The movie Shattered Glass is a 2003 American Drama film written and directed by Billy Ray. The screen play is based on the 1998 Vanity Fair article by H.G Bissinger. It is a true life drama centered on Steven Glass, who was a journalist at The New Republic and his steep fall when his 27 out of 41 of his articles were proven to be false. The movie highlights the political aspects of journalism and encompasses the processes that lead to the publishing of articles in magazines. At the end of the movie I must say I was taken aback on how the events revolved and took a whole different twist; I certainly didn’t see that coming. I had two major opinions when I was through with the movie and they would be discussed in detail below.
At the beginning of the movie, Stephen Glass, who is the narrator throughout the movie, speaks about how important it is that a journalist knows who he is writing for and what he is good at. This explains to an extent why he crossed the boundaries to write false articles simply because he knew what subjects would be able to engross the readers and he was good at doing that. Despite the fact that Stephen deliberately applied that perception in the wrong way, he was able to capture the minds of many readers at large with creative and funny stories and this capped his career. I must say I was impressed with how guileful Stephen Glass was in carrying out this act but was disappointed in the end when his excuses were extremely cynical. He should have been prepared to prove the accusations false knowing he wrote a couple of false articles. It was not quite sensible of him to write an article about a software company that exists without having sources to back it up. Although, he was skillful he was at writing lies, h...
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...rocess find their selves lost and being tempted to break certain rules guarding their jobs at some point. We all know how appealing various areas are to the audience today. Take for instance the music industry, sex sells. For that reason more artists sing about sex related songs. I can see how Stephen Glass was pressured to write about something appealing, he was desperate to stand out; the dream of many achievers. In the process of doing that however, the value of his writing was lost just the same way music is starting to lose its value in the world today. Although it is pleasing to listen to, it lacks novelty. My point is, we are sometimes tempted to do things we do not initially intend to do to gain favor from other people and this leads to the loss of the things that matter the most such as: trust, values and the friendships we have with the people around us.
Throughout the years, and throughout various forms of media, some of the greatest creative minds have been the victims of the most unfortunate circumstances. For many, their major problem is that of addiction, and one could say that it affects their work, for better or worse. For example, a writer’s prose usually is affected at least partly by the author’s inner dialogue, and thus, the author’s problems get mixed in with their writings. Therefore, the author’s addictions become a part of the work itself.
She allows her readers to ponder about the message she is displaying as she says, “…that the self can interrupt the self-and does- is a darker and more curious matter” (3). She then leads into a thought provoking statement, where she explains that there people that “…that make the world go around,” and those that don’t just make it go around “…but forward.” (4). With this statement, Oliver leads her readers into really thinking about the world and the fact that there are two kinds of the work, but also that they work simultaneously to have the world both “go around” and forward (4). To conclude her paper, Oliver beautifully adds a point saying, “ The most regretful people on the earth are those who felt the call to creative work… and gave to it neither power nor time,” which leaves her readers to truly rethink the way they should go at their creative work (7). Oliver uses strong points exquisitely throughout her paper, and in such a way that forces her readers to think more than they would do for other papers. With such strong points, Oliver displays her creative work message in such a way that causes her audience of hopeful and creative workers to take her words to heart if they want to be
Society uplifts famous individuals, causing faulty lifestyles to be lost within time. Truman Capote is an example of a famous author whose flaws have been lost underneath society’s approbation. Capote’s youth, with an abusive mother and absent father, led him to a successful life as an author; however, the lost favor of friends and fans sent him spiraling into alcoholism that tarnished his career.
Trends ignore all of the miniscule bumps along the road, no matter their importance, and rather focus on the form and the end goal of the pattern. Paul Valery states that in compliance with this theory and in thriving for unattainable perfection, he “fashioned for myself a poetry void of hope, a poetry that had no other purpose and almost no other law than to establish for me a way of living with myself, for a part of my days. I set no term to it, and I imposed conditions enough to provide matter for labor without end.” In Valery’s mind, the path towards perfection began with no hope and focused on the bare minimum of laws. Essentially, a destruction of all the unnecessary parts of the world, and focusing only on the bare necessities.
