Transcendentalism (Movie: Eat, Pray, Love)

Hello readers, I'm writing this blog as an assignment given by the Department of English, MKBU. Here, I'm trying to apply transcendentalism in the movie 'Eat, Pray, Love'.

Directed by Ryan Murphy

Screenplay by Ryan Murphy

                           Jennifer Salt

Based on "Eat, Pray, Love" by Elizabeth                            Gilbert

Produced by Dede Gardner

Starring:

• Julia Roberts as Elizabeth "Liz" Gilbert
• James Franco as David, the man Gilbert has an intense relationship with while she is finalizing her divorce 
• Richard Jenkins as Richard, a Texan Liz befriends at an Indian ashram 
• Viola Davis as Delia Shiraz, Gilbert's best friend 
• Billy Crudup as Steven, Gilbert's ex-husband
• Javier Bardem as Felipe, a Brazilian businessman Gilbert falls in love with on her journey

'Eat,Pray,Love':

"Eat, Pray, Love" is a 2010 film directed by Ryan Murphy and starring Julia Roberts. The movie is based on the bestselling memoir of the same name by Elizabeth Gilbert. The film tells the story of Gilbert's journey of self-discovery and healing as she embarks on a year-long journey to Italy, India, and Bali, where she learns to appreciate the simple pleasures of life, and finds love and inner peace.

The movie is considered a "transcendental" film because it explores themes of spiritual growth and self-discovery. Gilbert's journey is a personal one, as she struggles with a difficult divorce and a sense of unhappiness and lack of fulfillment in her life. She decides to take a year off and travel to different parts of the world, where she learns to find joy in the present moment, appreciate the beauty of the natural world, and connect with her inner self.

The film's portrayal of different cultures and traditions is also noteworthy. Gilbert's time in India is particularly impactful, as she learns about the spiritual practices of yoga and meditation, and finds solace in the teachings of her guru. The film also explores the theme of love and relationships, as Gilbert eventually finds a new partner in Bali.

Elizabeth Gilbert's book "Eat, Pray, Love," unread by me, spent 150 weeks on the New York Times best seller list and is by some accounts a good one. 

We can say that, It is also movie material, concerning as it does a tall blond who ditches a failing marriage and a disastrous love affair to spend a year living in Italy, India and Bali seeking to find the balance of body, mind and spirit.

During this journey, great-looking men are platooned at her, and a wise man, who has to be reminded who she is, remembers instantly, although what he remembers is only what she's just told him. 

Here is a movie about Liz Gilbert. About her quest, her ambition, her good luck in finding only nice men, including the ones she dumps. She funds her entire trip, including scenic accommodations, ashram, medicine man, guru, spa fees and wardrobe, on her advance to write this book. Well, the publisher obviously made a wise investment. It's all about her, and a lot of readers can really identify with that. Her first marriage apparently broke down primarily because she was tired of it, although Roberts at (a sexy and attractive) 43 makes an actor's brave stab at explaining they were "young and immature." She walks out on the guy (Billy Crudup) and he still likes her and reads her on the Web.

In Italy, she eats such Pavarottian plates of pasta that I hope one of the things she prayed for in India was deliverance from the sin of gluttony. At one trattoria she apparently orders the entire menu, and I am not making this up. She meets a man played by James Franco, about whom, enough said. She shows moral fibre by leaving such a dreamboat for India, where her quest involves discipline in meditation, for which she allotted three months rather than the recommended lifetime. There she meets a tall, bearded, bespectacled older Texan (Richard Jenkins) who is without question the most interesting and attractive man in the movie, and like all of the others seems innocent of lust.

In Bali she revisits her beloved adviser Ketut Liyer (Hadi Subiyanto), who is a master of truisms known to us all. Although he connects her with a healer who can mend a nasty cut with a leaf applied for a few hours, his own skills seem limited to the divinations anyone could make after looking at her, and telling her things about herself after she has already revealed them.

Now she has found Balance, and begins to dance on the high wire of her life. She meets Felipe (Javier Bardem), another divorced exile, who is handsome, charming, tactful, forgiving and a good kisser. He explains that he lives in Bali because his business is import-export, "which you can do anywhere" although later, he explains she must move to Bali because "I live in Bali because my business is here." They've both forgotten what he said earlier. "Unless perhaps you can do import-export anywhere, but you can only import and export from Bali when you live there. That would certainly be my alibi."

