The film Sixteen Candles was released on January 1, 1984. It is about a teenage girl by the name of Samantha Baker whose unfulfilling sixteenth birthday yields an unexpected surprise. Samantha wakes up on the morning of her sixteenth birthday to find that in the midst of the wedding chaos for her sister, her family has forgotten her birthday. Later that day at school, her crush Jake Ryan finds out about her interest in him. Tired of his superficial and status seeking girlfriend, Jake becomes curious about Samantha and begins to desire a more deep and meaningful relationship. Throughout the course of the film, the audience is shown the struggles encountered between these two teenagers in their search for romance. Although the film was created …show more content…
in the 1980s, the social structure of high school is almost identical to that of today. One of the most common themes in romance genre films, especially those based around teenagers, is the female having a crush on an older, more popular male. This convention contains some common issues of the genre.
One is that of the female feeling that the male does not know she exists. Another issue of this genre is the fact that the desirable male is already in a relationship. In the film, Jake and his girlfriend have the typical jock and cheerleader relationship. However, at party that his girlfriend throws, Jake realizes that he wants something more in a relationship. The scene shows him in his room searching for Samantha’s picture in the yearbook as his drunk girlfriend stumbles into his doorway. He closes the door and decides to give Samantha a phone call, although she unfortunately does not answer. He realizes how his current girlfriend is more concerned with popularity and sexual attraction than having a healthy and compatible relationship. Another character that contributes to the film is the freshman “geek”. As one of the newest additions to the high school scene, this particular freshman desires to climb the social ladder by “getting with” Samantha. Throughout the film he is seen trying to grab her attention while she repeatedly shuts him down. There is one scene in the film in which the geek and Samantha are talking. He lets her know that lately Jake has been expressing interest in her. As the discussion turns toward the geek, the topic of
sex is brought up. The change in religious values of the time led to a decrease in the censorship of movies. It was beginning to become the norm for people to have sexual relationships out of the confinements of marriage. With this in mind, the topic of sex was common in movies during the 1980s. Samantha even ends up lending him her underwear so that he can have “proof” for his friends that he reached a certain level of sexual activity with an older girl in order to increase his social status. In the end, the girl gets the guy and the movie ends on a positive note. It was thought that during this time films could be characterized by the political administrations. Films of the 1980s were categorized as Reaganite entertainment in which“the film of this period have been dubbed, in part, a cinema of reassurance, optimism, and nostalgia- qualities embodied in the political persona of Ronald Reagan”(Belton 367). Overall, the film Sixteen Candles embodies many of the themes, issues, and characters commonly present in romance genre films. Certain content shows the increase of promiscuity that will reach a peak in decades to follow.
In the book Friday Night Lights by author H.G Bissinger, there are various themes circulating around, However, the theme of racism overwhelms the majority and provides sufficient insight into the social hierarchy and social structure of the town of Odessa, Texas. The book overlooks a group of high school students dedicated to playing football and their struggle with identity, culture, and race. Race not only affects social problems within the book but also psychological, economic and political. Friday Night Lights compares the tensions between the black and white players and the community as a whole, who idolize the game, proving that a single high school football team can shape an entire town. Bissinger uses the racism
The film Friday Night Lights, directed by Peter Berg explains a story about a small town in Odessa, Texas that is obsessed to their high school football team (Permian Panthers) to the point where it’s strange. Boobie Miles (Derek Luke) is an cocky, star tailback who tore his ACL in the first game of the season and everyone in the town just became hopeless cause their star isn’t playing for a long time. The townspeople have to now rely on the new coach Gary Gaines (Billy Bob Thornton), to motivate the other team members to be able to respect, step up their game, and improve quickly. During this process, racism has made it harder to have a success and be happy and the team has to overcome them as a family.
The Great Depression of the 1930’s caused widespread poverty, but the popular culture of the time did not reflect this. People wanted to escape from this harsh time so movies, dancing and sports became very popular. Radios broadcasted boxing matches and boxers became stars. The heavyweight champion James J. Braddock aka “Cinderella Man,” gained popularity. James Braddock gained fame by winning many fights and proving everyone wrong when they said he was too old and couldn’t win.
When a person's faith is also an alternative for their culture and morals, it proves challenging to take that sense of security in that faith away from them. In Night, Elie Wiesel, a Jewish student living in Sighet, Transylvania during the war of 1942, uses his studies in Talmud and the Kabbalah as not only a religious practice but a lifestyle. Elie and his fellow civilians are warned, however, by his Kabbalah teacher who says that during the war, German aggressors are aggregately imprisoning, deporting, and annihilating millions of Jews. When Elie and his family are victim of this aggression, Elie realizes how crucial his faith in God is if he is to survive the Holocaust. He vows after being separated from his mother and sisters that he will protect he and his father from death, even though as death nears, Elie gradually becomes closer to losing his faith. In the end, to Elie's devastation, Elie makes it out of the Holocaust alone after his father dies from the intense seclusion to malnutrition and deprivation. Elie survives the Holocaust through a battle of conscience--first by believing in God, then resisting his faith in God, and ultimately replacing his faith with obligation to his father.
