Friday, November 6, 2009
FRiDaY
Wednesday, November 4, 2009
This I Believe
Stepping into a room full of strangers for the first time and acting confident will instantly put into those people’s minds that one is a person with high self-esteem or worth getting to know. People love being around a confident person, he or she becomes like a magnet attracting them. Its like an outdoor light that moths fly towards. When is darkness and a moth sees a light even in the distance it will fly towards the light. This is exactly the same thing with a person who dispels a certain luminosity about them. People always appreciate someone who will brighten up their day or put a smile on their faces. It is always a good thing to be the one who people are drawn to because of the natural radiance that he or she gives off. That personal aura is how people draw their first impressions.
It is necessary to live life to the fullest before the time comes when it’s too late. The old life creeps up as time passes by faster than we know it. I believe this means standing up for oneself by dispelling confidence in all situations that life presents. Whether it be walking into a room full of strangers or dancing at a party when no one else wants to get up, it is necessary to live life to the fullest before the time comes when it’s too late. Lee Ann Womack’s song “I Hope you Dance” she says “No one wants to look back on their years and wonder what if”. So to avoid looking back on all the years then acting out and not even caring what others are going to say would be the best idea.
In my own life this was played out when I switched high schools. After moving to the new school no one knew who I was and I was able to act confident and pretend to be popular. Just the mere act of pretended made me feel like a better person. In turn I got used to always acting confident. With my head held high and my shoulders back I became an important person simply by pretending. In works wonders and especially since it trains the mind, body and soul to behave in the certain manner. In middle school one girl had always been mistaken as me. We looked the same and had the same hair type. Both of us had curly, brown and long hair. Many times someone would come up to me in the hallway and say “hey Andrea” when it was really I Kim and then I would turn around and they would see my face then explain “Omgsh sorry I thought it was Andrea”. This happened many times and eventually people started to tell us apart by looking at our faces closer and then saying hello.
By the time I had entered my new high school there were apparent changes in me. I now believed more in myself and thought I was beautiful. Now I was becoming another person. One who had high self confidence and that could stand up for her and that even was popular. Now that my time had come I wasn’t wasting any moment of it. I kept telling myself that I was Andrea and in a sense became another person. This new person was loud and proud in all ways possible. This newfound pride excelled me in every way possible, my grades got higher and on the swim team I was always on time and then did great on the girls 500 meter race. In my mind I knew what the popular people were like and that in the very instance of walking into a classroom the kids in there automatically judge one. No matter what it is possible to be that confident person who people want to be around. I got right to work and was loud in class. Made jokes during class and started acting out in confidence at every opportunity there was. No way was I going to waste the chance to be what I wanted. I believe that in doing this i was able to live so that in the future I wouldn’t have to wonder what if. It was all possible because I believed in myself and figuratively dancing in a room full of strangers is the way to dispel the fear of not living life to its fullest want to on the inside.
In conclusion, I have learned through these experience about who I am as a person and where I am going in life. I want to live as if I am already older and not have to regret in the future what I didn’t do when I was younger. Not having to look back on all those years and feel empty is what I am doing. To make all this possible I am taking every opportunity. Living life to its fullest and experiencing things that I want to are in my plan. One day I will be able to say with pleasure that I do know what it’s like to dance in a room full of strangers or at least in a school classroom while making everything laugh. All these things opportunities I have from living in such a blessed country where anything is possible. If I want anything can happen and that is what I firmly believe.
V for Vendetta Movie Review: Intellectually Stimulating
After watching this movie directed by James McTeigue many questions were left in my mind. Multiple lessons learned in the movie include conquering oneʻs own fear, a totalitarian government, people acting like a community, embracing undesirable people and suppressive dictators. This movie is set in 2034, and the politics of this British government are fascist and similar to the Nazi party dictated by Adolf Hitler making the movie feel depressive or gloomy especially because of the gray scenes/lighting used. The genre of the film would be super-hero, fantasy, action or thriller. With references to the Holocaust and Valerieʻs(Natasha Wightman) story it brought forth some very meaningful issues such as race, religion, homosexuality, terrorism, and totalitarianism as well.
