continuing on....

Ok, so a few days late but thats ok. Anyway, I have gotten further along in SAWYER and I found and interesting section: the famous white washing scene. In this scene we see the true youth and wit of out protagonist as he cons his buddies into doing his work for him. We also get a glimpse at his tenderer side. He is hit as a punishment for something he didn't do and in retaliation runs away into the night and contemplates how his aunt would feel if he were dying, and swore that he would not give her one sort of reconciliation if he was. In this mood, tom also stumbles across a new girl and is captivated by her. Unfortunately she doesn't seem to notice him and this only adds to his misery.

Tom Sawyer

Alrighty, blog post #3! And I actually started reading! Yay! Anyway, I have started reading Tom Sawyer by: Mark Twain. Funnily enough, I have never read this classic. I see now that it is an excellent choice to go with my topic. By reading of Tom's childhood adventures I can draw a parallel between it and Wal-E. The two stories both are aimed at younger audiences, however both carry a lot of weight in their messages. In Tom Sawyer the reader sees the world through a child's eyes and follows the protagonist through his numerous adventures, the same way he or she follows Wal-E. This brings up a good question about which better conveys its message. Although in my opinion Wal-E carries a bigger message, its audience is mainly children and families, not scholars or adults who want to interpret it. Tom Sawyer, on the other hand, is now read mostly by high school students and taught at a higher level so its message becomes more prominent and better understood. So far in Tom Sawyer I have only gotten a description of who Tom is. He is an orphan who was adopted by his mother's sister, Polly. He is a compulsory trouble-maker and prankster. He has a tattle-tale half brother named Sid and a mortal enemy as well, whose name is not revealed but is very bourgeois and stuck up. There hasn't been much story yet, so it is hard to say what Tom Sawyer's message is, but I'm sure I'll pick it up later in the story.

Wal-E

Ok, I know i was supposed to have started reading a book by now and it is my fault that i have not yet. Books are kinda essential to this project. However, I have had time to watch a film (maybe i should have started with the book, huh?) Over the past weekend I watched Wal-E. This heart warming movie is one of my animated favorites. Although dialog is sparse, the physical humor and exploits of a tiny robot and the future human race lead to a fun and meaningful movie. Some may see the film as a mere entertainer, but it holds a larger meaning. It conveys a message of a serious problem in our growing world: consumerism. Earth has been reduced to an post-apocalyptic state thanks to all the junk people have bought from "Buy n' Large", a symbol in the film for all the big corporations that are starting to consume our lives (aka walmart, target, best buy, etc.). This message is also accompanied by a warning about our reliance on technology. In a worst case scenario setting, our new space ship world is so technologically advanced that people don't even need to walk. So, our humanity has become morbidly obese. These are all over the top scenarios but still put forth a warning to its viewers. Eventually the film ends happily with humans returning to earth to repopulate it and reestablish healthy life.

Hello!

Ok, so, this is an Senior English project. we're supposed to do research on several literary novels and stuff. Rather than just follow the assignment, I came up with the idea that since most of America's culture today is taken from film, why not do a report on that? Unfortunately I do have to review at least one book to get this okay-ed by my teacher but its worth it. Anyway, I figured that taking on everything in film would be too broad, so this blog will focus most on comparisons between a literary novel and animated films. i plan to report on films like WAL-E, Secret of the Kells, How to Train Your Dragon, and other films that have some sort of message behind them. Enjoy!