Justin Ysunza
Mrs. Hawkins
English 101
2/21/2016
Although film-watchers might assume Night of the Living Dead is merely a tasteless, blood and gore horror film filled with zombies, its intent is much deeper than inciting fear. This film’s symbolism and its characters are placed in the context of the Vietnam War and 1960s American society dealing with racism and violence during The Civil Rights Movement.
The symbols in Night of the Living Dead remind viewers of the Vietnam War and the film uses these symbols to condemn that conflict. Night of the Living Dead was filmed in black and white, which bear a resemblance to the Vietnam War footage that most Americans would watch on the news as they settled in for the evening. Film techniques used such as graininess, the use of natural lighting, shaky filming, and using locations that are more natural, give the film somewhat of a documentary feeling. The language used is similar to the one related with Vietnam. “Search and destroy”, a Vietnam War military strategy is said when a group of all whites are shooting zombies near the end of the film. “We killed nineteen of them in this area” is in reference to zombie body counts that would be similar to ones reported during
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Some filmmakers show soldiers as mindless assassins, void of individuality, unable to question orders or feel any type of emotion. The 1960s protest movement was in direct opposition to blind patriotism. Ben is seen as a non-conformist fighting the Vietnam War itself. As stated by Helen Cooper in the film, “dying together isn’t going to solve anything”. Ben battles zombies who conform and along the way attempts to evade being infected by their bite, symbolic of being drafted. This leads to his joining or conforming alongside the other zombies, or the military. Ben successfully avoids the zombie attack, showing he avoided becoming a soldier to fight the Vietnam
The article “It’s Not Like Just the Wind That 's Passing Through” was published by R.H.W. Dillard to the Film Journal in 1973. Dillard is an author and had published 4 books of poetry, two novels and a collection of short fiction stories. Throughout the article, it is best to say that Dillard argues about how George Romero’s movie Night of the Living Dead (1968) has no special meaning nor purpose from the zombies and the movie itself. Also, based on his article, he describes the movie as a whole as “ordinary” followed by examples and his overall reason. As mentioned in the article, he described the movie as “merely ugly and cheap” which I’m assuming he didn’t like the movie. The way he compared the movie to “The Lone Wolf” and “Rosemary’s Baby” made me think he didn’t like Night of the Living Dead in general while he criticized some elements of the movie. Although, I agree with Dillard’s point in the plot for the fact that after struggling for survival, they all lose in the end, and how the characters are who they are and just aren’t as special as they’re seen to be looked as “ordinary” people. However, I wouldn’t agree with Dillard’s point in trying to compare the movie Night of the Living Dead to other films, such as Rosemary’s Baby and The Birds.
The character that really caught my attention was Emily. Considering the fact she has been dead for year now Burton did a splendid job creating a mysteriously alluring corpse bride. Relating death to the color blue because blue is the coldest color, Emily is blue from head to toe except for her subtle but sweet pink lips. Corpse Bride had me at the maggot. In multiple scenes the corpse bride’s eye falls out and a maggot comes from inside her head and gives her advice. I feel the eye falling out is to symbolize Emily being half-blind to what’s going on around her. The fact that Burton can use stop-motion and have an eyeball fall from Emily’s face is pure magic. Based on true events dating back to the 19th century about gangs that would snag
Reading through the whole essay, there are many appealing strategies found in order to strengthen the essay academically. Brooks attracts the audience with a pathos-style strategy, giving specific movie examples to straighten up the essay. The movie Night of the Living Dead resonates the viewers with an image of a flesh-eating and harmful zombie figure instead of a harmless voodoo-created zombie, which makes the notion of zombies transformed into a horrifying figure, provoking the sense of fear of audience with emotional appeal. The revolutionary creation of zombie film was led by George A. Romero, the father of the entirely new horror genre. In his work, zombies are characterized as a form of undead
Night of the Living Dead (Romero, 1968) is a movie that contains a large amount of historical significance. This movie is well known for its incredible relevance to the year that it was released. The movie has been described as “A Newsreel of 1968”, and there is ample reason to make that statement. The year 1968 was a very tumultuous period in American history that saw a great deal of violence overseas and in the United States itself. There were many history altering events that took place during 1968, which would all serve to rile up and instill fear and anger in the American people. 1968 saw the latest presidential election in which there was great division amongst the parties, and was the election in which Robert Kennedy was assassinated. Not only did that year see the assassination of another Kennedy, but it also bore witness to the assassination of the most prominent civil rights leader of the time, Martin Luther King Jr. With these tragedies a war in Vietnam raged which had riled much of the country into protest, especially young people.
