...Morgan Cross Final Project Spivey April 28, 2014 Little Miss Sunshine Movies are very beneficial in understanding sociology. Films are a mirror image of society and they perceive the social and family movements during a lifetime. Little Miss Sunshine, released in 2006 and written by Mark Arndt, is a startling and revealing comedy about a bizarre family in New Mexico. This movie shows signs of deviance in assorted ways from drug abuse, suicide, and sexuality with signs of social interaction. Social interaction is how we act toward and react to other people around us. Deviance is traits or behaviors that violate society’s expected rules or norms. Olive, the little girl in the Hoover family, has been nominated to compete in the Little Miss Sunshine Pageant in California. If she wants to participate in the pageant, the whole family must travel together to California. The experiences and life lessons that they have are out of the ordinary and shocking. The viewer sees the grandfather locking himself in the bathroom doing drugs. Drugs are deviant because they are illegal. The viewer might look at the grandfather badly because in real life people doing drugs are shunned. This is a way of social construction. On the way to California, they stop at a hotel for the night where the grandfather dies in his sleep after taking the drugs. The family retrieved his dead body from the hospital morgue to take with them to get to the pageant in time. Common sense says this is a criminal act because...
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...THA 2301 001 Assignment 1 The Explicit Meaning of Little Miss Sunshine In the movie, Little Miss Sunshine, a family embarks on a journey from Albuquerque, New Mexico, to Redondo Beach, California, in order to help the main character, a 9-year old girl named Olive, pursue her dream of winning a pageant. Richard and Cheryl, Olive’s parents, decide that it is necessary to take the entire household, which consists of Dwayne, Olive’s teenage half-brother who has taken a vow of silence until he is accepted into the Air Force, Edwin (Grandpa), Richard’s heroin-addicted father, and Frank, Sheryl’s gay brother, who comes to live with them after a suicide attempt. The family climbs into an old Volkswagen bus to make their way to the pageant. At the beginning of the road trip, the clutch goes out on the bus, and because of time restraints, they do not have time to have the bus repaired. Thus, they decide to push-start the bus for the remainder of the trip. Later on, the horn on the bus becomes stuck and the passengers have to deal with an incessant honking for the rest of the journey. Throughout the trip, several devastating things happen. Richard receives news that his business venture has failed, Frank has an encounter with the student who broke his heart, Grandpa dies of a heroin overdose, and Dwayne discovers that he is color-blind. Despite these unhappy situations, the family soldiers on, desperately trying to give Olive her opportunity at happiness. The...
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...Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind The most significant dream element that I see in this film is the fact that time becomes fluid. It does in fact become fluid throughout the whole film. Past, present, and future all become mixed up and happen at the same time. When the film begins, we see what we believe, and the characters believe to be their first encounter. “Have we met before?” Clementine asks, and Joel says that they haven’t. Clementine keeps feeling like they have, and Joel brings up that he has seen her at her place of work, Barnes and Noble. Looking back, this is significant because we later realize that this is not the first time that they’ve met, and they actually knew each other quite well. We find out not long after this scene that Clementine has taken means to erase Joel entirely from her memory. To spite Clementine, Joel decides to do the same. Throughout the rest of the film, time becomes very fluid. Past memories, and things that are currently happening in the room are seen from Joel in a dreamlike state. He is asleep, and getting his memories erased. Throughout the dreaming, he is aware of Clementine, and he decides that he does not want to get his memories of her erased. In order to try to keep her in his memories, he goes back and forth while dreaming from the present to different times in his past. Some of the memories stem all the way back to his childhood, the most embarrassing memories that he long tried to forget. The dreams...
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...Parenting Movie Analysis The movie “Little Miss Sunshine” is about a 7 year old girl named Olive Hoover whose dream is to be entered into a pageant called Little Miss Sunshine.The movie includes an extended family including their uncle and grandparent. Moreover, when she discovers that she’s been entered her family face many difficulties. Though they do want Olive to achieve her dream they are so burdened with their own quirks and problems that they can barely make it through a day without some disaster occurring. This movie relates to the Caregiver Identity Theory because the Caregiver Identity theory is the theory “Multidimensional roles caregivers play when they are both a loved one of the patient and the caregivers”. This relates to...
