I chose film The Lovely Bones and novel Lolita because both works involve two young naive girls who become victimized by hedonistic older men. Both works warn of the danger of pedophilia and youth corruption, possible in all kinds of environment, even in the ones you least expect. For example, in novel Lolita, Dolores Haze, also known as Lolita, comes from a broken family made up of a single mother and economically disadvantaged circumstances. “ A little further, the Haze house, a white frame horror, appeared, looking dingy and old, mre gray then white--the kind of place you know will have a rubber tube affixable to the tub faucet in lieu of shower” (Nabokov 38) reveals the economic status of Lolita’s family made up of only her mother. The unkempt appearance bodes the their monetary status. On the contrary, in the film The Lovely Bones, Susie …show more content…
In Lolita you understand and get to know the archetypal vampire, getting a first person perspective from the perpetrator. In The Lovely Bones you don't get that. It is from the victim's perspective, so there is no way you can possibly come to understand Mr. Harvey the perpetrator. In Lolita Humbert does what he does with a seemingly willing victim while Mr. harvey (from The Lovely Bones) does not have a willing victim. When viewed from an ethical standpoint is one truly better than the other? Or are we just convinced by Humbert that he is better than Mr. harvey? Regardless, the decisions made by Mr. Harvey and Humbert express a selfish desire to satisfy perverted needs while corrupting the minds and bodies of innocent young girls. Justified or not they both still did what they did to pleasure themselves and themselves only. They never took into consideration what the victim thought or felt. They are both true literary vampires despite their apparent
The film, The Sapphires, (2012), directed by Wayne Blair depicts the story of four Australian Aboriginal women who travel to Vietnam as a singing quartet to entertain the troops during the war in 1968. The scene being analyzed in this text is the scene where The Sapphires are airlifted to safety following a bombing attack deployed on the place where The Sapphires were performing. In the heat of the moments two of the girls are split up and forgotten, Dave Lovelace leaves the rest of The Sapphires to recover the lost girls, as Dave frantically searches for the missing Sapphires, he is shot in the chest. This scene is filled with many emotional and intense camera angles, sounds and lighting.
The setting of these two stories emphasize, on visually showing us how the main characters are based around trying to find freedom despite the physical, mental and emotional effects of living in confinement. While on the other hand, dealing with Psychology’s ugly present day behavior showing dystopia of societies views of women during the time period they lived.
The story of Lolita was written in the United States during the 1950’s. Authors in the fifties were considered the Beat Generation and the movements were sexual liberation and disregard for traditional values in writing. Narratives seemed more liberated and open like Lolita because it is far from conservative and
In Laura Mulvey’s “Visual Pleasure and Narrative Cinema”, she presents a number of very interesting facts regarding the ways that the sexual imagery of men and women respectively are used in the world of film. One such fact is that of the man as the looker and the female as the looked upon, she argues that the woman is always the object of reifying gaze, not the bearer if it. And “[t]he determining male gaze projects its fantasy onto the female figure, which is styled accordingly. In their traditional exhibitionist role women are simultaneously looked at and displayed, with their appearance coded for strong visual and erotic impact so that they can be said to be connote to-be-looked-at-ness” (487). Mulvey makes the claim that women are presented and primped into this role of “to-be-looked-at-ness”. They are put into films for this purpose and for very little other purposes. However, this argument cannot be incorporated with The Treasure of the Sierra Madre; the existence of women in the film is extremely insignificant to an extent that could be considered absent. “In a world ordered by sexual imbalance,” male serves as the dominant figures with which the viewer can identify, women only appear in the film for a very short moment of time. For instance, the appearance of women is only shown when Howard rescues the ill child in the village and his return to the village for hospitality reception...
...hetypes of these primary characters, both of these novels make a parallel statement on feminism. The expectations of both themselves and society greatly determine the way that these women function in their families and in other relationships. Looking at the time periods in which these novels were written and take place, it is clear that these gender roles greatly influence whether a female character displays independence or dependence. From a contemporary viewpoint, readers can see how these women either fit or push the boundaries of these expected gender roles.
