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Short essay on willow tree
Short essay on willow tree
Short essay on willow tree
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Folklore in the Movies: An Analysis of Willow
My research for this report began when I read Joseph Campbell's article "Departure" in which he discusses folklore; he outlines the course of action that a hero takes in an adventure. He describes the five steps the hero takes as "the call to adventure, the refusal of the adventure, use of supernatural aid, crossing of the first threshold, and the belly of the whale." After reading Campbell's criteria of an adventure, I decided to choose a movie and see how it ties into Campbell's outline of an adventure. The movie I chose was Willow and in this report I will note how it complies with Campbell's outline.
Upon finishing Willow I was able to confirm that it did indeed fall into the five criteria in Campbell's article. In Willow Queen Bavmorda seeks control of the world, and she knows that an infant will be born with a mark on its arm and this infant will be able to stop her from gaining power. Therefore, she inspects every child that is born; upon discovering the child with the mark, she will promptly have it killed. One day Willow's children Ranon and Mims find a baby while playing in the river. This child happens to bear the mark for which Queen Bavmorda is searching. The children take the baby to their father. Willow takes the baby to the High Aldwin, and he tells Willow that the safety of the city depends on him and that the baby must be taken across the great river to the Dakini crossroads. This is Willow's call to adventure; it is "a blunder" of "the merest chance", and Willow is thrust "into a relationship with forces that are not rightly understood" (Campbell 1).
As Campbell expresses in his article and as is apparent in most adventure movies, Willow is not completely convinced and willing to go on this trip to take the baby back to its homeland. Ranon reminds him of the dangers he may encounter on his way to returning the baby such as fairies, brownies, dragons, and trolls. Willow gets upset at Ranon for mentioning trolls because he knows how much he fears them. Willow is also reluctant to leave his wife and children. Kaiya reminds him that they have never been apart before, and it is apparent that Willow is experiencing feelings of guilt.
A new danger threatens the peace of a community. One brave hero takes it upon themselves to eliminate the threat and restore happiness among their people and become the master of themselves. Is this Jaws, Jurassic park, Godzilla, The Lion King, Spiderman, Harry Potter, or Beowulf, the Anglo-Saxon poem published in the eighth and 11th century? The truth is it is all of them. The heroes journey is the common template used by a broad category of tales that involve a protagonist hero who goes on an adventure, overcomes an ordeal, and comes back home rewarded and changed. Coraline, a 2009 American 3D stop motion dark fantasy horror film produced by Laika, follows much of the same template created almost 11 centuries ago.
Joseph Campbell calls the initial phase of a hero’s development the “Call to Adventure.” The call is the in...
Slaveholders used corrupt morals and inherently false logic to defend slavery, but Douglass, by sharing the story of his life and of others’, dispelled the illusions of slavery. Douglass’ life provided the evidence necessary to counter the slaveholders’ arguments: racial inferiority, both physical and mental, slave happiness, and Biblical justification for slavery. By publishing this autobiography, Douglass furthered the opposition of slavery, as whites that had never experienced slavery could finally sympathize with members of the anti-slavery movement. In this book Douglass revealed the flaws in the pro-slavery argument, and cemented himself as one of the most important abolitionists of his era.
To fully appreciate the significance of the plot one must fully understand the heroic journey. Joseph Campbell identified the stages of the heroic journey and explains how the movie adheres meticulously to these steps. For example, the first stage of the hero’s journey is the ordinary world (Campbell). At the beginning, the structure dictates that the author should portray the protagonist in their ordinary world, surrounded by ordinary things and doing ordinary tasks so that the author might introduce the reasons that the hero needs the journey in order to develop his or her character or improve his or her life (Vogler 35). The point of this portrayal is to show the audience what the protagonist’s life is currently like and to show what areas of his or her life are conflicted or incomplete. When the call to adventure occurs, the protagonist is swept away into another world, one that is full of adventure, danger, and opportunities to learn what needs to be learned. T...
Complete Title: An Exploration of the Relationship between Southern Christianity and Slaveholding as seen in the “Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, an American Slave Written by Himself”
It is quiet rare to watch a film that trumps its novel origins. Film version of movies are often less detailed, give poor representation of true characters, and are frequently just plain laughable in comparison to “the real deal.” However, the best selling memoir, “Wild: A Journey from Lost to Found” offers a framework that simply begs to be put into motion picture.
With each step, he yearned for the concrete world to dissolve. Every man who passed wore a mask of disdain, mirroring Blake’s own, while resentful eyes trailed along the cobbled pathways, searching for answers to the unanswerable. The alleyways of London, once brimming with character, forlornly watched the people who no longer had any desire to stand still. Instead, the ceaselessness of noise mirrored the ceaselessness of life and, as Blake stood, the seed which once had flourished within his being seemed to wither away, while his sprit wrestled and writhed, yearning for liberation from the concrete cell of London. The Thames flowed beneath him, almost mocking the finite world through its infinite liberation. A young boy stood nearby, gazing towards him with an eerie blankness in his eyes, and yet the two eyes, black as i...
