CHOOSE ONE OF THE FOLLOWING OPTIONS:
Seven depicts a serial killer who tortures and kills people in the most gruesome manners imaginable in the name of morality and doing “God’s work.” For this option, analyze the moral ambiguity of John Doe’s message, and the horror he enacts in the name of good. To do this option, please consider at least two crime scenes and the dramatic ending to support your claims.
Seven exhibits many of the elements of the hard-boiled detective story that we studied with Chandler. For this option, choose two or three elements of the hard-boiled detective story and analyze it in Seven. Please provide two to three examples from the text to support your claim.
For this option, choose one or two of the film concepts/terms (camera angle, lighting, editing) I summarize in the READ THIS FIRST section and demonstrate examples of these filmic techniques through a scene in the film. In other words, choose one scene from the film and describe the effect the techniques have for the viewer. Ex: lighting in Seven. You should define the technique first before using it as a lens of analysis.
In Contagion, the MEV-1 virus causes mass death globally, and also operates as a social contagion destroying the fabric of society and its institutions as the virus spreads. For this option, analyze how the virus causes the society to change dramatically, and describe its effects on human interactions. Choose one or two examples from the film to help you develop the essay.
In Parable of the Talents, Butler reflects on how slavery is re-enacted to control people, while instilling fear among those who are “free.” This is particularly true for Marcus and Lauren Olamina—both of whom are enslaved and struggle to maintain purpose and the will to live. For this option, choose a character and analyze how and why slavery changes him or her. How does it affect specifically their actions throughout the remainder of the story? Please include two to three examples from the novel to support your analysis.
In Parable of the Talents, Butler stresses the importance of hope and purpose, another way of saying the will to live, for guiding people to believe in a particular way of seeing and living in the world. In other words, people need to maintain a notion of hope in order to continue living. This is represented most explicitly by the increased popularity and faith in both Lauren’s Earthseed and Jarrett’s Christian America, even though the latter has a militant for Christian Crusaders.
For this option, choose either Earthseed or Christian America, and analyze how and why people would believe in these respective belief systems. Please include two to three examples from the novel to support your analysis.
In Parable of the Talents, Butler shows how Jarrett uses fundamentalist Christian ideas (not unlike John Doe in Seven) and paramilitary groups of law and order to justify the most heinous forms of oppression, including slavery. In fact, this unpleasant reality makes it hard for Marcus to reconcile his belief in Jarrett and Christianity to such a degree that he later does not let Lauren know about Larkin who was taken from her by Christian America when she was enslaved.
For this option, analyze how Jarrett uses Christianity and law and order to justify his authoritarian control over the United States. Why do you think it works so well? Please include two to three examples from the novel to support your analysis.