I think one of my strengths as a writer is research – I go really in depth to research my topic and make sure I have a comprehensive set of sources before I start to write. I’m good at finding relevant information and weaving it into my argument. This is important because my research skills give the paper a strong foundation and ensure that the argument is well-backed. For example, in this paper I made ~12 pages of notes before I even began writing, and I pulled quotes from articles, books, papers, and podcasts to support my argument. I’ve followed a similar process for all the previous papers I’ve written in the cluster, and I think researching so meticulously is what gives me confidence in my writing.

One weakness could be that my writing style is very succinct, because I don’t like belaboring a point or stretching one argument for too long. This isn’t always a weakness – there are times when concision is necessary. However, for college papers, especially longer ones, I’ve often found difficulty hitting the page count. There have been many times when I’ve had to go back and ‘pad’ my paper with extra sentences just to reach the minimum requirement. I think knowing how to expand on an argument is just as useful as knowing how to cut it short, and maybe I could benefit from more practice on this. For this paper, it isn’t too much of a problem because I’m just about at 6 pages. I think over the year, I’ve gotten better at being able to develop my arguments to meet the necessary word/page counts, without detracting from the quality of the paper.

To Mr. Mundt,

Using a combination of an archetypal and feminist approach to market Brave is a good financial decision because the movie puts a unique spin on Campbell’s quintessential Hero’s Journey template, which is familiar to more or less all moviegoers and is known to be well-received. The most popular films of current day, such as the Marvel franchise, employ the Hero’s Journey to enormous economic and cultural success. Film consumers, now more than ever, love a good hero. But the only thing better than a hero? A heroine. People are growing tired of the stereotypical male-led stock protagonists, and are calling for more diversity of all kinds in casting. This is the ideal time to market a female-driven narrative, as notions of woman empowerment and feminism are at their peak in modern society. Social media, in particular, is an extremely effective platform to sell this on. For proof, think of movie heroines that viewers have worshipped – Wonder Woman, Moana, Rey, Katniss, Hermione – they have cemented their place in pop culture by virtue of being strong, well-developed female characters. Brave’s Merida fits neatly into that list, along with an extra dose of unconventionality by not having a love interest in the picture. By showcasing her Heroine’s Journey, we can combine modern feminism with tried-and-true Campbellian archetypes to create a powerful marketing approach.

My first goal for the revision would be to rework my thesis – right now I feel like it’s a little broad and not as strong as it could be. My paper incorporates a lot of different elements, including stages of Murdock’s Heroine’s Journey, detailed analysis of particular scenes in Brave, Brenda Chapman’s story, and larger themes about women in the film industry. I did my best to tie it all together, and I do feel like it’s all relevant, but maybe tightening up my thesis would help me better control all the moving parts of this paper.

My second goal, sort of connected to the first one, is to polish my introduction paragraph (paragraphs, actually – I had so much to say that I split it in two). Again, because there’s just so much going on in the paper and I have to provide background for all of it, my introduction seems scattered. I would want to make it more cohesive by cutting out parts that aren’t absolutely necessary (like talking about Joseph Campbell) and condensing it into a single paragraph.

My final goal is regarding the overall structure of the essay. In the final paper checklist, it says that 50% of the grade is for coherence, and I’m a little unsure whether the argument flows properly. I would like to improve transitions between sections, maybe including topic sentences for each paragraph, and possibly rework the structure to enhance the flow of the paper.

Dear Great-Aunt Helga,

I hope Orlando is treating you well! I’m writing to tell you about the paper I’m working on for my Myth in Hollywood seminar. It’s about the Pixar movie Brave – remember we saw it together several years ago? I thought it would be a good choice to work on for our prompt, which is to write an expository paper on a movie, tying in the production history as well as mythological elements. I know it sounds complicated (and to be honest, it is), but essentially, the production history just means how the movie was made (writing, filming, directing). As for myth, I’m focusing on archetypes, which are universal themes/characters shared by a lot of stories.

