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Philosophical analysis of a movie
Philosophy movie analysis essay
Philosophy movie analysis essay
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I do not have a strong background in philosophy and found the film difficult to parse as a result. Although religion is not explicitly discussed in I Heart Huckabees, outside of a brief encounter, many of the existential questions that various forms of religion attempt to answer are posed by the main characters throughout the film. Specifically, the film opens with an angry monologue delivered internally by the film’s protagonist, Albert Markovski, “What am I doing? I don’t know what I’m doing. I’m doing the best that I can. I know that’s all I can ask of myself. Is that good enough? Is my work doing any good? Is anybody paying attention? Is it hopeless to try and change things?” Albert’s existential crisis leads him to exploring two opposing
I Heart Huckabees is a film that discusses existential and philosophical themes throughout the movie. It is extremely rare for a movie to directly discuss existentialist themes in the manner that it is done in I Heart Huckabees. It is important to analyze these types of movies in order to achieve a greater understanding of the concepts they discuss. The premise of the movie is that Albert, played by Jason Schwartzman, enlists the help of two existential detectives in order to help him solve a set of coincidences involving an African refugee. These two detectives follow Albert around and document his life. Albert originally intended to hire the existential detectives only to investigate the coincidences however, as the movie progresses, we
In the first scenes of the book Huck is struggling to understand the concepts of Miss Watson's heaven and hell. He finds her harp strumming view of heaven boring and he wants to be in an exciting place. When Miss Watson tells Huck that he will get anything he prays for, he takes it very literally and decides to pray for fishing line, which he gets. But praying for fishing hooks didn't seem to work, when he asks her to pray for him to get some fishing hooks she calls him an idiot. These are both gentle pokes at southern religion. Christianity practiced a people so very pious, like Miss Watson, who can still treat their human slaves like property. This is an ongoing theme in the book. Twain points out some of the absurd incongruences between Christianity and the lifestyle of most of the south. Huck has not conformed to societies general way of thinking. When he is with the widow and Miss Watson, he begins to change, but Pap steals him away and he reverts back to a much more practical lifestyle.
Searching for the ultimate truth of oneself is difficult. In the film I Heart Huckabees, existentialism plays a major role in searching for the ultimate truth of oneself. Existentialism is a philosophical point of view that stresses the individual's unique position as a self-determining agent (Cherry). It also emphasizes the importance of free will, freedom of choice, the unique experiences of each individual, and the responsibilities of one's choices and what one make of oneself (Rooney). During the movie, the existential detective, Barnard Jaffe explains to Albert Markovski that dismantle is "to help shut down your everyday perceptions and give up your usual identity that you think separates you from everything. This room, this street, this town, this country, this economy, this history, this planet. Your body, Your senses, your job. Everything that you identify With." The characters from I Heart Huckabees attempt to dismantle themselves by understanding and realizing their problems to get to their essential identities. People have different ways of understanding their essential identities in the movie; Albert Markovski understands the interconnection between himself and the world, Brad Stand realizes his insecurity, and Dawn Campbell understands that appearance is not everything.
The Democratization of American Christianity, by Nathan Hatch, is written about “the cultural and religious history of the early American republic and the enduring structures of American Christianity” (3). Hatch writes to make two arguments: 1) the theme of democratization is central to understanding the development of American Christianity, and 2) the years of the early republic are the most crucial in revealing to process that took and is still taking place. The story of the democratization of American Christianity begins with the population boom in America from the Revolution up to 1845. Hatch writes that during this boom, “American Christianity became a mass enterprise” (4).
Though Huck was not blessed with a loving family to teach him the ways of the world, and instead grows up more independently, he was taught by many others that in Heaven "...all a body would have to do there was to go around all day long with a harp and sing, forever and ever" (30). Of course, this is not an appealing image for an adolescent boy who fantasized about being in a gang of robbers with his friends. Perhaps even if it is appealing, it may seem out of possible reach to a boy who lives the life that Huck does- with a drunkard father, reading stories of murder and robbery, and witnessing the cruelty and injustice to slaves. Without a firm foundation and someone to teach him, Huck must continually rely on the pieces of information that he hears from others and his own observations which often leaves him confused and misinformed.
... I studied a minute, sort of holding my breath, and then says to myself: “All right, then, I’ll go to hell”—and tore it up” (Twain 317). At this point in the novel, Huck realizes that he would rather go to Hell for doing what he believed to be right even if it is wrong in others’ eyes, including God’s. Although Huck knew it was wrong to help a runaway slave, he also knew it was what he had to do, it felt right to him. The inner turmoil that Huck experienced within his conscience was a constant battle, but Huck made the decision to follow his heart. Huck learns, from his own life experiences of befriending Jim and his own moral conscience and intuition, that standing up for what seems “right” isn’t always easy to do, but it’s the right thing to do. Huck made the moral decision to go against what he had been taught was “right” and do what he knew was “right”.
Religion is sarcastically reflected in Huckleberry Finn by Twain’s sense of storyline and the way his characters talk. A predominant theme, and probably one of Twain's favorites, is the mockery of religion. Twain tended to attack organized religion at every opportunity and the sarcastic character of Huck Finn is perfectly situated to allow him to do so. The attack on religion can already be seen in the first chapter, when Huck indicates that hell sounds like a lot more fun than heaven. This will continue throughout the novel, with one prominent scene occurring when the "King" convinces a religious community to give him money so he can "convert" his pirate friends.
