Sunset Boulevard by(Billy Wilder, 1950) and Northwest by( Alfred Essay

Sunset Boulevard by(Billy Wilder, 1950) and Northwest by( Alfred Hitchcock, 1959) - Essay Example The 1920s were known as the Jazz Age and Americans prospered due to the zooming of stock markets and the flourishing of the arts. At the turn of the decade, the Great Depression set in, precipitated by the biggest crash in Wall Street history. The country went into a period of great introspection. As politicians and economists were grappling with finding solutions to pull through the economic depression, similar efforts are being made to improve the standards of the film industry. The Hays Code, introduced in 1934 was one such outcome. Although the United States Motion Picture Production Code of 1930 came ahead of Hays Code, it was not taken seriously by filmmakers, making it necessary for government authorities to introduce and implement a more comprehensive set of guidelines (Friedrich, 1997). The agency given the responsibility of enforcing the code is commonly referred to as the Breen Office (after administrator Joseph Breen). In this context, it is interesting to see how the content of popular movies such as Sunset Boulevard (1951) and North by Northwest (1959) were possibly influenced by the code. Both the movies were produced years after the introduction of the code. Hence by the time the movies were conceived and written, the story writer, screenplay writer and the director would have inherently known what is acceptable and what is unacceptable with respect to the Hays Code. There is also documented evidence that the first scripts of the two movie submitted to the Breen Office were not approved immediately. The production team had to modify a few dialogues and change certain aspects of the film that were deemed to violate the code (Harris, 2008). To take the case of Sunset Boulevard, the story depicts an unusual relationship between a fading Hollywood writer and a former Hollywood leading lady. As the fortunes of both the former stars are fading away, they happen to develop an opportunistic

Evacuation Sources Questions Essay Example for Free

Evacuation Sources Questions Essay Well, to answer this question I must first analyse both the sources, source B is a picture depicting what seems to be a class of evacuees and their teacher walking down the road, probably to the train station to be evacuated. The picture shows many of the children waving and smiling, and what seems like a lot of them skipping, showing them being happy about being evacuated. Being a photograph, it is quite unlikely that it has been changed in any way, or staged to show the children being happy, as the scene seems quite natural. However it is still possible that it was staged by the government at the time to encourage people not to resist evacuating their children, this would be done by showing the children happy and carefree, not afraid or worried about it. Also the picture was taken at the start of the war, when not many people had been evacuated, at this time the children and their families may not know exactly where they were going, and may have treated it like a holiday, so therefore they probably wouldnt be to afraid about what was happening. So, overall this source is quite a useful source, but that of course depends on what for, it is useful for showing childrens reactions to being evacuated at the start of the war, however this wouldnt be useful for any time before or after this, limiting its usefulness. This also could, if it was a staged photograph by the government, be useful for showing what the government wanted people to think. Source C however is quite different to the previous source, this is an interview with a school teacher during the evacuation, in 1988, in this source, it offers a different view of the childrens feelings about being evacuated, in this source, it tells us that the children were afraid to talk, showing that they werent care or worry free about the situation. This source is primary evidence, as the person was there at the time, however this is taken in 1988, and the person could very well have forgotten some of the details of the evacuation, and therefore their memory of the event could be unreliable. However this might not be the case, and therefore it could be quite reliable. Overall, I think that source B is the most reliable, as it is a photograph taken at the time, and therefore the details of the situation would nearly definitely be correct, source C however is an account from memory and therefore the details could be wrong. Source D is a photograph taken by the government during the war of evacuees being bathed, it shows three bath tubs close together with all the children washing and laughing, this scene would be likely to give the impression that the children, and the places they went to were hygienic, this would lessen the worries of the childrens families, and also may convince more people to become host families, because the children here seem healthy, clean and happy, not dirty smelly children with bad manners, as was many peoples views of them. Also this may convince people to evacuate their children, as many families living in the cities were to poor to even bath their children, so this would be seen as an improvement in their lifestyle and living conditions. Also, if this picture was taken after around January 1940, when many evacuees returned, many of their reasons being that they felt they were better of at home, and that life with the host families was unhappy, or the parents believed this to be so, then this photograph could be being used by the government to convince families to keep their children with host families, that life out there wasnt as bad as it was made out to be. So overall I think that it really depends on when this photo was taken, which would determine why it was taken.

