The Arbor is a performative documentary directed by Cilo Barnard. The documentary focuses on the story of Andrea Dunbar and her daughter Lorraine Dunbar. The documentary follows the parallel descent of both of their lives. One decent of the mother led to her death and the descent of the daughter led to her arrest. The film integrates a performance of parts of Andrea Dunbar’s play, The Arbor. The interviews in the documentary were lip-synched by actors, who were acting out what the interviewees were saying at the time. “Performative documentaries intensify the rhetorical desire to be compelling and tie it less to a persuasive goal than an effective one – to have us feel or experience the world in a particular way and vividly as possible” (Nichols,
The story explores many vital concepts accompanied by beautiful illustrations. I felt a strong sense of cultural understanding, spirituality and connection to family and land as though I was on this journey too. I could sense an underlying meaning in each dance, holding great importance to Bertie’s family and a strong connection to their culture. Pryor has attempted to fuse the then and now, by speaking of changes in the land, from a once spiritual gathering place, to a now busy town street where through food, they keep the culture alive (Pryor, 2010).
Filled with lust, greed, and corruption, the 1996 film The Crucible, synchronizes the soundtrack with the actions and images displayed on screen in an unusual, yet effective manner. The film’s plot dictates the antagonist, Abigail Williams, as a villainous manipulator and the protagonist, John Proctor, as a heroic honest man; however, the score depicts a paradoxical story because through the use of Abigail’s leitmotif, the audience conforms to a sympathetic and pitiful attitude towards Williams. Thus, portraying Abigail’s character as a misunderstood female lover. The composer, George Fenton, successfully integrates the musical texture of woodwinds and strings into various scenes in order to cast a suspenseful, yet frightening mood to the audience
Speak, by Laurie Halse anderson is novel about a girl known by the name of Melinda Sordano.In the novel Melindas transforamtion as the main protagoinst is represented by a tree. Three ways in which a tree represents Melinda are through the strugle to find who she is, her growth, amd life.
The Crucible Film The audience are first brought into the film by the white credits on
Justice played a big role in The Crucible. In the play, a manipulative girl is infatuated with a married man and will go to any lengths to get what she wants, even accusing others of witchcraft and putting their lives at risk. Her accusations cause mass hysteria in the town of Salem. The Salem community’s obsession with trying to provide justice only caused injustice against the accused.
In the film, A Respectable Trade, the account of slavery is different than usually seen. With an English backdrop, the cruelty of the trade was concealed. The slaves were not laboring in fields, but were being trained in house maintenance. On the streets there are no slaves, they are rerouted to the United States where they are traded.
The novel Speak by Laurie Halse Anderson is about the struggles of being sexually assaulted, and the daily tests of being in highschool. The main character, Melinda has a hard time with being alone, and not wanting to tell her story. Coming towards the end of the book Melinda faces her biggest fear and learns to express herself through art, specifically through the form of a tree. Throughout the novel, the tree is used to symbolize emotions, growth, and flaws in relation to how Melinda developes.
This is used to explain how Brigida is beginning to develop into an independent woman like the tree builds away from the soil of the ground and overcomes the stones, Brigida is able to overcome a suppressive marriage and start to think and act for herself as a woman. Throughout page 14, after the tree is cut down, the room that Brigida always admired the tree in is lit up like never before and the world is opened up from the windows point of view. This event in the story brings light into Brigida’s life getting a new opening and pursuing it even under the anti-feministic society that she lives in. “The tree, Luis the tree! They have cut down the rubber tree” (14). As the story begins to end, in an unforgiving manner Brigida tells Luis that it’s time for her to leave after the time that they had spent together was just miserable for her. The tree represents a yearning for a change that Brigida holds as a have to thing after this marriage is over. A new beginning for the street corner can come as a new tree is planted in the spot of the old tree. Just as a new beginning can come for Brigida with a new marriage or a new endeavor on her own. Brigida matures as a person because of how she realizes she doesn’t need someone to hide the world from her when she can be independent and inspire to see it
The story introduces our main characters Lane A. Dean Jr. and his girlfriend Sheri Fisher. The couple are set to be sitting up on a picnic table at the park by the edge of the lake, with part of the downed tree in the shallows half hidden by the bank. The aura between the two seems to be quiet and eerie. The mood set by the downed tree made it seem to be depressing and dark as well. They sat on the table for quite a while without a word, both sitting frozen and uncomfortable.
In “The Black Walnut Tree” by Mary Oliver, the narrator debates her mother to try to decide whether or not to sell a walnut tree that is in their backyard to try and help her father pay off the mortgage. The poet’s use of diction and imagery presents the theme that simple, ordinary things can have a huge emotional impact on people.
The documentary, “Forks Over Knives” makes a compelling case in advocating for consumption of plant-based foods. It heavily criticizes animal-based foods and calls for its total elimination from our dietary consumption. It makes a convincing argument that most of the world’s chronic diseases could be averted by strictly following a vegetable or whole foods diet. In my opinion, a plant-based diet is healthier than processed foods. However, I disagree with the claim that animal-based foods ought to be banished from our meals. The human body needs animal-based foods such as omega 3and free-range eggs.
The play is a deep and profound study of the artificial and the natural. The comparison of
play was only a mere two and a half hours, I was highly impressed with
All in all, in The Tree Where Man Was Born, Matthiessen fluidly discussed the importance of the wild and traditional peoples of East African and reflected on just how beautiful and different it was to see this slice of life from a personal and intersectional lens and immersed the reader in a small adventure to take note of the differences in humanity across the globe.
The popular movie/story, A Christmas Carol, has many similarities and differences. The movie had different takes on the characters than the book did. Along with the way the story was put along, the technology used in the film had some affect too. This essay will point out how they’re alike and different.