The high chancellor is Adam Sutler(John Hurt) who is the British dictator in the film and whose name closely resembles Adolf Hitlerʻs name. Adam Sutler is constantly shown with his big yellow teeth close up on screen commanding his followers. He portrays a dictator in the movie by always commanding everyone underneath him to do everything only his way and no questions asked. Failure to obey the government results in an x being put on your house and a black bag on your head. These so called undesirable people are then tortured just like the Jews in the Holocaust. Their heads are shaved, they are stripped naked, and then in the end die from the abuse. A scene grossly shows a multitude of naked people who are dead from the virus and their naked bodies are thrown in a pile as if they were merely trash to be burned. These Undesirable people were given a virus created by Dr. Delia Surridge(Sinead Cusack) whose research is done only for Sutler to gain more control over the country. An immunity to the virus is found in the main character of the story V(one of the 80,000 undesirables who were experimented on)he does not die like the rest of the victims but instead becomes smarter and gains a stronger body. V then blows up the testing facility and leaves with a vendetta of his own. He seeks vengeance on all the people involved with the testing facility and vows to kill every one of them for the torture and death of all those 80,000 people and for what they have done to him. His plan is to murder them all and leave the country with no rulers to respond to. By doing this he plans to destroy Parliament and all authority figures who control the people of Britain. He then meets Evey(Natalie Portman)for the first time while she is almost raped by three men on the street after curfew hours. V saves Evey from the men by throwing knives at them with his physical abilities. She then goes with him to a rooftop and watches as he blows up Old Bailey. His next plan of action is to air a message of himself (on every Television station in Britain by forcing the British Television Network) telling the people of Britain that next year on the fifth of November to rise up against the totalitarian government.
V then bring Evey to his underground home in which he has multiple painting on the walls, a jukebox and a copy of the Koran. This scene is very similar to The Phantom of the Opera, the mask worn by both characters, and romantic suggestions. V then proceeds to torment Evey just as he was done in the testing facility. He does this only because Evey comments “I would like to live without fear”. Natalie Portman actually has her real hair shaved off in this film and then during her time in the cell V gives her the notes that Valerie wrote him during his time in the facility. Valerie story bring Evey strength to keep on and not give in to what the tormentor wants. Valerie is a lesbian and she has been put in the cell next to Vʻs she write the story of her life. From being an outcast and expelled for her homosexuality.Clarence Carter says that “V for Vendetta may be among the most openly pro-gay blockbusters ever”. Evey then is freed by V when she no longer fears death and is will to die behind the chemical sheds instead of submit to the will of the torturer.
In the end V sends out tons of his guy fawks masks to the public before the fifth of November intending for them all to come out and rise up against the totalitarian government. The ending scene is one not to be missed since so many people come out with the masks that it covers the screen. They come and are not shot at by the military since the leaders have all been killed by V. Evey then pulls the trigger on the underground railroad (where V has died in the process of killing the leaders) the whole Parliament building is destroyed by bombs and there is fireworks displayed for all the people who came out. The ending climax scene shows the fireworks in the red letter V and the faces of all the persecuted victims in the testing facility as they were in the crowd wearing the guy fawks masks.
This film put ideas into ones mind about a revolution of the people to protect themselves whenever the government starts to be greedy under the rule of selfish dictators such as Adam Sutler or the “corrupt pedophile bishop at Westminster Abbey, Bishop Anthony James Lilliman, who commonly sleeps with very young innocent girls to please his perverted mind” This Bishop is one of the leaders killed by V, Bishop Lilliman is a horrible man who uses the church to pay for his expensive lifestyle and he is always living as a king. He most likely has sex with a young virgin girl on a daily basis and pays them a good amount of money to not tell anyone his secret schemes. If his nasty life got out into the public there is no way the people would put up with him being such an influential leader and having the role of Bishop. During a scene in the movie “Evey is undercover as a prostitute so that V can kill the Bishop with a drug overdose”.