The Great American Desert :: Edward Abbey Desert Survival Essays

The Great American Desert In the article, â€Å"The Great American Desert†, Edward Abbey (1977) is trying to convince the general public that the desert is not a place for humans to explore. He talks a lot about the dangers of the desert and tries to convince the readers that the desert is not worth wasting your time and going and visiting. I disagree with Abbey. Anyone who has some knowledge about the desert and takes a class or is accompanied by an expert who knows a lot about the desert should be able to venture out in the many great American deserts. Abbeys first survival hint to the desert is, â€Å"stay out of there. Don’t go. Stay home and read a good book.†(p. 204) What fun is staying home if people have the chance to go and explore the desert? Getting a hands on experience and being able to explore the desert in real life is more educating than sitting at home reading a dull book on the desert. David Alloway (1999) once said, â€Å"the historical fact is however, that the human race was cradled in arid lands and people are well adapted to survive in deserts.†( 1) Alloway is a teacher at Texas Parks and Wildlife Department and he teaches a desert survival class. His class philosophy is â€Å"not to fight the desert, but to become part of its ecosystem.†( 1) So the first hint or suggestion before you attempt to go into the desert is being prepared. Being prepared before someone enters the desert should be their number one priority. First off Alloway said people need to have a hat with a wide brim and closed crown so it will protect your head and face from sunlight. Next, wear loose fitting long sleeves and pants so that air can be circulated easy. Sunglasses that exclude ultra-violet light are a necessity to help prevent cataracts later on in life. Some other areas of preparation are carrying sufficient amounts of water, first aid and survival kit for the desert environments, and some useful knowledge. ( 2) These are the major things needed in the preparations of going on and exploration in the desert. The next point Abbey tried to make was about the dangerous animals out in the desert that put a threat to a person life.

Providing visual support Essay

Nancy is 24 year old women and a house wife by profession. She is disabled by birth and totally dependant on wheelchair. She stays with her husband, who is software professional and busy most of the time. Being a housewife, Nancy has vey little technology knowledge and finds it difficult to use technology spontaneously. Nancy doesn’t want her disability to become her weakness and wants to work like a normal housewife, like cooking for her husband, washing utensils etc. She wants a kitchen which is universally designed and where she should be able to work effectively like a normal person with ease of use and learning being her first priority. How should an interior designer design a universally designed kitchen keeping in mind people like Nancy? †¢ Making the height of the kitchen cabinet, Cook top, Microwave stand accessible by wheelchair. †¢ Having an adjustable-height cabinets, can help all users to use them effectively. Also customizable design which can be changed based on user preferences also makes design effective and more usable. †¢ Having a removable sink and drying rack will give sufficient space for food preparation. This can again be re-fitted as and when required. Thus giving flexibility to people like Nancy or old aged people, who can’t stand and cook. †¢ Foldable cabinet doors under cooktop, providing sufficient knee space. †¢ Providing visual support can also help users to use kitchen more easily and effectively. †¢ Voice based support in kitchen can also be a good idea, thus making design accessible for people with low vision. †¢ Automated dishwasher or microwave system can help them easily placing dish without much effort. Let’s see some examples of universally designed kitchens Persona 3. He is a retired professional and stays alone in his 2 bedroom apartment which is on the 10th floor. He finds it difficult to walk and climb stairs and also have sight problem. Rodney has very little technology knowledge and finds it difficult to remember things, due to his growing age. He depends on electronic wheelchair most of the time. He needs an elevator system in his apartment which can accommodate his wheelchair also, making his life easy at this age. How can we make a universally designed elevator? †¢ Increasing the width of the elevator hence giving ample space to use wheelchairs and thus making it approachable †¢ Big display screen, which displays the floor details big and clear, thus accommodating people like Rodney to use it with ease †¢ Voice based support system, which informs the user which floor the user is in, can also help the disabled user to use them effectively. Let’s see example of a universally designed elevator Conclusion: Irrespective of age, ability or disability and situations, every has the right to effectively use any products or services, hence designers should always be conscious about this fact and implement their design ideas to serve one and everyone. This is what universal design means. Bibliography http://idea.ap.buffalo.edu/ http://www. design. ncsu. edu/cud/about_ud/udprincipleshtmlformat. html#top Frascara J. , (1997), User-Centred Graphic Design: Mass Communication and Social Change, Taylor Francis, London

