Author: D. Sader

Human Qualities and Ideals in Film

Davidge: “If one receives evil from another, let one not do evil in return. Rather, let him extend love to the enemy, that love might unite them.” I’ve heard all this before… in the human Taalmaan.
Jerry: Of course you have. Truth is truth.

From the film, Enemy Mine (1985)

Enemy Mine(1985)
Enemy Mine(1985)

Imagine a character from the film has arrived somehow in your world (in character, not the actor). Imagine the situation in which you sit down and have a 3-5 minute conversation with him/her. Write the dialogue of your conversation with the character.

Consider some of the following questions:

  1. What does this film make you think or wonder about?
  2. From this film, what did you learn about life, about different places, about history, about science, about religion, and so on?
  3. What is the film really about?
  4. Do you think the title is appropriate?
  5. What are some of the most important ideas?
  6. Were there parts of the film you didn’t understand?
  7. What does the film make you want to learn more about?
  8. What lessons does the film teach about life?
  9. Where else could the story take place?
  10. Could the setting be a real place that exists now?
  11. In any other time or place, how would the story change?
  12. Who is the most important character?
  13. Who is the most interesting character?
  14. Which character taught you the most?
  15. What seems to drive this person to action?
  16. What action tells us most about this person?
  17. What action affects your feelings about this person?
  18. What are some basic character traits of this person?
  19. What is the greatest weakness of this person?
  20. How does this person relate to other people?
  21. What is special or important about this person’s moral or religious life?
  22. How does this person change or mature?
  23. What personal insights enlighten this person?
  24. What in our world would shock the central character most?
  25. What would make anyone know this character didn’t fit in our world?
  26. What serious matters could you talk about with this person?
  27. What important values would you disagree on?
  28. What would your parents think about this character?
  29. What social causes would this person support?
  30. What television programs would be most appealing to this character?
  31. What would be the political affiliation, if any, of this person?
  32. What religious dogma would be most appealing or disgusting to this character?

Reference:

http://www.script-o-rama.com/movie_scripts/e/enemy-mine-script-transcript-quaid.html

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0089092/quotes

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enemy_Mine_(film)

http://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/title.cgi?41444

“The story of a man, incomplete in himself, taught to be a human by his sworn enemy, an alien being who leaves with the human its most important possession: its future.” from iUniverse

The Human Condition

Equality

Pingo Lingo Discussion Questions on Enemy Mine

A Personal Connection to Art

Identify a work of art that for you holds a personal connection or significance. Select one of the following quotations and write an essay explaining how your chosen work of art does or does not support the quote.

“Art is coming face to face with yourself.” – Jackson Pollock

“The task which the artist implicitly sets himself, is to overthrow existing values, to make of the chaos about him an order which is his own, to sow strife and ferment, so that by the emotional release those who are dead may be restored to life.” – Henry Miller

“The subject matter of art is life, life as it actually is; but the function of art is to make life better.” – George Santayana

Alienation and Helplessness

Many twentieth century artists have explored humankind’s shared feelings of alienation and helplessness. Identify a modern song that you think helps to illuminate Prufrock’s character or some of the ideas in The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock by T.S. Eliot.

Quote the lyrics of the song and write an explanation of how the song reflects the character of Prufrock or the poem’s themes.

Help with analysis of Prufrock:
Summary
etext of poem with a few hyperlinks
The Love Song Of J. Alfred Prufrock Study Guide
The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock Study Guide & Essays
The Prufrock Papers
THOMAS STEARNS ELIOT: 1948 Nobel Laureate in Literature
The Nobel Prize in Literature 1948:
T.S. Eliot
A Study of T.S. Eliot’s The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock
Literature Essay
Help finding song lyrics:
eLyrics

Help with quibbling about the human condition:
recall Honour and Certainty in Hamlet

Help with Modernism:
Nude Descending a Staircase, No. 2 (Nu descendant un escalier), 1912

Prufrock Worksheet

Introduction to Modernism Research Topics

Inside Poetry

[youtube video=”jCIzLOUja2o”]

Artist: Crash Test Dummies
Title: Afternoons & Coffeespoons

What is it that makes me just a little bit queasy?
There’s a breeze that makes my breathing not so easy
I’ve had my lungs checked out with X rays
I’ve smelled the hospital hallways

Someday I’ll have a disappearing hairline
Someday I’ll wear pyjamas in the daytime

Times when the day is like a play by Sartre
When it seems a bookburning’s in perfect order –
I gave the doctor my description
I tried to stick to my prescriptions

Someday I’ll have a disappearing hairline
Someday I’ll wear pyjamas in the daytime

Afternoons will be measured out
Measured out, measured with
Coffeespoons and T.S. Eliot

Maybe if I could do a play-by-playback
I could change the test results that I will get back
I’ve watched the summer evenings pass by
I’ve heard the rattle in my bronchi …

Someday I’ll have a disappearing hairline
Someday I’ll wear pyjamas in the daytime

Afternoons will be measured out
Measured out, measured with
Coffeespoons and T.S. Eliot
(2x)

The Artist in Society – Alone, Isolated, and Alienated

Northrop Frye, the famous Canadian literary critic, said “…we may come to realize that two essential facts about a work of art — that it is contemporary with its own time and that it is contemporary with ours — are not opposed but complementary facts.”

Tennyson‘s “Lady of Shalott” and Elton John‘s “Candle in the Wind” reinforce this statement.

Write a persuasive essay convincing the reader that the plight of the artist in society has not changed over the centuries — that to be a master in a field is to be alone, isolated, and alienated.

The Lady of Shalott: Study Guide

The 5 Paragraph Essay (template)

Separation from a Loved One

Compare and contrast how the following two poems deal with the theme of separation from a loved one:

Focus on such aspects as imagery, symbolism, archetypes, mood, and characterization. Quote directly from the poems to support your points.

Intro to John Donne

Forbidden Morning: Study Guide

Inside Poetry

The River Merchant’s Wife: Study Guide
The River Merchant’s Wife: Better Study Guide

The River Merchant’s Wife: Example Critical Essay