We live in an unpredictable world, full of astonishing adventures. We are not able to foresee our destiny, and we can not live in the past. Everyone is encouraged to live everyday like it is their last. We are encouraged to find a career that we enjoy so much that “you will never work a day in your life.” In Tobias Wolf’s short story, “Bullet in the Brain”, the main character, Anders, appears to love his job as a book critic. He loves it so much that he continues to critique anything and everything that crosses his mind throughout the day. Anders occupation as a critic, lead him
When books are very popular, most of the time they are made into a movie. The Glass Castle by Jeannette Walls is a book that depicts the struggle of poverty and addiction. A movie was made based on the book. The movie did not follow the book completely, but, that was to be expected. The movie did an excellent job with the cast.
To Thoreau, life’s progress has halted. It seems people have confused progression with captivity driven by materialism. To Krakaeur, people are indifferent to pursing the sublime in nature. To Christopher McCandles the world around him is forgetting the purpose of life. People are blind to nature. In the eyes of these men the world is victim to commercial imprisonment. People live to achieve statuses that only exist because man made them. Fame, money, and monotonous relationships do not exist in nature; they are the pursuits of soulless fundamentalism. The truth is that people pursue meaningless goals, and people don’t want to hear or know how they are foolish. When exposed, reality is so unsettling that it seems wrong. Yet, to be free of the falseness in life is in essence the point of singularity that people realize if there is no truth in love then it is false, if there is no truth in money then it is worthless, if there is no truth in fame then it is undeserving. Without truth everything is a worthless pursuit of a meaningless glass ceiling.
It is lines like these that helped this novel soar in popularity among the Generation X' crowd. It is because people feel trapped in their jobs and material lives. We go to work, we do what we're told, we buy the things they tell us to buy, but seldom do these things bring meaning to our lives. Because the novel speaks to such a large audience of young people, it has become an important statement regarding modern culture.
The book The Glass Castle is written by Jeanette Walls, which details her unconventional childhood growing up with an alcoholic father and a mother who seems to not want the responsibility of raising a family. In The Glass Castle, published in 2005, Walls seems to reveals the intimate details of her upbringing within a dysfunctional yet loving family. Due to the fact that it is, a first-person point of view can effectively prove through storytelling and it can also have limitations to it. When a text is in first person point of view in general, certain opinions can be left out and may influence the reader's bias. A bias is a perspective/opinion. If The Glass Castle were told as an autobiography as opposed to a memoir, the story would have been more efficient in storytelling.
Woodward and Bernstein's undertaking constructed the cornerstone for the modern role of the media. The making of the movie about the Watergate Scandal and the ventures of the two journalists signify the importance of the media. The media’s role as intermediary is exemplified throughout the plot of the movie. The movie is the embodiment of journalism that guides future journalists to progress towards the truth, no matter what they are going up against. It was the endeavor of Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein that led them to the truth behind the president’s men. They showed that not even the president is able to deter the sanctity of journalism in its search of truth. The freedom of speech, the freedom of the press, and people’s right to know account for the same truth that journalists pursue; the truth that democracy is alive and will persist to live on.
...rprise, surprise -- is correlated with having less materialistic values,” (Gregoire 1). As these unethical reoccurrences remain in society, the world will continue to be a hopeless place as people search for success and happiness, just as Fitzgerald demonstrated through his social commentary.
In William Faulkner’s “Speech Accepting the Nobel Prize in Literature,” he asserted, “It is his privilege to help man endure by lifting his heart, by reminding him of the courage and honor and hope and pride and compassion and pity and sacrifice which have been the glory of his past” (Faulkner). Humans, by nature, are capable of achieving the unimaginable. However, individuals often do not believe very strongly in this ability. While they possess the potential, many people do not have enough determination to reach toward their goals and “not merely endure: prevail” (Faulkner). As expressed by Faulkner, writers hold the duty to motivate their readers in an optimistic way. Although many individuals believe that the “writer’s duty” is primarily
Smith, Sean. "HEART OF 'GLASS'." Newsweek 145.13 (28 Mar. 2005): 50-51. Canadian Reference Centre. EBSCO. 4 Jan. 2009 .
Fragments of glass reflect pieces of her. Lily-white skin. Primped, hanging curls the color of corn. A button nose. Cherry ribbon lips. Opaque forget-me-not blue eyes. The dark pupils dilate and swivel, dilate and swivel, but her eyes are sightless. She sees, but she does not.
“When I sit down to write a book, I do not say to myself ‘I am going to produce a work of art.’ I write because there is some lie I want to expose and some fact I want to draw attention to…”