Her harsh diction is grabbing the audience’s attention and is also trying to get the audience to feel a particular way. Samuels wants the audience to feel the outrage that she does. Samuels even talk about another celebrity who was commenting on the topic of race. When discussing Tom Cruise and his adopted son, the author says “Nice sentiment” when she is talking about how he handles race. This statement is clearly sarcastic.
Psycho by Alfred Hitchcock was released in 1960. An important relationship in this text is the unusual relationship between Norman and ‘Mother’. This relationship is unusual because although they are two separate entities and Mother is actually dead, there is a constant struggle for control of Norman’s mind and in the end, ‘Mother’ wins. This relationship helped me understand the main idea of madness through the parlour scene, the fruit cellar scene and the police station scene. The relationship between Norman and ‘Mother’ helped me identify and understand the idea of madness through symbolism, lighting and dialogue techniques in the parlour scene.
Drew Barrymore has the distinguished title of executive producer on the film, as well as her wonderful performance as Donnie’s frustrated English teacher, Ms Pomeroy. Unknown at the time actor, Jake Gyllenhaal gives an astounding performance as the complex title character. Donnie is a confused and mentally unstable teenager, who is seeking the meaning of twisted visions of his doomsday demise. Other stars include, Patrick Swayze as local fraudster and sexual deviant, Jim Cunningham, who is brainwashing the community with his new age ideals. Jena Malone plays Donnie’s love interest in the film.
In the first scene, an upset, white; Officer Ryan pulls over a Lincoln Navigator thinking he saw a white woman performing a lewd act on the black driver. Although Ryan’s suspicions were partly correct, Christine turns out to be an attractive light skinned black woman. Having to follow through with his inquiry, Officer Ryan asks the two to step out of the vehicle. Christine having had a few drinks gets a little mouthy with the officer as he’s patting down her black husband. Asking his partner for assistance Ryan then starts to perform a very intimate pat down on her, sliding his hands up her loose fitting dress asking if she concealing any weapons.
He then decides to drive the Cadillac south even though his friends and family have expressed their fears about his decision. On their journey to Mississippi, the family witnesses racial prejudice first hand when Wilbert is pulled over and wrongly accused of speeding simply because of his race. In the end, Wilbert sells the Cadillac for a lesser car because he realizes that his family’s safety is more important than exercising his rights. The story takes place in the 1950’s when racism was practiced liberally and policemen were free to discriminate without any consequences. Because these actions were allowed, racism had run rampant in Mississippi.
Everything about this movie including setting, lighting, costumes and props relies upon these themes. In this scene, Carolyn and Lester’s loveless marriage is made apparent and Lester verbalizes his estrangement from his daughter, Jane. Thus, it is the first time that Lester and Carolyn do not interact in respect to their façades: their reality is finally revealed, meaning that the image of their perfect family is being destroyed by their clashing identities. The tagline of American Beauty is “look closer”, because the film emphasizes on the importance of looking beyond appearance to decrypt truth. The setting of the family dinner scene reveals the tension between the characters and reinforces the initial theme of appearance verses illusion.
Chopin spins this feeling of providence and happiness on its’ head when she explains Armand’s feelings after “discovering” the blackness that his wife possessed later in the story. Armand thinks to himself that the “Almighty God had dealt cruelly and unjustly with him”(273) and he feels that he is doing his God justice by “stab[ing] thus into his wife’s soul”(273) when he tells her to leave. This comparison of how God’s influence was seen in Desiree’s life as a white woman and a black woman shows how ridiculous Chopin thought the racial ideologies of her day were. As a white child she was a blessing: as a black woman, a curse. The notion that God would view one of his children differently because of their skin color certainly was prevalent in her day and these instances from the story, along with the knowledge we have of
“Crash” boldly reminds us of the importance of tolerance by venturing beyond skin color and digging deep into the reality of humanity in general. Sandra Bullock’s character, Jean Cabot, displays racism and ethnocentrism in her interactions with different characters from cultures not of her own. One example of this is when she saw two black men walking down the street and assumed that they would harm her in some way because of their appearance. By turning her diamond ring around on her hand, she proves that she believe these men would mug her if they saw it since they were black. When she and her husband end up being held at gunpoint shortly after and get their car stolen, a spiral effect is created in her mind and her ethnocentrism grows immensely, making her believe that all cultures different from hers are on a lower level.
The video I watched was called “Cheerios Commercial' Gets Racist Backlash "Interracial Family". This commercial was about a black daughter who tells the white mother about how cheerios are good for the heart. After the confrontation with the mother, the dad who happens to be black, had cheerio’s poured on his chest, where the heart is placed. (Sealightfilms, 2013, May 31). From viewing this video, I have discovered that it became controversial.
Barbara Kingslover’s narrative essay Stoned Soup (1995) voices her disappointment on how the nation views divorce and blended families. Kingslover uses her own experiences of a failed marriage, targeting the readers emotions, without being too negative towards nuclear families. The author includes detail to amplify some of the points she wants to get across. The use of logic in the essay also validly support her thesis while clearly seeing her desire for readers to consider both sides of divorce. Kingslover uses as an example of a non-nuclear family cheering on a family member at a soccer game.