FEMINISM: Dead is the New Black by Marlene Perez

The Theory:

Feminism is a collection of movements and ideologies aimed at defining, establishing, and defending equal political, economic, and social rights for women. This includes seeking to establish equal opportunities for women in education and employment.
The French philosopher, Charles Fourier, is credited with having originated the word "feminism" in 1837. The words "feminism" and "feminist" first appeared in France and the Netherlands in 1872, Great Britain in the 1890s, and the United States in 1910. The Oxford English Dictionary lists 1894 as the year of the first appearance of "feminist" and 1895 for "feminism". Today the Oxford English Dictionary defines afeminist as "an advocate or supporter of the rights and equality of women”.

(courtesy of: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Feminism)


The Story:

courtesy of: http://images.contentreserve.com/ImageType-100/0874-1/%7B11BF0A7D-4240-460B-BCF7-65D0D474D242%7DImg100.jpg

The small town of Nightshade is known for its odd occurrences dating back several hundred years. So you may understand that it came to no surprise to Daisy when her ex best friend Samantha Devereaux showed up at school dressed completely in black, paler then normal, and dragging a coffin around as her latest accessory.
Samantha is the head cheerleader at Nightshade High School and the most popular, even though the girls are only juniors. Whether dragging around a coffin was the latest cool thing to do, or Samantha was now a walking dead person, Daisy does not know. Either way, Samantha seems different and needs to be watched extra carefully.
Daisy comes from a family of psychics but she is a norm with no powers to speak of. While her sisters can read minds and use telekinesis, her mother uses her powers to help the police solve crimes. The latest case involves a dead teenage girl. Daisy enlists her best friend Ryan Mendez to help her solve the mystery. But when, one by one, teenagers are having seizures and wind up in the hospital with mysterious illnesses, Daisy realizes they must work quickly before another person dies.
Will Daisy and Ryan solve the case or will they end up the latest victims to this supernatural person? Who is the culprit and how come the police haven’t caught them by now? Will investigating this case reunite Samantha and Daisy as friends? 

(courtesy of: http://www.armchairinterviews.com/reviews/dead-is-the-new-black)


The Criticism:

“Dead is the New Black” tells the story through the eyes of Daisy, a girl who comes from a psychic family but has no powers herself. She struggles to gain powers of her own, all the while solving a supernatural mystery involving her ex-best friend Samantha, and falling for a boy named Ryan. The story is a thrilling ride with the main character as she struggles with both personal and social problems as well. Through her eyes, we see the things that trouble the average teenage girl. We see, through her eyes, the struggle of women for a place in the society, metaphorically retold with the overwhelming elements of fantasy and a dash of the supernatural thrown in as well. We see, through her eyes, the hardships she endured and doubts she set aside in order to repair the broken friendship with her ex-best friend Samantha Devereaux. We see, through her eyes, the naturalistic behavior of the average teenage girl as she gets attracted and, ultimately, falls in love with her best friend Ryan Mendez. We see, through her eyes, her struggle to gain powers of her own just so she can be fully accepted by her family who may not be totally treating her as an outcast but certainly feel indifferent about her lack of psychic abilities. And finally, we see, through her eyes, her struggle to juggle all those things at once while trying to solve a supernatural mystery which could put her own safety into jeopardy, all for the sake of everyone else’s safety.

MARXISM: Apolitical Intellectuals by Otto Rene Castillo

The Theory:

Marxism is an economic and sociopolitical worldview and method of socioeconomic inquiry based upon a materialist interpretation of historical development, a dialectical view of social change, and an analysis of class-relations within society and their application in the analysis and critique of the development of capitalism. In the mid-to-late 19th century, the intellectual development of Marxism was pioneered by two German philosophers, Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels. Marxist analyses and methodologies have influenced multiple political ideologies and social movements throughout history. Marxism encompasses an economic theory, a sociological theory, a philosophical method and a revolutionary view of social change. There is no one definitive Marxist theory; Marxist analysis has been applied to a variety of different subjects and has been modified during the course of its development, resulting in multiple and sometimes contradictory theories that fall under the rubric of Marxism or Marxian analysis.

(courtesy of: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marxism)


The Text:

One day

the apolitical

intellectuals

of my country

will be interrogated

by the humblest

of our people.

They will be asked

what they did

when their country was slowly

dying out,

like a sweet campfire,

small and abandoned.

No one will ask them

about their dress,

or their long

siesta

after lunch,

or about their futile struggles

against “nothingness”

or about their ontological

way

to make money.

No, they won’t be questioned

on Greek mythology,

or about the self-disgust they felt

when someone deep inside them

was getting ready to die

the coward’s death.

They’ll be asked nothing

about their absurd

justifications,

nartured in the shadow

of a huge lie.

On that day,

the humble people will come,

those who never had a place

in the books and poems

of the apolitical intellectuals

but who daily delivered

their bread and milk,

their eggs and tortillas;

those who mended their clothes,

those who drove their cars,

those who took care of their dogs and gardens,

and worked for them,

and they will ask :

“What did you do when the poor

suffered, when tenderness and life

were dangerously burning out in them?”

Apolitical intellectuals

of my sweet country,

you will have nothing to say.

A vulture of silence

will eat your guts.

Your own misery

will gnaw at your soul.

And you will be mute

in your shame.

(courtesy of: http://www.ottorenecastillo.org/tomorrow/Intellectual.html)


The Criticism:

The poem questions the intellectuals of politics about the things they did not do for the country when it was in dire need. It presents a scenario where the people of the society stand up against the government and seek change for the poor and the needy. The selection talks about social change, and is considered as Marxist literature because it tackles an issue appropriate to the time the poem was written. In fact, the poem will indefinitely be a piece of Marxist literature because the issue of a government turning a blind eye and a deaf ear to society and its pleas for change will be ever-present unless a solution is devised. The government is depicted as one which prefers to laze around, taking luxurious siestas and indulging in worldly pleasures. The people, on the other hand, is depicted as a society which strives to make a living by taking even the simplest of tasks such as taking care of dogs and tending gardens into a living. The contrast between the luxurious lifestyle of the apolitical intellectuals and the hardship-ridden lives of the humblest of people is astounding, and the poem does a good job of sending the message across.

PRAGMATISM: The Fly (1986)

The Theory:

Pragmatism is a philosophical tradition centered on the linking of practice and theory. It describes a process where theory is extracted from practice, and applied back to practice to form what is called intelligent practice. Important positions characteristic of pragmatism include instrumentalism, radical empiricism, verificationism, conceptual relativity, and fallibilism. There is general consensus among pragmatists that philosophy should take the methods and insights of modern science into account. Charles Sanders Peirce (and his pragmatic maxim) deserves most of the credit for pragmatism, along with later twentieth century contributors, William James and John Dewey.

