Author: AMELIA R.
Expressions of Grief
Summertime Sadness by Lana Del Rey is a sad song thought to be about the grief she is experiencing about a loved one. Experiences from her own life, she experienced both the sadness along with all of the beautiful aspects of summertime. She gives deep descriptions of the feeling of summertime and how she feels with this person by her side.
Though Lana Del Ray has not explicitly stated the exact meaning of the song, many people speculate it was written as a tribute to a friend who took their life during the summer. The song encapsulates the contrast between her sorrow and the world around her. It captures the juxtaposition of the seasonal beauty and her sorrow, as summer’s warmth and vibrancy serve as a stark contrast to the pain and suffering she feels in the absence of her friend. She expresses both freeing and joyous emotions and longing and nostalgia over this person.
Lana uses figurative language such as similes to convey her message of grief throughout the song. She says, “Think I’ll miss you forever, Like the stars miss the sun in the morning sky.” The simile helps relay the intensity of her grief, by comparing her loved ones absence to the stars in the morning. She also helps convey her message with the chorus and title itself. Summer is usually not associated with sadness, but more so the opposite. So by using the phrase “Summertime Sadness,” it conveys a more intense and darker grief.
The similarities between the “Ode: Intimations of Immortality” and the song are the experiences of grief. This is an occasion shared by both pieces of art. The poem includes and really uses the power of nature to describe and picture the stages of grief being experienced, and Lana Del Rey does the same thing, except she uses the nature of the summertime to detail her experience with grief. Both the poem and the song do a wonderful job of showing us how the writer is experiencing those emotions and feelings in the moment without telling us directly, but by telling us through how they feel their surroundings and the nature around them.
– Mimi, Skai, Saskia
‘Breaking Bad’ is Dark… and a Comedy?
‘Breaking Bad’ was my favorite show of 2023. Why is this? It’s funny. While the show may come across as depressing and dark, it actually accounts for many comedic tendencies, which is why I would consider it a Black Comedy.
‘Breaking Bad’ begins when the main character, Walter White, a high school chemistry teacher finds out he has cancer. To make money for his family before he dies, he begins to cook meth. This is both a dangerous business for both him and his family, but since his illness will kill him anyway, he decides to pursue this business with one of his former students as his partner, Jesse Pinkman. While the tone of the plot seems somber upfront, the depressing manner of the show leads to hilarious content and terrible, but funny jokes based on horrible things.
While the show does not end in happiness or marriage, there are so many triumphs throughout the many seasons of the show, and while Jesse Pinkman is not the main character, I would like to mention him as the comedic hero of the show. Jesse lives a very terrible life, taking hit, after hit, after hit. He loses so many people he loves, but he never fails to make the audience laugh. His character develops greatly throughout the story, and the internet houses a wide variety of edits of his character being nothing but funny.
‘Breaking Bad’ is a great show. I highly recommend anyone to watch it if you haven’t already, and as long as you are not too squeamish. The show is deep, it has so many layers and so much dramatic content. Most of all, throughout all of the terrible, yet compelling events in the show, you will find humor in the darkest of subjects.
Finding a Satire Within Popular Comedy
Satire is all around us. Many forms of media hold different levels of satire often attempting to criticize and ridicule particular issues. Many times, it creates a funny atmosphere, like the one in Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgundy, a comedy/drama directed by Adam McKay.
This is the story of an anchorman, Ron Burgundy who welcomes a new upstart reporter into the world of broadcast news. This new reporter is a woman, being taken into a heavily male-dominated field. This new reporter, Veronica Corningstone begins to outshine Burgundy and they become rivals. They fight, both physically and emotionally, but eventually in the end they reconcile and become co-anchors.
This comedy makes fun of the sexist nature of the broadcasting world of the 1970s. They struggle to welcome the new female co-anchor, and when she inevitably outshines the men, they become angry that a woman is taking their place. Not only is this a satire of the sexism of broadcasting, but the entire workplace in general. During the time it was set, it was legal for employers to bar women or men from jobs and women had less than half the legal rights of men. The movie demonstrates the fact that it is ridiculous for men to act a certain way towards female employees, and female employees can be just as good at their jobs as men.
