Rear Window, a 1954 romance/murder-mystery by the renowned golden age director Alfred Hitchcock, is a film that explores a multitude of themes and genres through the voyeuristic gaze of protagonist L.B. Jefferies. Jefferies, or ‘Jeff’ as he commonly known throughout the film, is a middle-aged bachelor recently hospitalised due to his high-risk career as a photojournalist. This hindered condition serves as an important foundation on which the movie is built upon as Jeff’s forced lifestyle being in a wheelchair causes an abrupt stop in his usual high intensity way of life and causes him to quench his boredom in other ways, predominantly watching the other residents in his apartment complex through the ‘rear window’ of his apartment. Observing the events that happen in the privacy of each of his neighbours’ apartments is certainly not minding one’s business but Jeff continues to do so anyway and ends up in all
“Class” by Sherman Alexie is a story about a man, Edgar Joseph, on a journey to self-identification. While on this journey he experiences many different tribulations and encounters a multitude of women. The encounters with these women will reveal to the reader his selfless, barbaric, and lost personality. However, the experiences he had with women of his own descent provided a transformative experience that shows what he is looking for and what he truly values.
The dramatic economic expansion that American experienced during industrialization led to the creation of the extremely poor and the extremely rich. During the Progressive Era, New York faced overpopulation distribution and overcrowding of living arrangements in the city due to the migration. Inevitably, the class division in terms of the economy and social amongst the people made it impossible for Americanization of becoming together as a nation. Jacob Riis, and immigrant himself, a photojournalist and most important, a social reformer exposed the abuse and poor treatment of the tenements in New York City through his work How the Other Half Lives. He utilized the use of flash photograph, allowing him to capture and communicate in a very specific
In the early 1990’s, Chris McCandless left his whole life behind to carry out a transcendental lifestyle. He hitchhiked up the entire West Coast, all the way to his final destination in Fairbanks, Alaska. Transcendentalism is a philosophy that has had a heavy impact on many people, including Chris McCandless, Henry David Thoreau, and Ralph Waldo Emerson. These men shared the belief in the importance of individualism, simplicity, and exploration, which molded McCandless’s experience into a dramatic and fatal journey.
Harlan Granger was a well respected white man who owned vast amounts of land in Mississippi during the Great Depression (1933). Although Mr. Granger owned so much land, he still wanted the 400 acres that the Logan's owned. Nevertheless, he was a greedy man who would do anything to regain possession of his land. To be greedy (greed) is “an intense or selfish desire for something, especially wealth, power, or food” (Macmillan) There were three incidents in Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry that depicted Mr. Granger’s greed. The first incident was when Mr. Granger threatened them because they had been shopping at Vicksburg as a form of protest. He threatened that if they kept on shopping at Vicksburg, he would try to do something that could hurt them or the land. The second
“The jungle” and “Genesis of the tenement” both contain conflicting and negative impacts. The authors may both have similarities on their purpose to create their text. Though it is clear that they both contain differences too. Upton Sinclair thought that the workers at the factories were not being treated well. Jacob Riis knew that the people in the tenements were living in horrible conditions, and that no one would intervene. Not only did he go to these tenements to write about them, he also took pictures of what was happening inside those tenements. In the tenements, lived very poor people, so even 5 dollars would be too much for them. While the rent was too high for these people, the wages were too low for the factory workers. “Their rent was eight dollars and a half for a single room on the top-story, so small that I was unable to get a photograph of it even by placing the camera outside the open door. Three short steps across either way would have measured its full extent.” ( page 387 lines 140-144 ). Not only was the rent high, the living space of this colored family was not comfortable. These people had to live in very small places, because they didn’t have anywhere else to go.
In Steinbeck’s novel “Of Mice and Men the main theme is Loneliness and Isolation. Steinbeck really creates an image in your head of the life of the migrated ranch men. He hides the fact the characters are isolated in the language he uses. The town that the ranch is close to is called “Soledad” which means loneliness in spanish. In latin “Solitaire” (the card game the men play) means alone and isolated. Some of the characters in the book have been described as more isolated and lonely than the other character, with the ones in particular ; Crooks, Candy and Curley’s Wife. Crooks is lonely because he is black and has a crooked back which is physically isolating him, Candy is lonely because he is old and only has one hand, Curley’s Wife is lonely because she is the only woman on the ranch. All the people living on the ranch are lonely to some extent. This is proven when Steinbeck describes the bunkhouse where all the workers sleep. "Over each bunk there was nailed an apple box with the opening forward so that it made two shelves for personal belongings of the occupant of the bunk." (p38) The way Steinbeck describes the bunkhouse indicates their lonely lives. Also by only having two shelves for their personal belongings shows their lonely insecure lives. Crooks has a better facility than any of the other ranch workers since he has a desk. Crooks does not appreciate this because he is alone and isolated from the rest, like Curley’s wife and in some way Candy.