(courtesy of: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pragmatism)


The Story:

courtesy of: https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi2NuqZnzD6xnOCLpwtKZSmAQErOgLzzoe6eyD6cygBvABTSt6_Zx6ouSvjXqJ37eYlCv_c3ToHFxXgZ5GTjAgrNUz-24HSACV7_nwF-tfF3wVeO_aQF7oG_MT8JQfJpjylJqU2E1G9YFk/s1600/fly_1986_poster_01.jpg

Seth Brundle (Jeff Goldblum), a brilliant but eccentric scientist, meets Veronica Quaife (Geena Davis), a journalist for Particle magazine, at a meet-the-press event held by Bartok Science Industries, the company that provides funding for Brundle's work. Seth takes Veronica back to the warehouse that serves as both his home and laboratory, and shows her a project that will change the world: a set of "Telepods" that allows instantaneousteleportation of an object from one pod to another. Veronica eventually agrees to document Seth's work. Although the Telepods can transport inanimate objects, they do not work properly on living things, as is demonstrated when a live baboon is turned inside-out during an experiment. Seth and Veronica begin a romantic relationship. Their first sexual encounter provides inspiration for Seth, who successfully reprograms the Telepod computer to cope with living creatures, and teleports a second baboon with no apparent harm.
Flushed with this success, Brundle wants to spend a romantic evening with Veronica, but she suddenly departs before they can celebrate. Brundle's judgment soon becomes impaired by alcohol and his fear that Veronica is secretly rekindling her relationship with her editor and former lover, Stathis Borans (John Getz). In reality, Veronica has left to confront Borans about a veiled threat of his (spurred by his romantic jealousy of Brundle) to publish the Telepod story without her consent. Upset, Brundle teleports himself in Veronica's absence, unaware that a common housefly is in the pod with him. Brundle emerges from the receiving pod, seemingly normal. Seth and Veronica reconcile, and, shortly after his teleportation, Seth begins to exhibit what at first appear to be beneficial effects of the process—such as increased strength, stamina and sexual potency. He believes this to be a result of the teleporting process "purifying" his body as it was being rebuilt. However, he soon becomes violent, and eventually realizes that something went horribly wrong when his fingernails begin falling off. Brundle checks his computer's records, and discovers that the Telepod computer, confused by the presence of two separate life-forms in the sending pod, merged him with the fly at the molecular-genetic level.
Over the next few weeks, Brundle continues to deteriorate, losing various body parts and becoming progressively less human in appearance. He theorizes that he is slowly becoming a hybrid creature that is neither human nor insect (which Seth begins referring to as "Brundlefly"). He starts to exhibit fly-like characteristics, such as vomiting digestive enzymes onto his food in order to dissolve it, and the ability to cling to walls and ceilings. Brundle realizes that he is losing his human reason and compassion, and that he is now being driven by primitive impulses he cannot control. Attempting to find a cure for his condition, Brundle installs a fusion program into the Telepod computer in order to dilute the fly genes in his body with pure human DNA. To her horror, Veronica learns that she is pregnant by Seth, and she cannot be sure if the child was conceived before or after his fateful teleportation. Veronica and Borans persuade a reluctant doctor to perform an abortion in the middle of the night, but Brundle abducts Veronica before the abortion can be carried out, and begs her to carry the child to term, since it could potentially be the last remnant of his untainted humanity. Veronica refuses, afraid that the child will be a hideous mutant. Meanwhile, Borans breaks into Brundle's lab with a shotgun and comes to Veronica's rescue, but is seriously injured and nearly killed by the almost fully transformed Brundle, who dissolves Borans' left hand and right foot with his corrosive vomit-drop enzyme.
Brundle then reveals his desperate, last-ditch plan to Veronica — he will use the three Telepods (the third pod being the original prototype) to fuse himself, Veronica, and their unborn child together into one entity, so they can be the "ultimate family". Veronica frantically resists Brundle's efforts to drag her into Telepod 1 and then accidentally tears off his jaw, triggering his final transformation into a monstrous combination of man and insect. The "Brundlefly" traps Veronica inside Telepod 1, then steps into Telepod 2. However, the wounded Borans manages to sever the power cables connected to Veronica's Telepod with his shotgun, allowing Veronica to escape unharmed. Breaking out of its own pod as the fusion process is activated, Brundlefly is gruesomely fused with chunks of metal and other components from Telepod 2. As the mortally wounded Brundlefly-Telepod fusion creature crawls out of the receiving pod, it silently begs Veronica to end its suffering with Borans' shotgun. Veronica hesitates for a moment, then pulls the trigger, killing Brundle.

(courtesy of: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Fly_(1986_film))


The Criticism:

“The Fly” centers on a brilliant but eccentric scientist who mutates into a gigantic man/fly hybrid after a failed teleportation attempt. The movie explores the concept of teleportation and its possibly adverse effects on the test subject. So far, though, only small atomic particles have been successfully teleported from one point to another. In the movie, Seth Brundle mutates into a horrible man/fly creature. This serves as a warning if ever future scientific experiments are to be held with the use of living test subjects such as animals, or even possibly humans. Seth utilizes the concept of teleportation in the film, and this fits perfectly into the thought of taking modern science into account. As of this moment, the success of the teleportation of the atomic particles is regarded as one of the milestones in the scientific community.

DECONSTRUCTION: Jurassic Park by Michael Crichton

The Theory:

"Deconstruction" literally means "to take something apart." As one might expect, this is a very broad term, with a number of different definitions in literary criticism, theoretical physics, and even plain-old demolitions. 
When applied to tropes, or other aspects of fiction, deconstruction means to take apart a trope so as to better understand its meaning and relevance to us in Real Life. This often means pursuing a trope's inherent contradictions and the difference between how the trope appears in this one work and how it compares to other relevant tropes or ideas both in fiction and Real Life.
The simplest and most common method of applying Deconstruction to tropes in fiction among general audiences and fan bases, and the method most relevant to TV Tropes, takes the form of questioning "How would this trope play out with Real Life consequences applied to it?"
This doesn't mean magic and other fantastic or futuristic elements, or any other tropes must be removed or attacked for failing to match up with their own pretentions of self-consistent reality, of course. While sometimes perceived as an aggressive attack on the meaning or enjoyableness of a work or text, deconstruction is not properly about passing judgement (and in fact, the term "deconstruction" was picked over the German term "Dekonstruktion" to suggest careful attention to the detail within a text over violently emptying the work of all meaning). It means that all existing elements of a work are played without the Rule Of Cool, Rule of Drama, Rule of Funny, and so on, to see what hidden assumptions the work uses to make its point. Sometimes you will hear this referred to as "played completely straight", and it can be thought of as taking a work more seriously on its own terms than even the work itself does, for the purpose of laying bare hidden meanings in the text.
(courtesy of: http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/Deconstruction)


The Story:

courtesy of: https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiWZ3DtZmLQdkYd0aVtrdqgmGhA1ccBbGHnWhk2-Kqeq5oVlgGeBMUgUMr82jHxHhZ6g_8vdbThpZVe4U7aL4gHEVuNaPvdlkJWdCkBkr9el9Tc2EEtWTFvuGnYlQHxlXvuhqajOuvn_6bh/s1600/Jurassic+Park.JPG

