Awakenings is a film based around the research of Dr. Malcolm Sayer, who is a clinical physician at a mental hospital. The film starts with him being hired on to work at this mental hospital, even though he has little experience working with actual people. Most of his work previously had been research rather than hands on work with humans. Whenever he is introduced to his patients, he is given the patients who are primarily unresponsive, or known as catatonic. He discovers a common link between all of them, that being that they all dealt with a common issue, being encephalitis, which is essentially the swelling of the brain. Dr. Malcolm Sayer then went to a conference that discussed a breakthrough drug called L-Dopa. The medication was designed …show more content…
Does it mean that you have be a physical human taking up space or does it mean that you have to be able to react and interact with your surroundings. Awakenings displays humans who show almost no signs of life, but yet are still living creatures. It makes it hard to define them as a person, because of their lack of ability to support themselves and interact with the world. Even though they are unable to do such things, they were still able to awakened and become interactive. The patients went from their comatose state to completely lively with the use of the L-Dopa drug, which brings up an even more complicated question. Do you have to be fully awake to be qualified as a person? The vegetable like humans were completely incapable of doing anything other than the basic human needs, but then were able to function properly for a short span of time. I would say that, to qualify as a person, you need to be able to function and interact with the world. The patients, while in the vegetable like states, are not fully what I would qualify as a person. However, they would have the potential to be a person, but not if they need another person to think for
The Awakenings was originally a non-fiction book written by Dr. Oliver Sacks, a British neurologist who spent years working in the United States. It served as one of his memoir in his life’s work. Later on the book entitled “Awakenings” published during 1973 was given a film adaptation. The screenplay for the film was then tasked to Steve Zillian, an American screenwriter who has gained multiple awards and nominations for his work.
New Essays on The Awakening. Ed. Wendy Martin. Cambridge: Cambridge UP, 1988.
Sayer then goes to his superior leader, Dr. Kaufman, with the notion to put all of the patients on L-Dopa. Dr. Kaufman then agrees to only allow one patient on L-Dopa, and with the consent of the family. Dr. Sayer then begins Leonard on the medicine, and slowly increases the dosage. When Leonard receives 1000mg of L-Dopa, he begins to talk and move like a non-catatonic person could do (Sacks & Zaillian, 1990).
The Awakening is a novel about the growth of a woman becoming her own person; in spite of the expectations society has for her. The book follows Edna Pontellier as she struggles to find her identity. Edna knows that she cannot be happy filling the role that society has created for her. She did not believe that she could break from this pattern because of the pressures of society. As a result she ends up taking her own life. However, readers should not sympathize with her for taking her own life.
Throughout The Awakening, a novel by Kate Chopin, the main character, Edna Pontellier showed signs of a growing depression. There are certain events that hasten this, events which eventually lead her to suicide.
Hallucinogens are a class of drugs that share a vast history, and were used for spiritual and religious practices since the prime of early civilization. They are referenced in the Hindu holy book, Rig Veda, the healing rituals of the Aztecs of Pre-Columbian Mexico, and are often attributed to the illicit practices of those prosecuted during the Salem Witch Trials. The first synthetic hallucinogens were discovered by a Swiss chemist named Albert Hoffman in 1938, and were originally manufactured to psychiatrists to help their patients access repressed emotions. Other uses considered for early hallucinogens included ingestion by doctors to better understand schizophrenic patients, and as an antibiotic. Their recreational use peaked in the 1960s, but began to decline after they were declared illegal in 1966, except in Native American churches where hallucinogens continued to be used as a spiritual tool. Though their popularity is not as prevalent as it had been in the “hippie movement”, their use continues to be recorded within a minority of the high school and college aged population.
In the novel “The Awakening” it follows the final months of the story 's protagonist Edna Pontellier. By the end of the story Edna ends her own life after what I believe was a failed attempt on her trying to ‘break’ her cultural boundaries. This is all before she goes on an adventure one summer in pursuit of breaking the chains society had put on her. Something that the reader can follow her on and understand why she did what she did that summer. This novel in my eyes was portraying what cultural boundaries can do to people and how far you can push them before you begin to feel the pressure on you . In my eyes it is also the story of the oppressed, people who could not say anything about how they felt, in this case that is Edna a married woman
There have been many different types of ordinances and laws that have been put into place to limit the use of either drugs or alcohol targeting minority groups in particular such as the Temperance Movement targeting African-Americans or even the San Francisco Opium Parlors city ordinance. The Temperance Movement was put in place to limit and regulate alcohol consumption. In the year of 1875 in the city of San Francisco, there were more than eight opium parlors within three city blocks of city hall; this would eventually lead to the first ordinance of its kind. The efforts of both the Temperance Movement and that between state and local levels of government who sought to control the use of opium amongst the Chinese could be defined as racially motivated.
This story represents the lives of women back in the early 19th century. They were so closed in by societal norm and rules that many of them did not have the freedom to be who they wanted to be, or even live they life they wanted to live. The story “The Awakening” is a clear example of this scenario. Edna Pontellier did not have the courage to strength to face society so she felt like she had to die to find her freedom.
Reviewing cult movies, one will notice that many films will involve scenes using drugs such as marijuana or hallucinogens. Drugs performed in films with scenes of actors or actresses smoking pot tend to draw in a wide spread of audience; those who find marijuana to be the “sin” and fun to watch, and those of the smoking-hippie era themselves. Many cult drug films are solely based around marijuana or LSD because these are two drugs that cause someone to feel relaxed, or help stimulate the way the brain thinks. Many drugs that are viewed in films cause the audience to feel different from mainstream, therefore they play an important role towards the reception of the film. (Mathijs and Sexton, 164) With further discussion on the film and the way it was portrayed and viewed by the initial audience, I believe that Requiem for a Dream can be considered a cult film that prominently features drug use.
Something rarely mentioned when discussing The Awakening by Kate Chopin is the possibility of the main character, Edna Pontellier, having a mental illness. Her unconventional awakening and suicide is often attributed to Edna, not being able to withstand the pressures and standards of society. However, there is a deeper reason for her motives. Edna Pontellier struggled with depression and other mental illnesses throughout her life, which ultimately resulted in her awakening and suicide.
Throughout The Awakening, the reader follows Edna Pontellier as she becomes increasingly restless and discontented with her life. In Depression and Chopin’s The Awakening, Steven T. Ryan explains the parallels of Edna’s actions and inactions with depression. He writes:
The Awakening focuses on Edna Pontellier, the main characters, struggle between feminism and the predominant view of women in the 1800s. The Story
Throughout human history people have sought experiences that somehow transcend every day life. Some sort of wisdom that might progress their knowledge of self and of the world that they live in. For some reason they believed that the tangible world just could not be all there is to life. Some believed in a greater force that controlled them, some believed of invisible beings that influenced their lives, some of an actual other world that paralleled their own. Many of these people also believed that it was possible to catch a glimpse of these forces, beings, or worlds through a variety of means that propel individuals into altered states of consciousness. These techniques include meditation, hypnosis, sleep deprivation, and (what will be discussed here) psychoactive drugs, more specifically psychedelic drugs.
In comparison to other works such as Mark Twain’s The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn wherein the title succinctly tells what the story shall contain, Kate Chopin’s The Awakening represents a work whose title can only be fully understood after the incorporation of the themes and content into the reader’s mind, which can only be incorporated by reading the novel itself. The title, The Awakening, paints a vague mental picture for the reader at first and does not fully portray what content the novel will possess. After thorough reading of the novel, one can understand that the title represents the main character, Edna Pontellier’s, sexual awakening and metaphorical resurrection that takes place in the plot as opposed to not having a clue on what the plot will be about.