Huck Finn does not fully understand religion. The widow tells him he can ask God for whatever he wants so he thinks of religion as asking God for specific items. Religion is actually a more spiritual concept, and Huck is not mature enough to realize this. This is apparent when he mentions “Miss Watson she took me in the closet and prayed, but nothing come of it. She told me to pray every day, and whatever I asked for I would get it. But it warn't so. I tried it. Once I got a fish-line, but no hooks. It warn't any good to me without hooks. I tried for the hooks three or four times, but somehow I couldn't make it work. By and by, one day, I asked Miss Watson to try for me, but she said I was a fool. She never told me why, and I couldn't make it out no way.” This tells us that Huck is very confused about religion and takes things very literally. Huck was not brought up in church, so he knows little about God and religion. Another time when Huck took something too literally was when he went to Tom Sawyer's group to "rob and murder" people. Huck fully expected there to be real elephants and “A-rabs” at their destination. Tom Sawyer just wanted to pretend this was the case, when Huck actually was preparing himself to see elephants.
Christianity’s role in America has rapidly changed over the last decades. Although it is still the most popular religion in the country its power over the people has decreased significantly. However, there are still many misconceptions towards American Christianity and in order to understand the unique nature of this religiously diverse country; one must understand its history and its citizens own views on the matter.
...ed to be morally good. Such as attempting to reform a person from their past misdeeds or the standard view of slavery where the white population is the dominate race. Through Huck, there is a questioning of society’s moral values such as religion and the good intentions of the people whether it is through the government or the family, that he is forced to search for his own moral and ethical authority (Kelly). Like Huck, morality can be addressed as the choices that are either good or bad and from a religious standpoint determines an individual’s spiritual enlightenment.
In the beginning of the book, when Huck is first taken into Widow Douglas’ house, she tries to get him to be more civilized. She reads to him from the Bible, teaches him how to read and behave, and even forces him to wear shoes. This quote was [I’m guessing] Huck’s first encounter with religion, because obviously his father wouldn’t have taken him to church. Huck is first intrigued by the adventures people experienced, but is quickly bored when he finds out that they all died a while ago.
Life, change, identity, they are all a big part of this book as well as life in general. Huck is a person who the author Mark Twain tries to portray as lost in himself as well as in society. Huck throughout the book is looking for an identity that he believes he will find on his journey down the Mississippi river. "I'd go down the river fifty mile and camp in one place for good, and not have such a rough time tramping on foot."(pg31) Why does he want to get away from his life? I think Huck's character is very independent and he has his own thoughts on where he wants to end up in life. In his old life everybody was always telling him what to do where to go how to eat and he was getting sick of it. On page 4 he says "All I wanted was to go somewheres; all I wanted was change , I warn't particular." He was looking to get out of his old life and into the life that he thought was right for him. Where there was no boundaries or limits, he wanted to be free from the shackles of Christian home life.
At the beginning of the tale, Huck struggles between becoming ?sivilized? and doing what he pleases. He doesn?t want to listen to the rules that the Widow Douglas and her sister force upon him, even though he knows the widow only wants what is best for him. Miss Watson pushes Huck away from society even more through the way she treats him. She teaches him religion in such a dreary way that when she speaks of heaven and hell, Huck would rather go to hell than be in heaven with her: ?And she told all about the bad place, and I said I wished I was there?I couldn?t see no advantage in going where she was going, so I made up my mind I wouldn?t try for it? (12-13). Huck is taught a very different kind of morality by his father who believes ?it warn?t no harm to borrow things, if you was meaning to pay them back?? (70). He likes his father?s idea of morality better because he is not yet mature enough to fully understand right and wrong, although living with the widow...
The Reluctant Fundamentalist is a taut and engaging piece of fiction, exploring the growing chasm between the East and the West. Mohsin Hamid has used a rather unique narrative mode- the dramatic monologue –and used it skillfully to weave an account of a young Pakistani’s class aspirations and inner struggle in corporate America. Throughout the novel, Hamid maintains a tense atmosphere, an atmosphere of imminent danger and radical violence. What results from the two devices is an allegorical reconstruction of post-9/11 tensions, and an inflective young man’s infatuation and disenchantment with America.
The role of religion in politics is a topic that has long been argued, and has contributed to the start of wars, schisms (both political and religious), and other forms of inter and intra-state conflict. This topic, as a result of its checkered past, has become quite controversial, with many different viewpoints. One argument, put forth by many people throughout history, is that religion and the government should remain separate to avoid any conflicting interests. This view also typically suggests that there is one, or several, large and organized religions like the Roman Catholic Church, which would be able to use their “divine” authority to sway the politics of a given state by promising or threatening some form of godly approval or disapproval. By leveraging their divine power, individual figures within a religion, as well as the religion as a whole, could gain secular power for themselves, or over others. A second view, which was developed by many theologians through history, suggests that that without religion there would be a general lack of morality in the people and leaders of a given state, which would give way to poor political decisions that would not be in the interest of the people and perhaps even God (or the gods). This argument, however, does not address the fact that morality can exist without religion. In sociology, it is commonly accepted that social norms, which include morality, can result from any number of things. Religion, laws, or the basic desire of survival can all create these norms, so it suffices to say that as a society, our morals reflect our desire to live in relative peace through the creation of laws that serve to help us to survive. The argument of whether or not religion and politics should mix...