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...Eternal Sunshine Summary In Bad Memories, Good Decisions, And The Three Joel’s by Valerie Tiberius, she explains how memories distort the past and can cause you to make impulsive decisions. She makes a reference to Eternal Sunshine of how distorting memory can affect you. “When Joel wants to have Clementine erased from his memory, he is remembering the worst of their times together, one of which is their time together.” (Tiberius 63) This statement supports her thesis of how memories can distort the past. The film also gives us the visual point of view of how it can affect you as stated in Tiberius’s essay she also points out how there are three different types of Joel’s present in the movie. Tiberius explains how the movie shows you three different types of Joel’s, the bitter Joel, the spotless Joel, and the sadder but wiser Joel. She explains how all these Joel’s mistakes can affect their future. First Tiberius’s explains how the spotless minded Joel whose mind is clear, no worries and yet no past experiences to learn from. This can affect any relationship that could possibly happen with Clementine because they would head down the same road that they have just previously left for a reason. She states how this Joel is not wise at all and incapable of making good decisions for himself. Tiberius’s talks about the bitter Joel which is one whom is upset with Clementine and acts on impulse to have her erased from her memory because she did it, he was acting based off emotions...
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...Little Miss Sunshine directed by Jonathan Dayton and Valarie Faris, is a family drama about a young girl wanting to go after her dream. Along the way, family members go through conflicts that change him or her and help them grow and mature as a character. Jason Reitman, the director of Juno, also brings up this issue, where the main character goes through a series of conflicts that ‘forces’ her to mature. Both these films show the representation of family and youth and the theme of maturing by the use of language and cinematic conventions. Both these films show two protagonists affected by the issue of having to grow up early and family support. Throughout a person’s life, they will go through changes that will help them mature and grow as a person. Young Olive in Little Miss Sunshine realises that her dream of being a beauty pageant winner is out of her reach but soon realises winning doesn’t matter and overcomes her loss. Similarly, Juno is faced with being pregnant which is unplanned but she is almost forced to deal with it. She decides to give the baby up for adoption, the same as Olive is giving up her dream. Each film uses a variety of cinematic conventions to bring forward the specific issues. For example, in Little Miss Sunshine, several scenes use camera angles such as a close up of Olive with her family blurred out in the background, symbolising that she feels alone and separated yet is determined for them to be an ideal ‘happy’ family, this helps position the viewers...
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...Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind is a movie released in 2004 and directed by Michael Gondry. It is a 21-century example of the genre called “comedy of remarriage,” which is a subgenre of American comedy films of the 1930s and 1940s. Comedies of remarriage usually display a characteristic view of the reconciliation of troubled relationships. The plot of the movie revolves around the idea of erasing selected memories from people’s minds. In the film, the two main characters – Joel and Clementine – with the aid of Dr. Mierzwiak and his peculiar technology, decide to undergo a process by which they have the memories of each other erased. The idea of altering memories is controversial and it has led to many doubts and questions about morality and possible consequences of such procedures. First, there is the ethical aspect of erasing someone’s memories. Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind raises the question: are there ethical reasons to try to stick to certain memories? Analyzing the movie, we can conclude that the answer is “yes.” Accodring to Professor of Philosophy Avishai Margalit, human relations are divided into thick and thin ones. The idea is that memory serves to connect us to others, and is necessary for thick relations. Trying to hold on to these thick relations and certain memories is one basic requirement of human flourishing. Although the movie justifies the decision to erase memories, as its aim is to lessen the pain those memories cause, the act of deliberate...
