The Stylistic Conventions of Pleasantville
Pleasantville is a film that uses stylistic conventions to help anchor
the ideas suggested by the plot and reinforce the meaning of the text.
There are many ways it does this.
The narrative starts of from TV stations giving the idea of sci-fi as
the basic genre. Pleasantville is introduced by the clips of the TV
marathon; this is an old 50's TV show. There is a boy called David and
his twin sister Jennifer. David is seen in the early stages of the
narrative lacking confidence, no luck with girls, few friends, loves
Pleasantville and is obsessed by the perfect lifestyle. Pleasantville
is viewed as nice, with no extremes and no changes. The first part of
the movie is cutting between the twins to sow the difference, this
helps us see how they develop throughout the film and understand the
meaning of the text, as we build to their prospective evenings.
With the arrival of the TV repair man we get more sense of the sci-fi
genre, he arrives without being called; he has an old-fashioned van
and speech. Then when the lightning strikes at that time this causes
suspicion to the audiences mind. The 2 pairs of siblings then argue at
the same on real life and on screen. David and Jennifer end up in the
program.
Pleasantville is all black and white to start of with. Examples of
life are: big family, big breakfast, cat up a tree, skip martin (high
school jock), basketball team always wins, nothing outside
Pleasantville, characters lack understanding and can only follow what
asked to do. This is the start of the plot showing what life is like
in Pleasantville.
The first change is when bud imp...
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...nt and there is vandalism
they realise there has to be peace between the 2 kinds. The stylistic
convention got this over into the audience's mind.
I think the sci-fi genre is suspected when the electrician comes in
and gives Bud an old remote. When they get sucked into the TV the
audience realise it's a sci-fi film. Their expectations are for Bud
and Jennifer to escape. But as you go along these expectations change.
The stylistic conventions help to anchor the ideas, and reinforce the
meaning of the text by using colour. A certain object in the movie
changed for a reason and because something happened. This make's the
audience think why that certain object and what effect does it have on
the Pleasantville society. In conclusion colour help anchors the ideas
by making a certain object colour for a particular reason.
Pleasantville is a movie written and directed by Gary Ross that reveals the dystopian elements hidden within seemingly utopian worlds by portraying the contrast between modern society and the idyllic setting of suburban 1950s’ America. The film follows the adventure of twin teenagers David and Jennifer as they find themselves transported into the world of the 1950s’ television show “Pleasantville”, replacing the main characters Bud and Mary Sue. In various events throughout the movies, both characters spark a series of changes in the conservative Pleasantville society that result in the town gradually transforming from repressive black-and-white to liberating Technicolor. In Pleasantville, Ross shows that the Technicolor version of Pleasantville
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The iconic Rod Serling contributed to televisions “Golden Age”, the writer and director of the very accomplished series " The Twilight Zone” and “The Night Gallery”, has not only dazzled the world with his mind boggling work in the expansive sci-fi genre but has also successfully utilized his position in television and radio to speak out against socialism.
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Because of the English Stories that Delaney reads in school, Delaney’s vision of perfection is very specific. He hates when kids tell lies and when they are not true to themselves, or others around them. He wants it to be just like the books he reads in school, where the young kids have a high moral standard and refuse to tell a lie unless it is for someone else’s sake: “...they always told the truth, unless someone else was with them, and then even if they were to be expelled for it they wouldn’t give his name…” (O’Connor 210). This shows the idea that the only right time to tell a lie is to keep a partner out of trouble. If these kids are caught telling a lie, nobody will want to be friends with them because, above all, they are a liar at heart: “They never told lies and never talked to anyone who did” (O’Connor 210). This is Delaney’s idea of perfection. A world where everyone tells the truth, and lying is almost never accepted.
The novel ‘Jasper Jones’ written by Craig Silvey and the film ‘Dressmaker’ directed by Jocelyn Moorhouse have connected to the audience in very similar ways. The main ways that they have done this is through plot, characteristics and setting. By looking into each of these conventions it will widen the knowledge and have deeper in-depth on how authors and directors use them.
He’s stalling. Gatsby is normally right to the point. Something must be up, Anthony thought, “Look here Gatsby, quit wasting my time and say what you mean to.”
F. Scott Fitzgerald was born Francis Scott Key Fitzgerald. He was the author of The Great Gatsby and was born on September 24, 1896 in St. Paul, Minnesota, and died on December 21, 1940 in Hollywood, California. Fitzgerald published the book The Great Gatsby on April 10, 1925, among other books like The Other Side of Paradise, another of Fitzgerald’s successes when living which permitted him to marry the woman he loved. Although The Great Gatsby was not much of a success during his time it became a very popular novel that appropriately portrayed the Jazz Age also known as the Roaring Twenties later in time. The author’s purpose for the book was to inform and at the same time entertain the audience of what the Jazz Age was mainly about and peoples
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now to gather in the small harvest they had, and to fit up their houses
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David leaves the US for Paris and resides there with his girlfriend Hella. She is a bit confused as to what she wants...
Jerome David Salinger's The Catcher in the Rye is a truly unique novel in terms of writing style. The story is told in a second person narrative style by a character named Holden Caulfield, and is written loosely in a fashion known as 'stream of consciousness writing'.
Science Fiction Studies , Vol. 33, No. 1, Technoculture and Science Fiction (Mar., 2006), pp. 89-108