So, The protagonist from Eat Pray Love, Elizabeth Gilbert, a self-explorative woman, spent her entire year traveling to find her inner self and purpose through the emotions and experiences learned along her journey. She left her hometown in the United States to be intellectually alone and to explore the meaning of herself. Along the way she tried to maintain spiritual discipline and balance between her, God, and the world. The places she visited and the people she communicated with helped her learn to find her true self. Throughout her immersing journey, the actions and thoughts Gilbert dealt with have considered her to be a transcendentalist: a confident, nonconforming, and individualistic person. Somewhere within her, she was able to rise up and find herself in the mess of her deep problems.

On the night of her last encounter with Depression and Loneliness, she had the courage to write to herself in her journal, “There’s nothing you can ever do to lose my love. I will protect you until you die, and after your death I will still protect you. I am stronger than Depression and I am braver than Loneliness and nothing will ever exhaust me.” She slowly became an individualist, nonconforming to the impressions of her and people around her. She was guiding herself - through meditation and prayer - on what she believed was true, and had said, “I can only say how I feel now - grateful to be on my own.”

As a matter of fact, shown in the Eat Pray Love film, Gilbert was portrayed as a transcendentalist. She did not conform to what others thought of her. She was self-reliant by believing in only herself and what she wanted to accomplish rather than succumbing to other people's opinions of her. Gilbert was not influenced by the other characters' doubtful thoughts on her leaving work and her relationship in search for her life purpose. She had a strong sense of confidence to share her own ideas on what she wanted to do for a whole year. 

Overall, "Eat, Pray, Love" is a thought-provoking and uplifting film that encourages viewers to take a step back from their busy lives and focus on their own personal growth and happiness. Its themes of self-discovery, spiritual growth, and appreciation for different cultures and traditions make it a transcendental movie experience.

Word Count: 1230

Indian Poetics

Hello readers, I'm writing this blog as a response to Dr. Dilip Barad sir's task. We had an expert lecture of famous gujarati poet, writer and literary critic Vinod Joshi from 5th to 13th January 2023. He taught Indian Poetics to us. He discussed various schools of Indian Poetics like Rasa, Dhvani, Auchitya, Vakrokti, Riti and Alamkar. Here, In this blog, I try to give an overview of these sessions.

Indian Poetics:

What is Indian Poetics? We know the thing(વસ્તુ) but not the thingness(વસ્તુતા). We ignore many types of knowledge. Why do we read literature? Just for story or narrative comprehension? to have fun. How can literature give pleasure? What are its components? What are the ingredients or components of Literature? How are the ingredients combined? We are students of literature. It is our responsibility and we are answerable. We have to go deep into the mysteries of literature. As a sculptor can look at an image in stone, can we see something more than what we see? This is a matter of moving from the gross to the subtle in which the idea of turning back to the object, not just the object, is predominant. If we read any novel, we should interpret it according to our understanding. Literature's pleasure is relative. And what you will understand, others will not understand. When we think of concern we become cautious. The realization of art is a personal matter. Literature transforms our emotions into thinking. 

Bharata, Anandavardhana, Kuntaka, Mammat, Vamana, Bhamah show a great difference. Western Criticism talks more about the influence of literature. Eastern or Indian Poetics contemplates its process. Indian Poetics is more subtle. Have to concentrate more. It is difficult to connect with it.

The motifs of Indian literary mimansa are rasa, dhvani, alamkar, vakrokti, and riti.

1.  Rasa:

Why is literature broadly interested in art? Why get pleasure? How to get it? Find out the reasons.  Why do we like poetry? Why do we like some poems so much?  Let's find out...

Indian Mimansa does this. Why interest occurs was first discussed by Bharat. Bharatamuni wrote a treatise called Natyashastra. Chapter 6 does Ras Mimansa.  Bharata has given the formula Kehtak has defined Rasa. The most personal thing in the world is 'ભાવ'. The emotion (ભાવ) is natural. Broadly speaking, the value of dislike is expressed in the group as well. Literature and Literature only helps us to understand life. Bharatamuni has analyzed these 'ભાવ'. Those inherent emotions cannot be eradicated. It can be stopped, if anger comes it can be stopped but it cannot be eradicated. Love, anger, hatred, lust, compassion are all emotions.

Synopsis of Bharata's Natyashastra is:

विभावानुभावव्यभिचारी संयोगात रसनिष्पत्ति:।

अर्थात: ભાવ, વિભાવ, અનુભાવ, તથા વ્યભિચારી ભાવના સંયોગથી રસનિષ્પત્તિ થાય છે.

Vibhav:

The reason through which Rasa comes out is called Vibhav.