Australian poems Essay

The First Australians is a poem expressing Troy Hopkins’ hatred towards white settlers because of how they claimed Australia and labeled the natives ‘Aboriginal’. He called it an invasion, not a settlement and he says that the natives were the first ones there so they shouldn’t call them â€Å"aboriginal†. Hopkins then tells how the white settlers spilt the native’s blood on ‘sacred ground’ and they get rewarded for it. Hopkins speaks of Lex Wotton who is an aboriginal man who helps other aboriginals in places that they struggle such as court, because the juries are white australians. Lex Wotton eventually went to prison and is now an inspiration to Hopkins. The author then goes on to talk about an aboriginal by the name of Richard Saunders, who was an aboriginal who died in prison due to poor treatment, Hopkins explains how no ‘Blacks’ are taken care of in prison because they are ‘expendable’. Hopkins says that he has ‘seen a pattern’, which is that aboriginal people are persecuted worse than white Australians and even half-cast aboriginals. Hopkins talks about how his daughter is a half-cast aboriginal and she wants to have true black skin like her father, but he tells her that she doesn’t want that because to him it is a curse. Hopkins believes that to the aborigines, Australia is a dictatorship, not a democracy. The author thanks the SBS channel for sharing the aboriginals beliefs and that it’s kept them hopeful that some white Australians believe the same. Hopkins ends with a powerful line which reads ‘Aboriginal is abbreviated, it means Abolish Original. We are The First Australians here; they are convicts, which are criminals’. ‘GAGADJU WAYS’ By Bill Neidjie: In the poem ‘Gagadju Ways’, the poet Bill Neidjie talks about the old, traditional Aboriginal way of life and how the old practices are slowly vanishing due to colonization. the poem is written in a peculiar way, a simple yet grasping format which puts across the views in a straight forward fashion. the poet first reminices that when he was growing up, he had good people around him. He says that the people now are a bit wicked. due to colonization he met have met some ‘foreign’ people living in his own country and yet not treating him nicely. there is a posibility that he misses the companionship of his own people before the ‘outsider’ stepped in and began dominating him. They tried to made him feel like a stranger in his country. Nextly he tells us how the white man brought school and the Aboriginals began losing all their knowledge. It got in the way of their traditional upbringing and acted as a binding on them. the white man’s ‘education’ brought them no good. the poet talks on the behalf of all other native people and says that they never damaged the earth. when he burns grass, new grass comes up and it leads to new life. More animals come in that area after this burning. The native’s people camped at different places during different seasons but the white man doesn’t understand this. The natives look after the earth, they do not spoil it. But once again we see that the invader is unable to understand the relationship between the natives and the nature. The white man wants to exploit the land in the country to earn money from it. But the poet says that money is nothing to them, they are not crazy for money as the white man is. The natives need the earth to live because when they die, they’ll become earth. The earth is their mother and their brother. That is why they ask the invaders to leave their sacred land alone. They cannot bear their land been taken away from them because they are given birth by the earth and when they die, their ashes are going to be a part of the earth too. This poem shows us how beloved the earth is to the Aboriginals. ‘OKAY, LET’S BE HONEST’ By Robert Walker Robert Walker’s poem ‘Okay, Let’s be Honest’ is a heart wrenching poem about the suffering of an Aboriginal boy. He tells us honestly that he is no saint, he wasn’t born in heaven. He is called a bastard, animal and trouble maker by many. He admits that he has been mean and hateful. Since the age of eleven he had been in and out of jail. He confesses that he has been dangerous and commited crimes. Then he suddenly tells us that he has always cursed his skin which is neither black nor white, just another ‘non-identity’, fighting to be Mr Tops. The accusers who have called him an animal were the silent audience