To sum up, Anchorman has a theme of workplace sexism. While the entire movie is not straightforward based on this theme, many element throughout make fun of the bad working conditions for women and how poorly they are treated by men, even if they are more skilled at their job.
Motherhood and King Lear’s Lack Thereof
King Lear has so many layers. So much family drama with the people who happen to be present in the story that we forget to take a step back and look at what may be missing. There are three sisters and a father. Lear, Goneril, Cordelia, and Reagan. Where’s the mother? Shakespeare decides not to mention the mother throughout the story. While she is not present, there was no backstory or other information about what influence she may have had(or not had) on the family. The only influence that the siblings had was from their father. As he develops throughout the story, Lear makes many mistakes which demonstrate the poor parenting skills and influence he has on his daughters.
Throughout the play, Goneril and Regan are heavily villanized. Although, how were they supposed to know right from wrong when they grew up with Lear as their sole influence. They become evil by being greedy and power hungry, but is that any different from the traits that Lear possesses? A motherly figure could have had a big influence on the way that the siblings grew up, and ultimately how they acted throughout the play.
It is interesting as media often portrays women as evil characters rather than heros. King Lear does the same thing to Goneril and Regan, however if it wasn’t for the man in their life, they could have taken a completely different path in life. Maternal influence could have been positive and allowed them to grow and develop in a completely different way.
There are many things that are looked past in King Lear, but with a closer look, it is clear what influences were to strong, and which ones were missing from the lives of each character.
When Something Goes Wrong…
Dominic Fike is an American singer/ songwriter with a focus on Alternative and Indie music. Dominic Fike also starred in American Teen Drama ‘Euphoria’. Funny enough, his song “Vampire” that comes from his album What Could Possibly Go Wrong, exhibits many tendencies and issues that the characters themselves experience.
At first glance “Vampire” seems to be a Halloween based song about well… vampires. It turns out the emotional depth of the song goes much further than that. The vampire serves as a metaphor for the toxicity of relationships. They are often draining and leaving the other person powerless and vulnerable.
“I only showed up to tell you
Everyone at this party’s a vampire
This ain’t red wine”
The chorus of the song opens up the idea that everyone around them are vampires and they are sucking the life out of them. He uses the clever line “This ain’t red wine” to allude to the idea that they are drinking blood, making sure to include the spooky aspect of the song. Fike is depicting someone who is just drained by their partner.
“On your own, right, I know you didn’t make any plans
And when the clock strikes twelve at night, you be doin’ hella white
With somebody you don’t even like, talkin’ ’bout your life”
He explains that he knows that they don’t put in effort. This “Vampire” clearly isn’t doing anything by the line “I know you didn’t make any plans” and it is draining everything out of him, just like a vampire sucking blood. Following that, the lyrics talk about this other person who is clearly distracted with other things, and with other people. The interactions and this relationship are clearly trivial to them.
“They can tell that your mind is a mess (mind is a mess)
Take someone you don’t even like to your bed”
The harmful and toxic nature of this relationship is really shown through the lyrics. They are unsure of what they want. Considering the name of the album, something has clearly gone wrong in this song, and the whole song is a metaphor for a deeper emotional issue.
How The Floor Built A Balanced Life
The movie Trust by Hal Hartley is a romantic film about two misfits who find each other and develop a relationship. The movie starts off with the main character, Maria, slapping her father after an argument and announcing she has become pregnant and dropped out of school. Her dad then collapses on the kitchen floor and dies of heart failure. It was because of her father’s death on that kitchen floor that Maria was kicked out of her house. On the other hand, Matthew is being slapped by his own father because he is not cleaning the bathroom floor well enough. This was after Matthew had cleaned the floor numerous times. These two characters come together after both having issues within their household, but their issues happen to be completely different. Maria’s parents are being punished for her actions, and Matthew is being punished by his father.
Following these incidents, they find sympathy for each other because of their own situations they are going through. They develop a balance between each other. After a while, they began to contribute to the stability in each other’s lives, for example they both got jobs. They began to have this motivating idea of their marriage which would ultimately create a better life for the both of them. When Matthew wanted to quit his job, Maria would talk him out of it, and when Maria wanted to get an abortion, it was Matthew who was there and ultimately convinced her to not get it. At the end of the movie when Matthew had the grenade in his hand, Maria was there for him. From the connection over conflict in their own homes, to finding something to live for, Maria and Matthew balanced each other out and found trust within their relationship.
