Author: Isaac T.

Comedic Elements in Rango

On By Isaac T.In Comedy/SatireLeave a comment

A chameleon (voiced by Johnny Depp) who lived as a family pet finds himself in an identity crisis. Rango is stranded in the middle of the desert and tries to adapt to his new environment. When he accidentally discovers a small town called Dirt, he goes through a turning point in his life where he is destined to become the town’s sheriff.

Rango is able to slip into his role as a heroic gunslinger thanks to his profession as an actor. A chameleon is an odd choice for an animated hero. Rango’s certainly a long way from the limited cast of cats, dogs, and other fuzzy critters that dominate the cartoon landscape. But he looks downright mundane next to the rest of the cast.

the townspeople who join Rango’s posse include a gap-toothed horned toad named Waffles, and the mariachi band that narrates Rango’s adventure is burrowing owls. Since the animals are too small to raise cattle, they yoke their carts to wild pigs called peccaries. A particular scene in the movie is when Waffles (one of the townspeople) describes the mystery of the town’s drought as, “A puzzle — like a great big mammogram!” And on a similar medical note, Doc, the posse’s rabbit physician, snaps on a latex glove to ask if anyone’s ready for a checkup, implying he has something proctological in mind.

Satire of The High School Experience and Stereotypes in 21 Jump Street

On By Isaac T.In Comedy/SatireLeave a comment

The movie “21 Jump Street” released in 2012 unveil the stereotypical dumb attractive man partnered with a smart unappealing man and the unhinged high school experience. “21 Jump street” is about two high school classmates Jenko (Channing Tatum) and Schmidt (Jonah Hill) who cross paths at the police academy. Their incompetence and inexperience leads them to a undercover operation at a high school to find a drug dealer who’s dealing acid to students.

The film exaggerates the two main characters roles in the film. Jenko, being the unintelligent and strong cop who can’t comprehend simple instructions given to him when trying to find the drug dealer and ends up almost ruining the operation. Whereas Schmidt seems to be planning out most of the operation and has to assist Jenko for more than half of the film. Another aspect the film exaggerates, is the high school experience. It pokes fun at the high school sociological make-up — who’s popular, who’s not, what kids act like nowadays? — has changed over the years. The film manages to change the stereotypes of trouble makers (the intelligent smart kids making the drugs for the kids). At the end of the film they both catch the drug dealer and make there boss proud.

In conclusion “21 Jump Street” is a satirical film that also uses comedy to showcase teamwork to its audience: anything can be accomplished no matter how dumb or weird you can be, have fun and don’t take things to seriously. The film reminds the audience that it’s a journey to achieve your goal as well as putting your mind to your goal in order to accomplish it.

The Role of Women In King Lear

On By Isaac T.In King LearLeave a comment

Female characters helped King Lear and the readers understand what true love is. Cordelia demonstrates the consistency of true love by not rejecting it, even when her father implemented cruel actions against her. Lear was mislead by his inability to realize that Cordelia was the only daughter that showed true love to him. The king, who had good traits appeared to be a victim by the wrong development from his own conscious. King Lear trusted his daughters and thus made them rule the kingdom. But his daughters open his eyes to the flawed love Regan and Gonerail showed. It is Lear’s daughters that made the king make the greatest mistake of his life that ends up killing everyone at the end of play. The role of women is a personification of wisdom to Lear, which he realizes in the end, but unfortunately, too late.

Analysis on Money Trees by Kendrick Lamar

On By Isaac T.In Music Poetry4 Comments

In the song “Money Trees” from his 3rd studio album good kid, m.A.A.d city, Kendrick Lamar proposes that getting rich brings comfort and saves you from the everyday difficulties people face. But at the same time, having a lot of money is accompanied by evil. Lamar tells a story about how people will do anything to obtain money, even if it means killing someone.

“Everybody gon’ respect the shooter/ but the one in front of the gun lives forever/ the one in front of the gun forever”

Although the shooter got temporary attention from committing the murder, its the victim who is remembered and honored forever. Throughout the song, Lamar portrays how desperate people, especially those who grow up in poverty stricken neighborhoods strive to get rich quickly.

“Money trees is the perfect place for shade/ and that’s just how I feel”

In this predicament, people often lose their minds, morals, and stray from there passion.You have two options: pursue money or pursue meaning. Both can get you rich if you hustle hard enough. However, the pursuit of purely money is just a temporary place for security. This also implies that money and wealth is extremely susceptible to evil.

“A dollar might just make that lane switch, that’s just how I feel/ A dollar might turn into a million and now we all rich, that’s just how I feel”

The song also identifies prevalence of gang violence, drugs, and theft in poor stricken neighborhoods.