The narrative begins in August 1989 by slowly tying together a series of incidents involving strange animal attacks in Costa Rica and on Isla Nublar, the main setting for the story. One of the species, a strange small lizard-like creature with three toes, is identified later as a Procompsognathus. Paleontologist Alan Grant and his paleobotanist graduate student, Ellie Sattler, are abruptly whisked away by billionaire John Hammond—founder and chief executive officer of International Genetic Technologies, or InGen—for a weekend visit to a "biological preserve" he has established on a remote island off the coast of Costa Rica.
Upon arrival, the preserve is revealed to be Jurassic Park, a theme park showcasing cloned dinosaurs. The animals have been recreated using damaged dinosaur DNA found in mosquitoes preserved in prehistoric amber. Gaps in the genetic code have been filled in with reptilian, avian, or amphibian DNA. To control the population, all specimens on the island are lysine-deficient females. Hammond proudly touts InGen's advances in genetic engineering and shows his guests through the island's vast array of automated systems.
Recent events in the park have spooked Hammond's investors. To placate them, Hammond means for Grant and Sattler to act as fresh consultants. They stand in counterbalance to a well-known mathematician and chaos theorist Ian Malcolm and a lawyer representing the investors, Donald Gennaro. Both are pessimistic about the park's prospects. Malcolm, having been consulted before the park's creation, is especially emphatic in his prediction that the park will collapse, as it is an unsustainable simple structure bluntly forced upon a complex system.
Countering Malcolm's dire predictions with youthful energy, Hammond groups the consultants with his grandchildren, Tim and Alexis "Lex" Murphy. While touring the park with the children, Grant finds a Velociraptor eggshell, which seems to prove Malcolm's earlier assertion that the dinosaurs have been breeding against the geneticists' design. Malcolm suggests a flaw in their method of analyzing dinosaur populations, in that motion detectors were set to search only for the expected number of creatures in the park and not for any higher number. The park's controllers are reluctant to admit that the park has long been operating beyond their constraints. Malcolm also points out the height distribution of the Procompsognathus forms a Gaussian distribution, the curve of a breeding population, rather than the distinctive pattern that a population reared in batches ought to display.
In the midst of this, the chief programmer of Jurassic Park's controlling software, Dennis Nedry, attempts corporate espionage for Lewis Dodgson, a geneticist and agent of InGen's archrival, Biosyn. By activating a backdoor he wrote into the park's computer system, Nedry manages to shut down its security systems and quickly steal fifteen frozen embryos, one for each of the park's fifteen species. He then attempts to smuggle them out to a contact waiting at the auxiliary dock deep in the park; however, during a sudden tropical storm, he exits his stolen vehicle to get his bearings and is killed by aDilophosaurus. Without Nedry to reactivate the park's security, the electrified fences remain off, and dinosaurs escape. The adult and juvenile Tyrannosaurus Rex attack the guests on tour, destroying the vehicles, killing public relations manager Ed Regis, and leaving Grant and the children lost in the park.
Malcolm is gravely injured during the incident but is soon found by Gennaro and park game warden Robert Muldoon and spends the remainder of the novel slowly dying as, in between lucid lectures and morphine-induced rants, he tries to help those in the main compound understand their predicament and survive.
The park's upper management—engineer and park supervisor John Arnold, chief geneticist Henry Wu, Muldoon, and Hammond—struggle to return power to the park, while the veterinarian, Dr. Harding, takes care of the injured Malcolm. For a time they manage to get the park largely back in order, restoring the computer system by shutting down and restarting the power, resetting the system. Unfortunately, a series of errors on their part soon plunge the park into greater disarray. During their time trying to restore the park to working order, they fail to notice that the system has been running on auxiliary power since the restart; this power soon runs out, shutting the park down a second time. Furthermore, since the auxiliary generators didn't create enough electricity to power the fences, they weren't reactivated when the system was reset, meaning all the fences—including the holding pen containing the park's Velociraptors, quarantined due to their intelligence and aggression—had been offline the whole time. Escaping their enclosure, the raptors kill Wu and Arnold and injure Muldoon, Gennaro, and Harding. Meanwhile, Grant and the children slowly make their way back to the Visitor's Center by rafting down the jungle river, carrying news that several young raptors, bred and raised in the island's wilds, were on board the Anne B, the island's supply ship, when it departed for the mainland.
While Ellie distracts the raptors, Grant manages to turn the park's main power back on. After escaping from several raptors, Grant, Gennaro, Tim, and Lex are able to make it to the control room, where Tim is able to contact the Anne B and tell them to return. The survivors are then able to organize themselves and eventually secure their own lives. Word soon reaches them that the crew of the Anne B has discovered and killed the raptor stowaways.
Gennaro tries to order the island destroyed as a dangerous asset, but Grant rejects his authority, claiming that even though they cannot control the island, they have a responsibility to understand just what happened and how many dinosaurs have already escaped to the mainland. Grant, Ellie, and Muldoon set out into the park to find the wild raptor nests and compare hatched eggs with the island's revised population tally. Cautious in this pursuit, they emerge unharmed. Meanwhile, Hammond, taking a walk around the park and contemplating making a park improving on his previous mistakes, hears the T-Rex roar and falls down a hill where he is eaten by a pack of Procompsognathus. Concerning the dinosaurs' breeding, it is eventually revealed that using frog DNA to fill gaps in the dinosaurs' genetic code enabled a measure of dichogamy, in which some of the female animals changed into males in response to the all-female environment.
In the conclusion, before boarding helicopters the group tell the Costa Rican Air Force that the dinosaurs had been killing people. The Air Force then say that the island is dangerous and releases napalm over the island, destroying the island and the dinosaurs. It is implied that Malcolm has died. Grant asks Muldoon of Malcolm's condition when they depart via helicopter, Muldoon's nonverbal response is merely shaking his head and on the second to last page it says that the Costa Rican government wouldn't permit a burial for Hammond or Malcolm. Survivors of the incident are indefinitely detained by the United States and Costa Rican governments. Weeks later, Grant is visited by Dr. Martin Guitierrez, an American doctor who lives in Costa Rica and has found a Procompsognathus corpse. Guitierrez informs Grant that an unknown pack of animals has been migrating through the Costa Rican jungle, eating lysine-rich crops and chickens. He also informs Grant that none of them, with the possible exception of Tim and Lex, are going to leave any time soon.

(courtesy of: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jurassic_Park_(novel))


The Criticism:

“Jurassic Park” tells the story of park visitors who get trapped inside a futuristic theme park when the cloned dinosaur exhibits break out and begin stalking them. The novel seems to present itself not only as a thriller, but ultimately as a commentary on the dangers of genetic engineering and its effects when applied to uncontrollable species and habitats. In the story, the dinosaurs break out due to a failure in the park’s structural design and the forced conditions in which the genetically-altered dinosaurs are put in. This is an allegory on the current method of animal and plant breeding, and the fear that continued manipulation of the genetic code will force mutations to out-breed the normal species, destroying an ecosystem. The deaths of the workers and the visitors in the park signifies the long-term effects of genetically-modified organisms, or GMO’s, in the present times. The release of napalm over the island in an effort to kill the dinosaurs signifies man's desperate efforts to control a situation that has gotten out of hand. Lastly, the escape of a pack of Procompsognathus from the park and into the Costa Rican jungle to feed on food sources possessing the minerals which they were deprived with to control their population symbolizes the adverse effects of introducing a controlled species into a civilized environment to proliferate in the market.

HUMANISM: Jo-Jo and The Fiendish Lot by Andrew Auseon

The Theory:

Humanism is a group of philosophies and ethical perspectives which emphasize the value and agency of human beings, individually and collectively, and generally prefers individual thought and evidence (rationalism, empiricism), over established doctrine or faith (fideism). The term humanism can be ambiguously diverse, and there has been a persistent confusion between several related uses of the term because different intellectual movements have identified with it over time. In philosophy and social science, humanism refers to a perspective that affirms some notion of a "human nature" (contrasted with anti-humanism). In modern times, many humanist movements have become strongly aligned with secularism, with the term Humanism often used as a byword for non-theistic beliefs about ideas such as meaning and purpose.

