Pan's Labyrinth

This film has blended reality with mythic themes by having Ofelia's fantasy world and the real world. No one else in the film sees the faun or the fairies but Ofelia. I feel the fairy tale books that the viewer sees Ofelia with in the beginning of the movie help to fuel her belief in the fantasy world. I think that the fantasy world was also fueled by the death of her mother and the horrible world she has to live in. I think it acts as an escape for her from the world and the captain. The movie is like a fairy tale in the way the number three shows up. Ofelia has three tasks to perform. Within those tasks the number three is seen (three stones in the toad's belly, three choices to use the key, and three fairies trying to help Ofelia with the eye hand creature). There are many different ways in which this movie in which this movie blends reality with myth.

Run Lola Run

I feel that this film blended reality with myth in a few ways. One was through the transformation to animation instead of real life. Another way was when Lola screamed. She screamed a few times...One time broke a clock and another stopped the ball on black 20 when she was gambling. It was kind of hard for me to understand the meaning behind this film. I can only think of how it has to do with time and how everything you do has a consequence (no matter how little the thing done was). I find it interesting how the director shows how the different choices effect the outcomes in the movie and how differently the interactions with the same people were over and over again. This movie was like a fairy tale to me because it was done in three...meaning that there were three different scenarios of choices made.

The Ogre - Day 4

2. I think the mirror twins represent good and evil. They are opposites, they mirror each other. Much of the novel seems to be these good and evil opposites. I feel the twins help the reader to realize that not everything is as it seems. These twins looked so much alike, but their personalities are not the same. "These multiple and contradictory personalities largely cancel each other out, and all that remains is the naked and massive mob. Personality, which is spirit, penetrates flesh and makes it porous, light and breathing, as yeast spiritualizes dough. If personality disappears, the bullion of flesh returns to its native purity and gross weight" (Tournier, 287). If there is no personality everyone will be the same and one would not be able to tell the other apart. I find it funny how in the beginning it was difficult to tell Hajo and Haro apart, but as time went on (a few days) living with them it was very easy to tell them apart.

3. Ephraim means "fruitful. In the Hebrew bible Ephraim is the younger of Joseph's two sons. He is in Genesis 48:19. His older brother is Manasseh. Though Manasseh is older Ephraim takes control over him in all matters.

The Ogre - Day 3

2. Animals definitely play a large role in this novel. Before Rominten Abel is seen taking care of the pigeons. He only desires them and wants to touch them. After they are killed he feels he is the only one to ingest them. He doesn't want them to die. In Rominten he is told to kill the animals which he finds to be cruel. The sight of dead animals is an unpleasant situation for Abel. I think that the hunt of animals could symbolize the hunt for the Jews during the Holocaust.

3. Bluebeard serves as a mirrored image to Abel because the horse is of a size big enough for Abel and the horse can handle the weight. I feel that since Abel enjoys carrying childen it reflects the horse that carries Abel. A horse symbolizes power, nobility, strength, etc. This could be said of Abel as well.

The Ogre - Day 2

1) Abel Tiffauges took releif in his pigeons. He was available/picked to help the lieutenant because he said no one wanted to keep him and this is how he became involved with the pigeons. He felt that they were something to love and desire. "The pigeons, instead of merely being a welcome pretext for getting away, became little creatures loved and desired, each with its own irreplaceable personality" (Tournier, 140). He enjoyed spending time with them. I feel he felt a sense of control because he felt he knew he could chose whichever he wanted for the delivery of letters and he took an enjoyment of feeling their "little palpitating bodies." Soon it was only the pigeons he wanted to see, touch and posses. I think the pigeons gave Abel meaning at that time.

2) I preferred how the first chapter of this book was written in first person compared to the next chapters in the book. I liked how the reader got to see the truth of the situation and the truth of Abel. Getting into Abel's mind and reading his thoughts appeals to me more than reading about the story in third person, though I feel it serves as importance for the reader to see how everything else is outside of Abel (to see the society around him).

The Ogre - Day 1

1) When Abel first presents himself as an ogre my first reaction was to think of some large unappealing monster. The word ogre is first presented in the novel when Abel says Rachel calls him this. My immediate reaction was that they had a bad relationship. Further on Abel goes and describes the origins of the word. He says ogre comes from "monstrare" which means "to show", (I thought immediately to the Italian word "mostrare" which also means "to show"). With this, Abel says that a monster is something shown and exhibited. The more monster-like the qualities the more exhibited it will be which I can agree with. A quote that stuck out to me is "If you don't want to be a monster, you've got to be like your fellow creatures, in conformity with the species, the image of your relations" (Tournier, 4). I feel this relates to the world today. If someone is seen as anything other than what society considers "normal" these people are indeed perceived somewhat as monsters and treated differently (like being exhibited, shown, watched, etc.).

2) I think part one is written as a diary because it helps to give the reader a closer, more intimate look as to what is going on through the eyes of Abel, how he views things around him. I feel he calls these his "sinister writings" because what he writes is who he really is and what he believes in the writings, and if he was this way outside of his writings society would consider him to be an ogre, a monster of sorts.

One Hundred Yeard of Solitude: Ch. 16 - 20

The notion of time in chapter 18-

Melquiades has prophecies which are meant to be considered for the future. It is strange because Aureliano the second reads these predictions as family history of the Buendia family. The reader finds out that Melquiades prophecies are extremely accurate to the historty of the town. It is kind of funny in a way because Aureliano reads about his destruction while he is reading it which gives a sense of this is how it is going to be and how it has to be. It seems to be an unavoidable path.


The importance of Pilar Ternera surviving throughout (almost) the entire novel-

I feel that Pilar Ternera lasted pretty much throughout the entire novel for good reasons. She is a fortune-teller who helps the Buendia family throughout the novel. I feel she has much wisdom that helps a great deal in guiding the family. I also feel that her relationships with Colonel Aureliano Buendia and Jose' Arcadio is of importance throughout the novel because of the children she brought forth due to the relationships.