Verification of Virtue in Marginalized Classes Contrary to most parable writers who employ synecdoche and allegory to deliver a maxim that fortify already existent codes of behavior and morality, Thomas Hardy of Tess of D’Urbervilles and Kazuo Ishiguro of Never Let Me Go aim for the opposite. These two distinct novels both challenge the social …
Continue reading Microcosm in Tess of D’Urbervilles and Never Let Me Go, 2019
The two second-wave feminism movies from the 70s, “Wanda” by Barbara Loden and "Jeanne Dielman" by Chantal Akerman, recreate the distressing lives of women both confined in and exiled from the domestic sphere through a dry, observing perspective. These extremely detailed accounts of two different women who have internalized the social expectation or contempt to …
In Tree of Life, Terrence Malick invites the audience to participate in an intensely intimate yet universal journey that revolves around the question of life and death. Through seemingly incoherent film sequences, poetic narrations, and segmented, the viewers can construct their own holistic experience of the film from unique individual impressions and reflections. Especially, the …
Continue reading Life in Terrence Malick’s Tree of Life, 2019
Both the romantic films that portray two mature adults gradually falling in love - Brief Encounter by David Lean and In the Mood for Love by Wong Kar Wai - illustrate the tension and liberation the lovers feel of breaching social conventions as well as the repressed yet intense desire of their love. However, the …
Continue reading Brief Encounter and In the Mood for Love Comparison , 2019
In one of his most iconic films, 2001: A Space Odyssey, Stanley Kubrick elaborates on the various aspects of human evolution in a three-phase journey through time and space. The three sections of the plot - Dawn of Man, Jupiter Mission, and Jupiter and Beyond the Infinite - are centered around how humankind perceives, reacts …
The most compelling aspect of the introductory chapters of The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini is the surprising complexity of relationships for a house devoid of any female members. The author describes the relationships between Baba, Ali, Amir and Hassan in parallels. Amir and Hassan form an intimate yet unequal relationship nearly identical to the …
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In Ralph Ellison’s most renowned bildungsroman, Invisible Man, the unnamed protagonist guides the readers through the journey of reclaiming his individual identity through an agonizing realization of the hypocrisies of racial stereotypes or ideologies. Although the narrator is oblivious to the destructive treachery of the white supremacists or ideological institutions at the beginning of his …
Les It Be! 1 Minsuh and Emily’s First and Final Episode: Les it be! And when the broken hearted people living in the world agree, there will be an answer. Let it be. 2 M: Last week, I went to Everland with my female friend to celebrate the end of midterms. It was the weekend …
Love in Romeo and Juliet and Pride and Prejudice Both William Shakespeare’s play Romeo and Juliet and Jane Austen’s novel Pride and Prejudice elaborates on the complex aspects of love through the views and experiences of the characters. As two of the most famous romance works of English literature, Romeo and Juliet and Pride and …
The Occupants of the Moor House A deprived organism, when provided the resources, grows with speed unrivaled by any other. Likewise, the titular protagonist of Charlotte Bronte’s Jane Eyre flourishes under the auspices and love of the occupants of Moor House, who for the first time in Jane’s life provided her with a place and …
Erin's Pensive Pen 