(courtesy of: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Humanism)

The Story:

courtesy of: http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/61kS8cqUwZL.jpg

The novel tells the story of a Baltimore teen that has recently lost his girlfriend, who he believes is the only person gave his life any meaning. She was murdered, most likely because of her relationship with him. After wallowing for a period of time and realizing that he’s unable to recover from the tragedy, he decides to take his own life. Only when he’s on the verge of committing suicide he encounters a young woman who seemingly appears out of nowhere. She claims to be from the Afterlife, the land of the dead. She convinces him that Death is overrated.
Jo-Jo and the girl, Max, eventually cross over to the Afterlife and go on tour with her band, the Fiendish Lot, a famous act known for its perspective-altering concerts. As Jo-Jo searches for his deceased girlfriend among the crowds of lost souls, he begins to realize the flaws in his point of view, and wonders if perhaps he would live life differently if he had another shot at it.

(courtesy of: http://www.tor.com/blogs/2009/04/ljo-jo-and-the-fiendish-lotlemgin-60-seconds)


The Criticism:

JoJo Dyas is depressed and on the verge of suicide when he encounters a naked young woman, Max, that might just turn his beliefs around. The novel depicts a facet of human personality that seeks an easy escape from life when it gets too uncontrollable or too unbearable. Usually, these kinds of attempts are related to teenagers, mostly because they are the ones most likely to harbor angst against matters that they find offensive and constricting. Also, these attempts are mostly occurring in the form of suicide attempts which lead to much controversy. These circumstances can still be turned around, however, when a reason to proceed in life is presented, effectively stopping the attempt. But JoJo is depressed because his girlfriend died, and he sees no other option but to kill himself so they can be together in the afterlife. The woman, however, tells him that death is overrated, and THE Afterlife is not where he wishes to be. JoJo stops his attempt, only to die later on by an accidental gunshot and proceed to the Afterlife anyway. Even though, by the end of the novel, he realizes that the search for his girlfriend may not be worth it after all, he spends a fairly good portion of the novel wandering off here and there despite Max and her band, The Fiendish Lot’s attempt to dissuade him. This also tackles the humanistic nature of turning a deaf ear to disliked characters in favor of one’s selfish desires. Although the importance of finding his love is arguable, it can be agreed upon that the dangers of wandering around in an unfamiliar setting, the stuff of children’s nightmares and cautionary tales, is very evident and must be taken into account.

EXISTENTIALISM: Cowboys and Aliens (2011)

The Theory:

Existentialism is a term applied to the work of a number of late 19th- and 20th-century philosophers who, despite profound doctrinal differences,shared the belief that philosophical thinking begins with the human subject—not merely the thinking subject, but the acting, feeling, living human individual. In existentialism, the individual's starting point is characterized by what has been called "the existential attitude", or a sense of disorientation and confusion in the face of an apparently meaningless or absurd world. Many existentialists have also regarded traditional systematic or academic philosophies, in both style and content, as too abstract and remote from concrete human experience.

(courtesy of: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Existentialism)


The Story:

courtesy of: http://lanzone.info/uploads/posts/2011-08/1312316591_kinopoisk.ru-cowboys-_26_2338_3b-aliens.jpg

In 1873, Arizona Territory, an unnamed loner (Daniel Craig) wakes up in the desert injured, with no memory and with a strange metal shackle on his wrist. After killing three drifters who try to rob him, he takes their clothes, weapons and a horse. He wanders into the small town of Absolution, where the local preacher, Meacham (Clancy Brown), treats his wound. After the stranger subdues Percy Dolarhyde (Paul Dano), a volatile drunk who has been terrorizing the town, Sheriff Taggart (Keith Carradine) recognizes the stranger as Jake Lonergan, a wanted outlaw, and attempts to arrest him. Jake beats up the posse sent to take him in and nearly escapes, but a mysterious woman named Ella Swenson (Olivia Wilde) knocks him out.
Percy's father, Colonel Woodrow Dolarhyde (Harrison Ford), a wealthy and ruthless cattleman, arrives with his men and demands that Percy be released. He sees Jake and also demands he be released to him, since Jake was the one who stole Dolarhyde's gold. During the standoff, alien craft begin attacking the town. Percy, the sheriff and many other townsfolk are grabbed by long, whip-like feelers hanging from the bottom of the alien ships and are abducted. Jake's shackle unfolds and becomes a weapon, shooting down one of the ships with a single shot, ending the attack.
Dolarhyde, Ella, and other townsfolk form a posse to track an injured alien that escaped from the downed ship. Jake, meanwhile, travels to an abandoned cabin, and in a flashback, recalls returning there with the gold just before he and a woman, Alice (Abigail Spencer), were abducted by the aliens. His memories returning, Jake joins up with the posse. During the night, while they camp in an upside down paddlewheel steamboat, the alien they were tracking kills Meacham, who sacrifices himself to save Emmett (Noah Ringer), Taggart's grandson.
By the next morning, most of the posse has deserted, and the others are attacked by Jake's former gang. Jake who stole the gang's loot after their last heist attempts to retake control, but fails. As he and the others flee, the aliens begin attacking again and Ella is captured. Jake jumps aboard the ship and attacks the alien pilot, causing the ship to crash, but Ella is fatally wounded.
Shortly after the crash, however, the posse is captured by Chiricahua Apache Indians, who blame them for the alien attacks. As Ella's body is dumped on a fire by a Chiricahua warrior, she is fully resurrected. Ella reveals herself to be an alien who traveled to Earth to help resist the invaders after they destroyed her homeworld. The aliens, who are mining gold and abducting humans to experiment on, are far stronger and more durable than humans, and have superior weapons. But they are not invulnerable. They can be stabbed and shot to death, and Jake's gauntlet weapon can kill them with a single blast.
Ella claims Jake holds the secret to the aliens' whereabouts and says they must stop them before they exterminate all life on the planet. After taking medicine offered by the Apaches, Jake recalls that Alice was euthanized after she was used in an alien experiment, but he escaped, inadvertently stealing a gauntlet-like alien weapon. He could also remember the location of the aliens' base of operations.
Armed with this knowledge, the group, now led by Dolarhyde, prepares to attack the aliens' grounded mothership. Jake returns to his old gang and persuades them to join the fight. In a sneak attack, the humans breach the spaceship by destroying the shuttle bay, forcing the aliens into a ground battle. Jake and Ella board the ship and free the captives, but Jake is captured. Dolarhyde rescues him and both men escape the ship after killing the alien responsible for Alice's death. As the remaining aliens are taking off in their damaged craft, Ella sacrifices herself, destroying the ship using Jake's gauntlet.
Jake's memory partially returns, and some abducted townsfolk begin to remember their past. Still a wanted man, Jake decides to leave; the sheriff and Dolarhyde say they will claim that he was killed in the invasion. The citizens intend to rebuild the town with the expectation that the newly discovered gold mine will soon bring many new settlers. Jake kindly rejects Dolarhyde's offer to help rebuild the town, and rides away.