 There are two types of vibhav

 1.  Aalamban Vibhava ~ inclined

 2.  Uddipana Vibhava ~ stimulus / catalyst

Uddipana is also very much needed in life. Poet Kalidasa composed Uddipana to evoke the feeling of love in Kehtake. This concept applies everywhere.

Anubhav (Reaction - પ્રતિક્રિયા):

Nothing happens from action, everything happens from reaction. Anubhava is followed by action.

An event of Kalidasa's Kumarasambhava, Parvati dances. शैलाधिराज तनया...

Shivaparvati's affection is felt.  The beauty of both is revealed. लीला कमल पत्राणि...

Rasa is accomplished by the combination of vibhav, anubhav and sansaribhav

Sthayi Bhav (સ્થાયીભાવ):

It simply floats within each one of us.

સ્થિરભાવ is shown as સ્થાયીભાવ.

Sthayi Bhava is explained by Bharata through commentary. आहार निद्रा भय मैथुनश्च। Bharata has described eight emotions. Mammat introduced the ninth rasa.

સ્થાયીભાવ:

રતી > શૃંગાર 

શોક > કરુણ 

ઉત્સાહ > વીર 

ક્રોધ > રૌદ્ર

હાસ > હાસ્ય 

ભય > ભયાનક 

જુગુપ્સા (ચિતરી) > બિભત્સ્ય

વિસ્મય > અદભુત 

શમ > શાંત 

श्रृंगार करुण वीर रौद्र हास्य भयानक 

बिभत्यद्भुत शान्तश्च नव नाट्ये रासा: स्मृता ।।

अर्थात्: ખેવના, ચીવટ, દાનત, તાત્પર્ય, એકાગ્રતા, જિજ્ઞાસા તમે જે કલા શીખો છો તેની દ્રષ્ટિ પરખવાની હોવી જોઇએ.

Rasa and Dhavanya are two schools of Sanskrit tradition.

Sanchari Bhav(સંચારિભાવ - વ્યભિચારીભાવ):

When emotions are Come and go immediately, they are known as Sancharibhav. Acharya Mammat has given 33 Sanchari Bhav.

Sanyog:

Bharata used the word 'સંયોગ'. A combination of bhav, vibhav and anubhav. What is Ras Anubhav?  Who is called? It is not compromise but involvement that brings acceptance.  We don't like many things in life but we do carry on. Don't feel the burden of acceptance. Acceptance is the emotion of receiving. Acceptance is સંયોગ.

Anti-critics talk about Sanyog. Among the many commentators(ભાષ્યકાર) four Acharyas did:

૧. ભટ્ટ લોલ્લટ 

૨. શ્રી શંકુક 

૩. ભટ્ટ નાયક

૪. અભિનવ ગુપ્ત

Bhatt Lollat:

Bhatta Lollat says, "Interest does not exist, interest has to be produced." How is interest generated?  In the play, the interest is through the character.  Sringararas has been expressed for the exaltation of the eternal spirit named Rati. Lollat talked about the character created by the poet and the pursuit of that character. The principal's interest has to be endorsed. Bhatta Lollat's entire argument is known as derivationalism(ઉત્પતીવાદ)

Shree Shankunk:

Rasa is neither created nor generated, rasa is only perceived or inferred.

There are 4 types of Pratithi

 1.  True conviction (યથાર્થ પ્રતીતિ)

 2.  False conviction (મિથ્યા પ્રતીતિ)

 3.  Suspicious conviction (સંશય પ્રતીતિ)

 4.  Similar conviction (સાદૃશ્ય પ્રતીતિ)

Based on these four pratithi, we infer character.

Bhatt Nayak:

He has given the principle of normalization (સાધરણીકરણ). When Nut feels the feelings of the original character in himself and the audience also feels this feeling through Nut, it is called generalization. The intensity of the perception of interest increases as that interest is enjoyed.  There is no conviction until interest is experienced.

Abhinav Gupta:

It is not enough to enjoy but churning should be done.  Tastes and juices are different.  Chew it and feel the sensation when it is absorbed. Bharata has said Rasa Nishpatti, Disruption of Rasa, Rasabhasa, Peya points.

 "પ્રકાશાનંદમય જ્ઞાનની પ્રતીતિ, અનુભૂતિ કરાવે તેનું નામ રસ"

                                                              -અભિનવ ગુપ્ત

2.  Dhvani:

Anandvardhan, the originator and pioneer of soundism. Sampradaya Dhavanyaloka Where there is motion there is Dhvani. Motion is the cause of Dhvani.

