In “My Favorite Holiday Movie Involves a Giant Rabbit”, Boylan discusses her favorite Christmas movies and how their meanings have influenced her during the holidays. Through the use of allusions, metaphor, and imagery, Boylan argues that the holiday season is really about believing and practicing internal virtues to uplift oneself and one’s life. For example, Boylan makes several allusions to popular Christmas movies, like “The Snowman”, “Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer”, and “It’s a Wonderful Life”. However, her most prominent allusion throughout the article is to “Harvey”, which “on the surface… is not a Christmas movie at all but the story of a man whose best friend is a six-foot-tall invisible rabbit”. At first, Boylan’s choice to reference …show more content…
Boylan chooses this quote for its strong contrast and repetition that help prove her point. The repetition and contrast between “big terrible things” and “big wonderful things” work together to express the idea that people can continue doing large, attention-worthy acts, but can change themselves to have good intentions instead. This hints largely at the idea of New Year and “new me”, where one reinvents themselves for the New Year. Boylan effectively connects her “Harvey” movie allusion to the deeper meaning of the holidays: self-improvement. Furthermore, the quote’s context of the bar is meant to show how people typically relieve their stress at bars. Symbolically, they will release their sorrows and problems to start anew. She also alludes to “A Charlie Brown Christmas” and quotes “Isn’t there anyone… who can tell me what Christmas is all about?” Again, Boylan’s choice of a seemingly childish movie emphasizes the real and deeper moral. The question makes the audience reflect on the true meaning of Christmas by touching on pathos. The question conjures personal images and thoughts specific to each reader and makes them question: what really is Christmas and what have I been
In contrast to Dillard initial perception of God as wrathful she recognizes him now as loving by associating God to her kind neighbor and a cheery old man filled with joy. Dillard recalls, “For so many years now I have known that this Santa Claus was actually a rigged-up Miss White, who lived across the street, that I confuse the dramatis personae in my mind, making of Santa Claus, God, and Miss White an awesome, vulnerable trinity” (Dillard, 1982, p. 72). Dillard utilizes juxtaposition by comparing “awesome, vulnerable trinity” to Santa Claus, God, and Miss White. The trinity of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit portray invincibility; yet in this sense Dillard depicts a “vulnerable trinity.” Dillard’s juxtaposition of the trinities demonstrates her comprehension of their differences and she acknowledges her mistake of initially confusing the two. Dillard implement Santa Claus in her narrative as a representation of God’s omnipotent presence. Dillard reminisces, “; Santa Claus stood in the doorway monstrous and bright, powerless, …” (Dillard, 1982, p. 71). Dillard juxtaposes “monstrous” and “powerless”. This example of juxtaposition conveys the alteration in her perception of God because as a child she perceives Santa and God as threatening, like a monster; yet as an adult she realizes they do not mean to harm
For the unit two we watched two movies that were made during the GDR period. One of them, Berlin- Corner Schonhauser, was filmed before the wall and the second movie, The Rabbit is Me, was filmed after the wall. Both films were accepted while they were made, but at the end, they were both banned. The general idea is, that as much as these two movies tried to follow the GDR’s rule during the freeze time, but still they were trying to show a realistic socialist society, and so that cause the movies to be banned. Life before the Berlin wall was a little different than the life after the wall and so that’s the reason that these two movies are different than each other, while Berlin- Corner Schonhauser is mostly showing young generation and their
To help many readers understand that other cultures do not celebrate or recognize the same religious traditions, the Polish, Italian, and Moroccan classmates are thrown into the classroom and add to the plot. Most readers and Sedaris audience may already have a thorough understanding of what Easter is from a religious perspective already and may be surprised that some people don’t know what Easter is. To many, Easter is one of the most important Christian religious celebrations, which is dedicated to the resurrection of Jesus Christ. Knowing the important of easter, when the Moroccan student explains that she has never heard of Easter before, the other classmates try to express what it is by using and sharing their own cultural experiences. The Polish students tries to explain the events that took place and the reasoning for the holiday, while others try to express their ideas about who Jesus was. The Italian student then brought up what traditional foods are eaten on the holiday, sparking a debate between the narrator and the class about the Easter bunny and the flying Easter bell from Rome. The story gradually comes to a conclusion, with Sedaris realizing that Christianity itself has quite a few
Christmas is a season for all ages young or old, but for this eleven year old east coast boy, from Cape Breton, it is a source of conflict and a coming of age. In the short story “To Every Thing There is a Season”, Alistair MacLeod makes three arguments that captures the main themes and conflicts within the story, ignorance to knowledge, innocence to reality, and idealization to realism. MacLeod short story is a metaphor for growing up and a rite of passage.