(courtesy of: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cowboys_%26_Aliens)


The Criticism:

courtesy of: http://cf2.imgobject.com/t/p/original/gmapSsDGkPNPRxaQXLdotYkYKzM.jpg

“Cowboys and Aliens” starts off with the protagonist waking up in the desert with no memory of how he got there. This movie fits the Existentialism theory because the character starts off disoriented, confused with what is happening within the surroundings. He wanders into Absolution, where aliens suddenly attack the whole area. As if to add to his confusion, he discovers that the gauntlet-like device he has on his wrist, which he does not remember getting there, suddenly shoots out blasts towards the attackers. The questions of his real identity and his connection to the attackers ultimately surface, and it is shown throughout the film that he is constantly trying to figure out the reasons behind the events. Although he does gradually regain his memories throughout the film, revealing his abduction and his escape with the weapon, he keeps guessing how he is related with the invaders throughout the time the film spends portraying him without memories of his abduction. The film effectively portrayed the protagonist as an amnesiac searching for his real self while in a situation that seems like something straight out of an alien invasion movie. Not to mention as well that his actions justify the theory that philosophical thinking begins with the acting, feeling, living human subject. Despite his memory loss, he was able to function properly and think rationally. He was even able to attack the alien’s mothership despite the initial shock of his discovery of who he really was.

STRUCTURALISM: The Cabin in the Woods (2011) *SPOILER ALERT*

The Theory:

Structuralism is a theoretical paradigm emphasizing that elements of culture must be understood in terms of their relationship to a larger, overarching system or structure. Alternately, as summarized by philosopher Simon Blackburn, Structuralism is "the belief that phenomena of human life are not intelligible except through their interrelations. These relations constitute a structure, and behind local variations in the surface phenomena there are constant laws of abstract culture".

(courtesy of: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Structuralism)


The Story:

courtesy of: http://www.xialekan.com/uploads/allimg/c120822/1345602PO60-12Q1.jpg

Technicians Gary Sitterson and Steve Hadley prepare for an operation, one of several taking place around the world, while joking with fellow technician Wendy Lin.
College students Dana Polk, Holden McCrea, Marty Mikalski, Jules Louden, and her boyfriend Curt Vaughan go to a remote cabin in the woods for a vacation. The technicians control the environment the group are in from afar and give them mood-altering drugs to make them more likely to venture into the cellar and do something that will lead to "punishment". The drugs gradually reduce the group's intelligence and awareness, and also increase their libido. After entering the cellar, the group discovers a large assortment of items, including a diary by Patience Buckner, a girl abused by her sadistic family. Reciting an incantation from the diary, Dana inadvertently summons the zombified Buckner family.
Curt and Jules, influenced by more mood-altering drugs, go outside to have sex. The Buckners attack the lovers and kill Jules, but Curt flees to the cabin and informs the group of Jules' death. Marty, who frequently smokes marijuana, becomes paranoid, and believes they are being manipulated. Discovering a hidden camera, Marty thinks that he is on a reality television show, but is attacked and dragged away by one of the Buckners. Holden, Dana, and Curt attempt to flee in their RV, but the technicians are able to trigger a tunnel collapse in time to block their path. Curt attempts to jump a ravine to flee only to crash into an invisible force-field and fall to his death. Realizing that something is unusual about the environment, Dana becomes convinced that Marty's worries about them being manipulated were correct. While driving back to the cabin Holden is killed by a Buckner who has been hiding in the RV. The RV falls into the lake and Dana swims away, only to be attacked by a Buckner on the dock.
The technicians celebrate the completion of the scenario, but a phone call informs them that Marty is still alive. Arriving at the dock, Marty saves Dana. He reveals that he dismembered his assailant after being dragged away, stumbled upon a hidden control box, and was able to access an underground elevator. The technicians realize that Marty is immune to their drugs because of his marijuana habit. Marty and Dana take the elevator down to the lower levels of the facility, passing a variety of imprisoned monsters. One of the monsters carries an item that Dana remembers seeing in the cabin's cellar, and she realizes that the items in the cellar determine which monster will be released. A security team then corners her and Marty, but she uses a control station to release the monsters, which massacre the facility staff. Hadley, Lin, and Sitterson are killed in the carnage. Dana flees to the lower levels of the facility with Marty.
Discovering a temple adorned with large stone tablets, Dana and Marty meet the Director. They are informed that the scenario is to appease the "Ancient Ones" — beings who live beneath the facility and are kept in perpetual slumber through an annual, pars pro toto ritual sacrifice of five young people who embody certain archetypes: the Whore (Jules), the Athlete (Curt), the Scholar (Holden), the Fool (Marty), and the Virgin (Dana). The order in which they die does not matter, as long as the whore is first and the virgin is last, and her death is optional, as long as she suffers. Should the Ancient Ones awake, they will destroy the world. The Director reveals that rituals around the world have been taking place for the same purpose, but each of them failed. The Director urges Dana to kill Marty to complete the ritual. Dana draws a gun on Marty, but is attacked by a werewolf while the Director fights with Marty. Patience Buckner arrives and kills the Director before Marty pushes them both into the Ancient Ones' pit.
Marty forgives Dana for threatening to shoot him. The pair accepts that it might be better for another species to take humanity's place if this is the price of its continued existence. Marty and Dana light a joint and hold hands as the gigantic hand of an Ancient One rises up, destroying the facility and the cabin.

(courtesy of: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Cabin_in_the_Woods)


The Criticism:

courtesy of: http://moviecarpet.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/03/the-cabin-in-the-woods-movie.jpg

The film works both in its literal sense (a group of friends fall victim to a bizarre ritual sacrifice) and its symbolic nature (a commentary on slowly-deteriorating horror movie conventions and the demands of modern audiences for a change), both which the movie simultaneously conveys to the audience. Perhaps one of its selling factors is that it never fully reveals its true nature only until after the climactic carnage, and manages to not have the viewers spot the conclusion from a mile away. Everything that the characters experience gradually reveal the ultimate reason behind the complicated temperature controls, the need for an elaborate tunnel collapse, and the dependent fate of the final girl, among others. The movie showcases a standard horror movie slowly transitioning into a conspiracy much larger than itself. The thought of a massive organization dedicated to make a yearly effort of luring at least five innocent young souls into an isolated setting and subjecting them to their every whim via various methods of manipulation is very entertaining, as is the case with most “controlled environment” movies.
Just when you think the movie has exposed itself, it goes even further and peels off more from its mask, as if telling the viewers “You haven’t seen anything yet.” The Cabin in the Woods offers a new perspective at the horror genre. To quote the film’s tagline, “If you think you know the story, think again.”

NEW HISTORICISM: Thir13en Ghosts (2001)

The Theory:

New Historicism is a school of literary theory, grounded in critical theory, that developed in the 1980s, primarily through the work of the critic Stephen Greenblatt, and gained widespread influence in the 1990s.
New Historicists aim simultaneously to understand the work through its historical context and to understand cultural and intellectual history through literature, which documents the new discipline of the history of ideas. Michel Foucault based his approach both on his theory of the limits of collective cultural knowledge and on his technique of examining a broad array of documents in order to understand the episteme of a particular time. New Historicism is claimed to be a more neutral approach to historical events, and to be sensitive towards different cultures.
H. Aram Veeser, introducing an anthology of essays, The New Historicism (1989), noted some key assumptions that continually reappear in New Historicist discourse; they were:
• that every expressive act is embedded in a network of material practices;
• that every act of unmasking, critique and opposition uses the tools it condemns and risks falling prey to the practice it exposes;
• that literary and non-literary "texts" circulate inseparably;
• that no discourse, imaginative or archival, gives access to unchanging truths, nor expresses inalterable human nature;
• that a critical method and a language adequate to describe culture under capitalism participate in the economy they describe.