Mr. Harvey’s vampirism in The Lovely Bones distorts the Salmons’ persistence as well as their inability to accept the reality of Susie’s murder. Mr. Harvey brutally raped and then murdered Susie Salmon in the most violent and indescribable way. “ He felt thoughts of me…my muffled scream…The glorious white flesh that had never seen the sun…then split, so perfectly with the blade of his knife…”(Sebold 50). Through the use of detailed description, it is evident how Harvey splits Susie’s body with his knife as his own way of finding pleasure in killing her violently, and in enjoying the painful sounds of his victim. Also, the serial killer has mastered all the violent variety methods of killing. “Violence…the specific injury…cause characters to visit on another or on themselves…shootings, stabbings …”(Foster 89). Apparently, Harvey has learnt not only to inflict pain on his victims, but to take pleasures in his violent killing methods. Nevertheless, Harvey’s violent act of murder caused great sorrow for the Salmons, and led to their entire denial of Susie’s death. Even after finding the elbow of Susie, the Salmons are willfully ignoring the reality of her death so that they can clin...
In Mary Shelley's Frankenstein and Oscar Wilde's The Picture of Dorian Gray women are often portrayed as passive and weak characters. During the 19th century when these books were written, the proper domestic ideology was that women were naturally squeamish, defenseless, innocent beings, who needed protection from the male worlds of business and politics (Stepenoff). This theme is demonstrated throughout both of these novels through major and minor characters. In the case of Frankenstein, Shelley, who is a feminist herself, covers her book with submissive women who suffer calmly and eventually die. Similarly in Wilde's story, there are a few female characters that do not show much immediate importance, but they ultimately have a major impact on the story. Both authors portray their female characters as weak and passive, yet, despite their minor roles, these women strongly influence the men and greatly alter the course of events in each novel.
The fairytale The Beauty and the Beast is illustrated as a love story, however when looking deeper into Belle’s nature it seems to be that she is affected by several disorders throughout the film. In Beauty and the Beast, we see Disney once again sugarcoat personal problems in order to present a young audience with a one dimensional and simple female hero. Belle has clearly shown symptoms of Schizoid Personality Disorder, Stockholm Syndrome and Schizophrenia which can be treated by a biological therapeutic approach or a psychoactive drug approach and therapy.
In Vladimir Nabokov's Lolita, the overruling drive of the narrator, Humbert Humbert, is his want to attest himself master of all, whether man or woman, his prime cravings, all-powerful destiny, or even something as broad as language. Through the novel the reader begins to see Humbert’s most extreme engagements and feelings, from his marriage to his imprisonment, not as a consequence of his sensual, raw desires but rather his mental want to triumph, to own, and to control. To Humbert, human interaction becomes, or is, very unassuming for him: his reality is that females are to be possessed, and men ought to contest for the ownership of them. They, the women, become the very definition of superiority and dominance. But it isn’t so barbaric of Humbert, for he designates his sexuality as of exceptionally polished taste, a penchant loftier than the typical man’s. His relationship with Valerie and Charlotte; his infatuation with Lolita; and his murdering of Quilty are all definite examples of his yearning for power. It is so that throughout the novel, and especially by its conclusion, the reader sees that Humbert’s desire for superiority subjugates the odd particularities of his wants and is the actual reason of his anguish.
You can always count on a murderer for a fancy prose style. So says Humbert Humbert at the start of Lolita in his account to the "Ladies and gentlemen of the jury" (9). He refers to himself as a murderer (he is, after all, "guilty of killing Quilty"), not as a rapist, the far more serious offense Lolita levels at him. That I, and everyone else who reads the book, call Dolores Haze by the name "Lolita" demonstrates the efficacy of Humbert's fancy prose style - under the spell of his aesthetic mastery, we, the jury, must bend to his subjective vision through memory, and thus we see the twelve-year-old nymphet as Lolita, as she is in Humbert's arms. It is difficult to castigate Humbert when we see the world through his European eyes.