Dexter Green, and Jay Gatsby were two very wealthy, young men who both strove to be in the highest attainable social class, and to marry the girl they have sought over for years. The characters from two of F. Scott Fitzgerald’s novels are near identical in many aspects. Although they are very similar, they are extremely different. Both characters had grown up very different. Both had attained wealth in two different way. Both had different a different love life scenario, and both of their lives finished out very differently. In F. Scott Fitzgerald’s novel, The Great Gatsby, it is the story of Jay Gatsby and all of his greatness through the eyes of his close friend, Nick Carraway. Jay Gatsby was involved with the bootlegging business, and ties
Humans, by our very nature, are always striving to achieve more in life. Unfortunately, our materialistic society, and that of the Roaring Twenties, interpret this as striving for wealth. That pursuit often becomes all-consuming, eventually hindering our pursuit of gratifying life goals. In The Great Gatsby, F. Scott Fitzgerald depicts wealth as a fraudulent thief whose pursuit must be abandoned for the sake of tangible fulfillment. He illustrates the dangers of attempting to find gratification in wealth through the life of Jay Gatsby, who ironically sacrifices morality, identity, and love in order to gain wealth, which he attempts to use to justify his claim to these very things. When Gatsby loses everything, we see that wealth not only fails as a means of fulfillment but actively participates in the destruction of this goal. Fitzgerald suggests that wealth cannot lead to happiness, rather it undermines the existing and potential good in life. It should therefore should not be used as means of attaining fulfillment.
What does Zinn mean by referring to industrialists like Andrew Carnegie and John D. Rockefeller as “robber barons”? What did they do to deserve that name? Why do Schweikart and Allen refer to them as “titans of industry”? What good do they think Rockefeller and Carnegie did?
Often individuals are prevented from achieving satisfaction due to a fundamental flaw in their character. In the case of Willy Loman, this flaw is his excessive pride and ambition. For the majority of his life, Willy has been primarily influenced by his brother Ben’s success. This has caused him to develop a sense of ambition that is both unrestrained and idealistic. Over the course of his lifetime, both Willy and his sons fall short of the impossible standards of this dream. Willy conducts his whole life based on the belief that any man who is good-looking, charismatic, and “well-liked” deserves success and will naturally achieve it (1.30). He attempts to make his mark by working as a salesman because, according to him, “selling [is] the greatest
Many characters in the movie demonstrate specific archetypes common to the time period in history. Shane, a former gunfighter/cowboy turned town hero. Joe, who is a homesteader/farmer, refuses to back down from opposition, and leads the revolt against the Ryker crew. Marian is your typical farm wife, who does not want to see her husband hurt. Stonewall Torey, hot headed confederate war veteran with a bad temper, has little concern for the Ryker game, and says he can go to town when he pleases. He is inexperienced with his gun compared to the skilled gunfighter Wilson, which lead to his demise. Wilson is the typical bad guy cowboy, and starts trouble with the farmers. Chris Calloway is the bad guy who goes good, starts a fight with Shane at
I read a book called Scat by Carl Hiaasen. In his book, there is a oil company called Red Diamond Energy Cooperation, or better known as RDEC. This company is run by a person named Drake McBride. This company was bought by his wealthy father, who stated that the “Red Diamond (was his) last act of charity.” Drake, being a worthless fool, decided that he would set up his oil drilling business in, Florida, since he owned a waterfront. His first act was to hire a retired Exon worker, JImmy Lee Baylis, who then becomes his product manager. While Jimmy Lee Baylis would handle everything, Drake would be surfing. Drake McBride cares solely about money. He shows a newspaper clipping to Jimmy Lee Bayliss, which features the Everglades, and how there is a lot of oil.
August Wilson’s playwright Joe Turner Come and Gone emphasizes many fundamental issues within African-Americans, specifically the black males. In those days, the black man stood to lose themselves. August sent an extraordinary suggestion. The idea of the character Bynum only filled the play with all of his wise talk. August reflects on his secret of life by bringing it forward, allowing an audience to see Harold breaking free of what enslaved him, and the beginning of embracing his self-identity, self-worth and self-efficacy.
Stephen King’s thrilling short story “Word Processor of the Gods” focuses on how technology can affect someone’s sanity. When given the chance to change their life, people take advantage of that and abuse it. Technology has taken over our lives and it could take our sanity if we let it. Some people are strong, but others are weak because they are full of envy. The dynamic character Richard was one of the weak ones because he was envious of his brother Roger.