A Moment of Innocence
When I walked into class that day I was indifferent to the movie that we would be watching that evening. Five minutes into A Moment of Innocence (1995) by Mohsan Makhmalbaf, I was hooked. By taking a pseudo-documentary style Makhmalbaf lets us see the people as they are transformed into the characters from the director’s past. This style allows us to “grow up” with them and to relate to both sides of the story. By taking a true event and fictionalizing, at least part of it, Makhmalbaf has us trying to figure out what parts have been added to the narrative and which parts truly speak to history. A documentary does not strive to tell a story, it looks upon events unemotionally and tries not to colour our ideas about the event. A Moment of Innocence is not a documentary but uses the truth function common to that genre to give us an understanding of the events from both sides and makes us think about how our actions effect others every day. If A Moment of Innocence had been a wholly fictional film I do not believe that it would have carried the same emotional impact. Different scenes in the film show us how Makhmalbaf is trying to reconcile his past actions with his feeling today. They also show how he is, while not in any way apologizing for his actions, trying to amend some of the damage he may have caused.
There are several scenes in the film that stand out to me as important. The scene that caught me the most off-guard occurred when Makhmalbaf and young Makhmalbaf went to the director’s cousin’s home to try to enlist her daughter to play the roll her mother had played in real life. For just a moment the daughter and young Makhmalbaf step out of themselves and become the characters that they are playing. They make plans to meet the next day for the incident with the policeman, both look nervous, Makhmalbaf returns and they resume their roles as if the exchange had never occurred. This glimpse into what and how the incident was planned gives the audience a look into the type of people that Makhmalbaf and his cousin were as young adults, scared but sure in their purpose. The scene also allows us to step out of the knowledge that this is staged and shows us the characters as people, not actors.
In A Separate Peace, John Knowles carries the theme of the inevitable loss of innocence throughout the entire novel. Several characters in the novel sustain both positive and negative changes, resulting from the change of the peaceful summer sessions at Devon to the reality of World War II. While some characters embrace their development through their loss of innocence, others are at war with themselves trying to preserve that innocence.
This film unlike most others on the same topic had no real event to focus on. There was not just one climax or specific scene that the others built up to or supported. I cannot say that I enjoyed it but I do feel it has to a great extent affected me. The only reason I feel that this film is one worth watching is because of the latent message it holds. It very successfully exposes authority and bureaucracy in society. The characters in this film portray people that are either convinced or have been convinced that are crazy.
One of the most controversial laws in the efforts to reduce crime has been the "three-strikes" laws that have been enacted. This law, which is already in twenty-seven states, requires that offenders convicted of three violent crimes be sentenced to life in prison without chance of parole. The law is based on the idea that the majority of felonies are committed by about 6% of hard core criminals and that crime can be eliminated by getting these criminals off the streets. Unfortunately, the law fails to take into account its own flaws and how it is implemented.
Charlotte Perkins Gilman brings to light the inequalities of patriarchal society and marital inequality in the 19th century via her short story “The Yellow Wallpaper.” First published in 1892, “The Yellow Wallpaper” was written and takes place in a time when marriage was acceptably unequal and gender roles were clearly defined. Now it is regarded as a literary masterpiece in feminist ideology. The story was written as a series of journal entries from the perspective of the narrator, a young woman who has been diagnosed with a temporary nervous depression by her husband, John, who is a physician. The couple moves into a rented house for the summer and her husband orders her to strict bed rest. Isolated in a room that is covered in “hideous” yellow wallpaper and with bars on the windows, she becomes increasingly obsessed with the paper and slips further down the rabbit hole of psychosis (Gillman 13). On the surface, the story may seem that it is simply about a woman suffering from mental illness and a loving husband trying his best to take care of her. Digging deeper, it becomes clear that her husband is controlling every aspect of her life including her freedom, creativity, and sanity; disregarding her as a subordinate - far less than equal.