Imagine if you are lost and the most looked up to women in your community comes to your rescue, well thats exactly what happens to young Marguerite. The main character in Maya angelous, autobiographical short story, Mrs. Flowers is Marguerite who lives in Stamps Arkansas. The problem Marguerite faces is that she feels lost and doesn't know who she is. During the course of the story the main character meets with the wealthiest black women in her community and helps her find herself.. This memorable short story is filled with many literary terms, but three especially important elements in the story are similes, metaphors, and imagery.
The characters in Alice Sebold’s The Lovely Bones are faced with the difficult task of overcoming the loss of Susie, their daughter and sister. Jack, Abigail, Buckley, and Lindsey each deal with the loss differently. However, it is Susie who has the most difficulty accepting the loss of her own life. Several psychologists separate the grieving process into two main categories: intuitive and instrumental grievers. Intuitive grievers communicate their emotional distress and “experience, express, and adapt to grief on a very affective level” (Doka, par. 27). Instrumental grievers focus their attention towards an activity, whether it is into work or into a hobby, usually relating to the loss (Doka par. 28). Although each character deals with their grief differently, there is one common denominator: the reaction of one affects all.
In Vladimir Nabokov's novel Lolita delusional love encourages violent actions. The protagonist Humbert Humbert is infatuated with prepubescent Dolores Haze. This vulgar love is based in possession and control, yet Humbert does not feel that he is in any way hurting young Lolita, also known as Dolores, and he feels that because he loves her there is no wrongdoing. By believing that she loves him back in the same way that he loves her, he is setting himself up for tragedy. When she is taken from him by an unknown predator Humbert embarks on a multi-year long journey in search of his lost nymphet. When he finally finds Dolores, barefoot and pregnant, she tells him of her stay with a relative named Clare Quilty whom she fell in love with. At Dolly’s home Humbert begs for her to return to him. Only when she denies him this he realizes the traumatic effects he has had on the girl because of his delusional love for her. By realizing that he, all along, was the villain of the story, he feels that he needs to murder Quilty in order to do right by Dolly, as a type of twisted
Throughout the course of the novel Lolita, readers have regarded Humbert Humbert’s heinous actions towards Lolita with condemnation and loathing disgust. However, even as he is notoriously known for his sickening crimes, at one point readers will unknowingly come to the realization they have started to empathize with Humbert’s actions. Lionel Trilling once asserted that, “We find ourselves the more shocked when we realize that, in the course of reading the novel, we have come virtually to condone the violation it presents – we have been seduced into conniving in the violation, because we have permitted our fantasies to accept what we know to be revolting.” As we accepted Humbert Humbert’s repulsive actions with leniency we have permitted his actions and we have taken his side which bounds us to condoning his immoral crimes.
The interpretation of Lolita still consisted on the ideas of sex and the book as well as the character became a scandal. Nabokov has rebuffed sex themes since the beginning of the book’s publishing. In his famous interview with Playboy, Nabokov rejects the interviewer bringing up America’s sexual mores with “Sex as an institution, sex as a general notion, sex as a problem, sex as a platitude—all this is something I find too tedious for words. Let us skip sex.” (Toffler). His refusal to even talk sex proved how little his tolerance was when it came to humoring the audience about sex themes and sex related questions. In an interview with CBC during the early 1960s, Nabokov is quoted agreeing with an interviewer that believes “sex has become such a cliche, so that people can’t recognize anything else.” (...) which further shows how 1960’s mentalities could see nothing else outside of the realm of sex. In the same CBC interview, Nabokov disputes sex themes more openly and admits that his writing of the book has more to do with Humbert’s artistic nature and how that alienates him and creates unattainable love (...). While Nabokov wrongly uses a young girl’s abuse as a tool of illustrating a man’s “misfortunes” of being an artist, the novel is more than what the 1960’s audience perceived it to be. Nabokov did not intend to write a book about a fetish, nor did he, according to Playboy, wish to satirize American culture. The text included more substinance than what people perceived it to be and as did the character Lolita herself, who was more than a teen temptress. His writing of the book has nothing to do about sex, although his initial theme is flawed and an important example of men’s inability to write books featuring authentic female characters, unless they are being used as tools or over sexualized. And much like Humbert Humbert, no matter how hard Nabokov tried to manipulate the text, feelings of empathy still is evoked