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How Does Dubus Use Editing Techniques In Killings

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In Andre Dubus’s short story “Killings”, Matt Fowler would surely agree with Taylor Swift’s lyrics, “there is nothing I do better than revenge”. Ironically due to the many forms of killings, whether murder or love, every character impacted feels the need to seek revenge on the situation. However, connecting Dubus’s story with Todd Field’s film, In the Bedroom, which was produced to match the book, the audience is opened up to stronger symbols as well as the cinematography utilized. In Dubus’s story, the reader just reads about how Frank’s parents and Mary Ann feel, but through film, the viewer is able to notice symbols and the use of cinematography terms through various shots, angles, and editing techniques. Although Dubus’s short story, “Killings” …show more content…

Ruth becomes extremely depressed, and can not do very much after the death of her son, which did not benefit her and Matt’s relationship. Matt’s coping mechanism is to just blow situations off and go back to how things used to be, while Ruth can not escape the problem because it takes her over. For example, in the film, Field uses an overhead shot to convey that Ruth is reading the newspaper with reports about Richard’s bail in multiple different articles (In the Bedroom). While he could have used a tilted angle or moved the camera around to show this, the significance of the overhead angle makes a crucial statement for itself. This angle shows her weakness in this news, and how much she dreads reading this heartbreaking news about the man who murdered her son. Richard’s name is taking over Ruth’s mind because she is the one who sees him everywhere and is constantly reading about the case, however, Matt admits that he does not ever see him anywhere (Dubus line 24). Since Matt does not run into him on the streets or the store, or really anywhere he may just take it as an out of site out of mind situation. Even though Ruth and Matt have different coping mechanisms of how to handle the death of their son, their surroundings make it drastically different to even attempt to understand where the other one is coming

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