when his brothers were getting smashed. His memory is still wet with his mother’s tears and by his father;s grave. His family was one among the many black families who were alona and lost in the race for money. He was made aware of his differences right from a very young age. His pains educated him to either fight or lose. He was discriminated and exploited as a stranger in his own land. The scars on his brain can never be erased now and they keep him reminding how the others abused their sacred land. He is frustrated with the white man’s way of life and resists to live like him. Full of anger and complaints, he asks the white man that why is he made to live like a slave and earn the things which were once free. He refuses to be pushed aside and tramped on. He will not close his eyes to the sufferings of his people. He can no more pretend to not know what the white people are doing to his people. He shouts out in rage and says â€Å"Why do I have to close my eyes, and make believe I cannot see just what you are doing: to my people- OUR PEOPLE- and me? He is not one side at all and wants the other to came and experience the lonliness and confusion he feels within the seven by eleven cell of the prison. He again repeats that he is no saint but then surely he wasn’t born in heaven. This is a very strong and evocative poem that depicts the anger in the minds of the blacks in Australia. FROM THE ENGLISH QUEEN By Henry Lawson: The poet addresses the English Queen as an ordinary woman. She is kept in a palace and people worship her. The poet boldly says that those people must be blind to call that ‘dull old woman’ the ‘Queen’. The reason for the poet to be so openly rude about the Queen is that she has reigned for so many years but has scarcely done a kind deed to anyone alive. It is said in scorn that the poor sre starved the same day she was born. The poet complains that yet she is praised and worshipped for being nothing more than an ordinary woman. Henry Lawson goes to the extent of calling her a ‘cold and selfish’ woman because he sees no point in praising her for she has never brought happiness to anyone. The Queen might be great for many but for the poet she is just a cold hearted woman who usurped his land and has no sympathy for the people. Thus a Queen who makes people suffers is no fit Queen in the eyes of the poet. ‘NOBODY CALLS ME A WOG ANYMORE’ By Komninos Zervos: The poet begins with the poem stating that nobody calls him a wog anymore. He is respected as an Australian, an Australian writer, poet. But this respect didn’t come on it’s own for the poet had to fight for it. He asserted himself as an Australian and as an artist. He stood up and screamed and fought for his identity. He teels Australia that it likes it or not but the poet is one of it. He saya his first name Komninos is rather unusual but now Australia is stuck with it and cannot do anything about it now. He tells Australia that they both need eachother. He concludes the poem by saying that he likes ustralia now because it has stopped calling him a wog and calls him ‘the Australian poet, Komninos! ’. This is a weird yet fun poem which shows us how the poet rightfully asserts his right on Australia and merges to become a part of it. ‘WHO ARE WE? ’ By Richard G Kennedy. Richard G Kennedy opens the poem with a question that asks where an aboriginal can truly be free in Australia, and how everything changed when the Europeans settled in Australia. The life before the white settlers was ‘Idyllic’ and that they had a ‘Oneness with nature’ and that they can never have that back. Kennedy explains how aboriginals now live in poverty and resort to crime to get through each day. The author tells how this is wrong and that nature is pained by the loss of the true aboriginal race. The aboriginals have no identity and are not heard amongst the white Australians. The punishment for white Australians is that the ‘Vengeful Spirit will awake’ and the earth will be cleansed of the white race. Kennedy says it’s destiny and that there’s no going back. Thus through these poems we see how varied in culture and history Australia is. The different aspects of the country make it unique and the love of its people make Australia their home inspite of many problems. BIBLIOGRAPHY 1. TWO CENTURIES OF AUSTRALIAN POETRY: EDITED BY MARK O’CONNOR. (Oxford University Press, 1988). 2. THE GOLDEN TREASURY OF AUSTRALIAN VERSE (1918). 3. INTERNET.