Final Part: Two

          Seven Pounds is not just an original film made for an audience to find enjoyable. As it is to give an audience a new prospective on an individual's life as to why they did the things they did. When the film begins and ends with the same scene it ties together the whole plot of the story making it easier to understand, grasp, and to show the isolation in the flashbacks that keep reappearing. "In seven days, God created the world. And in seven seconds, I shattered mine"(Tim Thomas). A good and innocent man by the name of Tim Thomas killed seven people including the death of his beloved fiancé in seven seconds which changed his life forever. He decides he's not worthy of living and gives back the lives that were stolen from those seven people to others by donating his organs. Donating eyes, lungs, liver, kidney, bone marrow, heart, and his own home that once belonged to his love and him to seven strangers was his way of giving back and giving it to strangers that deserve a life to live other than himself. Ezra, a blind salesmen talked on the phone with Tim in the beginning of the film started insulting and getting angry at Ezra on why he was the way he was."I'm actually starting to feel pretty bad for you, Ezra. Because I look at my life, and it is surrounded by so much beauty.. and you can't see shit"(Tim Thomas). It was surprising to see that as nice as Tim seemed he had no respect or sympathy for Ezra. But over time as Tim started to follow Ezra around to see the life he was missing out on Tim wanted to change the way he saw the beauty in life instead of always hearing it from people. Ezra got this impression from Tim that he was alienated, that he was isolated from the world but by the eyes given from Tim he wouldn't be alienated any longer. For Tim to be able to donate these organs he had to find a way to commit suicide that wouldn't destroy his organs but destroy his nerves."The first time I ever saw a box jellyfish, I was twelve. Our father took us to the Monterey Bay Aquarium. I never forgot what he said... That it was the most deadly creature on earth. To me it was just the most beautiful thing I'd ever seen"(Tim Thomas). Jellyfish symbolizes duality, a balance between good and evil which was the best tool for Tim's suicide. They give a harshness to life which is parallel to Tim and how harsh his life has been ever since the car accident. To think that something so beautiful can kill a person in the matter of minutes is such an odd resemblance.

          Technology advancements have changed the world dramatically. It has changed the way technology has become one of the most popular and intriguing pieces of art that is going to last forever. With new and updated technology being introduced weekly, where will this world be in the next few years. It concerns many that this world will lose a sense of social construction since people will be so busy with technology instead of people. In Craigslist Joe, Joe takes a journey through a world with no money but his clothes on his back, his technology devices such as his phone and his computer. With the act of kindness and generosity Joe was able to survive through his journey of having no money but Craigslist. "If you take a snapshot of America today, what would it look like? As a country we're wealthy, diverse, and technologically sophisticated. Yet some say that we lost the sense of community that used to carry us through tough times. Today it's every person for themselves"(Craigslist Joe). Generations ago technology hadn't been a very popular aspect to the world since it was new and people were so used to socializing face to face. The sense of community was very much present. As looked in modern day face to face communication it's decreased excessively due to technology advancements. Some may think it's going to take away from the socializing and be more focused on email to email communications which will lose the sense of direct communication with a person. "Are we at a place in our society with the technology of the internet and websites and human interaction where we can take care of each other"(Craigslist Joe). Yes, it is much easier to communicate through technology giving people fast and straightforward information but it still fails to keep from noticing others actions and emotions towards certain situations."We have been so caught up in our own lives that we don't notice life outside our bubble"(Craigslist Joe). People are having technology be thrown in their faces and forget the world brought them in the past. They are trapped in the world of technology that they forget the people they care about and spend all their time on the internet when they could be spending it with their loved ones. 

          Press Pause Play is a documentary viewing the democratized that this world has become involving music and art. Technology today has made things easier to produce music where people who didn't go to film school can still be as successful or even more successful than ones that had gone to school for the making of productions. "It's that idea of this grey gew and this idea like if you have itty bitty bio machines that can replicate themselves there's nothing to stop the world being covered in grey gew. These little things are going to replicate themselves until there's nothing left of the world except for these little machines. Our culture potentially might sicome into that same principal where if everybody is a musician and everyone is making mediocre music, immensely the world will be covered in mediocrity... People become comfortable with mediocrity which to me is the danger"(Seth Godin).  If mediocrity keeps reoccurring in the future years the sense of creativity will be completely destroyed. Technology can be an easy way to get the job done but it can also destroy the ability to be able to get the job done by using other's own knowledge instead of cheating their way through everything. As more and more people try to produce different types of music it turns into a cacophony. Different mixtures of sounds are being thrown into different pieces of music totally changing the meaning of the way people saw the original song itself. "When you fall into the trap of confusing the artist and the audience and believe that the audience knows more than the artist is more authoritative, is more creative, more talented then art ends.Then you have something else, you have cacophony, you have simply an apology rather for democratization and it's wrong to confuse democratization and culture political terms with the creation of art which by definition is for better or for worse an elitist business"(Andrew Keen). The audience itself starts analyzing a mixture of a song to the point where they are getting the wrong message. Today, anyone could create their desired music, it's just that simple. Some random person could become famous easily in just discovering and messing around with new internet technology that it becomes less of an art and music institution. "Music today is sorta streamed to us. I people don't really sit at home with the record and listen to track 1 to track 15. We might go on Facebook, get a track on MySpace, get a track in an email. Music is this sort of stream of noise. I remember when I was a kid I went out and bought a record and it was this moment of this pure concentration and joy of listening to every bit and looking through the vinyl and watching the vinyl turn around and the needle in the groove. It's a full concentration and now is a thing where I always do something when I listen to music"(Anne Hilde Neset). Music use to be a beautiful thing and today it's so common to make music that it's just there in the background. People used to listen to words and analyze the meaning of the song and learn the morals that come out of each song. But in today's music there is no meaning or there's a meaning but it's meaningless. Music and art is a beautiful thing but when discovering new ways where anyone can make music through technology it loses the sense of beauty and destroys the music institution.  