(courtesy of: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_Historicism)



The Story:

courtesy of: http://st-listas.20minutos.es/images/2012-07/337073/3620061_640px.jpg?1342160900

Ghost hunter Cyrus Kriticos (F. Murray Abraham) and his psychic assistant Dennis Rafkin (Matthew Lillard) lead a team on a mission to capture a spirit called the Juggernaut. Several men are killed, including Cyrus. However, the team is able to catch the ghost. Cyrus's nephew, Arthur Kriticos (Tony Shalhoub), a widower, is informed by Cyrus's estate lawyer, Ben Moss (JR Bourne), that he has inherited a mansion. Financially insecure, Arthur decides to move there with his two children, Kathy (Shannon Elizabeth) and Bobby (Alec Roberts) and their nanny Maggie (Rah Digga).
Dennis meets the family as they tour the mansion. The residence is made entirely of glass with Latin phrases etched on it. Dennis warns Arthur that there are 12 violent ghosts imprisoned in the house, held captive by the Latin phrases, which are actually magic spells. Moss accidentally activates a mechanism that seals the home and begins to release the ghosts; he is killed shortly after. Bobby disappears and encounters several ghosts, including the Withered Lover, who is revealed to be the ghost of his dead mother, Jean. Dennis manages to use a pair of spectral glasses - which allow the wearer to see into the supernatural realm - to convince Maggie of the ghosts. Shortly after, Dennis discovers that the Jackal has been released, meaning they are in grave danger.
Kathy puts on a pair of the spectral glasses that she saw and took in the bathroom and sees the Jackal, who viciously attacks her. She and Arthur are saved by Kalina Oretzia (Embeth Davidtz), a spirit liberator, who is attempting to free the ghosts. Kathy suddenly disappears; Kalina explains that the home is actually a machine built by Cyrus, powered by the spirits of 12 ghosts and opens the "Ocularis Infernum" (Eye of Hell) that allows its user to see everything in the past, present and future, thus making the user the most powerful being on earth. Arthur's children are in grave danger, and the only way to ensure their safety is for Arthur to sacrifice himself as the 13th ghost - a ghost created out of pure love, which would destroy the machine.
Arthur and Dennis attempt to find the kids. When the Juggernaut is released and comes after the two men along with the Hammer, Dennis sacrifices himself and traps Arthur behind a wall. Arthur watches helplessly as the Juggernaut brutally kills Dennis. Cyrus is revealed to be alive, having faked his death to lure Arthur to the house; Kalina is his secret partner. Cyrus has orchestrated the abduction of Kathy and Bobby so that Arthur will become the 13th ghost, which will not stop the machine, as Kalina had claimed, but trigger its activation. Cyrus kills Kalina and summons the ghosts to activate the machine.
Arthur arrives at the main hall and witnesses all 12 ghosts around a rotating crest of metal rings, his children at the center. Arthur and Cyrus have a violent confrontation while Maggie disrupts the machine's controls, freeing the ghosts of their trance. The ghosts hurl Cyrus into the rings, slicing him to pieces. The walls of the house shatter, freeing the ghosts. The ghost of Arthur's wife, Jean, appears before the family completely healed without any burn marks, without the monitor, or with hospital clothes, but just with regular clothes and tells them that she loves them. Dennis's ghost smiles at Arthur, who has saved his children at last.

(courtesy of: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thirteen_Ghosts)



The Criticism:

courtesy of: http://images4.wikia.nocookie.net/__cb20111223175525/13ghosts/images/0/0b/Mansionbasement.jpg

The movie is about a family lured into a house bequeathed to the father. What they do not is that they have been tricked into entering a machine containing 12 violent ghosts, and one of them will be the thirteenth, opening the Eye of Hell.
The mythos behind the tormented souls in “Thir13en Ghosts” covers a time span as far back as 1675, effectively justifying the actuations and distinct personalities of each of the contained ghosts through richly-detailed back stories. Almost all of the captive ghosts are locked up against their will, and are merely being used as instruments for the fulfillment of Cyrus’s diabolical plan to open the Ocularis Infernum, making him the most powerful person on Earth if it succeeds. The ghosts seem to be as innocent as Arthur and his family, drawn into the house under the pretenses of them inheriting the magnificent fiberglass structure. Each back story of each ghost and how they came to be that way can be fully extended into literary works that both explain their origins while completely keeping connections with events that led them to being imprisoned within the confines of the Eye of Hell.

POST-COLONIALISM: New Yorker in Tondo by Marcelino Agana, Jr.

The Theory:

Post-colonialism (also Post-colonial theory, Post-colonial studies, and Postcolonialism) is an academic discipline that comprises methods of intellectual discourse that present analyses of, and responses to, the cultural legacies of colonialism and of imperialism (usually European and of the U.S.), which draw from different post-modern schools of thought, such as critical theory. Post-colonial Studies examines the relations of power under colonialism and neocolonialism through analyses of cultural representations. As history, post-colonialism is a form of contemporary history that questions and reinvents the cultural ways of viewing and of being viewed. In the field of anthropology, post-colonial studies record the human relations among the colonial nations and the peoples of the colonies they had ruled and exploited. To present the ideology and the praxis of (neo) colonialism, post-colonial critical theory draws from, illustrates, and explains with examples from the humanities — history, architecture, anthropology, the cinema, feminism, human geography, linguistics, Marxist theory, philosophy, political science, sociology, religion and theology, and post-colonial literature.

(courtesy of: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Postcolonialism)


The Story:

courtesy of: http://www.philippinereporter.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/12/new-yorker-in-tondo.jpg

New Yorker in Tondo is a classic satirical play in one-act, written by Marcelino Agana Jr. in 1958. First staged by the Far Eastern University (FEU) Drama Guild at the FEU, Manila. This is one of the more popular Filipino comedies that have been produced many times through the years.
This play in Tagalog is about Kikay who is a balikbayan or a newly arrived from New York. The girl acquires the style, manner, and culture of New York and thus forgets her roots and one true love in Tondo. It also tells how she gets back to being the Kikay of Tondo that her friends and love ones knew.

(courtesy of: http://en.wikipilipinas.org/index.php?title=New_Yorker_in_Tondo)


The Criticism:

“New Yorker in Tondo” accurately depicts the average Filipino’s faux love for the country completely being lost when exposed to a foreign country’s cultural aesthetics. In this satire, Kikay easily throws away memories of when she was a young girl in exchange for her newfound love for New York, of which manners and culture she chose to adapt. The short play conveniently talks about the slowly-deteriorating quality of Filipino patriotism. It depicts a setting where the glitz and glam of a realized dream blinds the eyes of the common civilian, gladly exchanging his own culture for the foreigners’. This satirical play can be connected to times wherein Filipinos were under the rule of the Spanish colony. As a result of 333 years under their rule, we have unwillingly (arguably) adapted their culture into ours. This shows on the modern-day Filipino’s culture. Of course, the Spanish are not the only colonizers who have major contributions to our present society. The Americans, the Japanese, and the Chinese also had us inherit their rich cultures and meld them into our own.

