English 101 Summer 2010 Day 6
- Essay One
- Rough Draft Due July 7th
- Final Draft Due July 12th
- Rough Draft Due July 7th
- From yesterday:
- Where is Victor in the Hero's Journey?
- What is the picture of Victor before he begins his transformation?
- What is his quest?
- What is missing? What has been taken?
- What has happened so far to help in his transformation, though we may not see it yet?
- Denny's story.
- Basketball story.
- Mom's advice.
- Thomas's advice—face, humor, stop walking, nobody here to save us.
- Mom's example—fry bread.
- Susy Song?
- Denny's story.
- Where is Victor in the Hero's Journey?
- Support
- Summary of action.
- Finding quotes.
- http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0120321/quotes
- You should be trying to get them as we go.
- You can ask me for pages from the screenplay, too. Be specific.
- http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0120321/quotes
- Expert opinion.
- Here's the Wikipedia page with links to others.
- Here's his page with links to others.
- Here's the Wikipedia page with links to others.
- From the HJ text. (I'll get you a citation for this).
- Summary of action.
- Finish Film: Smoke Signals
- Hand in Questions and Hero's Journey Plot Log
- Homework: read these two articles. One. Two.
9 comments:
I really liked this Hero's journey. I think that we can all relate to it, one way or another. Below are some of the quotes I wrote down from the movie.
Thomas's grandma: "You did a good thing" Arnold: "I didn't mean to"
Thomas's grandma: "He is mean to you" Thomas: He wasn't always like that"
Arlene to Victor: "People need each other"
?? "make love not war"
Arnold: "Who's your favorite Indian"? Victor: "Nobody" Arlene: "He didn't mean it" Victor: "Nobody, Nobody, Nobody"! Arnold leaves while laughing uneasily.
Arlene: "I am not doing this anymore"! "Don't come back"! Victor: "Don't leave"!
Victor to Susy: "Aint no bread as good as moms"
Arnold: "I broke three hearts"
Victor: "At least one day Indians won"
Victor to Susy: "Did my dad ever talk about me"? "A lie that made me look good" "Did you love him"? Susy: "Like a father" Victor: "He had you fooled too" Susy: "We kept each other’s secrets"
Susy: "He's waiting for you" Victor: "Theres nothing in there for me" "My mom saved me" Susy: "He went back into the fire for you" "He always wanted to go home" "He didn't mean to die here. He wanted to go home, he's waiting for you"
Thomas: "Maybe you don't know who you are"
Victor: "I wish he would have saved me"
Thomas: "You make your mom cry"! "You left too"!
Victor: "Everything burned up, everything, everything"!
Thomas: "Quit feeling sorry for yourself"!
victor: "I'll go for help"
?? "He went back into that burning house looking for you"
Thomas: "We probably should get out of town Victor"
Victor to sherrif: "We didn't do anything wrong" "Am from Coeur d'Alene" "That's my father" "I am Victor Joseph"
Thomas: "Your warrior look does work sometimes"
Victor: "Let me hold on to that" "Thomas, am sorry about that wreck, I mean am sorry about every wreck" "I want to thank you for everything"
Thomas to Victor: "Are you sure"
Victor: "I thought of.....throwing things away like when they have no more use"
Thomas and Victor: "Do you know why your dad really left"? "Yeah. He didn't meant to Thomas"
Thomas's grandma: "Tell me what happened" Tell me whats going to happen"
“How do we forgive our fathers? Maybe in a dream. Do we forgive our fathers for leaving us too often, or forever, when we were little? Maybe for scaring us with unexpected rage, or making us nervous because there never seemed to be any rage there at all? Do we forgive our fathers for marrying, or not marrying, our mothers? Or divorcing, or not divorcing, our mothers? And shall we forgive them for their excesses of warmth or coldness? Shall we forgive them for pushing, or leaning? For shutting doors or speaking through walls? For never speaking, or never being silent? Do we forgive our fathers in our age, or in theirs? Or in their deaths, saying it to them or not saying it. If we forgive our fathers, what is left?
I loved the poem at the end. The way Alexie phrased it, it seemed to me that everyone has to forgive their father for something.
Which is true. I think all parents hurt their children at some point (not intentionally, in most cases--Arnold probably didn't mean to be a drunk, or maybe he did...either way, Victor was hurt).
Like it says in the poem, sometimes we have to forgive them for not marrying our mothers, or for speaking too often, or not enough...so many little things that can really damage a kid if not dealt with, particularly if those things aren't dealt with before they're ingrained in the child's mental image of normal.