          Fire and water are to opposites but can both protect and kill a human simultaneously. In the film Smoke Signals fire and water are very symbolic where the fire protected Thomas from getting burned in the fire and using water for healing Victor's father from his post traumatic stress.  "You know there are some children who aren't really children at all, they're just pillars of flame that burn everything they touch. And there are some children who are just pillars of ash, that fall apart when you touch them... Victor and me, we were children of flame and ash"(Smoke Signals). Thomas and Victor were children of the flame and ash. They were always around fire which protected them in ways in which they didn't know about. "Thomas I wish that fire had killed you"(Smoke Signals). Thomas and Victor never got along well. Victor always thought that he saved Thomas instead of his own son. He had a bad relationship with his father and started learning bad habits from him. As it is the opposite for water it embellishes the fire also a source in protecting and healing things from burning. Towards the end of the film Victor's father, Arnold dies, Thomas relates Arnold to salmon swimming upstream. "Victor I am going to make one more trip to the river and I am going to toss these in and your Dad's ashes will rise and rise into the heavens, just like the salmon. Funny I was thinking about doing the same thing myself. I mean I never thought of my dad like a salmon but it would be just like cleaning out the attic, like throwing things away when they have no more use"(Smoke Signals). Salmon spend their whole life in the water swimming upstream and get beaten against the rocks. This is very symbolic to Arnold and the life he lived because growing up around natives they struggle daily through obstacles about being different from other people but really are the same as everyone else. Salmon usually swim upstream to spawn, to lay their eggs. But it can be dangerous and they typically die after two years of spawning. Arnold spending his whole life trying to heal and start his life over from where it went all wrong but he finally let go. Instead of rocks being beaten against the salmon, for Arnold it was the drinking and the angry he obtained making him so weak he couldn't handle his life anymore. The fire saved Thomas and the water symbolized the salmon and Arnold that he was represented as if he were always a salmon. He was always trying to heal from the water.  

        Today, many go through a daily routine of trying to numb one's pain and emotions by doing something that's simply just blocks every memory from them for a certain amount of time. When the thought or memory reappears they directly go back to the numbing of the pain. The effect that war gives on oneself comes off to be one of the most brutal and painful experiences one has ever dealt with. Especially Tayo a past soldier in the war dealing with his best friend and step brother Rocky getting killed right in front of him, he couldn't live with the pain and guilt of why he wasn't the one that got killed. "No, they say  coffee is bad for you. He laughed, and Tayo smiled because Harley didn't use to like beer at all, and maybe this was something that was different about him now, after the war. He drank a lot of beer now"(Silko 18). The use of alcohol can cure a human being for a certain amount of time feeling pleasure and taking the pain away from an individual but can always can be deadly if one has too much and poisons themselves to death. "Somewhere, as if the years, the centuries, were lost in that sound. The rain pounded louder on the tin roof, and she looked up from the note then, at the screen door and the cottonwood tree outside, its leaves beaten flat by the downpour"(Silko 91). Although it triggered Tayo in remembering about Rocky the rain gave him a healing sensation. Throughout the novel water started symbolizes the healing process in which healed Tayo. The Night Swan that Tayo makes love to resembles the ocean whenever she made love to anyone. She was the symbol for the season of spring and the how it is the start of new beginnings. "He saw her feet, the open-toe blue satin slippers and her painted toenails. The kimono was blue satin and it was wrapped around her closely outlining her hips and belly"(Silko 90). The blue symbolized that she healed people through water and she did to Tayo. Water protected and healed Tayo as he was going through a hard time throughout his past life. Tayo and his post traumatic stress has given him remembrance of the things that have put him through hell when he went to the war and this quote expressed the healing process in which Tayo has remembered things can be good again. 