A two-year old boy, Adonis, was sent to the hospital after being left strapped in a car seat overnight, and the father of the boy is now in custody, awaiting charges of child endangerment. The police reveals that the father, Daniel Ribot, 32, took his son to his second birthday party on Saturday night in Paterson, New Jersey. Once the celebration came to an end at about 2:30am, Luz Marie Ramos, mother of Adonis, walked Ribot and Adonis out to Ribot's black Lexus, and strapped the boy in a car seat. The father, Daniel Ribot was supposed to drive his son back to the family home where Ribot's mother (Adonis' grandmother) also lives. Instead, Ribot parked at an auto body shop about a half-mile away and left Adonis inside the car. Ribot then walked
Interactions between native peoples and immigrants have caused elements of their cultures and societies to entwine where one overpowers the other unevenly, changing both their individual and collective identities. The ambiguity in the peoples’ intentions and understandings creates tension that forces both people to reflect on their identities and act to shape and strengthen them. Both engage in a battle of defining their own and others’ identities and struggle to make them reality. Director Philllipe Noyce’s film The Rabbit-Proof Fence manifests the effects of interactions between indigenous Australians and English colonists, both attempting to control their societal and national identities through the care of their youth. Based on Doris Pilkington Garimara’s Follow the Rabbit-Proof Fence, the film uncovers forgotten memories through a simple but mysterious glimpse into Aborigine (person with mixed aboriginal and white descent) children’s experience of forced separation from their families. In the story, three Aborigine girls escape on foot together from a sickening settlement, hoping to return home, 1500 miles away, safely. The film simplistically, but realistically, depicts the Aborigines as victims of a hypocritical government changing their future claiming to help them, but ultimately to change its own standing. The Rabbit Proof Fence communicates the importance of native rights, freedom, justice, voice, family, and home.
Christmas has consumed itself. At its conception, it was a fine idea, and I imagine that at one point its execution worked very much as it was intended to. These days, however, its meaning has been perverted; its true purpose ignored and replaced with a purpose imagined by those who merely go through the motions, without actually knowing why they do so.
Most of us accept the stories we were told as children were false, or at least romanticized. At some point, the illusion was shattered, and Santa, the Easter Bunny and Cinderella were characters we fondly remembered. But although we recognized these figures and legends as illusions, we held on to many of the sentiments the stories, without questioning their application to adult life. Anne Sexton often uses these innocent, childlike images juxtaposed with cynical but more realistic situations in order show that the lessons society teaches children, ones that children retain as adults, are illusions that do not properly illustrate the corrupt, violent world we actually live in.
Moebius definition of intangible and invisible covers the vast array of human emotion and experiences from love to death through to responsibility and a truth beyond the individual. Corroborated by Bader’s comment that they about sensations and emotions provoking a shift in the reader’s paradigms. This essay will look at how Potter and Browne convey these ideas using Moebius codes and exploring their concept of love and relationships. Concluding with how Potter and Browne illustrate their views on childhood. Voices in the Park has no publishers numbering thus for clarity the page numbers quoted are strictly numerical as in a novel (1-30).
