I thoroughly enjoyed watching ‘The Greatest Showman’ and I applaud its excellent use of colour, music, and words to capture my attention; teach me valuable lessons; and leave me wanting more. As someone who pays particular attention to detail; works meticulously with every task given; and plays music, I appreciate the detail Michael Gracey put into the film - using carefully chosen colour, impassioned music, and small yet significant events, such as the old hag handing an apple to a young P.T. Barnum which inspires him to create the circus. The flamboyant costumes and dances ensure that the audience never loses interest and that they receive the grand display they expected from the opening scene and more. Breathtaking stunts, such as thrilling …show more content…
Today, problems like this still exist in society and bringing such a prominent topic into a fun film helps the audience learn and understand the issue better by presenting it in an open and inviting manner. In the scene after the circus had burnt down, where P.T. Barnum sits beside the rubble with the reporter who had dismissed Barnum’s shows, the reporter called the circus “A celebration of humanity” which showed how much impact the circus had on the characters. Barnum took people of all shapes, sizes, and colours, put them on a stage and treated them as equal - proudly displaying their differences as something to appreciate rather than shame. Barnum’s quote’”No one ever made a difference by being like everyone else”, would make an immense impact on people by teaching them to be proud of who they are and that what they perceive to be their flaws are what make them unique and special. In addition, Carlyle leaving his parents for Anne Wheeler is a very prominent moment in the movie since it teaches people that happiness is more valuable than wealth and it teaches children to stand up for their own beliefs if their parents’ ideals and morals are
“The Charmer” by Budge Wilson is a short story about a Canadian family that finds misfortune and conflict within their lives. Conflict being the predominant theme which directly affects all the participants in the family. The story is written in third person and narrated from the young girl Winifred’s point of view. Budge Wilson uses Zack’s smothered childhood, charming personality and irresponsible behaviour to create emotional conflict between members of the family.
In the short story “Circus in Town”, it depicts the life a young girl named Jenny who grows up in the improvised section of town. Despite her poor lifestyle Jenny stays positive through her use of imagination and clear mind. All it took to change her perspective of her life was a simple piece of paper from the circus. Despite her family’s circumstances, she does not try to avoid her lack of money or social status but rather creates her own ideal lifestyle she believes is perfect. Her life would be filled with horses that wore “silver bells on reins and bridle”(para 24) and her very “own circus”(para 22). This shows how Jenny is trapped in the fabricated
A short, fat man who owns a little band of sheep on the flats at
Do you think you would be able to persevere through many difficult obstacles wihout giving up? In True Grit by Charles Portis, Mattie Ross a 14 year old, her father was murdered by a man named Tom Chaney. Throughout the book she has to overcome many hardships and get through many obstacles to avenge her father’s death.
H.G. Bissinger’s Friday Night Lights brings to mind the cold, autumn nights of 1988 where a town, just like any other rural town in America, was brought together in such a raw and emotional way. From the rise and fall of Boobie Miles to the push for the playoffs, it is clear that 1988 Odessa was swept up in the glory of football to replace the grandeur of the 1950s, which seemed to deteriorate throughout that hectic decade. While a modern reader may view Bissinger’s masterpiece as a tale from a dated and faraway place, several factors have kept it in the public’s eye. What is it about Friday Night Lights that still resonates today? The answer can still be found in the same rural towns of America. Though it may seem incredible, Texas is still football crazy, and it may be fairly concluded that emotions have only slightly receded from the obsession they once held towards high school football. People’s inability to analyze themselves, the impact a community can have on younger generations, and the way priorities can easily be warped all struck me as subjects that have stayed true in Texas culture over the past 26 years. I will be discussing these topics throughout this dissection of Friday Night Lights.
Speak, by Laurie Halse Anderson, is a story written in the first person about a young girl named Melinda Sordino. The title of the book, Speak, is ironically based on the fact that Melinda chooses not to speak. The book is written in the form of a monologue in the mind of Melinda, a teenage introvert. This story depicts the story of a very miserable freshman year of high school. Although there are several people in her high school, Melinda secludes herself from them all. There are several people in her school that used to be her friend in middle school, but not anymore. Not after what she did over the summer. What she did was call the cops on an end of summer party on of her friends was throwing. Although all her classmates think there was no reason to call, only Melinda knows the real reason. Even if they cared to know the real reason, there is no way she could tell them. A personal rape story is not something that flows freely off the tongue. Throughout the story Melinda describes the pain she is going through every day as a result of her rape. The rape of a teenage girl often leads to depression. Melinda is convinced that nobody understands her, nor would they even if they knew what happened that summer. Once a happy girl, Melinda is now depressed and withdrawn from the world. She hardly ever speaks, nor does she do well in school. She bites her lips and her nails until they bleed. Her parents seem to think she is just going through a faze, but little do they know, their daughter has undergone a life changing trauma that will affect her life forever.
