Sara Kern William C. Armstrong English 9D 28 May 2014 John Lee Hancock’s The Blind Side and Alfonso Cauron’s Gravity: What it Takes to Triumph Over Adversity In today’s world adversity is a part of everyday life. It can come in small doses or be dropped like a ton a bricks on an unsuspecting victim. In the face of all this adversity it is important to stay strong and set goals. The goals help to measure achievement and once someone had overcome their adversity and come out on the other side even stronger they have truly triumphed. To triumph over an adverse situation is to achieve such a large amount of success that it goes beyond original goals or expectations. In John Lee Hancock’s The Blind Side and Alfonso Cuaron’s Gravity triumph over adversity is a common theme. Certain aspects of their movies, including camera shots, dialogue, and symbolism are used to demonstrate situations where not only is success found in adverse situations, but triumphed over. Hancock and Cuaron both show how attempts to triumph over adversity can be manipulated by social contest and how the resulting triumph can alter personalities and situations. Adversity can come in a number of shapes or forms and each requires a different action in order to defeat it. When facing adversity it is important to have support and encouragement and the ability to make the correct decisions. Social context has a massive impact on these three items and thus had a massive impact on the ability of one to triumph in an adverse situation. Cauron and Hancock use different social contexts, isolation and society, in the presence of adversity to demonstrate the impact on decision making and provided support or encouragement. Cauron and Hancock use the social contexts appl... ... middle of paper ... ... greatly from its original form immensely. Within these separate films it is clearly shown how social context can manipulate the requirements of triumph over adversity and how these eventual triumphs will often lead to a change in aspects of life. Both Cauron and Hancock show how differing social contexts can affect the outcome of a goal to triumph and demonstrate how the resulting triumph can lead to alterations of family or personality. The various aspects of both these films demonstrate an array of factors that are required to obtain the desired triumph that each protagonist strives for through the adversity they face. The adversity that these characters face is very common in the modern world and can come in any sort of shape or form. It doesn’t matter whether you are a football star or a space explorer, to triumph adversity is a common part of everyday life.
To read a story that deals with this theme makes us realize that it is not everyone that can accomplish what they really want in their
In the novel Unbroken, Laura Hillenbrand uses both internal and external conflict to show the theme people can stand up against enemies even when the odds seemed stacked up against them. Whether it be simply defending himself or lying, Louie found a way to get through prison camp alive. After the war, this left him leaving the camp feeling euphoric. Louie’s experiences really show that no matter what situation someone is in, they can stand
A huge part of the story showed how a person could overcome all the odds to become successful is feats such as sports and other activities. Most sports champions show great endurance to win many competitions. Similarly, Hillenbrand indicated that Louis, a competitive runner, trained until “he (had) rubbed the skin right off one of his toes, (leaving) his sock bloody” (Hillenbrand 23). As a result of all the hard work, Louis overcome struggles such as a bleeding shin, broken ribs, and a damaged toe to set time records for many races. In my experiences, I see many people take sports and other extra-curricular activities as a burden without embracing the challenges. In contrast, Louis illustrates the rare athlete and human being who seeks solutions to
When individuals face obstacles in life, there is often two ways to respond to those hardships: some people choose to escape from the reality and live in an illusive world. Others choose to fight against the adversities and find a solution to solve the problems. These two ways may lead the individuals to a whole new perception. Those people who decide to escape may find themselves trapped into a worse or even disastrous situation and eventually lose all of their perceptions and hops to the world, and those who choose to fight against the obstacles may find themselves a good solution to the tragic world and turn their hopelessness into hopes. Margaret Laurence in her short story Horses of the Night discusses the idea of how individual’s responses
In the film Dalton Trumbo shows the most effective outcome; keeping a goal, even if unreasonable . An example of perseverance as seen when Trumbo becomes a victim of intolerance. Once a successful writer, now stripped of all titles, respect and freedom. Trumbo plays in a losing game, his entire country works against him, but he doesn't stop. Trumbo Doesn’t wait for others to stand for this injustice, he becomes a leader and eventually the life time he spends trying to undermine the Blacklist becomes a success. This movie truly captures the suffering that Trumbo enured and how he thrived in the background, and in the end came out on top.
“It’s not whether you win or lose, it’s how you play the game” is a quote by Grantland Rice which suggests that winning is not important as long as one tries their best. In the movies “Chariots of Fire” and “Next Goal Wins”, the notion and meaning of sport is explored in both similar and dissimilar ways. Although “Chariots of Fire” and “Next Goal Wins” both follow the journey of sport and competition, the characters in the respective films show contradicting views on the idea that winning or losing sport is unimportant in light of the best effort.
“The Hero’s Journey.” Ariane Publications, 1997. Course handout. AS English I. Dept. of English, Woodside High School. 26 October 2013.
