How have the texts you have studied this year effectively shaped your understanding of the meaning of change?
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Introduction
How have the texts you have studied this year effectively shaped your understanding of the meaning of change? The texts that have influenced my understandings on change were the film "Pleasantville", the poem "The door" and the song "Cats in the Cradle". The film "Pleasantville" portrays the changes that have occurred in American society over the past 50 years. The movie describes changes in sexual relations, language, violence, and family matters and roles. Viewers are shown how the racial and sexual equality began. It shows there is no "perfect" way of life and as the movie slogan says "nothing is as simple as black and white". The movie has used a range of techniques that have helped to effectively shape my understanding of change for instance colour/symbolism and its absence, camera angles, and language Pleasantville has used the element of colour to help portray the change in the town and characters, which contrast greatly against the black and white society. As the characters begin to change their simplistic little town begins to turn into an intricate and dangerous place. The colour not only makes it clear in showing when changes in the characters have occurred though also through objects as symbols much like when Jennifer "pins" Skip and this is when the first sign of colour appears (the pink rose). ...read more.
Middle
They use close-ups to capture George's baffled expression and to emphasize Georges extremely confusion. Lightning (pathetic fallacy) and silence are used to give the assumption that something isn't right. As George wonders through the house expecting to find Betty and his dinner they use compressed time showing him anxiously looking from room to room. Another technique that has been used is angle of shot. This has been used several times through out the movie one example is at the beginning when Jennifer is first introduced they show her looking down on her brother David with disgust and embarrassment. The language used by the characters changed through out the movie. They used a fairly proper and formal language and the most common if not only word to describe emotion and other things was "swell". Though I found "swell" to be a perfect word it fits right in with their way of life, also the word swell doesn't imply anything overly exciting, it doesn't imply anything rather then pleasant. Their pleasant lingo begins to change due to Jennifer's influence. The other teenagers begin to using speech such as "cool", "how's it goin?" and they abbreviate their name for example Peggy-Jane would go to PJ. This new jargon makes them stand out more as teenagers/ adolescence. ...read more.
Conclusion
underlines that no matter at what stage they are in their lives they never seem to have time for one another. The nursery rhyme at the chorus implies to me that he was never around when his son was at a younger age (the nursery rhyme age), "When you coming home, dad?" gives me the impression that much like the chorus repeating that line as did his son. "You know we'll have a good time then" (Direct speech makes the song more dramatic.) is repeated in the chorus implies constant rain checks. The parent telling the story is using it as an example, its purpose is to inform and encourage parents to open the door and cement their relationships with their kids while they still can and to take advantage of the time they have. Anther message the writer seems to be saying is not to get too wrapped up in your work, not to make the money making world swallow you and not to make it the biggest priority. In conclusion the film "Pleasantville", the poem "The Door" and the song "Cat's in the Cradle" have effectively shaped my understanding of the meaning of change wether it is that with change come the good and bad, to open the door to changes and possibilities or to prioritize and make the most of our time. ...read more.
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