One of the multiple lessons learned in the movie includes conquering oneʻs own fear. The fear of death is completely expunged from Eveyʻs mind after she goes through the torturing and then states “Iʻd rather die behind the chemical sheds” when pressed to so as the will of the torturer. This fear in Evey is gone from her which enable her to live a life more pleasantly and not have to hold back on things she wants to accomplish. When the time comes to be brave in the midst of the hard times in life Evey will be able to be strong enough to stand up to whatever comes her way. So will the people who in the end wore the masks and rose up against the military with their guns and watched as their government was bombed. Fear stops people from succeeding in different areas of life. Lloyd Douglas says “If a man harbors any sort of fear, it percolates, through all his thinking, damages his personality, makes him landlord to a ghost”. This means to conquer oneʻs own fear the best way is to acknowledge it and in response to the fear of death wiki answers says “Donʻt waste your lifetime worrying about death. Instead, fill each day with as much joy as possible, and donʻt let little things get you down. Go outside, play with friends, or take up a new sport. Just do anything that will take your mind off dying, and put it on living”.
A Totalitarian government as defined by Wikipedia “ is a political system where the state, usually under the control of a single party or faction, recognizes no limits to its authority and strives to regulate every aspect of public and private life wherever feasible”. This is evident in the curfew set in the movie which does not allow people out of their homes past a certain hour. This type of government is not run by the people and only works to bring unlimited power to the hands of a selfish few. This is not the democratic way we in America strive for. This calls us to action against anything in the government resembling totalitarianism and leaves an impression in our mind of what political actions must be taken in order to get away from this type of rule.
In line with democracy is community and the ability to accept the many differences among people. Undesirable people should be accepted into the mass of a country because they had nothing to do with the reason they are undesirable. Many would of course rather to be normal like everyone else, but that is simply not the case since everyone is created differently. Jews, homosexuals, deformed people, people with other religions, and the list goes on, but all should be accepted into the democracy and not be prejudiced against. The just of a democracy is the government is run for the people which means all people not just the select few. To stay away from a totalitarian government we need to become a community and be accepting of everyone.
Suppressive dictators such as Adolf Hitler use force to keep their victims under control and they make false promises of peace while really nothing but war is usually what they bring to the fearful people. The people submit to these dictators in hopes that war, disease, and prosperity will be found but instead they find themselves stripped from their freedom. By using the virus to control the masses Sutler just gets more power and his greed is what drives him. He uses everyone under him to feed his hunger for control. Just like Sutler is Bishop Lilliman who pretends to be a godly/christian person when in actuality he is the opposite. All his actions are only meant for him not the church people whom he preaches to. The people coming to him for confession believe him to be a messenger of Christ, when he is actually taking their offering money and spending it on prostitutes for himself. His hypocrisy is disgusting and even more so when the Bishop is supposed to be celibate according to the Catholic faith. The bishop must of had suppressed sexual desires that he let loose on young innocent girls who could not control his actions. Only by lying to the people can dictators have their self-absorbed ways met.
In conclusion, the film brought forth some needed criticism of this type of government and showed what can happen when people start to become fearful therefore placing control in the hands of a despotic ruler. No one individual can be trusted to be concerned over the welfare of an entire country without becoming addicted to the power it brings. This is why we no longer have kings or queens in America and instead rose up as a populace against the British monarchy in the American Revolution. I would recommend this film to anyone who wants “intellectual stimulation for their mind” or enjoys a movie with depth. A political nut would also like the film as well as since there is references to events taken place in the government. “According to the Los Angeles Times, “With a wealth of new, real-life parallels to draw from in the areas of government surveillance, torture, fear mongering and media manipulation, not to mention corporate corruption and religious hypocrisy, you cant really blame the filmmakers for having a field day referencing current events.” This is what can be learned from the movie and a democratic people can be secure in knowing that our constitution is there to provide laws protecting our freedom and saving us from a totalitarian government as seen in the film.