The medium of literature is language. But why is criticism possible without linguistics? Word has no meaning. Meaning is imputed. Imposed meaning. In language we attach meaning. Someone is late and you say, "Why are you early today?" This is Dhvani. We are always in a rush to catch this Dhvani. Not all understand the same. 

Example of Abhijyan Shakuntala, Dushyanta abandons Shakuntala, playing with the lion cub Sarvadaman (Shakuntala's own son) in sage Marichi's ashram. Dushyant is worried. At the same time, Shakuntala comes out of the cottage. A tapasi asks to bring shankut (sarang / peacock). "शंकुत: लावन्यम प्रेक्षस्व:।" If the elegance of this Shakuntala. This is the power of the word. The joy of literature comes to us through its fulfilling Dhvani.

Abhidha:

Abhidha which gives the Direct meaning while reading. It gives real meaning. Literature is the combination of words and meaning. 

"શબ્દ અને અર્થ એ બંને સાથે હોવા જોઈએ, એ બંને એક જ છે." (આનંદવર્ધન)

Lakshana:

We have direct meaning but we have to take another one. 

Vyanjana: 

There is the existence of direct meaning yet we have to use another meaning of word.

Pratiyman (પ્રતીયમાન):

That which is not and understood is પ્રતીયમાન.

'શબ્દ માંથી નીકળતા પ્રતીયમાનને આનંડવર્ધન ધ્વનિ તરીકે ઓળખાવે છે'

In which the word and meaning become secondary and the pratiyman arth manifests it is called Dhvani.

For example:

અંધારું થયું:

- વચ્યાર્થ - પ્રકાશ ચાલ્યો ગયો.

- પ્રતીયમાન અર્થ - કોઈનું મૃત્યુ થયું.

विभातिलावण्यमिवांग्नासु।

अर्थात्: સ્ત્રીના સૌંદર્યની જેમ ધ્વનિ શોભે છે. 

There are three types of Dhvani:

Vastu Dhvani:

Based on thought is called vastu Dhvani.

For example: તું જ્યાં છે ત્યાં મારો બીજો જન્મ થજો.

Alankar Dhvani:

In which alankar is used is called Alankar Dhvani.

For example: દમયંતીનું મુખ ચંદ્ર જેવું છે.

Rasa Dhvani:

In rasa dhvani, emotion becomes the stimulus and emotion is made effective.

For example: "સાવરિયો રે મારો સાંવરિયો...  હું તો ખોબો માંગું ને દઈ દે દરિયો."

3.  Vakrokti:

Kuntaka is known as the originator of this Sanskrit literary theory. Vakrokti is a theory of poetry which perceives poetry essentially in terms of the language of its expressions. Here Vakrokti turns into beauty.

Kuntaka was a Sanskrit poetician and literary theorist of who is remembered for his work Vakroktijīvitam in which he postulates the Vakrokti Siddhānta or theory of Oblique Expression, which he considers as the hallmark of all creative literature. 

Six type of Vakrokti:

Varnvinyas Vakrata (વર્ણવિન્યાસ વક્રતા)

Padpurvardh Vakrata (પદપૂર્વાર્ધ વક્રતા)

Padparardh Vakrata (પદપરાર્ધ વક્રતા)

Vakya Vakrata (વાક્ય વક્રતા)

Prakran Vakrata (પ્રકરણ વક્રતા)

Prabandh Vakrata (પ્રબંધ વક્રતા) 

4.  Alamkara:

Bhamaha is the first who introduced alamkara poetics. Second and third chapter of Kavyallamkara deals with 35 figures of speech.

Types of Alamkara:

Arthalamkara

Shbdalamkara

Vastava (Realistic)

Swdt (Eluviation)

Anupamaya (Comparison)

Slesh (paronomasia)

Astisaya (Exaggeration)

Citra (Pectoris)

Slesa (Coalescence)

Yamaka (Repetition)

Anuprasa (Alliteration):

Mammata enumerates sixty-one figures and groups them into seven types like…

1.Upma(simile)

2.Rupaka(Metaphor)

3.Aprastuta Prasmsa(Indirect decription)

4.Dipaka(Stringed figures)

5.Vyatreka(Dissimilitude)

6.Virodha(Contradiction)

7.Samuccaya(Concatenation)

5.  Aucitya:

Kshemendra’s discussions of the principle of Aucitya is from the point of view of both the writer and the reader and is articulated in its given cultural and philosophical context. Kshemendra made aucitya spine elements of literature. He defines aucitya as the property of an expression being an exact and appropriate analogue of the expressed. 

