Zack Kozlik
Period 2
Bice
1-30-14
Existential Essay
Groundhog Day is a film starring Bill Murray who plays Phil Connor’s, a news anchorman, who gets stuck on the repeating Groundhog Day every day. He is a man who does not appreciate things around him but he expects others to look up to him. He lives the same day while time goes on; he does not make an effort to reach out to others. Phil follows the same daily routines and does not attempt to change anything and accepts his life as it is, even though he doesn’t like it. Phil doesn’t understand the idea of the man creating his own being by experiencing life.
The Groundhog Day portrays the main theme of existentialism, by the belief that a man is in charge of his own destiny. Only by experiencing life can he become someone, Phil is forced to live the same day over and over again, until he unselfishly begins living life. Thus, he creates himself and is enable to move on. Phil gets stuck repeating this same day and he really can only exit when he understands the truth about human beings and creates his own essence. Before he creates his own essence he had no meaning to his life, this is absurdism. He really did believe that there was no reasoning behind human’s existence. After a short while, Phil starts playing his knowledge of future events to his advantage, which makes his behavior very much like a villain. He starts getting money, taking advantage of women by finding out what they like and then the next day using his knowledge, and he even commits crimes knowing that the next day everything will be perfectly fine for him. There is no tomorrow for him, so there are no consequences. No one remembers what he has done.
He tried many times to get with his coworker, Rita, but he fails pr...
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...nd, when he listened to people and helped everyone he finally got what he wanted. He got Rita and he also was able to go the next day after Groundhog Day and he was even with Rita. This is actually how he found out that it was a new day with a new beginning to his life. He told Rita the night before that no matter what happens in the future, that he was happy in that one moment when they were lying next to each other in the bed. At the beginning of the movie, Phil absolutely hated the town that they had just gone into, to report in for Groundhog Day. But in the end, when he changed, after he helped everyone and the got the girl that he had wanted the whole time he decided that he actually liked the place. Once he found out that Groundhog Day was officially over for him, he wanted to stay there, and he wanted Rita to stay with him, and that is exactly what they did.
Phil did not grow up with his father, his father out of nowhere just abandoned him. Where Phil never did hear about him ever again. In his book, The Brief and Frightening Reign of Phil, George Saunders maintains that “Then he remembered the dark days after his father left, when suddenly there was more room to get the refrigerator open but no reason to open it, since there was never anything inside. Why had Dad left? Phil knew very well why”( Saunders 105). Saunders’s point is that Phil’s dad had left him and he never saw him after the day he had left but Phil did know the reason why he had decided to leave him. In this case, phil knew exactly for why his father left him. Another reason for why Phil does not like the Inner Hornerites is because he blames them for why his dad left him because the Inner Hornerites Humiliating his dad. Whereas, in a real life situation kids are getting abandoned by their parents, leaving them with nothing but for them to take care of themselves. Three children in the city of Englewood in Chicago were left alone by their parents. In David Cera’s view “The officers were doing a wellness check last month in the Englewood neighborhood when they found the three children -- ages 1, 2 and 7 -- now known as the ‘Englewood angels.’ The girls had been left alone in an abandoned house” (N.p).
American Psycho (2000) offers a devastating social satire of the 1980s materialistic and hedonistic high society. Ironically, the film's monsters-in-hiding become increasingly evident even as the cinematography attempts to obscure most of the victims of Patrick Bateman (Christian Bale) with the dark hues of the nighttime. Additionally, the point-of-view (P.O.V.) editing in relation to Patrick Bateman illustrates his frustrations to the audience and shows his struggle to not only become the best in his society, but also prevent others that are either not fit for his society or those with particularly annoying idiosyncrasies from being a part of that society. The character study depicts the daily activities of Patrick Bateman, a young New York stockbroker working for Pierce and Pierce, as he hides the murder of Paul Allen (Jared Leto) from Detective Donald Kimball (Willem Dafoe). As the film progresses, Patrick's mask of sanity slowly slips as he finds out that he is not the idea of Patrick Bateman that he reflects himself of being throughout the film and realizes the disconnection that he has from the world around him.
Although Christopher Nolan does not acknowledge any philosophical basis for Memento, the film provides a character, Leonard Shelby, who serves as an example of several aspects of existentialism. Through Leonard, Memento illustrates Soren Kierkegaard's idea of truth as subjectivity, Freidrich Nietzsche's notion that God is dead, and Jean-Paul Sartre's writings on the nature of consciousness.
Phil!,Phil!,Phil!,Phil! Dang hearing my name gives me the rush, as you all know i'm Punxsutawney Phil the cutest, fluffiest,and awesomest groundhog you have ever seen i'm for sure you already know who I am. What!? You haven't well pull up a chair and listen to my story on how I became the fabulous Punxsutawney Phil.It was a quiet day, I was getting a nice healthy snack which involved clovers, and bark. All of a sudden a very large dark figure picked me up and loaded me into some big cage. I was then in a new home it was strange were I was at I was really hot, but here the temperature has been just fine, not too hot to cold, I was inkling to see where I was still a little figure came up to see me through some weird shield I was startled due
Willy becomes more and more dependent on his drug as the story progresses. His next allusion to the past was during a conversation with his wife. Willy is downhearted about his failure to provide for his family, his looks, and basically his whole life in general. He begins to see some of the truth in his life: "I know it when they walk in. They seem to laugh at me."(Miller; The Death of a Salesman; pg. 23) By trying to see the reality in life, for once, he depresses himself so awfully, that he has a rendezvous in his head with his women that he sees on the side. He only uses this women to lift his spirits and to evade the truths that nearly scare him into his own grave.