The Takeaway from Exit West

On By Isaac T.In Exit WestLeave a comment

In the novel, “Exit West,” by Mohsin Hamid, the novel posits that people immigrate to other countries to find better opportunities. Early in the novel, the people who go through the door follow the narrative of refugees in search of safety. As we see with Nadia and Saeed, life in their hometown becomes dangerous, without freedom, privacy, or financial opportunities. Furthermore, Exit West questions what it means to belong somewhere and suggests that country of origin only plays a small role in a rapidly globalizing world. Nadia has never felt a sense of “home” when being in her country. This embodies this philosophy in her ability to find friends in all the places she travels. She doesn’t value nationality because she associates her home country with the representation of her childhood. On the other hand, Saeed stays close to people from his country.

Albert Camus Anatomy of the Philosophy of Absurdism

On By Isaac T.In Albert Camus, StrangerLeave a comment

In the novel “The Stranger,” by Albert Camus, confronts an important issue and uses the singular viewpoint of the narrator Meursault to develop his theme of absurdism. Camus managed to to bring on a subject of humanity that is not often talked about. Absurdity is, in philosophy, the conflict to find meaning to something that essentially doesn’t have a meaning. Meursault shows this throughout most of the novel. In the very first sentence of the novel Meursault starts off by stating, “Mother died today. Or maybe yesterday, I can’t be sure” (Camus 4). Meursault fails to mourn of his mother’s death. Camus perceives life itself absurd, life is meaningless; but even more absurd that humans struggle to find meaning to something that meaningless. There is no meaning to life and therefore people should perceive life in there own way.

Tenth of December

On By Isaac T.In George SaundersLeave a comment

The Tenth of December is a fairly short story, but it has many features in the story. It constantly changes perspective. In the beginning of the book, Robin walks through the woods imagining himself tracking creatures that he made up in his head called “Nether,” who kidnapped this girl who attends at his school, Suzanne Bledsoe. He is seemed to be tracking actual footprints, although he is imagining them as “Nether” footprints. When he finds a winter coat near a frozen pond, he is determined to give it back to the owner. Robin seems to think that there is no time to be wasted to return the coat to the owner, so he decides to cut through the frozen pond to make the journey short. As he’s walking on the frozen pond, the ice breaks and Robin falls through. The perspective changes to a old man who is terminally ill named Don Eber. He finds himself in the woods with no protection from the blistering cold and hopes that it will kill him. He does this to spare his wife and children from the suffering of caring for him as his illness progresses. He is preparing for his life to end, suddenly he turns around and sees a kid in the distance drowning in a freezing cold pond. He runs towards the kid, he’s holding his coat. Robin successfully gets the kid out of the pool. The kid turns out to be Robin. Eber gives him his clothes and tells Robin to go home. Eber’s mindset changes and no longer wants to end his life. He wants to be there for his kids, Robin sends his mother to go outside and supply Eber with clothes and invites him inside there house.

The Uncanny story from Escape From Spiderhead

On By Isaac T.In George Saunders, Mutual Recognition2 Comments

Her face was masked with rage. She drove her head into the wall. Like a wrathful prodigy, Heather, beloved of someone, managed, in her great sadness-fueled rage, to disassemble the chair while continuing to drive her head into the wall. (P 70)

After reading the story Escape From Spider Head from the book “The Tenth of December,” a series of short stories written by George Saunders, I come to find out how Saunders writes about dark and serious topics. This story in particular touches on the topic of the internal struggle of morality. The protaginist Jeff struggles with the moral dilemma, he has to decide if he should kill himself to save Rachel and Heather or save himself by escaping. Jeff finds himself in an oppresive, controlled setting, almost like a jail. There, he experienced much unethical experiments that played tricks with his mind. This eternal struggle eternalizes as Jeff tries to redeem himself. Jeff is in control by a man named Abnesti, who is the antagonist of the story, he belives he is working for a greater purpose. He is the one that is in control of the setting in which Jeff is in. He knows he has to obey Abnesti, if he didn’t he would be injected with docilryde (a injection that makes you obey every word someones says). Jeff meets two women, Rachel and Heather whom Abesiti made Jeff have sex with. When Jeff was asked to make a decision whether which person should be injected with Darkenfloxx (a substance that makes you severly depressed that you end up trying to kill yourself), he refuses to inject one of them with Darkenfloxx. Jeff starts to realize that Heather and Rachel are human, just like him. Abnesti injects Rachel with Darkenfloxx and Jeff is forced to watch and describe Rachels actions after being injected. Rachel is intentionally hurting herself. Jeff comes to a conclusion that he needs to save Rachel and Heather from Abnesiti. Jeff starts to show mutual regconition by viewing Rachel and Heather as human beings who have feelings. At the end of the story, Jeff results to killing himself by injecting all the drugs that Abnesti created.