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...The movie Little Miss Sunshine premiered in the year 2006 and is arguably the most successful indie movie of all time. The movie features an array of characters all with their own internal issues and it is evident of the disfunctionality of this family very early on in the script and also the movie. While the movie is filled with many negative events, in the end the family is brought together and it did bring a tear to my eye as this past week was in fact the first time I have ever seen this movie. Little Miss Sunshine qualifies as an ensemble film as all six characters within their Hoover family all have their own role within the film and each characters story is critical to the story line throughout. These six characters work together...
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...Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind The film, Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind follows the relationship of Joel and Clementine. From both recently breaking up together, Joel in an attempt to win her back finds out that she has had her memory erased of him. She does so by a company called Lacuna, which is able to select memories of people or a time and erase them. Joel ends up doing the same thing and while his memories are erased of her, he realizes what a huge mistake it was. During this film, there are interweaving story lines that all weave within Joel’s sleeping state while his memory is being erased. The main character Joel’s moral decision he makes during the film is to have his memory erased of Clementine like he did of her. While Joel is hurt at the realization that Clementine has done this, he decides to have the procedure done as well so that they both are not hurt when they see each other ever again. Joel as well believes this is the best option as in the film, it seems she has already moved on with someone new and believes he should do the same for himself. This idea of erasing his own memory as well leads to him following the Utilitarianism view. Utilitarianism says that one should always choose the action which consequences yield the largest net gain of happiness over pain, for everyone (Turetzky, 2013). Joel believes as he does not want to feel the pain of loss for Clementine anymore. As well as the Doctor who gives the procedure likens the experience...
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...The poem “Eloisa to Abelard” was written in 1717 by Alexander Pope, the main characters are Peter Abelard, a wealthy scholar and Eloisa, Abelard’s mistress. Abelard and Eloisa fall in love and get married; Eloisa’s family is not in favor of this and castrates Abelard. After the assault, even though Eloisa and Abelard had a child, they decided to go to monasteries. Eloisa is tortured by the separation and is constantly contemplating weather to live the simple happy life and follow God, or to follow her heart and pursue Abelard. The movie “Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind” is a romantic fantasy about Joel and Clementine who both have procedures to have their memory of each other erased but meet each other again and fall in love again, the movie ending says that they hear tapes of what happened in the past and they learn from their mistakes and live happily ever after. The relationship between art and happiness is that the art and happiness are more effective when Eloisa and Abelard remember each other and choose a life together. In the poem, Eloisa says “Not on the Cross my eyes were fix'd, but you: Not grace, or zeal, love only was my call, And if I lose thy love, I lose my all.” Eloisa marries Abelard because she is truly in live with him and wants the life that is natural to every human. Wanting to find someone to spend the rest of your life with is part of human genetics, healthy human genetics. She says that her eyes were not fixed on the cross, but her eyes were...
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...Mariano, Ryan Martin, L. BSIT 0556-0512-12013 Philosophy and Logic/TTH/3:00-5:00pm In the film entitled Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind. I will argue to the claim about the minds inconsistency in making decisions and why do people tend to escape from their destined life, the emotions conquering our decisions that we are making, and so, also some thoughts and points that I would like to argue about the film. The First or rather striking part is that Joel who met Clementine at the Montauk. Draw from their different personalities they became lovers. And an argument follows which results or makes a life decision and that decision is to erase all of their memory about Clementine and as so Clementine did it before he has done it... In that case they have both tried to become strangers in a way of erasing their memories... Secondly is Joel’s dreaming part in the movie, or in which case is, the memory clearing part. It automatically strikes me as a viewer that Joel try to escape from the real situation, even if his memory is being cleared and even it is not possible to bring it back or to stop it, he still fought for his feelings, and I’ll be arguing also with the following topics... Thirdly is what happened to Joel and Clementine at the start and at the end of the said. At the first cycle is that it so happens that they had a bad relationship which resulted in to forgetting each other. And at the second cycle they’ve become strangers again and so finding out what...