Traditions, heritage and culture are three of the most important aspects of Chinese culture. Passed down from mother to daughter, these traditions are expected to carry on for years to come. In Amy Tan’s The Joy Luck Club, daughters Waverly, Lena, Rose and June thoughts about their culture are congested by Americanization while on their quests towards self-actualization. Each daughter struggles to find balance between Chinese heritage and American values through marriage and professional careers.
Daru, the schoolteacher in a remote area of Algeria, is torn between duty and what he believes is the right thing to do when he is suddenly forced in the middle of a situation he does not expect. He must escort an Arabic prisoner to the nearest town. It is not that Daru has much sympathy for the man; in fact, he does not, and actually finds himself disliking the Arab for disrupting so many lives. "Daru felt a sudden wrath against the man, against all men with their rotten spite, their tireless hates, their blood lust." Unfortunately, Daru loves his homeland, and cannot bear to think of leaving, despite the chaos that is raging around him between France and the Algerian natives. I believe that Daru makes the right choice in letting the prisoner choose his own fate. Daru has reaso...
Father and Son by Bernard McLaverty 'Father and Son' by Bernard McLaverty is a short story which is set in
The poem America by Claude McKay is on its surface a poem combining what America should be and what this country stands for, with what it actually is, and the attitude it projects amongst the people. Mckay uses the form of poetry to express how he, as a Jamaican immigrant, feels about America. He characterizes the bittersweet relationship between striving for the American dream, and being denied that dream due to racism. While the America we are meant to see is a beautiful land of opportunity, McKay see’s as an ugly, flawed, system that crushes the hopes and dreams of the African-American people.
The novel, Alone Together: Why We Expect More From Technology and Less From Each Other (2011) written by Sherry Turkle, presents many controversial views, and demonstrating numerous examples of how technology is replacing complex pieces and relationships in our life. The book is slightly divided into two parts with the first focused on social robots and their relationships with people. The second half is much different, focusing on the online world and it’s presence in society. Overall, Turkle makes many personally agreeable and disagreeable points in the book that bring it together as a whole.
American musicals just weren’t proving successful- as they were focusing on the previous century’s trend of “substance over spectacle”. However, ‘Brit Hits’ became overwhelmingly successful by breaking away from the previous ideal and creating a theme of ‘bigger and better!’, focusing primarily on creating sights over substance. With casts and creative teams of the shows being larger than ever, as well as the aid of technology advancements- it proved to be the way to go! Larger sets and bigger special effects were introduced, including helicopters flying onto stage and chandeliers crashing on stage. Due to higher budgets and musical theatre reaching its peak, shows like Cats changed the way theatre published and promoted. In the past, shows had only souvenir programs or shirts, but Cats’ signature pair of yellow eyes, plastered the show’s logo, across coffee cups, jackets, ornaments, key chains, pins etc.- anything that could be thought of, changing the course of advertising. These “Brit Hits” showed a promising future for musical theatre, bringing in tens of thousands of new fans and showcasing a real ‘WOW’ factor through the ideal of big budgets, big effects, big orchestration, big casts and overall, big
The action of the play is set in August 1947, in the mid-west of the
So many people aren't happy with how they are or want to conform more like the rest of society. In Browning's film, the only people in the circus that appeared to be "normal" were actually the most disturbed people of all of the circus. In really parralles with the phrase, "It's whats on the inside that really counts". The people of the circus stuck together and never let one another get hurt, they were a family because they were all that they had. I thought using this cast of characters was very effective because you had such disturbing looking people working in the circus and then the good looking people who also worked in the circus but the good looking ones were the ones who were evil all
The main characters in this story were Zach Wahhsted, Alan Mender, and Joey Mender. Zach Wahhsted was a schizophrenic sixteen year. He often hallucinates voices and people; but when ever he would forget to take his medication, he would hear two voices that would tell him to kill himself. Zach had a hard time understanding what was real and what was in his head. Alan Mender was a seventeen year old who grew up in a rough neighborhood with his little brother and their mom, who was diagnosed with cancer. He has a kind disposition, but lives in rough circumstances. Joey Mender was a fourteen year old younger brother of Alan Mender, who also lived with his mother, he is temperamental and thought zach was just a retard.