6.  Riti:

Riti is the way of presentation or the style of presentation. He is one who developed it into a theory of “Vishista Padrracana” . Riti is a formation of arrangement of marked inflected constructions. Vamana’s scheme of the Gunas can tabulated thus:

Word count: 1605

Existentialism: Flipped Learning

Hello Readers, In this blog We were given a task to skim through the video and understand them. Further, we have to write our thoughts which impressed us the most in the video, the video we liked the most with a reason and ask 5 questions in the class which are also written below.

Video - 1:

At the beginning of the video, there are several references of existentialists like Kierkegaard, Nietzsche, Dostoyevsky, Kafka, Heidegger, Shestov, Hesse, Sartre and Beauvoir as well as three sides of Existentialism: Individuality, Passions and Freedom. According to Albert Camus one should embrace and understand absurdity rather than start believing in god. Believing is god means escaping from the real situations and leaving everything in god. This is Philosophical suicide. Video ends with one fine conclusion: Existentialism is mainly popular among young people because it touches on the subject of which a person in his/her youth might struggle in it. Whose attention at attract to subject like suicide, anguish, absurdity, passion, emotion, death, freedom and despair.

Video - 2:

This video is about 'The myth of Sisyphus' and the absurd reasoning. Alber Camus wrote that "There is but one truly serious philosophical problem and that is suicide". For Camus suicide is an individual act. Camus talked about the absurdity and  meaninglessness of life. Here in this video there is also an example of the movie 'Stay' in which we can see: ‘suicide is divorce between man and this life’. embracing the truth, compromising, understanding are better than divorce.

Video - 3:

This video talked about the philosophical suicide and this problem come out from a total absence of hope, A continual rejection and conscious dissatisfaction. From this method people escaped from absurd life. The absurd is not in man and not in the world, it can only occur in the presence together. If there were no human beings  there wouldn't be any desire or in particular the human nostalgia to satisfy. This is where we get to philosophical suicide. According to Kierkegaard Faith is the solution to the absurd. Camus has denied being an existentialist because existentialists suggest having faith in God while Camus suggests embracing absurdity.

Video - 4:

Here in This video we could find three theories: Dadaism, nihilism, and existentialism. Dadaism and Nihilism have nothing to do with each other, there is only one similarity that both are fed up with arbitrary values of life. they do not want such values invented by others. Creation is the primary goal of Dadaism. It is merely an art movement. Dadaism emerged after WW1 which questioned every traditional value and tried to destroy its base. It was a quest for change and Existentialism came into existence after WW2 which was trying to awaken people and make them understand their own worth and individuality.

Video - 5:

This video is talking about Existentialism as a gloomy philosophy. Every life is full of anxiety, despair and absurdity, but we are free to choose our own path of living. Every individual chooses his/her way of life but when the result is not good then they escape from this situation that is not fair practice. Existentialism is not a narcissist philosophy it talks about becoming who you are not love yourself. Existentialism is differ from Nihilism. Existentialism is not Nihilism. After world war-2 People's lives became meaningless and full of despair. It was such an atmosphere that Existentialism came to people's rescue and offered the cure. 

Video - 6:

Existentialism and Nihilism are totally different from each other. Existentialism believes in subjectivity like individuality, nothingness, absurd life while Nihilism believes in objectivity like everything is an illusion in life. For Kierkegaard Nihilism can be defined as the loss of individuality. For Nietzsche Nihilism means the highest values devaluate themselves.

Video - 7:

Existentialism asks the question of existence: why am I here? What is life? Divine perspective and human perspective. Humans were not designed by any supernatural power, existentialism sees life from religiously, scientifically and philosophically and raises questions about human existence.

Video - 8:

This video explains the meaning of Existentialism to 5 year old childs. Here we could find the definition of existentialism with the reference of Nietzsche and his 'Ubermensche'. Existentialism and Nietzsche: Nietzsche's Existentialism talked about that human being is everything, there is no need for any supernatural power to govern life. Like God is dead so human beings can make their own rules and be like superman or ubermensch.

Video - 9:

This video talks about Eric Dodson’s personal experience being existentialist. He likes existentialism because it appeals to our mind, heart and soul. He shares that if one keeps on looking at things rationally then life takes away the magic of things. Existentialism is a way of life and understanding life deeply. Existentialism says about what I am. Eric Dodson said that it is honest and shows the reality of life and accepts your faults and your abilities.

