Throughout history, individuals have deliberated on social issues faced in society through their works of literature. During the 1960’s, the United States consisted of sparks of change that impacted an individual or the society. George Romero, director of Night of the Living Dead, constructed a document of contemporary social changes by addressing social issues, such as women’s right, race, and the media. First of all, George Romero produced a document of contemporary social changes by incorporating the women’s right. To begin with, the 1960’s was a time period that changed the life of a woman because they began rebelling for what belonged to them. For instance, Kenneth T. Walsh, author of The 1960s: A Decade of Promise and Heartbreak, stated …show more content…
During the 1960’s, there were numerous amount of issues regarding race that separated the colored and the white. Because African American were slaves in the south, they are often taken advantage of. According to Walsh, he expressed “America’s cities become power kegs as African Americans, despite historic gains”, which mean that although African American had a tough historic background, they still managed to become powerful. Specifically, in Night of the Living Dead, Romero made the protagonist an African American male who hold the power. For instance, during the zombie apocalypse, when Harry Cooper, a white male, tried to control the house, Ben fights back stating he is going to fight for everything and everyone in the house. As an African American, he’s fighting for everything and everyone in the house who are all white. Lastly, the film consisted of one African American male who held the power and have the authority to control everyone else. For instance, when Harry Cooper attempted to gain the control, he was quickly overpowered by Ben. In summary, race was a major negative issue in the society, but Romero presentation showed how African Americans are beginning to demand their rights and acquire them. As can be seen, by including race into the film, Romero is able to produce a document of contemporary
Conscience is the feeling inside one 's self that alerts them that something is wrong. This can sometimes be overpowered by stronger external forces such as a powerful authority figure, surrounding circumstances, or the belief that what they did was correct. Through, Eichmann in Jerusalem: A Report on the Banality of Evil, Hannah Arendt argues that for the first time the world has encountered a different kind of criminal- - one that blindly followed orders from superiors and was made to believe the anti-Semitic ideology, although it could have been any ideology. Similarly, in her work, A Human Being Died That Night, Pumla Gobodo-Madikizela claims that the actions of ordinary citizens could be influenced by surrounding practices and drive people
The checkered past and symbolism of the Overlook Hotel in Stephen King’s novel ,The Shining, reflects the characters’ pasts and influences their actions in order to show the building as more of an antagonist (of sorts) than a setting. One example of support for the claim is when Jack Torrence is having a dream after discovering the blood and bits in the Presidential suite from a gang fight years prior, where he believes that he is killing an intruder of the hotel with a mallet, but as he threw the mallet down, “the face below him was not of the intruder but of Danny’s. It was the face of his son. Then the mallet crashed home, closing his eyes forever. Suddenly Jack awoke standing over Danny’s bed, his fists clenched tightly.”
Hordes of flesh eating murderers move slowly towards a defenseless white girl, she has nowhere to run, seemingly out of nowhere, a black man comes to the rescue as a white family ignores the obvious screams for help from the other side of a door. This exact situation occurs in the film Night of the Living Dead, and although he does everything he can, the main character, Ben, still ends up shot by the people that are supposed to protect him. Throughout the movie there is a prevalence of rebellion and aggression towards Ben due to nothing other than the color of his skin. Through the actions of Ben and those around him in their struggle for survival, racism is shown as an extremely prevalent issue. Mr. Cooper feels threatened by Ben which causes
In the musical “Little Shop of Horrors,” Davis Weaver plays the antagonist role of Orin Scrivello, the cringey, sadistic dentist and abusive boyfriend of Audrey. I was particularly impressed with Weaver’s versatility as an actor, being that he plays five different roles throughout the musical. Additionally, Weaver’s various vocal tones, postures, facial expressions, tactics, movements and gestures, and use of props effectively reveals Orin’s superobjective and allows Weaver to be as believable as this character possibly can be given the circumstances. I felt that Weaver believably integrated Orin’s internal struggles with his violent background and history of abuse into his external performance, conveying an emotionally unstable character.
