as they may appear. “After he'd hung up, a colleague asked, 'What's wrong? Marie scared?' 'Hell, yes,' Dewey said. 'Her, and everyone else.'” (87.) The town is truly not as pleasant and trustworthy as it portrayed itself before the tragedy, the gossip proves that there is
As Anderson does a walking tour of Philadelphia, he sees the very divergent aspects of the city by observing the people, places and tension around him. Walking the readers through a very poor area of the city, to Center City and through an upper-middle-class area, he attempys to answer the question of how race is lived and considered in Philadelphia. Although he is most interested in the Cosmopolitan Canopies of the city, he shows that there are parts of the city that are not as diverse including the poor sections and upper-middle-class
The unprecedented terrorist attack on the World Trade Center Towers and the Pentagon was a horrific, life-altering event for all Americans, including the Amish. Experts are still uncertain of precisely how this tragedy has psychologically impacted (or will impact, in the long run) America’s children and adults. However, since the Old Order Amish do not watch TV, nor read the daily newspapers, I am convinced that it did not affect Amish children nearly as negatively as it did non-Amish children.
The book’s main focus is on the gradual disillusionment of the narrator and his personal battles. In particular, the book develops the battle the narrator faces when he discovers the truth about the Brotherhood organization. He eventually realizes that they are using him for their own purposes and encouraged him to incite the blacks to a riotous level so they will kill one another. The narrator develops feelings of hopelessness when it becomes apparent that he is being betrayed by both white and black cultures. His overwhelming feeling of emptiness comes to a climax when he falls into a manhole during a riot. While hibernating in the underground black community, the narrator struggles to find meaning in his invisibility and to come up with his true identity. The seclusion allows the reader to realize the disillusionment of the narrator. Ellison does an incredible job of getting inside the narrator’s character and describing his emotional battle. At times it feels as if the text is purely his thoughts transcribed directly onto the page. The narrator traces back his history