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Settings of the awakening and the significance
Critical review of awakenings movie
Awakenings movie analysis
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The movie Awakenings is a touching movie with an inspiring plot line and characterization. The movie tries to show how one doctor will do anything to help people who catatonic. Awakenings helps us understand why we must be willing to challenge conventional wisdom to help those in need. This movie which is based on a true story is an inspiring story about a doctor willing to push the limits, and it is best examined through the plot line, the characterization, and some of the drawbacks of the movie Awakenings. The movie begins in 1920 with a young Leonard Lowe showing outwards signs of disease still yet unknown. The movie then jumps to 1969, where Dr. Malcolm Sayer works at a Chronic Hospital in New York City. During his time at the hospital, he begins to have a theory that people suffering from post-encephalitis syndrome can be cured, so he begins his experiments to prove his theory. After his tests, he believes that a drug named L-DOPA will help his patients. The doctor give L-DOPA to his patients, which causes them to wake up, but in the end the medicine wears off and the patients revert to their previous state. The plot line has very high points of emotional distress, but there is also times of light hearted fun to relieve the pressure of the conflict. In the first scene of the movie the audience are back into 1920s New York, with Leonard and his friends, but Leonard is suffering from the encephalitis disease, and the subsequent aftermath of his disease. The movie then moves on to Dr. Sayer who is hired just out of convenience for the hospital. We then move on over an unspecific period of time as Dr. Sayer is at the hospital, but he is making progress with his patients. Second, there is an underlying love story with Dr. Sayer ... ... middle of paper ... ...haracter is relatable to the audience for those who have relatives who are experiencing mental issues. The movie is has moments that will break your heart, inspires people to do more with themselves, but with some small plot discrepancies that could have been worked out with a few extra minutes of the movie instead of hanging us out to dry. However, Ebert raises a question “How much of the self we treasure so much is simply a matter of good luck, of being spared in a minefield of neurological chance?” (Ebert). The movie raises questions on what we do to those who need our love and support. The best part of the movie is how they come awake and get to experience a part of life before the medicine wears off and they go back into their catatonic state. The movie is worth the time and money, it is family friendly, and a sure classic to inspire you family for many years.
There were many similarities between the short story “Flowers for Algernon” and the movie Awakenings. “Flowers for Algernon”, by Daniel Keyes, is about a man named Charlie, who has a very low IQ. Charlie gets an operation to make him smarter. It is a story about what happens to him during that period of time. The movie, Awakenings, directed by Penny Marshall, starring Robin Williams and Robert De Niro, is about how some people, including Leonard Lowe, the main character, developed a disease and are now catatonic. Dr. Malcolm Sayer finds a drug that seems like a miracle drug. The movie is about what happens during the time that the catatonic patients are on the drug.
At this point, the movie picks up at the Bronx in 1969. Dr. Malcolm Sayers arrives at Bainbridge Hospital for an interview. Dr. Sayers is a researcher who has little experience with human patients. The idea of being a doctor in a
...t were much more dramatized in the name of Hollywood. For the sake of it being a horror movie, it did have some very gruesome and disturbing images of fear and death.. I did like that this movie showed the dark, scary, and disturbing world of schizophrenia. It shows that things don’t always work out for the best all of the time. Schizophrenia is a horrible disorder because it slowly deteriorates mental functioning. People with this disorder do loose everything they have and must face a very scary world alone. There can be times were they have violent rages and things almost seem as a horror movie. I felt that this film did have some relevance to this disorder and depicted the dark side very accurately. Although some parts of the film were exaggerated I feel that overall there was validity in portraying the world of a terrorized schizophrenic. Hopefully is the future there will be more films that share a more accurate side of schizophrenia on a day to day bases. I feel that the public should be more educated on this disorder because it does affect a lot of our population. Society as a whole has a responsibility in educating themselves in order to improve the care we give to others.
Kate Chopin's novella, The Awakening. In Kate Chopin's novella, The Awakening, the reader is introduced into. a society that is strictly male-dominated where women fill in the stereotypical role of watching the children, cooking, cleaning and keeping up with appearances. Writers often highlight the values of a certain society by introducing a character who is alienated from their culture by a trait such as gender, race, or creed.
The movie entitled “Awakenings” is a visualization of Dr. Sack’s autobiographical account of his efforts in treating people afflicted with a neurological disease in hopes of regaining proper brain function. In its very essence the story circulates around the unyielding compassion of a doctor who
people were becoming bored of the religion and it just became a past time for
Kate Chopin wrote for a reason and with a sense of passion and desire. She lived the way she wanted to and wrote what she felt, thought, and wanted to say. Kate wrote for many years and her popularity was extreme until critical disapproval of her novel, The Awakening, a story that portrayed women’s desires of independence and control of their own sexuality. Most men condemned this story, while women applauded her for it. Kate wrote with a sense of realism and naturalism and she created a voice that is unique and unmatched. The voice gave a view of the female role in society and contributed to the beginning of the later feminist movements. In 1915, Fred Lewis Pattee wrote, "some of Chopin's work is equal to the best that has been produced in France or even in America. She displayed what may be described as a native aptitude for narration amounting almost to genius" (qtd. in Amazon.com “About the Author”). Kate Chopin was a 19th century American author who cared about women and their rights. She was a bold writer who had a huge impact on how the world should treat women.