High school sophomore, Samantha Baker woke up on the morning of her sixteenth birthday, hoping for an overnight transformation. While on the phone with her best friend, she stares at herself in the mirror, praying she had grown a few inches and a set of boobs. Much to avail, she has not and her day goes on just like every other one. She has the added pressure of being a bridesmaid for her older sister Ginny’s wedding, the next day. After being felt up by Grandmother Baker, Samantha deals with the ridicule and torment of her annoying little brother and takes the bus to school. During her study hall class she takes a silly quiz another friend had given her. The quiz ends up in the hands of her crush, Jake Ryan! The anxiety sets in.
Friday Night Lights by H.G. Bissinger is a story about a football town. The name of the town is Odessa. It is a small town on the west side of Texas and football is the only thing that matters. Bissinger gives the reader a glimpse of what life is like at an area high school called Permian. Very few towns are obsessed with sports like Permian and Ringgold when it comes to sports programs. In this essay, Permian and Ringgold sports will be compared by their programs and values that they place on sports.
The stereotypical girls in highschool can either be very negative or positive when it comes to engaging with interpersonal communications. To display various examples of interpersonal relationships, there is a movie called Mean Girls. The movie demonstrates how a group of girls in a public high school survive their way through life with gossip as one of their sources of communication. The main characters involved in this movie are Cady Heron, Regina George, Gretchen Wieners, and Karen Smith. These girls are known as, “The Plastics,” the most popular girls in the school. However, Cady was not one of them, she only hung out with them to sabotage them because they would bully Janis Ian, the first friend Cady made since she moved to that school.
The film opens with Sam on the phone with her best girlfriend Randy. She is examining herself in her full length mirror and is totally horrified to find that her body didn’t’ magically transform overnight. She was hoping to wake up with a body just like Caroline’s. Caroline is the head cheerleader, prom queen, and girlfriend of the most popular boy in school, Jake Ryan. Sam is hopelessly “in love” with Jake and is convinced that he won’t know she exists until she is more developed, more mature, more like Caroline. Little does she know, Jake does notice her. He is intrigued by a certain mispassed note containing some very personal information about Sam’s sex life (or lack of
After experiencing a traumatic car crash, Michelle, the protagonist of director Dan Trachtenberg’s film 10 Cloverfield Lane, wakes up in an underground bunker owned by a man named Howard. Howard claims to have saved her from a widespread chemical attack that has contaminated the air, with his bunker being the only place to take refuge for the next couple of years. Yet as the film progresses, Howard’s controlling and threatening demeanor eventually brings Michelle to escape, allowing her to come across the actuality of the situation outside the isolated bunker. Throughout the production, Trachtenberg arranges close frames, manipulates the camera’s focus, and chooses specific lighting to create an ominous tone that mystifies and disturbs viewers.
Ava is a senior who is new to the school. With being new to the school, Ava wants to just get through the year with no drama. She is an unwilling participant in the Prom Bowl as the “Wild Card”. While not as skinny as the other girls in school, Ava doesn’t care about the social dynamics of the girls. The other main character is Mark Palmer, a typical senior football player. As the quarterback for the team, Mark is trying to earn scholarships for college. The character Mark has never had a long-lasting relationship in high school. Mark tries to save Ava from being involved in the Prom
He works a great deal of the time, and when he comes home, he likes to eat and go to bed. Connie has a girlfriend who she enjoys going to the mall with. While at the mall, the girls like to meet boys and watch movies. It is a place where the girls can express themselves in a way different from the ways in which they portray themselves at home. The story's climax begins the day after one of Connie's trips to the mall.
Miss Desjardin, still incensed over the locker room incident and ashamed at her initial disgust with Carrie, wants all the girls who made fun of Carrie suspended and banned from attending the school prom, but the principal instead punishes the girls by giving them several detentions. When Chris, after an altercation with Miss Desjardin, refuses to appear for the detention, she is suspended and barred from the prom and tries to get her fat...
Women have battled for centuries to be equivalent to men. In “The Color Purple," Alice Walker illustrates the theme of women’s heartache, racist acts, and complications of a day to day woman. The Color Purple took place during a demeaning era to not only African American women but African Americans in general were treated inhumane. African American women submitted themselves to controlling men due to the belief of that’s how it should be. During this time, women were used for manual and sexual labor. They were referred as one’s property, hardly spoken of or treated like human-beings. Women faced lack of self-love and identity therefore the definition of love was clouded.
The story of the Fall of Man is known to many people not so much through the Bible as through John Milton's Paradise Lost. Milton's work presents a version that has become part of biblical custom, and to a certain degree aid in the understanding of the Creation and the Fall based on Milton's additions and explanations. The poem's monumental influence aside, Milton's unparalleled perspective has made Paradise Lost one of the most significant works that is relatable to his own era and the present. However, religion is not the only aspect that can be presented at a contemporary angle. By bringing in symbolic figures he invites allegorical interpretations that allow similarities to be made about community structure. Milton appeals to a modern audience by recognizing the structure of society throughout Paradise Lost. Today’s generation remains familiar with this societal component and its various interpretations.
Lastly, passage IX is found in Book 8. During this section, Adam and Eve had already partaken of the forbidden fruit. Shortly after tasting the fruit, Adam mentions that why something so delightful and pleasurable would be forbidden when it should be encouraged. Eating the fruit allowed them to become aware of their physical appearance. Adam and Eve began to cover themselves for they were ashamed. However, along with being ashamed, they become attracted to the appearance of the flesh. Never had Adam ever noticed the perfection of Eve’s body. Needless to say, they had sexual intercourse all night until they fell asleep.