Video - 10:

This video is starting with one question that 'What gives your life meaning? Existentialists say that anything can give your life meaning, but at the same they say none of them can. Plato and Aristotle believed that everything has an essence including us and they believed that our essences exist in us before we're even born. Existentialism is not synonymous with Atheism. Plenty of existentialists are atheist but some are theists like Kierkegaard. For existentialists: Absurdity is a technical term, It's how they describe the search for an answer in an answerless world. After world war 2 Existentialism was defined as Freedom. We can give reason to our choice or we can say that there is no reason for choice is just a choice. There is no meaning of life but meaning is given by us to our life.

Questions I raised in class:

1) How Can we discuss the motif of repetition in "Waiting for Godot" and how it relates to the existentialist ideas of the human condition and the meaning of life?

2) How does Sartre's concept of "authenticity" relate to the decision to commit suicide, and what does it mean to live an "authentic" life?

3) How does existentialism interact with the current understanding of artificial intelligence and its impact on human existence in the 21st century?

4) In what ways does Kierkegaard's concept of "subjectivity" influence the characters and themes in Samuel Beckett's "Waiting for Godot"?

5) Can we connect the concept of moksha (liberation) in Indian philosophy to the existentialist concept of authenticity and finding meaning in life?

Word Count: 1074

Thinking Activity: The Great Gatsby

Hello readers, I'm writing this blog as an assignment given by the Department of English, MKBU. Here, I'm trying to answer the questions about 'The Great Gatsby', which is given by Dilip Barad sir.

->How did the film help in understanding the symbolic significance of 'The Valley of Ashes ', 'The Eyes of Dr. T J Eckleburg' and 'The Green Light'?

The Valley of Ashes:

The Valley of Ashes symbolizes the effects of capitalism. To reach New York city the residents of West and East Egg must travel through the filth and degradation that is the Valley of Ashes. “The gray land and the spasms of brake dust which drifts endlessly.” This emphasizes how empty and dull it is. It also shows the people from the Eggs, on their way to party in New York, that the world isn't a perfect place as most of them believe. “When he saw us a damp gleam of hope sprang into his light blue eyes.” George is happy to see Tom and Nick as he has business with Tom and it suggests the recurring theme of hope throughout the novel. This also shows how oblivious George is with Tom as he and George’s wife Myrtle are having an affair. 

The Eyes of Dr T J Eckleburg:

Doctor T J Eckleburg's eyes symbolize God to some of the characters in the novel. The eyes watch over The Valley of Ashes and is still watching when Myrtle gets killed towards the end of the novel. “We walked back a hundred yards along the road under the doctor Eckleburg's persistent stare." This symbolizes judgment and Nick feels judged when he is taken to go and visit Myrtle as he knows that George doesn't know about the affair between Tom and Myrtle. “She might fool me but she couldn’t fool god.” said George, after his wife is killed by Daisy, as if even though he didn’t know what was going on God did. 

The Green Light:

The color green is referred to throughout the novel. In chapter one Gatsby is shown to reaching out towards a green light which is at the end of daisy's dock ‘‘he stretched out his arms towards the dark water...and... a single green light’’. This suggests that he is stretching his arms out toward his goals which the novel we have learnt is daisy. It also shows how long he holds on to his dreams, especially his hopes of being with daisy. Again, later on green is mentioned however this time it represents Gatsby's envious character. In chapter seven daisy says ‘’can't say that I never loved tom’’ after this is said Gatsby realizes that daisy might not still love him and because of this he sees that he has to compete with her husband if he has any chance of winning her again. This shows that Gatsby would never be ok if Daisy showed that she was in love with another man.

->How did the film capture the theme of Racism and Sexism?

Throughout the film 'The Great Gatsby', Tom Buchanan shown as a person of racism. It is Tom's hypocritical oratory that frames the unwinding narrative, which begins with his fears of “colored“ encroachment and the destruction of the white power structure: "The idea is if we don't look out the white race will be utterly submerged. It's all scientific stuff; it's been proved", to which Daisy enthusiastically concurs, murmuring, "We've got to beat them down" Gatsby becomes the manifestation of this fear. Yet, Gatsby does not even attempt to dismantle that system, he merely creates a comfortable niche for himself within it, as does the typically passing protagonist, which is perhaps the most unsettling point. They would not disrupt that status quo, they would merge with it and thus increase the potential for unperceived contamination, Tom's greatest fear. Still, their passage does suggest the potential for the erosion of the racial divide, the clear–cut division between black and white, and between rich and poor- which race itself initially symbolized in such eloquent and unambiguous terms.

