Lester Bangs Essays

  • The Hero's Journey in Cameron Crowe's Film Almost Famous

    1385 Words  | 3 Pages

    (Campbell 72) William goes to meet the famous rock critic, Lester Bangs, who is being interviewed at a local radio station. Over lunch, Lester initiates his role as MENTOR to the aspiring young journalist, warning him against making friends with the rock stars lest he lose his objectivity to write about them. “You have to build your reputation on being honest… and unmerciful,” he says repeatedly. Seeing that William is serious about his quest, Lester offers him a bona fide writing ass... ... middle of

  • The State of Despair in American Beauty

    1418 Words  | 3 Pages

    resulting consequences they must face. In the movie American Beauty, the character of Lester Burnham must make many important choices that could either lead to his ultimate happiness, or draw him further into his despair. In the movie American Beauty, it is evident that Lester Burnham is in a state of despair. Lester’s dull and monotonous voice introduces the audience to his daily routine of life. When Lester declares plain and simply, “This is my neighborhood, this is my street, this is my life

  • The Motivation of Lester in Child of God

    1750 Words  | 4 Pages

    The Motivation of Lester in Child of God In the novel, Child of God. Lester Ballard committed heinous crimes against innocent victims. He murdered people in cold-blooded fashion and raped women when they were dead. What makes a human being do this may tell us a lot about criminals and humans themselves. In this paper I will try and analyze some of the core issues that lie at the heart of this story. Why did Ballard do what he did, to what extent is he responsible and what should have been his

  • House of Sand and Fog

    600 Words  | 2 Pages

    story of the conflict between people of different races who have an inability to understand each other. They each want possession of a small house in the California hills but for very different reasons. On one side, there is Kathy Nicolo and Sheriff Lester Burdon who want the house from which Kathy was evicted. It previously belonged to Kathy’s father and she is reluctant to relinquish possession of it. Then there is the Behranis, a Persian family who was forced to flee to America in fear of their lives

  • Comparing Ulysses And American Beauty

    2876 Words  | 6 Pages

    In a film set almost 100 years later in an American suburb, another virginal seductress flips her dance skirt, giving admirers a peek at her panties, and inspires Bloom's modern incarnation, Lester Burnham, into a similar burst of auto-eroticism.   The "metempsychosis" of Leopold Bloom into Lester Burnham isn't the only astonishing similarity between Ulysses and American Beauty. When screenwriter Alan Ball accepted the 2000 Golden

  • American Beauty

    1491 Words  | 3 Pages

    American Beauty, directed by Sam Mendes in 1999, is one of the best and most unique films I have ever seen. One of the opening scenes of the movie starts with a view of Lester Burnham, his attractive, blonde wife Carolyn Burnham and their daughter Janie and what seems to be what seems to be the Burnhams picture perfect life and picture perfect marriage. The suburban house with the clean cut lawn and perfect garden, white picket fence, the oak trees lining the street, the two cars parked in the driveway

  • The Film American Beauty

    3373 Words  | 7 Pages

    The main character, Lester Burnham, is faced with many choices that could either lead to his ultimate happiness or draw him further into his despair. Carolyn Burnham, Lester's wife, is faced with a loveless marriage that exists only because she does not possess the willingness to break the cycle. This cycle involves protecting their daughter by staying married. In reality, children of a marriage such as this are often the biggest victims of this sham. Jane Burnham is Lester and Carolyn's daughter

  • David Hicks Speech

    951 Words  | 2 Pages

    in her house. Eddie Ray Branch, her grandson, testified that he visited his grandmother on the day that she was killed. He was there till at least 6:30 p.m. Lester Busby, her grandnephew, and David Hicks arrived while her grandson was still there and they saw him leave. They then went in to visit with Ms. Heggar. While they were there, Lester repaid Ms. Heggar 80 dollars, which he owed her. They left around 7:15 p.m. and went next door to a neighboring friend¡¦s house. David Hick¡¦s went home alone

  • The Victims in McCarthy's Child of God

    1222 Words  | 3 Pages

    The Victims in McCarthy's Child of God In Cormac McCarthy's Child of God, Lester Ballard is a recluse who is shunned by the people of his community. Because of his morose nature and his bizarre habits, he stands out among the small rural community. The rejected Ballard turns from being a harmless recluse to a murderer. While he is clearly a victimizer, he is also a victim himself. He is the victim of his own ostracization from the community that he was a part of. While the victimization that

  • Beauty And Reality In American Beauty

    3079 Words  | 7 Pages

    Grotesque atmosphere by escalating such disparity to a peak at which the protagonist Lester Burnham irrevocably bursts to death, posing a proposition of man’s raison d’être. The urge to merge in the society contradicts individuality. Carolyn, Janie and Lester– the Burnham family sets the framework and motion of the film. They epitomize three levels of mergence in the society or release of their individuality. Wife of Lester, Carolyn is a real estate saleswoman who craves for success. She wears delicate

