Hunger games - Chris Spiers

The Hunger game tells the story of a dystopian society controlled by a powerful dictator. With wits and cunning social ideology he gracefully leads the social elite of the capital city in his every endeavor. By distracting the capitals citizens with frivolous desires he distracts them from the social injustices that produce their lavish lifestyles. Even in the gut turning “hunger games” capital citizens are so engulfed by new trends and being social elite they don’t see the horrible crimes committed in front of them.

         President Coriolanus Snow keeps the outer districts in line with very different techniques. Horror from past violence keeps outer districts in prison like control. Although brutality inflected from capital soldiers is not a common sight in outer districts the fear of brutality is always present. Step out of line and you may never be seen again. Snow controls these districts with the fear of force and is rarely questioned.  

Blog Post #5 - Chris Anderson

For the Research Report, I have chosen the film Minority Report. The basic plot centers around John Anderton of the Washington D.C. Precrime Division in the year 2054. Precrime has, at the point of the film, been around for 6 years and the main goal is to stop every single homicide. The way that this happens is with the use of "precognitives;" three people who are able to see the future. In the process of fighting this future crime, Chief Anderton is framed for a murder that hasn't happened yet. He flees and slowly uncovers a conspiracy involving the nature of precrime, precognition and the man who runs the division.

Minority Report can be categorized as a dystopia. The society of this film has found a way to stop murders before they happen; which may seem like a utopia in the making. However, the precrime system is deeply flawed and easily manipulated. In this technologically advanced world of eye scanners, autopilot cars, and holographic projectors, there remains the factor of human imperfection. Beneath a shining exterior, the seedy fallibility of man feeds and nurtures an ever inadequate society.

This film works well with the Reader-Response Criticism since the film can have many different interpretations and directions for understanding. Each person will interpret the theme or moral in a slightly different way and come to a slightly different conclusion. There are some aspects of the film that could tie to Marxism or even Feminism, but because the film seems to center around our perceptions of society and possible future, the viewer's P.O.V drastically changes their reception.

Resources are not hard to find and I'm sure there will be very interesting analyses of this film. I am excited to delve deeper into both the explicit and implicit messages of the film and apply them to my experiences, belief systems and my concept of society.

Blog 5- Andrea Abbott

For paper 3, I decided to analyze the novel, The Handmaid’s Tale, by Margaret Atwood. According to Amazon.com it proposes a question: “In the world of the near future, who will control women's bodies?” The Protagonist, Offred is a Handmaid owned by the Commander and his wife. She’s may leave home only once a day to walk to food markets whose signs do not have words because women aren’t allowed to read. She prays that the Commander makers her pregnant each month because birth rates have recently deteriorated; so Handmaids are only valued if their ovaries are viable. Offred dwells on the days before, “when she lived and made love with her husband Luke; when she played with and protected her daughter; when she had a job, money of her own, and access to knowledge. But all of that is gone now....”

            I chose this novel based off of Professor Bolaski’s recommendation of a dystopian fiction that works well from a Feminist perspective. The poor, wicked treatment of women as well as the struggle for survival makes this piece ideal for a dystopian critique. I am still in the process of reading the book, but I look forward to analyzing everything when I’m through. (I cannot give any further analysis until I read the material).

Blogg #5: Amanda P.

There are many stories to choose from but the novel that really got my interest was the book, The Hunger Games, since I read all three I already have the characters figured out but I realized that I did not really analyze the setting of the book and I would like to do this on the paper. Also, being able to explain the author’s main points on why she wrote the book.  I am going to use Marxism to analyze the story and how dystopia fits in the story. The story provides good example on how politicians have the power to use media as a way of oppressing their citizens.

"The Running Man"-Marxist/Psychoanalytic-Brad Wires

I just selected my text for the research paper and I am about halfway through reading it. The text I have selected is "The Running Man" by Stephen King writing under the pen name Richard Bachman. I'm going to analyze the text through a marxist lens focusing on the severe oppression of the working class. I am also interested in a psychoanalysis of Stephen King and his pseudonym Richard Bachman. I still have to finish reading but so far the text is soaked with marxist theories and ideologies. The main character and protagonists, Ben Richards, is portrayed as an honest working class individual with a disgust for the middle class and their ideologies. He also has a severe disdain for authority figures. Ben's daughter has a dangerously high fever. He is unemployed and therefore unable to provide medicine for her. His wife turns tricks from time to time in order to make a few bucks. Ben decides to "try out" for a position on a game show network. He passes all the physical and mental test and is assigned to the game called The Running Man. The network gives Ben some money and a 12 hour head start. They throw him back into society where he will be hunted down by professional killers. For every hour he survives he, or his family, earns 100 new dollars. If he happens to survive 30 days he is awarded the grand prize of One billion dollars. I have not started searching for sources yet since I am not quite done reading. I am planning on searching for a couple of sources on the text and I would like to find a source or two on Stephen King, or better yet his pseudonym Richard Bachman. Together with a Marxist analysis of the text and a psychoanalytical analysis of the author I believe I will have a solid research paper.

Alex Aroyo Blog Post #4: Oleanna play write-up

To this day I hold no regrets in paying the amount I had to see the live production of Oleanna. There is a unique emotional connection to experience in a live performance that is lost with film.
The atmosphere had an intimate feel about it with the stage squared off by four sets of risers. The actors' expressions were easily distinguishable from the distance my girlfriend and I were sitting (yes, I tricked my girlfriend into going with me and thankfully she appreciated it).
The live performance had some clear differences from the film that I quickly picked up on. Many of the abstract and allusive ideas from the film seem more straight forward and apparent on stage. Carol's role seemed much more emotionally driven with less of a sheltered and innocent demeanor and more anger and instability. The professor also seemed comparatively more condescending and dismissive toward Carol. I noted in the last scene Carol would use certain phrases that seemed like they were meant to provoke the professor. The same could be said for the film, but on stage they seemed a bit more aggressive and added to a more understandable mounting frustration on the professor's part.
Stage productions leave no room for multiple takes or as much in depth detail as a film production, but given the material for the actors to work with, I would say the live performance excellently conveyed the thoughts of David Mamet.

Blog #5 The lottery; Brianna Engelhorn

The "Lottery" written by Shirley Jackson is a story of a little town that conducts a winning of a "lottery" each year. If you think about America and all the stories you have heard of "Jerry wins $10,000, lets see what he purchases with that chunk of money". Normally in our society winning the lottery is probably one of the best things to happen to a person. In this town an old black worn out box is brought out containing names of families and individuals in the families. The "lottery" is basically the person who is chosen it leads to their death. This dystopia is an obvious one because in our real world being picked to die isn't necessarily something to be excited about it reminds me a lot of the hunger games in the sense that you are "playing" to avoid being killed. I am doing more research on "The Lottery" by Shirley Jackson for my research paper.