Here’s how I’m connecting everything. Brave is about a heroine who discovers herself, and it has themes of woman empowerment. I can analyze this using an archetype called the Heroine’s Journey, a female take on the traditionally masculine Hero’s Journey (which is used in nearly every story you can think of). The woman who wrote and directed Brave, Brenda Chapman, underwent a real-life heroine’s journey of sorts while making the movie. My argument is that she drew on her own experiences for Brave, and is delivering a symbolic message to women/girls (particularly other female filmmakers) through the movie.

As you can see, this is a lot, which is kind of my problem right now. I’m trying to balance breadth and depth in this paper, because this is a film class and we also have to analyze scenes from the movie in detail. I’m worried that it’s just going to be too much material to cover effectively in 6-8 pages, and it will end up making no sense. I feel like if I either leaned into the production history or the myth aspect (heroine’s journey) fully, it would be a solid paper, but encompassing both at once is difficult. Right now I’m just writing whatever comes to mind and seeing where it goes. If you have any ideas, let me know! I hope I can visit you soon; until then, say hi to the alligators for me 🙂

Love,

Rithana

Overall, I thought The Terminator was a really well-done movie – it was compelling and action-packed, with a genuinely terrifying villain. One thing I could have seen more of is details on the futuristic universe and Skynet, because other than Reese’s brief summary, we don’t really know much about it. They give the audience just enough information to understand what’s going on, which works for the purposes of this movie, but I think it could have been really interesting if they’d fleshed it out more. Both time travel and takeover by artificial intelligence are sci-fi clichés (although maybe less so when this movie was released), and so it didn’t feel like there was anything particularly unique about the dystopian world of this movie. Also, the ending, where it is revealed that Reese is John Connor’s father, works only if you don’t think about it too much – the time travel logistics laid out here are too shaky to understand how exactly this makes sense.  

The other aspect that might have made this movie better is further development of Reese’s character and the love story between Reese and Sarah. He is one of the primary protagonists of the film, yet it didn’t seem to me that he had any personality traits other than wanting to protect Sarah. Giving his character some depth might have made the central romance more believable, because it felt slightly rushed.

Joseph Campbell’s 1949 model of the archetypal Hero’s Journey was revolutionary, and can be applied to everything from ancient Native American folklore to Star Wars. But when Maureen Murdock, a student of Campbell, asked him about a woman’s development through the Hero’s Journey, Campbell replied, “In the whole mythological tradition the woman is there. All she has to do is to realize that she’s the place that people are trying to get to.” Unsatisfied with this response, Murdock developed her own template for the Heroine’s Journey, which draws from Campbell but incorporates female-centric aspects.

One of the best exemplifications of a female-driven narrative is Pixar’s Brave (2012), a fairytale set in the Scottish Highlands about a rebellious young princess, Merida, who rejects tradition by refusing to be betrothed. I will be writing an expository paper which will use Murdock’s framework to explore how Brave redefines the Hero’s Journey from a female perspective. I will do this by analyzing elements such as narrative, character design, and music. The paper will also look into the production history of Brave, specifically Brenda Chapman (writer and director)’s vision for the film and the conflicts she faced at Pixar as their first female director. Chapman’s struggle for individuality and creative freedom at Pixar complements Merida’s journey in Brave.

Concerns:

How much are we supposed to focus on the archetypal/nationalist stuff, and how much on the production history? How do we balance incorporating both aspects into our paper?

Sources:

Murdock, Maureen. The Heroine’s Journey. Shambala Publications, 1990.

Morante, Laura Domínguez. “Pixar’s New Fairy Tale Brave: A Feminist Redefinition of the Hero Monomyth.” Revista de Estudios Norteamericanos 19, 2015.

Lerew, Jenny. The Art of Brave. Chronicle Books, 2012.

Chapman, Brenda. “Stand Up for Yourself, and Mentor Others.” The New York Times, 2012.Saladino, Caitlin Joanne, “Long May She Reign: A Rhetorical Analysis of Gender Expectations in Disney’s Tangled and Disney/Pixar’s Brave.” UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones, 2014.