In The Great Gatsby, Fitzgerald also writes about sexism in a kind of conservative route. throughout the film, the men work to pocket money for the women to spend carelessly on themselves. Gatsby is in love with Daisy and tries to win her love by showing that he has become prosperous although no matter how rich he becomes, or how many large parties he throws, he still isn’t winning over Daisy. In The Great Gatsby, Fitzgerald illustrates how women are negatively portrayed often objectified by men. In the novel, the author shows gender roles in a dark light. It exemplifies through Daisy’s cynicism, tom’s aggressive masculinity, Jordan, and Daisy being described as being balloons. The damaging gender roles have implemented when Daisy confesses that for a girl to survive she needs to be beautiful and stupid.

 "I’m glad it’s a girl. And I hope she’ll be a fool- that’s the best thing a girl can be in this world, a beautiful little fool".

According to Daisy, having beauty and being a fool is how you thrive in the world, she notes the social values of her time, but she does not seem to oppose or challenge them. This shows how Fitzgerald illustrates how women are negatively influenced and frequently objectified by men.

->Difference between the film and the novel.

The difference between The Great Gatsby book and the movie is the perspective of the author and the director. The novel consists of vital phrasings and sentences that are overwhelming to bring into life. The book has enough characters and characteristics that the director finds challenging to portray. The Great Gatsby book was written by F.Scott Fitzgerald in 1925. It was his third novel. The novel is one of his notable works. The story unfolds the journey of a young boy, Jay Gatsby, and his young love daisy Fay Buchanan. J. Gatsby believed in the mystery of the universe. The screenplay was exhibited by Baz Luhrmann and Craig Pearce. On 17 May 2013, the movie was released. The movie starts with the monologue of the narrator. He rewinds his memories and shares them with his doctor. He is in denial after departing from his soul friend, Gatsby.  

The major difference between movie and novel are;

1)Jordan Baker, the golf player has a dishonest face in the novel, the movie sheds out the necessary details of her character.

2)Daisy Fay Buchanan, the wife of Tom Buchanan has an intensity in her presence, the movie portrays her as weak and the actor fails to justify the role.

3)Tom Buchanan has unlikable roles in the book but the movie depicts him as a villain.

4)Nick Carraway is portrayed as a self-conscious person in the novel. The movie exaggerates the darker phase in his life. 

Word Count:1170

Reference:

DRAKE, ROBERT. “The Book, The Movie, The Dream.” The Mississippi Quarterly, vol. 44, no. 2, 1991, pp. 183–92. JSTORhttp://www.jstor.org/stable/26475309, Accessed 12 Jan. 2023.

Movie Review: The Birthday Party (1968)

 Hello readers, I'm writing this blog as an assignment given by the Department of English, MKBU. Here, I've tried to analyze the movie 'The Birthday Party' by Herold Pinter(1968). 

Introduction:

The Birthday Party, drama in three acts by Harold Pinter, produced in 1958 and published in 1959. Pinter’s first full-length play established his trademark “comedy of menace,” in which a character is suddenly threatened by the vague horrors at large in the outside world. The action takes place entirely in a shabby rooming house where Stanley, a lazy young boarder, is shaken out of his false sense of security by the arrival of two mysterious men who proceed to “punish” him for crimes that remain unrevealed. A birthday party staged by Stanley’s landlady soon turns into an exhibition of violence and terror. Pinter’s comic vision of paranoia and isolation is reinforced by his use of dialogue, including frequent pauses, disjointed conversations, and non sequiturs. 

About Author:

Harold Pinter was born on Oct. 10, 1930 in London, England and died on Dec. 24, 2008 in London. He was an English playwright, who achieved international renown as one of the most complex and challenging post-World War II dramatists. His plays are noted for their use of understatement, small talk, reticence and even silence to convey the substance of a character’s thought, which often lies several layers beneath, and contradicts, his speech. In 2005 he won the Nobel Prize for Literature.

Notable Works: 

“Moonlight” 

“The Birthday Party” 

“The Caretaker” 

“The Dumb Waiter“ 

“The Homecoming” 

“The Room”

 

Key Facts:

Full Title: The Birthday Party

Published: The Birthday Party was published in 1957 and premiered in 1958.

Literary Period: Modernism, Postmodernism

Genre: Drama, “Comedy of Menace,” Theatre of the Absurd

Setting: A rundown boarding house in a coastal English resort town

Climax: Stanley has a mental breakdown at his own birthday party, revealing dark and

violent predilections.

Antagonist: From Stanley’s perspective, Goldberg and McCann are the antagonists of The Birthday Party, but some readers or audience members might reasonably argue

that Stanley himself is the true antagonist.