Stayin’ Alive by Jefferson Cowie was a historical narrative of the political and labor movement in America. Politics and values aligned. With final words from Cowie, it is recognized that the political ideologies changed during the 1970s but just as influential was the “music, television, and film turned the hopeful crosscurrents of the early years toward a rather unified message: save yourself or face irrelevance” (Cowie
2) This extract is found in “The White Album” written by Joan Didion, who is the creator of many significant different literature pieces, both novels and essays. “The White Album” was published in 1979, and is the first and longest essay in the book. In this essay Joan Didion essentially uses a women as a connecting thread to describe what was happening in America at that time. I believe that the woman may even be herself to a certain extent, trying to externalize all her thoughts. What is perceived from the essay is that Didion was submerged into the focus of some big events that were happening in that year, not only as a journalist but also as a bystander and a normal Californian.
They should have been able to acquire the same rights that white people had. Unfortunately these rights were taken from them and instead African Americans were treated with discrimination and harassment instead. Baldwin is able to use this information as a way to connect to the empathy of white Americans and attempt for them to understand how cruel they have been to African Americans. Furthermore, Baldwin shares his experience on his conversations with other Civil Rights Activists , one man states that “The white man sure is the devil. He proves that by his own actions” (Baldwin 65).
The contextual backdrop of the 1960s shapes the narrative, reflecting the disintegration of traditional values and societal coherence. By anchoring the essay in this era, Didion establishes a relatable connection with readers who experienced similar cultural and social changes. Her status as a renowned writer and observer of California further bolsters her credibility, lending weight to her arguments. Through the seamless blending of personal reflection and cultural criticism, Didion offers a unique and intimate perspective. For instance, the opening sentence, "Several days passed before I could admit to myself that I had flown to San Francisco because I wanted to watch a man die" (Didion 232), captivates readers, setting the tone and demonstrating her adeptness at engaging the audience and piquing their
In the article “My Zombie, Myself: Why Modern Life Feels Rather Undead,” Chuck Klosterman offers profound commentary on why zombies are so popular. One reason Klosterman’s argument is
“Those who have a voice must speak for those who are voiceless” - Archbishop Oscar Romero. In the movie Romero, Archbishop Oscar Romero deals with conflict against the government. Archbishop Romero had not cared much for the corrupt government until his friends, priests, and the innocent people were killed. This had caused him to speak out for the people. The movie Romero shows political, economic, social injustice and virtues of courage and determination.
ver time, humans have always created stories and conjured up personifications of evil to explain the unknown - whether it was the myth of the vampire, spurred on by Bram Stoker’s Dracula and the receding of skin that causes a corpse’s nails to appear longer, or the myth of Wendigos, a create of evil in Native American culture. Many cultures and civilizations, new and old, have their fairytales and monsters in the dark, to explain the unknown. We see this in Beowulf, where Grendel is a representation of Satanic evil in the Bible due to the heavy influence of faith in Germanic warrior society, as opposed to monsters in modern society such as the zombie, which is a reflection of evolving political fears. In Beowulf, the first antagonist the reader
The tone of this story is that when a person dies, the soul comes out of the body, and no one can see the person. the body is in a graveyard and the person is not living in the body anymore. The person is dead on the inside, the person has no emotions, or any type of feelings. When a person is alive, they can feel the breath of God, which means life. When the person is dead, they cannot feel the breath of God.
A battle between good and evil is a common plot to Dracula. The forces of evil, Count Dracula and other vampires (the un-dead), try to take over Britain. The novel heroes Dr. Van Helsing, Dr. John Seward, Johnathan Haker, Quincy Morris, and Arthur Holmwood are the first responders for this evil invasion of the British Empire. In the novel the characters Dracula and Van Helsing play a major role for being the leaders of their respective groups, therefore they controlled the actions of their groups. Dracula’s actions in the novel have the purpose to flourish the rise of the un-dead, while Van Helsing’s actions aim to preserve and protect the human race.
And to discuss the second part of my idea, as society examines this film and watches it develop, they notice things about themselves that they have never realized before. They began to envision themselves in the world of the living dead. Whether they
The events in Who killed the shadows? takes place in Anatolia in 1330, but the movie have serious problems in terms of historical accuracy and representation. However, it is one of relatively few movies that used 14.century Anatolia (Beyliks period) as the background, and interpreted the period in a different manner from that of other historical dramas of the same period. It seems that the members of the movie crew, who were responsible for the historical search about the period, researched some historical details and characters. Despite the defects and irregularity of the movie in terms of historical accuracy, it can be claimed that the movie was successful in some ways in representing the life of the nomads and of urban population in the