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...Mary and Dr. Mierzwiak have had a relationship that she did not remember. Mary had decided to have her memories erased meaning that she would be able to live her life without remembering that she almost broke up a marriage. However between 1:18:34 and 1:21:23 in the film Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind (Michel Gondry) Mary finds out what has occurred since she is reliving the past without knowing it and Alice Mierzwiak lets her know that she can have her husband since she doesn’t desire him anymore. This scene takes place before sunrise meaning it is extremely dark which is what everyone's minds would be as if they didn’t have memories to look back on. Throughout the movie, whenever Joel is having a memory taken away from him they start...
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...The Superior Race Prciliana A. Gonzalez Communications 172 March 10, 2012 David Kindman University of Phoenix The Superior Race Animals have ruled the earth far longer than humans. Some even believe that humans actually evolved from animals. Since humans have been created, they have become advanced and superior to the animals. To many people, this change in roles is uncertain. However, humans are superior to animals because of their advanced communication skills, their mind, and the curiosity that only humans have. Humans Communication Skills Animals have been here longer than humans, but humans’ advanced communication skills prove to make them superior to animals. Steven Pinker (1994) explained the human’s capability when he wrote, “The first is that each one of us is capable of producing new sentences never before uttered in the history of the universe.”(Para. 1). This quote is explaining how humans are the only creatures on earth to introduce new forms of communication. They have the power to create new words and express feelings through these words. Having the ability to express feeling through communication is a powerful thing. It takes great creativity to detach oneself from their surroundings to see the irony in the meaning of the words. Humans are able to produce communication, but what makes them special are the different ways they communicate. In today’s society, people use five basic forms to communicate. First they use body language as a way of communication...
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...The Sunshine State By: AlanV Florida, the peninsula of the United States, is one of the most relaxing and warming places you can go in the U.S. to take a break from your everyday life. It has fresh air from the calming palm trees that inhabit its streets. Its days usually consist of sunlight, followed by nice, warm, breezy evenings. And to top that all off if relatives live there it’s a great place to come together. When people think of Florida, they think of Miami, and question how they’re supposed to relax in another city. Well, Miami isn’t the only place you go to in Florida. Places like Orlando or Tampa are just as great and have their own unique features to them. It is not without it’s issues, however. Although it seems amazing due to its easy access to the beaches, that is also why it can be quite annoying. For example, if you were in Nevada you would feel a heat that you would describe as dry. This is because it is not close to any source of water and happens to be a desert. You feel very hot but never break into a sweat, even if you want to. Florida, however, has the opposite problem. When you start to exercise or even walk for a little you start to sweat immediately. This is because the heat is very humid being so close to all the bodies of water. Even so, with so many options to choose from such as an Orlando, Miami, or Tampa, there is so much to do that you won’t care that you sweat a little. You’ll just always remember to bring a bottle...
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...The film little miss sunshine directed by Jonathan Dayton was no only a highly entertaining and funny movie, but also a film that had recurring themes that can be related to the curriculum we are learning. The first recurring theme that I feel is most represented throughout the movie is one dealing with behaviorism. This can be tied to personality and why we are the way we are. In the movie Olive a 7 years old girl from Albuquerque has one dream and one goal. She wants to be In the little miss sunshine beauty pageant in California. She watched a girl win Miss USA and saw how beautiful she was and how much attention she got from being crowned. She then also wanted to be in a beauty pageant because she liked the idea of the reward she would gain. She would have social acceptance to start. Also self confidence with all the compliments and power with the fame. She puts in hard work with her grandfather near every night on a dance routine she has to preform. When dealing with punishments, she knows that by adding ice cream to her diet she may gain weight, so she tries to sacrifice the extra fat so she can be rewarded. Also, her father Richard, brings many behaviorist ideas and examples to the film. He is extremely highly motivated and persistent. Over and over he makes large efforts to make his 9 step process make it big. Even rides a dirt bike to a different city to try and get a hold of a business partner. He knows he can't give up because he will not be rewarded with money and...
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