Toy Story is the groundbreaking 1995 motion picture developed by Disney and Pixar and directed by John Lasseter. The film was so revolutionary not only because it was the first feature length animation to be created completely by CGI (Computer Generated Imagery) but also, also the film was more rounded in all respects. The characters not only looked more sophisticated and three-dimensional but their personalities were also more human and fewer cartoons like. The film uses a constructed text in order to put across a theme of two very different characters learning to work together beyond their rivalries to rise above a common enemy and work towards a common goal. The film uses characters and imagery very cleverly to portray this theme. The music used in the film is also different to other Disney features. Rather than the characters bursting into song themselves as in Aladdin or Hercules, the songs are played and sung by an outside person (Randy Newman) and reflect the mood and emotions of the characters in a particular scene. For example, the title sequence song “Friend in Me”, when Woody and Andy are playing together, and the scene where Andy’s room has been made over to a Buzz Lightyear theme, “Strange Things” where the song reflects Woody’s confusion and fear not only about the change in his surroundings but also the change in his friends and his own character and self-confidence. The attention to the smallest detail for example the reflections in Buzz’s visor give the film even more realism and depth. The use of unusual and imaginative camera angles, made possible by the use of CGI, also adds to the texture and pace of the film.
From the cookies and presents, to the break from school, there are many factors that bring glee to the heart of any child; however, one aspect of Christmas has this affect more than any other, and that is Santa Claus. Being the bringer of presents, the symbol of Christmas, and the spreader of joy, his character is iconic, and known by all. With this, though, comes the eventual realization that this man we so adore, does not exist. It is soul crushing to say the least, as in essence, one of our idols has died. For a child, this death is perhaps the beginning of their maturation; once the realization has come, there is a part of the child that grows up. In the poem “The Death of Santa Claus” by Charles Webb, he writes, “he (Santa Claus) can't breathe, and the beautiful white world he loves goes black,” (line 13). While he is discussing Santa, and his passing, this line could also be in reference to the child. The beautiful white world is the whimsical fantasy that is childhood; our imaginations are the very thing that bring that world to life, and when we begin to learn that the things we believed so strongly are not real, the once illuminated, endless world goes black. This goes along with the way we view death as children. In the shows we watch, books we read, and movies we see, death is portrayed as someone ‘seeing the light.’ Naturally, due to our lack of understanding of such a topic, this
The Tale of Peter Rabbit and Voices in the Park were published at either end of the twentieth century, a period which witnessed the creation of the modern picturebook for children. They are both extremely prestigious examples of picturebooks of their type, the one very traditional, the other surrealist and postmodern. The definition of ‘picturebook’ used here is Bader’s: ‘an art form [which] hinges on the interdependence of pictures and words, on the simultaneous display of two facing pages, and on the drama of the turning of the page’ (Bader, quoted in Montgomery, 2009, p. 211). In contrast with a simple illustrated book, the picturebook can use all of the technology available to it to produce an indistinguishable whole, the meaning and value of which is dependent on the interplay between all or any of these aspects. Moebius’s claim that they can ‘portray the intangible and invisible[…], ideas that escape easy definition in pictures or words’ is particularly relevant to these two works. Potter’s book is, beneath its didactic Victorian narrative, remarkably subtle and subversive in its attitudes towards childhood, and its message to its child readers. Browne’s Voices in the Park, on the other hand, dispenses with any textual narrative; by his use of the devices of postmodernism, visual intertextuality and metaphor, he creates a work of infinite interpretation, in which the active involvement of the reader is key.
The Tale of Peter Rabbit was a fictional story for children written by Beatrix Potter. The main character of the story was Peter Rabbit, who had three sisters by the names of Flopsy, Mopsy, and Cotton-tail. The four bunnies lived with their mother, Mrs. Rabbit, underneath a huge tree in the woods. All the characters displayed the element of anthropomorphic because they are dressed in human clothing and display human characteristics such as walking straight up on their hind legs. The three sisters were wearing a pink to reddish cloak, Peter Rabbit a blue jacket with brown shoes, and the mother a blue chambermaid dress. While Peter Rabbit’s sisters were obedient little bunnies who gathered blackberries, Peter Rabbit was a naughty, disobedient and mischievous young rabbit who gave into temptation rather than to listen to direction.
A Doll’s House and The Importance of Being Earnest were both written in the late nineteenth century at a period in time when gender roles in society were not only significant to the structure of society but were restrictive and oppressive to individuals. This was particularly true in the case of women who were seen as the upholders of morals in polite society and were expected to behave accordingly. A Doll’s House and The Importance of Being Earnest challenge society and its inclination to categorise and expect certain behaviour of individuals based on their gender.