  • Life and Death in Thomas' Do Not Go Gentle and Frost's Stopping by Woods

    2063 Words  | 5 Pages

    Life and Death in Thomas' Do Not Go Gentle and Frost's Stopping by Woods "'Carpe Diem'('seize the day') is a Latin phrase which has come to denote an important literary motif especially common in lyric poetry: the encouragement to make the most of present life while it lasts, or to 'live for the moment," (The UVic Writer's Guide). Both Robert Frost's "Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening" and Dylan Thomas's "Do Not Go Gentle" explore the idea that people should attempt to live life to its fullest

  • The Night that Changed My Life

    860 Words  | 2 Pages

    indescribable. I quickly rose to my feet to relight the candle, but I soon realized that I was out of matches. I hesitated to move, I hesitated to breathe, but then there was a knocking on my door and my heart suddenly dropped into my stomach. BANG, BANG, BANG. I stood frozen in the middle of the room like a deer caught in a car’s headlights. I practically crawled to the door to see who it was. I prayed after each step that it was Michelle, but for some reason I knew it was not. I went to the door

  • Contradictory Impulses in Chopin’s The Awakening

    532 Words  | 2 Pages

    Contradictory Impulses in Chopin’s The Awakening “Edna Pontellier could not have told why, wishing to go to the beach with Robert, she should in the first place have declined, and in the second place have followed in obedience to one of the two contradictory impulses that impelled her. A certain light was beginning to dawn dimly within her,--the light which, showing the way, forbids it,” (Chopin 34). The possibility of a life beyond the scope of motherhood, social custom, standards of femininity

  • gatmoral Moral Responsibility in The Great Gatsby

    635 Words  | 2 Pages

    Moral Responsibility in The Great Gatsby Bang!  Gatsby's dead!  George Wilson shot Gatsby!  However, who is morally responsible for killing Gatsby?  The obvious answer would be George since he pulled the trigger.  However, it is clear, if for no other reason than for the unimportance of George in the book, that others were also partly responsible.  In The Great Gatsby, by F. Scott Fitzgerald, Tom, Daisy, and George are morally responsible for the death of Gatsby. Tom, because of his

  • The Sun Also Rises

    876 Words  | 2 Pages

    The Sun Also Rises "This is the way the world ends. This is the way the world ends. This is the way the world ends. Not with a bang but a whimper." (T.S. Eliot, The Hollow Men) "…but a whimper.", Eliot was writing of the Lost Generation. The period after World War I were people were disillusioned, wandering through their life lost, not sure what their goal was. In Ernest Hemmingway's novel, The Sun Also Rises, the Lost Generation and their inability to cope with the change around them is the

  • The Water Droplet's Journey

    1076 Words  | 3 Pages

    is reach the land. I?m there finally all sweaty and wet. Day 3 I?m on the step to soaking in the ground and I?m draining in the ground. I?m waiting to get cleaned all of a sudden a worm comes and eat me. I guest the worm didn?t see me there so I bang on his yelling ?Hey you umm wormy can I get out of here pl-ease?

  • Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban

    505 Words  | 2 Pages

    of Azkaban is an excellent book. Out of ten stars I would rate this one an eight because it was to short. Once you get into it and finish it. It seems so short, because it is so interesting. Harry Potter and the prisoner of Azkaban starts out with a bang. In the beginning Sirius black a Man accused of thirteen murders in one night escapes from Azkaban.( A wizard prison guarded to the tee by dementors, deadly spirits that feast on anything happy. Basically they suck the life out of you slowly until

  • New York New Music Ensemble

    849 Words  | 2 Pages

    The New York New Music Ensemble began with a bang, literally. This ensemble has been around for twenty-three years and it is considered to be “the raising standard” in contemporary chamber music. On Thursday afternoon, I saw the ensemble perform three pieces: Trio, Nutturno, and Marxville Songbook. These three possess very similar tone color and composition. The ensemble’s first piece, Trio, was composed by Donald Martino. This musician pursued his interest in music at a very young age. By age fifteen

  • Ted Bundy

    3354 Words  | 7 Pages

    throughout the 70's and 80's. He allegedly killed 36 women, but by his own admission, there were at least 100 more unaccounted for. His trial was marked by alot of pomp and arrogance on his own part, and the media and public ate it up. He went out with a bang in 1989, when he was at long last, executed by electrocution. Below is the list of women he murdered. Katherine Merry Divine, 15. Disappeared: Nov 25, 1973, from Seattle Wa. Found: Dec.6, 1973, in McKenny Park, Wa. A couple found her body laying

  • Battle of Bunker Hill

    2023 Words  | 5 Pages

    Battle of Bunker Hill Boom, Bang, Crack! The sounds of muskets being fired, its ammunition ricocheting off rocks and splintering trees are heard all around. The pungent smell of gun powder stings the nose, and its taste makes the mouth dry and sticky. The battle is still young, but blood soaked uniforms and dead or dying men can already be seen, causing the fear of death to enter many of the soldiers' minds. It is remembered that freedom is what the fight is for, so we must continue to gain independence