In the movie Awakenings, The main characters are Leonard Lowe(Robert De Niro) and his neurologist, Dr. Malcolm Sayer(Robin Williams) In the movie Dr. Sayer’s patients seem to be what they call “frozen” thinking that it was caused from parkinson's disease. With Dr. Sayer’s first patient, Lucy, He works with her to see what he can do then he notices that when he drops something in front of her her instinct is to catch it. Other doctors seem to think it’s a reflex but Dr. Sayer knows it’s not or else she would have hit it away. He starts to observe other patients like this then does the practice with them and they show the same signs. The instinct to catch the things. Like when Dr. Sayer throws a ball at them they catch it. He practiced
...to doctor affected her relationship with her dad. They got closer and she was surprise that when her dad heard the news from his doctor, they didn’t have to tie him down in fact of his aggressive behavior “I sat beside him. This was my father” (Olds 440). She was expecting her dad to act crazy since she had always known him as an aggressive person but she did not get that from him. However, his attitude changed instantly and starts and the way her daughter viewed him as an alcoholic changed her perception of her dad.
Fortuitously, the movie has turned out to be one of the best motion pictures of the year. Once again, Clint Eastwood surprises us all with his work as a film director. He gives the audience a chance to consider life from another viewpoint. The movie makes one think about what he or she has achieved in life and Maggie shows us that it is never too late to have a dream fulfilled. After all, this is why we are actually born and live to fulfill our dreams.
The Awakening by Kate Chopin was considered very shocking when it was first published because of the "sexual awakening" of the main character, Edna Pontellier, and her unconventional behavior. Chopin moved to New Orleans after her marriage and lived there for twelve years until the death of her husband. She returned to St. Louis where she began writing. She used her knowledge of Louisiana and Creole culture to create wonderful descriptions of local color, and she incorporated French phrases used by the Creoles. The Awakening begins at Grade Isle, a vacation spot of wealthy Creoles from New Orleans. Edna is there with her two sons and her husband Leonce who comes and goes because of business. Edna is not Creole, but her husband is. She has never felt like she fits in with their lifestyle. Edna has always done what is expected of a woman, including marrying a man she did not love. He regards her as a possession rather than an individual. While on vacation, Edna falls in love with Robert Lebrun. She often goes to the beach with him. She begins to realize for the first time, at age 28, that she is an individual. Edna feels like one who awakens gradually from a dream to the reality of life. After this discovery, Edna changes. She disregards her husband's wishes and often ignores her children. She learns to swim which also makes her begin to feel more independent. Edna befriends two women, Mademoiselle Reisz, a pianist, and Madame Ratignolle, a motherly lady. Distressed when Robert leaves for Mexico, Edna often visits Mademoiseel Reisz to whom Robert often writes. Edna continues to disregard the customs of society. Her husband becomes
“Edna began to feel like one who awakens gradually out of a dream, a delicious, grotesque, impossible dream, to feel again the realities oppressing into her soul.” (Pg. 42) In Kate Chopin’s novel The Awakening the constant boundaries and restrictions placed on Edna Pontellier by society will lead to her struggle for freedom and her ultimate suicide. Her husband Leonce Pontellier, the current women of society, and the Grand Isle make it evident that Edna is trapped in a patriarchal society.
Kenneth Eble states, “…She undertook to give the unsparing truth about women’s submerged life” (2). Speaking solely about Kate Chopin, this quote puts emphasis upon Chopin’s disputes with her society. She used her writing as a technique to indirectly explicate her life by the means of narrating her stories through the characters she created. Kate Chopin was one of the modern writers of her time, one who wrote novels concentrating on the common social matters related to women. Her time period consisted of other female authors that focused on the same central theme during the era: exposing the unfairness of the patriarchal society, and women’s search for selfhood, and their search for identity. In Chopin’s novel The Awakening, she incorporates the themes mentioned above to illustrate the veracity of life as she understood it. A literary work approached by the feminist critique seeks to raise awareness of the importance and higher qualities of women. Women in literature may uncover their strengths or find their independence, raising their own self recognition. Several critics deem Chopin as one of the leading feminists of her age because she was willing to publish stories that dealt with women becoming self-governing, who stood up for themselves and novels that explored the difficulties that they faced during the time. Chopin scrutinized sole problems and was not frightened to suggest that women desired something that they were not normally permitted to have: independence. Chopin’s decision to focus on and emphasize the imbalances between the sexes is heavily influenced by her upbringing, her feelings towards society, and the era she subsisted in.
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.
To conclude, I think this movie is a good example to show how a homeless person lived and how he survived his life from being a homeless. Throughout all his life he showed what can determination do even though there are obstacles in the way. Doing is best paid off his hardships. So from dreaming big, be determined on what you're trying to do, and be responsible on things will make you succeed in the future.