The interesting theme of slavery dehumanizing both slave and master resonates clearly throughout Frederick Douglass’s narrative. I rate this work of literature a five out of five stars, since it puts the horrors of slavery in a more personal light, making it all the more repulsive. However, since the book followed themes and not chronological order, reading some portions was a challenge. Nevertheless, Douglass accomplished what his mission for the narrative was—to show that slaves are not inferior; ignorance is only a temporary result of slavery. Those, like Douglass, who wish to be free, cannot be held back by it.
Back in the 1800s, many had the idea that slavery was a natural, necessary practice. Some even referred back to the Bible to justify the actions of abusive slaveholders. In Frederick Douglass’ narrative of his life as a slave, he shares his side of the story, and explains that the positive ideology of slavery is a facade. Douglass debunks the mythology of slavery by rebuking its romantic image through vivid imagery and specific diction, by refuting the belief of black intellectual inferiority through self-education, and by revealing the promotion of disloyalty among slaves through stories of betrayal.
Even as great opposition faced him, Frederick Douglass worked for the abolitionist cause faithfully. He labored to bring to light the oppression of his brothers and sisters in bondage with the intention of revealing the misunderstood financial benefit of slavery and denouncing the duplicitous Christianity of the Southern slave owners. Douglass’s work provided an insight into the misunderstood lives of slaves and the ambiguous lives of Southern Christian slave owners and helped to gain positive momentum for the abolitionist movement.
Almost a decade ago, Australia was the leading country responsible for 60% of the world’s tantalum production (Hayes & Burge 2003: 11). However, in 2008, the largest Australian tantalum producer called Talison, faced a financial crisis and suffered a downfall in the global market (Bleischwitz et al. 2012: 20). In Canada, only 4% of Canadian tantalum is produced, although this was back in 2001 and since then, Canada’s global market share of tantalum production has been gradually falling (Hayes & Burge 2003: 17). After Australia’s drastic fall in the production of tantalum, Central Africa became the largest supplier of tantalum in the world and is expected to continue with being the lead supplier for this mineral in the future (Bleischwitz et al. 2012: 21). There is no central market for tantalum and all of the largest tantalum mines are sold in advance with fixed price contracts (Hayes & Burge 2003: 11). Therefore, it is very common for dealers to set the prices on an individual transaction basis (Hayes & Burge 2003: 11). The demand for tantalum has been increasing over the last 10-15 years especially with the rapid technological advancements making it very high in economic importance (Bleischwitz et al. 2012: 21). Thus, social, political and environmental issues and consid...
These timeless tales relate a message that readers throughout the ages can understand and relate to. While each of these tales is not exactly alike, they do share a common core of events. Some event and or character flaw necessitates a journey of some kind, whether it is an actual physical journey or a metaphorical one. The hardships and obstacles encountered on said journey lead to spiritual growth and build character. Rarely does a person find himself unchanged once the journey is over.
Different people see things with different perception. Some people may look up to the better and brighter side whilst others look down to see the deeper and darker side. This is exactly what the two poems “Upon Westminster Bridge” and “London” show us. The two poems both depict the scenery and sights of the city London, but they are written in two different perspectives. Wordsworth’s “Upon Westminster Bridge” describes the majestic and splendid Westminster Bridge sitting along with the calm and serene River Thames on a Sunday morning. It is almost as if the city had worn ‘a garment’ that reinforces its beauty and grandeur. On the other hand, in “London” Blake portrays London as ‘chartered’ and ‘blackening’, with both adjectives used in a negative way. These two diverse interpretations can be related to the varying backgrounds of the two poets. The huge differences in imagery help create different tones and moods throughout the pieces, and by using poetic techniques and structure it can assist the poets in conveying their different attitudes to London.
Frederick Douglass fights to build the opposition to slavery in his autobiography, Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, by presenting anecdotal proof to appeal to Christians living in the northern United States during the nineteenth century. In order to dispel the false popular belief that African Americans deserve to spend their lives in bondage and are better taken care of as a result of this imprisonment, Douglass relives blood curdling memories in his narrative. He presents the most powerful of his experiences, those which most prominently define the cruel nature of slavery in his mind, in the second chapter of his book in order to demonstrate that slaves are not treated well, nor are they content. In chapter two, Douglass’ description
In the Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, Douglass reveals the true depiction behind slavery and its evils. Before the narrative was published and distributed, slavery was seen to be a norm that was necessary to the productivity of America and its economy. In reality, the slave owners of the south were blinded by a myth that had been imbedded into American society. In fact, slavery was logically not necessary to America’s society or economy at all. The institution of slavery only brought detriment to the characters of the American people. This caused aspiring abolitionists like Frederick Douglass to pursue the debunking of this myth and to reveal to society that it was far from the truth.