‘The Graduate’ works within the archetypal tradition because it is essentially a coming of age story. Coming of age is a universal idea, well-represented across cultures, of a young person making the momentous transition into adulthood. In this movie, Ben starts as an uncertain, naive college graduate, clumsily entering into an affair with the shrewd Mrs. Robinson. He spends the duration of the movie trying to figure out who he is and what he wants, eventually deciding that Elaine is who he’s meant to be with. Ben’s pursuit of Elaine represents his crossing the threshold from childhood to adulthood, because it gives him confidence and conviction about his future.

This film exhibits the nationalist tradition because it highlights the sentiment of American youth in the 1960s – a feeling of aimlessness coupled with a growing generational gap. Unlike their parents, the youth were guaranteed financial stability and a good education. Yet there was a sense of dissatisfaction as they looked towards the future, a disillusionment with their parents’ notion of the ‘American dream’. This is best exemplified by the montage of Ben’s summer as the scene cuts from Ben floating in his pool, to him in bed with Mrs. Robinson, to him shutting the door on his parents. His blank expression throughout the montage set to the melancholy Sound of Silence (“hello darkness my old friend”) captures his generation’s attitude at the time.

The main similarity between the scenes in Sunrise and Red River is that they both involve one person determined to kill the other, but unable to go through with it. These scenes are extremely tense and involve the threat of physical violence (actual violence, in the case of Red River). However, in Sunrise the tension is slow and drawn-out as the man gradually moves to push his wife overboard. The score is heavy with ascending chords building to a crescendo, and the tension is suddenly broken by the bell tolling as the man snaps back to his senses. By contrast, the scene in Red River is action-packed and full of commotion from the dialogue, gunshots, and sounds of Dunson and Matt pummeling each other. The background music reflects this – it is dramatic, agitated, and fast-paced.

I think Sunrise is more effective because both the music and the acting (such as George O’Brien’s haunting eyes) hook the viewer’s attention as the suspense is deliberately stretched bit by bit. I felt the resolution of the Red River fight scene, when Dunson and Matt make up immediately after Tess tells them to, was a little abrupt – considering their conflict had been built up for the entire movie, it seemed unrealistic that it would dissipate that quickly.

The theme of Red River, which is resolved in the final scene, is the dynamic between father and son – specifically, the need for the son to carry on his father’s legacy. Dunson’s vow to kill Matt after he takes control of the herd reflects his feelings of being undermined when his son develops more power than him; he is not ready for Matt to take over his role yet. It is only after they fight and reconcile that Dunson accepts Matt as his successor and symbolically passes down the torch by drawing the new Red River D logo in the dirt.

The theme of Sunrise is renewal of love, and I would say the boat scene is the turning point in this regard as the man realizes he cannot bring himself to hurt his wife. From this moment on, his demeanor towards the wife is completely transformed as he does everything he can to win her affection back and repair their relationship.

M. Night Shyamalan’s The Sixth Sense is, strictly speaking, a horror movie – it follows an 8 year old boy (Cole) who can see and communicate with dead people, and a child psychologist attempting to understand Cole’s powers. The film is famous for its mindblowing plot twist at the end, yet arguably the most powerful scene is the one with Cole and his mother (Lynn) in the car. These two characters have had a strained relationship the entire movie, as Lynn is extremely worried about him and Cole’s sanity is ebbing away thanks to his disturbing abilities (which his mother knows nothing about). In this scene, he finally reveals the truth to her. Lynn is disbelieving, so Cole proves it with a message from Lynn’s dead mother: that Lynn made her proud, every single day. The performances from both actors are wonderfully affecting – Lynn breaks down crying at the story about her mother, and as she and Cole hug, there is a sense of catharsis, relief that Cole’s mother finally understands him and he no longer has to bear his haunting burden alone.

This scene resonates with Rithana because it speaks to a universal, complicated relationship – that between parents and children. It spans two generations (Cole and Lynn, Lynn and her mother), and there is a poignancy of Lynn’s mother only being able to tell her daughter she was proud of her from beyond the grave. The audience can see how much this means to Lynn, and how this translates to her relationship with Cole; she desperately wants to protect him but has no idea how. As for Cole, it’s clear how painful and terrifying it is for him to reveal his powers to his mother – he doesn’t want to scare her, but he needs her to believe him. There are several layers of tension and emotion woven into this short, quiet scene, and the directors and actors do an incredible job of moving the audience.