Gilman has stated in multiple papers that the main reason for her writing “The Yellow Wallpaper” was to shed light on her awful experience with this ‘rest cure’. However, she also managed to inject her own feminist agenda into the piece. Charlotte Perkins Gilman chose to include certain subtle, but alarming details regarding the narrator’s life as a representation of how women were treated at the time. She wants us to understand why the narrator ends up being driven to madness, or in her case, freedom. There are untold layers to this truly simple, short story just like there were many layers to Gilman
The United States of America, being a country founded by immigrants, is known all over the world as the land of great opportunities. People from all walks of life travelled across the globe, taking a chance to find a better life for them and their family. Over the years, the population of immigrants has grown immensely, resulting in the currently controversial issue of illegal immigration. Illegal immigrants are the people who have overstayed the time granted on their US, visa or those who have broken the federal law by crossing the border illegally. Matt O’Brien stated in his article “The government thinks that 10.8 million illegal immigrants lived in the country in January 2009, down from a peak of nearly 12 million in 2007.”(Para, 2) While some argue that illegal immigrants burden the United States of America and its economy, others believe that they have become essential and are an important part of the US, economy.
I agree with this utilitarian method of law. The greater good is served by getting them of the streets. The punishment of the criminals definitely benefits society, and finally there is a means to reach an end.
At the beginning of both novels, To Kill a Mockingbird and Great Expectations, Jem, Pip and Scout are portrayed as innocents, uncorrupted by our world of racism, social class and prejudice. Their world is simple, sweet and childlike. But by the end of both novels their world has been changed completely, and their innocence has been replaced by the evilness of the human. The loss of innocence in these characters has been caused by prejudice of society and the evilness of humans that surround them.
In a female oppressive story about a woman driven from postpartum depression to insanity, Charlotte Gilman uses great elements of literature in her short story, The Yellow Wallpaper. Her use of feminism and realism demonstrates how woman's thoughts and opinions were considered in the early 1900?s.
Gilbert, Sandra M. and Susan Gubar. “A Feminist Reading of ‘The Yellow Wallpaper’.” The Story and Its Writer. Ann Charters. Boston: Bedford/St. Martin’s, 2011. Print.
Innocence is usually associated with youth and ignorance. The loss of one’s innocence is associated with the evils of the world. However, the term “innocence” can be interpreted in a variety of ways. Similarly, the loss of one’s innocence can be interpreted in more than one way, and, depending on the interpretation, it may happen numerous times. The loss of innocence is culture specific and involves something that society holds sacrosanct.
The loss of innocence is an occurrence that happens in every life, and it is so easily taken. A traumatic moment is often the thief of innocence, leaving the victim scarred from the experience. Events like these are often the process of paving the road into adulthood, and aid in the metamorphosis of a child to an adult. In “My Father’s Noose” by Grace Talusan, “Dothead” by Amit Majmudar, and The Glass Castle by Jeannette Walls, each of the characters do not understand the concept of negligent personages. Once the protagonist knows that society is not composed of perfect people, their character and personality changes, as it forces them to take a look at their own morals. This prepares the protagonist for the lives
The entire movie is bursting with counter narratives, when the audience believes they hold an accurate grasp on what is truly happening, there is a misguiding event, as the storyline is continually challenged. The viewer’s beginning formations about what is going on are learned to be always questionable because what is repeatedly steered to trust and is revealed not be the truth in the conclusion of the film. This neo-noir film had multiple scenarios that make the previous actions untrustworthy to the actual message. This proves that all the observations and thoughts the viewer possesses are only relevant to what they are exposed to and shown and not to what is, in fact, happening.
This film really focuses on the characters. Their thoughts, anger, distress, and mistakes become part of your mistakes. This deals with a father’s s priority and how he will achieve that priority by using unethical ways like torturing an innocent man. Bringing up child abduction and torture are
...director did not limit the film to its historical context but extended the same to romance and fantasy. From a different angle of view, the director made use of the theme to communicate with the viewers and the fictional characters can be considered as his tools. Besides, ample importance is given to historical and fictional characters. In short, the amalgamation of history, fantasy and romance constituted much to the film’s importance as a historical/fictional masterpiece.