He pretty much interpreted his crisis with a “screw it” attitude and it causes him to believe that he could do whatever he wanted. Phil breaks the law that night, and acts impulsively the next morning by kissing Mrs. Lancaster and punching Ned in the face (Albert & Ramis, 1993). During lunch with Rita, she tells him that egocentricity is his main characteristic (Albert & Ramis, 1993). That sparked an identity crisis concern in Phil, causing him to try out different identities through out the next couple of days (Albert & Ramis, 1993). He tries to become a thief when he steals money and a seducer when he tries to seduce Rita and Nancy (Albert & Ramis,
When watching the movie Groundhog Day you notice the main character Phil Conner is going through life day by day without looking forward to anything, this is part of his character. He is a Pittsburgh TV weather man who has been appointed to cover the annual event of Groundhog Day in Penxsutawney, Pennsylvania. With this event Phil is unhappy because he is an arrogant man that thinks everyone is beneath him, so why should he cover this event. He feel that he shouldn’t be the one reporting about a dumb event which is Groundhog Day. With that you notice that Phil Conner is maladaptive middle age man with a narcissistic attitude, due to this he cannot have a “normal” relationship with others. He doesn’t know how to develop a relationship with someone without making them feel less than him. He’s hard to deal with and his personality does not help him become a better person. His coworkers don’t get along to well with him and he is hard to deal with. But when he finds
American Psycho is a savage account of a wealthy investment banker in the late 80s that commits heinous acts of murder, rape, and torture. Although on the surface, American Psycho seems as though it is just another horror story, it actually has a much deeper message. This story is a harsh critique of a superficial Wall Street society in the late 80s that was rampant with materialism and greed. This is the society in which the main character Patrick Bateman lives–where appearance, material possessions, and status define a person. This superficial existence leaves him hollow and dead inside and turns him into a psychopathic killer. A society such as this, devoid of any morality, inevitably creates psychopaths such as Bateman. The film shows an excellent portrayal of a vacant, nihilistic killer with no feelings or emotions. However, there is something more to the story that the film did not quite capture. The book seems to not only be a satirical take on this society, but a tragedy as well. Recreating the dinner scene with his secretary Jean shows that underneath the surface Patrick Bateman is, indeed, a human being with real feelings and emotions, and that it is a great tragedy that this superficial society has turned him into a monster.
April Morning, by Howard Fast, is a novel that depicts what it was like for a 15 year old boy, Adam Cooper, fighting in the Revolutionary War in Lexington. His struggles began with his father, who is the antagonist, Moses Cooper. Moses Cooper is a character who is strict, strong-willed, and loving.
I believe that Phil has finally lived up to his potential. Basically, if you look at how Phil transitions throughout the movie and his time a Punxsutawney. In the beginning, through the middle of the movie, Phil thinks he’s more important than everybody else, also while, believing the idea of celebrating a groundhog is stupid. But, as the movie gradually moved on, you could see the transitioning in how Phil felt about the unusual town. He was this cocky, arrogant, news weatherman, that believed he was the best. Then, he started to become more humble, in how he acted towards the town. It was Rida, who ultimately allowed, to me, Phil to really step back and begin to accept the repeating day as it was. Which now, leads into the Belongingness and
The Existential Approach stands for respect for the person, for exploring new aspects of human behavior, and for divergent methods of understanding people (Corey, 2013). Existentialists do not focus on instinctive drives or internalized others but on the person's unavoidable confrontation with the givens of the human condition. Yalom (1980) described those givens as death, freedom, isolation, and meaninglessness. (Bauman, & Waldo, 1998).
The story of Forrest Gump is one for the ages. Other than the cinematic feats the film has achieved since its release, it has garnered much in-depth academic study into the culture, thematics, and characters that are portrayed. Forrest Gump is a multi-genre film that follows the life of a slower-than-average southern man as narrated by Gump himself. The journeys of his life take place through some of the most impactful events in United States history during the 50s, 60s, 70s, and 80s. Gump’s naive and rose-colored glasses views of these events are able to influence his development, relationships, and sometimes even influenced the famous events themselves. Forrest Gump as a character subject is a seemingly simple man made of complex principles. Exhibiting notions of compound optimism, altruistic helping behaviors and interpersonal attractions.
Pat has to readjust to his new life throughout the movie. Pat now has no wife, no job, no house, and many new battles. Pat is a character with emotional regulation issues and poor social skills. As the movie develops we follow Pat as he grows as a person and gains coping skills to adjust to his new
Existentialism is a phiosophy which revolves around the central belief that we create ourselves. External factors are not important. It is the way that we let external factors affect us that determines who we are. As individuals we all have the freedom to choose our own path and that is what life is all about. Along with the freedom of choice comes the responsibilty of one's actions which can make some people anxious but give others meaning to their lives. To overcome this anxiousness and accept responsibilty is to meet the challenges of life and to truly live it. I can adopt the existentialist approach which states that to live life is to experience happiness and absurdness and to appreciate both as a part of life.
Upon critical analysis of the film allows the understanding of the principles in self-concept, counterfactual thinking, and prejudice. Paradigms, methods, and competing schools of thought characterize the modern social psychology and therefore various perspectives deliver ways to apprehend the real world of social settings. Comprehending how people identify self-concept helps fix the unhealthy repercussions of inappropriate self-image. Through critical analysis and evaluation of the film Labor Day, the connection to the characters of the movie assists in recognizing the loophole of thinking error and attributes the need for a strong self-concept. Prejudice for some reason has a limited intellectual understanding of stereotyping and discrimination that occurs either intentionally or unintentionally. The counterfactual rational about what did not happen can be a powerful tool for explaining and reflecting on the actions that have consequences. Specifically, counterfactual thinking has fostered performance of creativity and intentions of