So it's very interesting to me to hear a poem which essentially says, "Everyone needs forgiveness." And what I find fascinating that it doesn't say, although I think it might in a sort of subliminal way, is that we all must forgive.
Good poem, innit.
Thank you for your comment A. Attaway. Well said!
that poem was pretty awesome. Thomas was definitely my favorite character. Someone in our class said it may have been his Hero's journey... I doubt you could argue that but I'd like to hear it.
Maybe I'm wrong, but in his interview and reading his exits, all I could think about is how Sherman Alexie was his own character "Victor". He is kind of ignorant toward white people, but proud to be an indian and believes that "If I say that it is . . . It is"!
Personal Quotes from Sherman Alexie:
"We're either portrayed as either the noble savage or the ignoble savage. In most people's minds, we only exist in the nineteenth century."
"Nobody ever asked Raymond Carver to speak for every white guy."
"I don't believe in writers' block. I think it's laziness and/or fear."
"I've heard it said that Indians shouldn't become involved in high-stakes
gambling because it tarnishes our noble heritage. Personally, I've never
believed in the nobility of poverty. Personally, I believe in the nobility
of breakfast, lunch and dinner."
Belinda: I too, at one point, thought it could have been Thomas's journey. Not because of Victor's characteristics or Sherman Alexis’, if that’s the case. But because of the help/mentoring Thomas gave to Victor throughout the movie. But like Thomas, Susy (who helped Victor in revelation and transformation), Arlene and Thomas’s grandma were very significant in Victor’s heroic journey in the movie, just like the many people involved in Sherman Alexie’s journey as the director of this movie. He himself said, “I was involved in costumes, I co-wrote five of the songs. And there were dozens of people who contributed so significantly and so individually that it would have been impossible to do it without them.”
I liked this movie and it had a lot of meaning to it. I believe we can all relate to this hero's journey, one way or another. Just like all the characters in this movie to those who made them come alive mentally and physically, we all have a background, beliefs, wants and needs that come with us throughout our journeys in life and shape us into individuals. In this case and from what I have already learned, a hero’s journey starts with a call and it was Victor who received and accepted it.
This movie wouldn’t have been as good if it wasn’t for Sherman Alexie’s knowledge, his world (that includes you, me, and the rest of us), his background and beliefs. In directing this meaningful movie Sherman Alexie wanted to target an audience and was very specific to a certain world and universal (again...his, yours, mine, and the rest of us) in his exploration of family and friendship.
Referring back to the first article we had to read yesterday in where he was being interviewed: Sherman Alexie says, “There's the whole circular notion of the more people see movies the more people will read the book. I want to increase my readership. And ironically, making movies is a way to reach more Indians.” Furthermore, he says, “I'm glad to have this; it gives me a certain degree of power and influence. And better me than some lazy old drunk. I've had real jobs, and I've been fired from every job I've ever had. Now I'm sitting here in a nice hotel room drinking all the Diet Pepsi I can handle.” And then again, “I'd like to work with people of other ethnicities. I could make a movie with Martin Scorsese about an Indian in the Mafia. Or do a movie about Indians and Irish people with Jim Sheridan. Or about Indians and the gay community with Gus Van Sant. It's not a matter of how many Indians are in the movie, the idea is to write a movie in which there's a real story and real characters. I'm not trying to speak for everybody. I'm one individual heavily influenced by my tribe. And good art doesn't come out of assimilation -- it comes out of tribalism.”
With all that said, I strongly believe we are all, somewhat ignorant to others background, ethnicity, traditions, religion and/or preferences and ignorant to ourselves ignorance, coming across that revelation when facing criticism after expressing ourselves. Our world is diverse and we don’t all start at the same point and move the same direction at the same pace. Wanting and needing different things and having different ways of obtaining them is a growing process in which revelation and transformation will be obtained if we accept and learn from it, just like Victor’s heroic journey and Sherman Alexie’s novelist/producer journey.
Elisabeth, you have to much time on your hands and for that I'm very grateful your quotes will come in very handy. I to thought Thomas had his own journey he seemed to have grown and matured in the way he helped Victor and himself as a story teller
I ran across Chris Vogler's website - TheWritersJourney.com - and it was interesting. He has a history in film industry and applied the hero's journey to choosing which scripts would make good movies...Then... I smacked into a Freemasonry site where the guy equates their rituals with Volger's pattern and connects it to how effective each ceremony was to the members. Not pushing anything - I'm just sayin'...(if interested www.freemason-freemasonry.com/freemasonry_philosophy)
Post a Comment