A set of practices concerning the narrative structure compose the classical Hollywood Paradigm. These conventions create a plot centering around a character who undergoes a journey in an attempt to achieve some type of goal (). By giving the central character more time on screen, the film helps the audience to not only understand the character’s motivation but also empathize with his/her emotional state. Additionally, some antagonistic force creates conflict with the main character, preventing immediate success(). Finally, after confronting the antagonist, the main character achieves his or her goal along with growing emotionally(). This proven structure creates a linear and relatively easily followed series of events encompassing the leading character and a goal.
Regardless of race, gender, or religion, victory in the face of adversity can be used as a source of inspiration. While some try to emulate the success of others, some already have the internal drive to achieve more than what their current circumstances make feasible. The story of Dr. Daniel Hale Williams is one of a child raised amongst seven siblings designated as a shoemaker’s apprentice who dreamt of more. (Spark Media, 2003)
A film is a medium that has diverse options through which to express a story, and likewise various methods through which themes may be explored. The use of film to explore themes and concepts is an interesting method in that through its creative character leaves open seemingly limitless possibilities. In this essay, the film Home Alone will be explored as it relates to the themes of fear and risk. First, the understanding of fear and risk at the beginning of the paper will be explored, followed by a comparison of articles on the subject. Following this, the way in which Home Alone employed fear and risk, and the dynamics thereof, will be considered, linked to both film and life.
“There is no better than adversity. Every defeat, every heart break, every loss, contains its own lesson on how to improve.” Malcolm X. Throughout the entire existence of mankind, there have been countless scenarios of individuals facing adverse conditions. War, famine, freak, weather. Malcolm X faced cancerous adversities plagued within the society; racism. Racism is slowly being squeezed out, however, new challenging adversities are evolving. The future is not utopia. Mankind continues to evolve, where groups and individuals are faced with the harshest circumstances. However, like Malcolm X they will triumph, in a way the world won’t. Just like Malcolm X in the past, the 1997 film “Gattaca” has replaced the traditional racism with a thing called Genoism. The main protagonist, Vincent, is able to overcome these adverse conditions. Contrasting to triumphing over adverse conditions, various other films including ’12 Monkeys’ and ‘The Pedestrian’ explore individuals not capable of triumphing. This leaves the main protagonist to feel failure and exclusion from the norm.
During the last several chapters of the nonfiction novel From Tragedy to Triumph, authors John Tartaglio and Andrew Chapin assert that cowering at the possibility of failure ruins more opportunities than failure itself ever will. While taking readers on Tartaglio’s journey through running the whole 26.2-mile distance of the New York City Marathon, Tartaglio and Chapin want readers to push past their fears and take ownership of their performance. Through the use of rhetorical questions, the authors allow for readers to reflect on the progress they have made on reaching their own goals. Tartaglio and Chapin are attempting to appeal to readers who are struggling to have a positive perspective on a current difficulty they are facing, as well as
As an individual we do grow by overcoming adversity. But we also grow as individuals in other ways and situations. Adversity comes in many ways and all types of life. In the short film rhinos by Marcus, they use justification to show adversity and both Ingrid’s and Thomas’s life. they both grow in the film together by overcoming adversity. The main challenge that they face and have to overcome together is their language barrier. Thomas spoke English well Ingrid spoke another language. The start of the short film, when they first meet they do not understand each other at all. By the end of the short film they have learned each other semiotics and grow together to understand what the other one wants and what they needed. And a full world stand.
Everybody has got a dream, regardless of how big or how small. Some individuals want to be rich and famous; others just have that dream of seeing their favorite band live. Greg Sestero’s dream was simple, he just wanted to do what he loved, act. His entire life he attempted to pursue this dream, never giving up, and one day he caught what seemed to be a lucky break. A man named Tommy Wisaeu opened an acting door for him. He offered Greg an unnamed sum of money for a simple task, act in his film. Greg did not care about the money; he just wanted his name out there so he took the deal. Little did he know he would be put through grueling hours of work and pain to have to be a part of this film. And even though he considered quitting more times than countable, he stuck through it. Not for the money, not to get his name out there like he once wanted to, but to finish what he had put his blood, sweat, and tears in to. And even though the flick turned out to be one of the worst of all time, he was still proud of what he did and what he went through. Through his perseverance he did something other people could possibly never do. Perseverance of can help a person chase their dreams, finish a harsh, unwanted task, and make them successful.
This is an essay where I thematically connect four films, Saving General Yang, No Escape, The Hobbit and Warcraft all together using different film aspects like the characters and their similar situations. This is more for audiences more interested in action/war movies as they are all focused on this genre, in particular my peers and English teacher.