Movie cast of The Birthday Party(1968):

Stanley Webber - Robert Shaw

Shamus McCann - Patrick Magee

Nat Goldberg - Sydney Tafler

Meg Bowles - Dandy Nichols

Petey Bowles - Moultrie Kelsall

Lulu - Helen Fraser 

Movie Review:

The Birthday Party was Pinter’s first full-length play. The scene once more is restricted to a single room, the dining room of a seedy seaside guesthouse. Meg, the landlady, and Petey, her husband, who has a menial job outside the hotel. Meg is especially in her suffocating motherliness. In this movie, however, she is no longer the main character. That role has been taken by Stanley, the only border of the house, who has been there for a year. He is pinned to the house, afraid to go out, feeling that intruders from outside are menacing bringers of death. Although he is in his late thirties, he is being kept by Meg as a spoiled little boy. He sleeps late in the morning, and when he comes down to breakfast, he complains querulously about everything she fixes for him. He is unshaven and unwashed, still wearing his pajamas. 

What is enacted symbolically by Stan’s refusal to leave the house is his fear of going out and engaging life, his fear that an acceptance of life, meaning going outside, having a job, having normal sexual relations with a woman his age, would also mean accepting his eventual death. He is refusing to live in an absurd world that exacts so high a price for life.

It is an untenable position, and his refusal to live as an adult human being has left him a wrinkled and aging child. Further, it does him no good to remain in the house: If he does not go out into the world, the world will come into him. In fact, he hears that two men have come to town and that they are going to stay at the guesthouse. He knows at once that they have come for him and is thrown into a panic. In the meantime, Meg decides that it is his birthday and gives him a present. The unintentionally chilling reminder of his aging is cut across by the present itself, a child’s toy drum, which Stan begins beating frenziedly as the first act ends. 

The relationship between Stan and his surrogate mother, Meg, beautifully handled, is both comic and sad, comic because it is ridiculous for this nearly middle-aged man to be mothered so excessively and to behave so much like a spoiled child; sad because one believes in both Meg and Stan as human beings. Both comedy and pathos, realism and symbolic undercurrents, grow out of the fully developed language of the dialogue. Its richness, its circumlocution, all elements that have come to be called “Pinteresque” are evident even in this early play. 

It is obvious that the two men who come, Goldberg and McCann, have indeed come for Stan. There is no concealment between them and Stan. He is rude to them and tries to order them out. They make it equally clear to him that he is not to leave the premises. McCann is gloomy and taciturn; Goldberg, the senior partner, is glib and falsely jovial. His language is a wonderfully comic and sinister blend of politicians’ clichés, shallow philosophy, and gangster argot. There is a brilliant scene when they first confront Stan, cross-examining him with a dizzying landslide of insane questions (“Why did you kill your wife? . . . Why did you never get married? . . . Why do you pick your nose?”) that finally leaves him screaming, and he kicks Goldberg in the stomach.

Meg comes in, and they stop scuffling, the two henchmen putting on a show of joviality. They begin to have a birthday party for Stan. Lulu, a pretty but rather vulgar young woman, is invited. Lulu in the past has frequently invited Stan to go outside walking with her, but he has refused. She and Goldberg hit it off together, and she ends up in his lap kissing him as everyone at the party drinks heavily.

They begin a drunken game of blindman’s buff “If you’re touched, then you’re blind” and the recurring image of blindness serves as a foretaste of death. McCann, wearing the blindfold, comes over and touches Stan, so that it is Stan’s turn to be “blind.” To make sure, McCann breaks Stan’s glasses. The drunken Stan stumbles over to Meg and suddenly begins strangling her. They rush over to stop him, and suddenly the power goes out. In the darkness, Stan rushes around, avoiding them, giggling. The terrified Lulu faints, and when someone briefly turns on a flashlight, the audience sees that Stan has Lulu spread-eagled on the table and is on top of her.

With his mortality approaching him anyway, then, Stan, buoyed up by drink, makes a desperate effort to get out of the house, out of his entrapment in sterile childhood. He struggles to strangle the mother who is suffocating him and to have a sexual relationship with an appropriate female, a taste of the life he has denied himself in order to escape paying the debt, death. It is too late. In the morning, a nearly catatonic Stan is brought downstairs by the two henchmen. He has been washed and shaved and dressed in a suit, as if for burial.

A black limousine waits outside the door. Petey, Meg’s husband, makes a halfhearted attempt to save Stan from the henchmen, but to stop his protests, they need only invite him to come along. One is reminded of the medieval morality play Everyman. When Death is carrying off Everyman, Everyman’s friends and family promise to be true to him and help him in any way, but the moment they are invited to come with him, they find some excuse to stay behind.

Word Count: 1309