TERRITORIALISM: Toy Story (1995)

The Theory:

Territorialism is a literary perspective that uses human territoriality to explore the artistically imagined relationship between ownership (tangible and intangible “properties”) and constructions of the self.

(courtesy of: Sloan, PowerPoint Presentation)

The Story:

courtesy of: http://www.impassionedcinema.com/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2012/01/toy-story1.jpg

Woody is a pull-string cowboy doll and leader of a group of toys that belong to a boy named Andy Davis, which act lifeless when humans are present. With his family moving homes one week before his birthday, Andy is given a week early party to spend with his friends. The toys stage areconnaissance mission to discover Andy's new presents. Andy receives a space ranger Buzz Lightyear action figure, whose impressive features see him replacing Woody as Andy's favorite toy. Woody is resentful, especially as Buzz also gets attention from the other toys. However Buzz believes himself to be a real space ranger on a mission to return to his home planet, as Woody fails to convince him he is a toy.
Andy prepares for a family outing at the space themed Pizza Planet restaurant with Buzz. Woody attempts to be picked by misplacing Buzz. He intends to trap Buzz in a gap behind Andy's desk, but the plan goes disastrously wrong when he accidentally knocks Buzz out the window, resulting in him being accused of murdering Buzz out of jealousy. With Buzz missing, Andy takes Woody to Pizza Planet, but Buzz climbs into the car and confronts Woody when they stop at a gas station. The two fight and fall out of the car, which drives off and leaves them behind. Woody spots a truck bound for Pizza Planet and plans to rendezvous with Andy there, convincing Buzz to come with him by telling him it will take him to his home planet. Once at Pizza Planet, Buzz makes his way into a claw game machine shaped like a spaceship, thinking it to be the ship Woody promised him. Inside, he finds squeaky aliens who revere the claw arm as their master. When Woody clambers into the machine to rescue Buzz, the aliens force the two towards the claw and they are captured by Andy’s neighbor Sid Phillips, who finds amusement in torturing and destroying toys.
At Sid's house, the two attempt to escape before Andy's moving day, encountering Sid’s nightmarish toy creations and his vicious dog, Scud. Buzz sees a commercial for Buzz Lightyear action figures and realizes that he really is a toy. Attempting to fly to test this, Buzz falls and loses one of his arms, going into depression and unable to cooperate with Woody. Woody waves Buzz’s arm from a window to seek help from the toys in Andy’s room, but they are horrified thinking Woody attacked him, while Woody realizes Sid's toys are friendly when they reconnect Buzz's arm. Sid prepares to destroy Buzz by strapping him to a rocket, but is delayed that evening by a thunderstorm. Woody convinces Buzz that life is worth living because of the joy he can bring to Andy, which helps Buzz regain his spirit. Cooperating with Sid's toys, Woody rescues Buzz and scares Sid away by coming to life in front of him, warning him to never torture toys again. Woody and Buzz then wave goodbye to the mutant toys and return home through a fence, but miss Andy’s car as it drives away to his new house.
Down the road, they climb onto the moving truck containing Andy’s other toys, but Scud chases them and Buzz tackles the dog to save Woody. Woody attempts to rescue Buzz with Andy's RC car but the other toys, who think Woody now got rid of RC, toss Woody off onto the road. Spotting Woody driving RC back with Buzz alive, the other toys realize their mistake and try to help. When RC's batteries become depleted, Woody ignites the rocket on Buzz's back and manages to throw RC into the moving truck before they soar into the air. Buzz opens his wings to cut himself free before the rocket explodes, gliding with Woody to land safely into a box in Andy’s car. Andy looks into it and is elated to have found his two missing toys.
On Christmas Day at their new house, Buzz and Woody stage another reconnaissance mission to prepare for the new toy arrivals, one of which is a Mrs. Potato Head, much to the delight of Mr. Potato Head. As Woody jokingly asks what might be worse than Buzz, the two share a worried smile as they discover Andy's new gift is a puppy.

(courtesy of: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Toy_Story)

The Criticism:

“Toy Story” is about a toy that, after many years of being branded his owner’s favorite, finds himself being threatened by the introduction of another toy who seems to be the new favorite. The main character, Woody, exhibits a gaping flaw in the human nature. When we are, in any manner, inclined to something we love, we refuse to let go, and we treat every introduction as a threat that would take our possession away from us. Woody, upon finding out that the new Buzz Lightyear toy given to Andy as a gift might overthrow him from his status, attempts to dispose of Buzz just to secure his position as the top toy in the bedroom. This goes on for the duration of the film and shows how much Woody despises the thought that there is a new toy in the house and the fact that its continued presence will soon result to him losing his status in the heart of his owner. However, Woody soon learns that no matter what, he holds a special place in Andy’s heart, and decides to help Buzz go back to Andy’s bedroom and escape the hands of Sid, a vicious boy who tortures toys for fun. The sudden change of heart effectively depicts Woody as a functioning individual capable of setting aside territorial issues in favor of the primal instinct to survive.

ROMANTICISM: Toy Story 3 (2010)

The Theory:

Romanticism (or the Romantic era/Period) was an artistic, literary, and intellectual movement that originated in Europe toward the end of the 18th century and in most areas was at its peak in the approximate period from 1800 to 1840. Partly a reaction to the Industrial Revolution, it was also a revolt against aristocratic social and political norms of the Age of Enlightenment and a reaction against the scientific rationalization of nature. It was embodied most strongly in the visual arts, music, and literature, but had a major impact on historiography, education and the natural sciences. Its effect on politics was considerable and complex; while for much of the peak Romantic period it was associated with liberalism and radicalism, in the long term its effect on the growth of nationalism was probably more significant.

The movement validated strong emotion as an authentic source of aesthetic experience, placing new emphasis on such emotions asapprehension, horror and terror, and awe—especially that which is experienced in confronting the sublimity of untamed nature and its picturesque qualities, both new aesthetic categories. It elevated folk art and ancient custom to something noble, made spontaneity a desirable characteristic (as in the musical impromptu), and argued for a "natural" epistemology of human activities as conditioned by nature in the form of language and customary usage. Romanticism reached beyond the rational and Classicist ideal models to elevate a revived medievalism and elements of art and narrative perceived to be authentically medieval in an attempt to escape the confines of population growth, urban sprawl, and industrialism, and it also attempted to embrace the exotic, unfamiliar, and distant in modes more authentic than Rococo chinoiserie, harnessing the power of the imagination to envision and to escape.

(courtesy of: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Romanticism)

The Story:

courtesy of: http://cfile2.uf.tistory.com/image/1206401E4C5B3E0C1EC762

Andy, now nearly 18 years old, is leaving for college, and his toys feel like they have been abandoned as they have not been played with for years. Andy decides to take Woody with him to college and puts Buzz Lightyear and the rest of the toys in a trash bag for storage in the attic. However, the toys are accidentally thrown out when Andy's mother finds the bag and puts it out on the curb, causing the toys to think that they are no longer wanted. They escape and decide to climb in a donation box for Sunnyside Daycare. Woody, the only toy who saw what actually happened, follows the other toys and tries to explain that they were thrown out by mistake, but they refuse to believe him.