Two Sides of The Meaning to Existence
Recently we have thoroughly analyzed the existentialist ideas in The Stranger by Albert Camus. The notion that life has no meaning is clearly demonstrated through the feelings and actions of the main character Mersault. He has the understanding that everyone dies eventually, so life does not matter for anything.
The Netflix show The Good Place was one of the first things that came to mind after considering Mersault’s way of thinking. The Good Place is a fantasy comedy series that is based on a group of characters in the afterlife that search for their own meaning of life. Eventually, they discover that it is not about the meaning of life itself, but it is more about self improvement. It didn’t matter where you began, but learning from your past experiences to create a better you was the meaning for living. Despite the fact that at one point, everything ended, all of the characters participated on this journey towards self improvement.
While perspective plays a large roll in considering your own stance on existentialism, it is interesting to compare two completely different takes on the meaning of life. While Mersualt from The Stranger seems to be giving up on life, the characters in The Good Place are doing quite the opposite.
A large component to The Good Place is the strong relationships that the characters form through everything that they endure on their journey through the afterlife. Mersault, however, begins his life with the notion that there is no point to strong relationships and meaningful connections since life will eventually just end. The characters in The Good Place have something to fight for that Mersault does not.
Throughout The Stranger, Mersault seems so focused on the fact that there is no point to life, that he doesn’t seem to be living at all. He doesn’t improve himself in any way, and he is just damaging his relationships and his overall fate at the end of the day. Disregarding the frustration of not having a concrete understanding of the meaning of life, the characters in The Good Place live their lives fully and find joy in their journey. They show that it is possible to find a purpose even if there is no happy ending.
An Analysis of Gender Roles in “The Secret Woman” by Colette
Oftentimes society will associate Women with the stereotype of being “innocent” and “submissive” as the dominant narrative has been for women to be in the household, and men to be out working, and going out on occasion. The short story “The Secret Woman” by Colette challenges this idea.
“The Secret Woman” is a story that dives into the mind of a man at the opera, invested in watching his wife cheat. She is in disguise, and he witnesses her showing her true self. At the beginning of the story, they lied to each other about attending the Opera, showing the similarity in each of their own intentions. However, it is not a surprise to read about a man cheating, or misbehaving when his significant other is not around. In fact, this is seen quite often in current day movies and TV shows. Not only does he most likely have plans for that opera, but his wife, Irene, has plans as well.
Irene attends the Opera to see another man. After lying to her husband, she seems to have a secret life which lies beneath that of her family life. This idea of the woman in the relationship cheating, demonstrates this idea of rebellion against societal norms. Irene is expected to be an obedient wife of a doctor, yet that is not what she wants for herself. Her costume is what is concealing her from being seen. This is her protection which hides whatever things she is doing, intentional or unintentional. When she returns home and removes the costume, she returns to her usual position of being a submissive wife. The mask provides her with freedom and she does not want to be constrained by this idea that her husband has complete control over her life.
The story focuses on her husband’s perspective, as he continues to follow his wife throughout the Opera, and he becomes extremely set on finding her secret lover. However when it comes to it, he sees her with him, yet he does not do anything about it. He does not try to go after her, and he does not confront her or this mysterious man that she is with. Typically in literature, the husband would go after and try to fight the other man, or he would at least confront his wife. In this story, he is almost submissive. He “no longer hoped for betrayal”(331). It is almost like it became a relief to him to see his wife cheating on him. This seems very odd to first think about, but after some contemplation, I realized that it may be a relief to him to be able to see how she is when she believes that nobody is watching her.
It is unsure what happens after this, but what we do know is that Irene is a representation of everything that women are “not supposed to do”. She acts freely as if nobody is watching, and she finds freedom and thrill in her life outside of her relationship. Both the man and woman attend the Opera, most likely with bad intentions, but it is most surprising that it is the woman behind the mask which seems to have less loyalty to the relationship.
Story Power 