K-Mart Sucks

 

Dustin Hoffman / Tom Cruise

Is Charlie (played by Tom Cruise) a dynamic character or a static character?

Dynamic: changes by the end of the movie

Static: does not change or learn anything

The theme of the movie is autism: learning disability or rather a problem dealing with social issues. Social situations / society confuses autistic people.

Picaresque is a genre where the protagonist (hero) must travel. Usually, the trip is to escape. It is not planned a planned trip. The protagonist (hero) usually does not have much money and meets lots of adventures along the way.

Look at what Charlie is holding. It is medicine for his bad stomach, because he has a nervous and angry personality.

K-Mart sells cheap, low-quality things like Wallmart. A lot of what you buy breaks quickly and is not a brand name.

Raymond thinks “Who’s on first?”  1B from baseball.

Actually, Who is the last name (surname) of the player playing first base (1B).

For example, John Who is playing first base.

He does not understand jokes.

That is a jukebox. We put coins into the jukebox and will play the songs we choose.

Pawn Shop: give the store something valuable and they lend you money. To get the valuable thing back, you have to pay more money

Prostitute: hooker (sells her body for sex)

 

 

Who's on First?

 

Snitch: to tell the teacher your classmate did something bad

Noun or verb

He snitched on his classmate; therefore, he is a snitch.

I would take a flamethrower to this place. Al Pacino said that.

Is Al Pacino’s character a static character or dynamic character?

Pay homage to: copy a famous movie scene in your own movie to show respect

This is another Tarantino. It has Al Pacino, who is thirty years older.

Scent of a woman: 1993

Parody: copy a drama (serious movie) but to turn it into a comedy

Bill Hader playing (acting as) Al Pacino playing (acting as) Charlie Brown.

The parody also has Phillip Seymour Hoffman.

Before, a long time ago, autism was believed to be the same as being retarded.

Retarded is rude. We should mentally disabled.

Autistic people are very good at remembering things and math. They aren’t able to deal with people or the society, or take care of themselves.

Rain Man is 1988. Dustin Hoffman won the Oscar/Academy award for his performance in this movie.

Monday, March 17, 2025

Class Notes and What to Do if you Missed Last Week's Writing Class

If you missed the class last week, do this:

1Answer the nine questions below using your own information.

      Follow the rules called “How we will write” below.

3Get a piece of writing paper from Patrick next class.

r   Write  your story.

5.                    This is worth 10% of your final exam.

6.                    Remember that attendance is worth 10% of your final exam too. Every class you miss, I deduct 2% from your final grade.

Scent of a Woman

Lyndon B. Johnson, US President from 1963 to 1968

Review: The movie is Scent of a Woman. The genre is drama or coming of age (change from a teenager to an adult). Scent means smell. Remember the protagonist is blind, so smell is more important to him.

He says rude and shallow things about women, but believes he is being smart.

Misogyny: hatred of women in literature, film, etc. Why do we have misogyny? He does not respect women. Is he a dynamic character, someone who changes at the end, or  a static character = someone who never changes?

Lyndon Johnson was US President from 1963 to 1968

It is all untrue. So, is he blind because he can’t see things or because he can’t see the truth.

He doesn’t want to snitch on his friends. Snitch here means tell the teacher bad things about your classmates. 

Why does he drink so much? Is it because he is lonely or depressed?

Get Chewed Out

 

Twist of fate: surprise ending / finish to a book; we did not expect the ending

What do we know about World War II?

Adolf Hitler. 1933 until 1945 (The election was 1932.)

He murdered his children at the end of World War Two. They were poisoned.

He and his girlfriend committed suicide in Berlin.

Foreshadow: give hints about what will happen later in the plot/story

Red dress: killing or blood

“I have been chewed out before.” I means you are in trouble but not really.

There was a very famous American writer named Ernest Hemingway. He won the Nobel Prize for Literature. He has a famous collection of short stories called In Our Time. He also committed suicide in 1962.

He fought in World War I. Then he had PTSD. His short stories about Nick Adams. They would always start with a terrible war scene he experienced. Bombs. Noise. Killing.

The next scene is the forests in Michigan where he grew up and he is camping or fishing, and everything is peaceful.

Homework: Write a paragraph about the twist of fate at the end of Inglorious Basterds. How has the director changed the historical facts in this movie? I think a paragraph is five or more sentences.

This is not homework. Today’s movie is Scent of a Woman. It is a about a blind man. What are the five senses?

1.           See/sight  - Blind

2.           Hear  - DEAF

3.           Touch

4.           Smell/scent

5.           Taste

People say if you lose a sense, for example, become blind, your other senses become stronger. So this blind man uses scent or smell to help him.

This genre is coming of age, or changing from a teenager to an adult.

Social status

Rich kids are treated differently than poor kids by teachers or society. The theme is the unfairness of that.

Static character: person who stays the same and does not improve

Dynamic character: changes

Unfairness for poor people.

The colonel says he understands women. Then he explains about women, but his idea about women is completely superficial or shallow.

There was king in ancient Greece that was blind. Everyone knows of him because of the Oedipal Complex: every man hates his father and loves his mother according to Freud’s psychology. The king killed and married his mother in the story. But he did not know she was his mom…

At the end of the play, Oedipus stabs out his own eyes. The reason is he says the eyes don’t help him to see the truth, so he does not need. He becomes blind.

“I am giving you pearls here.” Jesus: “Don’t throw your pearls down before swine.” Irony