Andy's toys are welcomed by the many toys at Sunnyside and given a tour of the seemingly perfect play-setting by Lots-O'-Huggin' Bear (simply known as Lotso), Big Baby and Ken, whom Barbie falls for. All of the toys love their new home, leaving a steadfast Woody alone in an attempt to return to Andy. Woody's escape attempt falls short and he is found outside by Bonnie, an imaginative little girl. She takes him home and plays with him along with her other toys, who are well-treated, happy, and readily welcome Woody. At the daycare, Andy's toys are getting played with very roughly by the rambunctious youngest toddlers.

Buzz goes to ask Lotso to transport him and the other toys to a better room, only to be caught by Lotso's henchmen and restored back to his original space ranger persona. At the same time, Andy's toys realize that Woody was right about Andy when Mrs. Potato Head sees Andy searching for them through her missing eye, which was left behind in Andy's room. Before they could leave, they are imprisoned by Lotso and his gang, including a reset Buzz. Back at Bonnie's, Woody learns from one of the toys, named Chuckles the Clown, that Lotso was once a good toy and had an owner named Daisy who also owned Chuckles the Clown and Big Baby. One day, Daisy left them behind on a picnic. The three eventually find their way back to Daisy's house, only to find that she replaced Lotso with an identical teddy bear. When he found Sunnyside, he and Big Baby took it over and ran it like a prison.

The following morning, Woody returns to Sunnyside through Bonnie's backpack and reunites with his friends. That night, the toys execute a daring escape plan, and in the process they accidentally reset Buzz into a delusional Spanish mode, in which his memory remains wiped but he becomes flamboyantly chivalrous; despite this, Buzz allies himself with Woody and immediately falls in love with Jessie. The toys reach a dumpster, but are caught by Lotso and his gang. As a garbage truck approaches, Woody reveals what he learned about Lotso, and Big Baby throws Lotso into the dumpster. Seeking revenge, Lotso pulls Woody into the dumpster just as the truck collects the trash. Woody's friends fall into the back of the truck trying to rescue him and a falling television hits Buzz when he tries to save Jessie, returning him to his normal self. The toys find themselves at the dump and eventually wind up on a conveyor belt leading to a giant incinerator. Woody and Buzz then help Lotso — whom they saved earlier — reach an emergency stop button, only to have Lotso leave them behind. Believing the end is near, the toys join hands and accept their fate, but are soon rescued by the Aliens operating a large industrial claw. Lotso makes his way outside, but a passing garbage truck driver finds him and, recognizing he had the same toy as a kid, straps him to the radiator grill of his truck. Meanwhile, Woody and his friends board another trash truck driven by an older Sid Phillips back to Andy's house.

In Andy's room, Woody climbs back into the box with Andy's college supplies while the other toys ready themselves for the attic. Woody suddenly has an idea and leaves a note for Andy on the toys' box. Andy, thinking the note is from his mother, takes them to Bonnie's house and introduces her to his old toys. Bonnie recognizes Woody who, to Andy's surprise, is lying at the bottom of the box. Though initially reluctant, Andy happily passes him on to Bonnie, and then spends some time playing with her and the toys before leaving. The film ends with Woody and his friends watching Andy's departure and beginning their new lives with Bonnie.

During the credits, Woody and the other toys learn through notes passed on in Bonnie's backpack that Barbie, Ken and Big Baby have improved the lives of the toys (now including an Emperor Zurg action figure) at Sunnyside. Buzz and Jessie (now a couple) then dance a pasodoble to a Spanish version of "You've Got a Friend in Me."

(courtesy of: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Toy_Story_3)

The Criticism:

Toy Story 3 centers on the adventures of Andy’s toys as they are packed up in preparation for Andy going away for college, and mistakenly end up, instead of the attic, in Sunnyside Day Care Center.

The film effectively relates the audience to the characters by giving each toy a distinct human personality. By having the toys deal with issues comparable to highly-sensitive topics faced by ordinary people such as the threat of being stuck in the day care center ruled by a tyrannical stuffed bear (the fear of being under the power of someone abusive of the authority) and the incorrect thought of Andy throwing them away (the fear of not being given love and care), the film is able to submerge the viewers into a pool of various emotions. Some scenes attempt to enlighten the viewers upon much more sensitive issues such as the incinerator scene (the fear of death) and the scene where Andy leaves his toys under Bonnie’s care (the feeling of uncertainty). The scenes were meticulously planned, constructed and animated to elicit strong feelings of nostalgia, joy, sadness, anger, and loneliness. The movie particularly scores well with me. It holds up to re-watches, and with each viewing, I am always left teary-eyed, if not crying. The characters have been through so much hardships, from being almost blown to smithereens, to being transported to Japan, to being stuck in a day care center for who knows how long, to almost being incinerated; Andy’s sudden choice to donate them to Bonnie instead of taking them up to the attic is somewhat unbelievable, but once the audience realizes that their new owner will take care of them, a wave of emotions comes flooding the viewers. With such high expectations for the closure of the trilogy, Toy Story 3 still managed to amaze and entertain, making this easily the best out of the three.

BIOGRAPHICAL CRITICISM: Empire of the Sun by J.G. Ballard

The Theory:

Biographical criticism is a form of Literary criticism which analyzes a writer's biography to show the relationship between the author's life and their works of literature. Biographical criticism is often associated with Historical-Biographical criticism, a critical method that "sees a literary work chiefly, if not exclusively, as a reflection of its author's life and times".

(courtesy of: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Biographical_criticism)


The Story:

courtesy of: http://www.theinsoundfromwayout.com/sites/default/files/styles/large/public/wp-content/uploads/empireofthesun281sted29.jpg

The novel recounts the story of a young British boy, Jamie Graham, who lives with his parents in Shanghai. After the Pearl Harbor attack, the Japanese occupy the Shanghai International Settlement, and in the following chaos Jim becomes separated from his parents.
He spends some time in abandoned mansions, living on remnants of packaged food. Having exhausted the food supplies, he decides to try to surrender to the Japanese Army. After many attempts, he finally succeeds and is interned in the Lunghua Civilian Assembly Center.
Although the Japanese are "officially" the enemies, Jim identifies partly with them, both because he adores the pilots with their splendid machines and because he feels that Lunghua is still a comparatively safer place for him.
Towards the end of the war, with the Japanese army collapsing, the food supply runs short. Jim barely survives, with people around him starving to death. The camp prisoners are forced upon a march to Nantao, with many dying along the route. Jim then leaves the march and is saved from starvation by air drops from American Bombers. Jim returns to Lunghua camp and finds Dr. Ransome there, soon returning to his pre-war residence with his parents.

(courtesy of: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Empire_of_the_Sun)


The Criticism:

The novel tells the story of a young British boy, Jamie Graham, and his life during World War II.

Ballard based the novel upon his experiences during the Second World War. Although the novel is considered fictional, the events that transpire in the story draw from Ballard's real-life boyhood in the Shanghai International Settlement and his internment by the Japanese Imperial Army. Considering Ballard's choice in including his life experiences in this literary work, it can be perceived as an outlet upon which he can retell the events that transpired during those times through the character of Jamie Graham. It can be thought of as a way for Ballard to relate his life to the readers without actually relating it directly. The usage of the character of Jamie Graham and the events concerning him, the Chinese and the Japanese serves as an effective tool in relaying vital information that ultimately tells the story of Ballard's life to the readers.