Symbolism: the artistic and poetic use of a phrase, object, or relationship to express a deeper idea. Night, by Elie Wiesel, is a retelling of Wiesel’s sacrifices and experiences as a young Jewish boy who had spent many years in concentration camps. Throughout the book, Wiesel uses an overwhelming amount of symbolism to express the deeper thoughts and feelings of the Jewish people as they did all they could to survive. Wiesel’s relationship with his father, Juliek’s violin, and the rations of food the Jews are provided with all symbolize the remnants of humanity that still remain in the Jews, who have been stripped of basically everything.
Elie Wiesel’s Night is about what the Holocaust did, not just to the Jews, but, by extension, to humanity. The disturbing disregard for human beings, or the human body itself, still to this day, exacerbates fear in the hearts of men and women. The animalistic acts by the Nazis has scarred mankind eternally with abhorrence and discrimination.
In like manner, Romero’s stereotypical portrayal of the protagonist Ben was that of an alpha male. Ben differs in nature and demeanor to Barbra. Ben embodied the alpha male, an aggressive, domineering unpleasantly rough hero who was persistent in finding solutions despite various objections. His aggression allowed him to courageously take on the ghouls, even if it involved him stepping outside to fend them off. When a multitude of the undead surrounded the farmhouse, Ben stepped outside and fought the ghouls and successfully slew a small number of the zombies while the other characters stayed inside the farmhouse. Ben also arrogantly asserted his plans above the other characters. A prime
The title “Night” by Elie Wiesel symbolizes death. Death is symbolized throughout the book with the last night Elie is with his father, Elie’s last night in Sighet, and the last night in Buna. When it was Elie’s last night in Sighet so many Jews had already died at night. Also, after Elie’s last night in Buna the patients who stayed in the infirmary were killed by the Russians. Lastly, Elie spent his last moments with his father at night when his father gave up so another death at night. The symbolism of night, deaths, and last nights in shown in the text when the book states, “How much longer would our lives be lived from one “last night” to the next?” The text is saying that when will it become their last night meaning when they die so what
In the book Night, by Elie Wiesel, I believe that fire symbolizes Elie’s loss of faith and hope. Elie is confronted with fire, in many situations, and it is a constant reminder of how close he is to death. An example of this can be when Elie sees, “Not far from [them], flames, huge flames [that] were rising from a ditch. Something was being burned there.”(Wiesel 32) He soon realizes that small children were being thrown into the ditch and burned. This was one of the moments that triggered his loss of faith in god. He wonders why god is not helping the innocent and feels as if god has abandoned them. Another example can be when Elie says, “Never shall I forget those flames that consumed my faith forever.”(Wiesel 34). This shows us how
Elie Wiesel conveys meaning through the use of symbolism of the word “night” in the book Night. “Night” depicts the darkness of the soul. For example, the scene of the truck full of children consumed in flames. Wiesel states, “Never shall I forget that night, the first night in camp, that turned my life into one long night seven times sealed” (Wiesel 34).
Elie Wiesel titled his book “Night” because it was a dark time in all the Jews lives; the title mirrors the painful feelings of others around him. The Jews were all going through the hardest times of their lives. Fighting for survival and trying to cope with their “new” lives. Elie Wiesel also uses the word night throughout the book numerous times. The word night is used to represent darkness, sadness, and depression.
In the passage, “The Dead”, James Joyce reveals about the character’s qualities. James Joyce, the author of the excerpt, allows the reader to get to know the character, Gabriel, by using literary devices. For example, the author uses symbolism and imagery, to reveal so much about him, that Gabriel himself does not know about.
There are many types of darkness, but none as dark as when man turns against man. Night by Elie Wiesel is a book which explores life in a concentration camp during the Holocaust. The title, “Night” is significant to the story as it expresses darkness both physically and within the psyche of the Nazis. During the night, people are filled with fear of the unknown. Night also depicts a time when a person has fewer options.
In the novel Chronicle of a Death Foretold, Gabriel García Márquez uses symbolism as a means of creating a foreboding atmosphere. The entire novel is driven by symbols that show the ominousness in things and events throughout. The augury of these actions can also be seen as the technique of foreshadowing. Apprehensiveness in the atmosphere is created at the very beginning when the murder of Santiago Nasar is revealed to the reader with the phrase, “On the day they were going to kill him…” (Márquez, 3).
The novel Chronicles of a Death Foretold by Gabriel Garcia Marquez is symbolic of timeless literature and film. Chronicles of a Death Foretold can be related to the following timeless works: Julius Caesar a screenplay by William Shakespeare, Pulp Fiction a film by Quentin Tarantino, and The Bible a religious manifest. Firstly, to understand how the novel Chronicles of a Death Foretold is symbolic of other timeless works, a person must first understand the story of Chronicles of a Death. The novel Chronicles of a Death Foretold is a story of adultery, murder, and deceit.