Final Part: One ThingLink

Post #27 Music Video/Image

This video is about people going to war and having family seeing them again. People are at risk of death like the grandparents and will see the grandchildren again. The lyrics say see you again. Going to college and seeing there parents again. When they show people opening their hands and they are letting the spirit in and take control. It's a part of life when there are happy memories that are going to to be missed and become sad. The white sheets symbolizes that she's in heaven and she's looking down on who she misses. In memory of someone dying and not seeing them again. Being baptized brings people closer to each other and to god. A lot of christian values exist in this video with the heavens and listening to the lyrics. Editing tried to induce emotion by film quick shots and videos of memories. Fast flashing and bring the emotion as well like its them remembering people from the past.  Flashback to the memories with people as well as the grandma getting flashbacks to when she was younger. Focusing on peoples face's and seeing their emotions brings emotion to the audience and draws them in. Decor is present in this video because it is about her being an angel and it decorated like the heavens above. Lighting is bright and showing several glances of happy memories. Also the lighting is very bright in present tense scenes and darker when the the videos and flashbacks come upon each other. Thinking about the person you lost night and day. Looking at the newborns. Costume approach is when she's wearing an all white dress like an angel. Shots on the old videos taken. Depth of field is present when the soldiers open up their hands to catch their children. Framing when she's touching his face. Memorizing the voice in their heads. Deep space showing the american flag and the wreckage in the background.




Blown Away is a video where her father was abusive and showing her earlier life and what it was like. The black and white shot and zooming on his father drinking and not waking up is showing the dark and depressing side of her life. The mother left them because the dad was abusive to the mom. She is in the grave yard and looking for her mom in the cemetery like she's singing to her. The dad abused her to death and now just takes it out on his daughter. Always wants to run back home but the problem is at home. Wizard of OZ symbol, escaped to her dreams. Yellow brick, yellow house, yellow road and how bright it comes across. The windows are open and it is trashed and the father is laying in peace while the whole world is spinning around him. When she tries and gets close to her dad, he quickly shuts her out. Without her mother there she feels lonely and left behind. The house is falling apart since there is not adulthood present. The light hanging above her in the basement is her last hope and it's hanging on a thread. Point-of-view shot looking at her dad as if the camera was her looking at the damage. Birds eye view when she's looking at the light bulb. Constant jump shots to get a better reasoning on the video and the main idea.

Prisoners
Evil is taking over because its more than half dark
First drawn to the eye
In the boundaries of the door
Dark green means illness
The gun is out of focus 

James Franco in Spider Man
In this image it's first drawn to the eye
Torn between good vs. evil
Dad had a bad influence of him
He was looking at his dad but himself at the same time
Becoming like his father
Focused on his face
Zoomed in his face and how torn he is
Small light in the darkness where he is a good person but turning bad

Last scene in Lost
At peace finally
The torture is gone
Feels relax with his dog
Sucking the life out of himself
Feels beat and tired
Looks like he's dying
God looking down on his life
Healing

Craigslist Joe and The Empathic Civilization

          In the film Craigslist Joe a guy by the name of Joe takes a journey through a world with no money but his clothes on his back, his technology devices such as his phone and his computer. Throughout his journey he relies on technology including Craigslist to contact with people where he can stay the night and maybe even eat without spending any money. "If you take a snapshot of America today, what would it look like? As a country we're wealthy, diverse, and technologically sophisticated. Yet some say that we lost the sense of community that used to carry us through tough times. Today it's every person for themselves"(Craigslist Joe).  He wanted to take this adventure to see if he could survive a month and how he loses the sense of community which brings a lot of humanity. By asking strangers to stay the night he relies on people's act of kindness to help him through his month. Towards the end of the movie Joe comes into conclusion that technology helps people become more connected in the world but communicating with people."Are we at a place in our society with the technology of the internet and websites and human interaction where we can take care of each other"(Craigslist Joe). This quote that Joe stated in the film is very significant to what he was doing. He was proving to other people that technology can lead to taking care of people.

Empathy

          Back when cavemen existed they had no technology to connect with the world as much as we do today. Today, a modern woman or man's brain consist of entertainment from football, cellphones, and the addiction of coffee/caffeine drinking. Centuries ago a medieval serf consists of being social position, god, and food. The social life in the world has changed dramatically where today people are socially active on the internet more than a face to face communication."Is it really a big stretch to imagine new technology is allowing us to connect our empathy to the human race writ large in a single biosphere?"(The Empathic Civilization) Jeremy Rifkin the producer of this film starts off by talking about mirror neurons and how they have a connection with the empathize of human ability's. "Empathy is the invisible hand. Empathy allows us to stretch our sensibility with another so that we can go here and in larger social units. To empathize is to civilize. To civilized is to empathize"(The Empathic Civilization). Jeremy also talks about how empathetic solidarity has increased in the religious affiliation around the world stating that the life people live is vulnerable and fragile. When others compare lives they tend to feel each others pain and suffering that one is receiving."We have the technology to think viscerally as a family not just intellectually. When the earthquake hit Haiti and then Chile but especially Haiti within a hour the twitters came out and within 2 hours cellphone/ videos on youtube and within 3 hours the entire human race was in an empathic embrace coming to the aid of Haiti"(The Empathic Civilization). The technology that exists today is very fast and efficient. People will know breaking news in the matter of hours even if it's across the world. It's crazy to think that technology has come this far in the last few centuries and continues to grow rapidly. Every generation contains of new technology advancements that are faster and more high tech then anything before. Soon enough in the future generations people will do all social interactions of the internet and losing physically social attractions with one another.

Social Media 

Press Pause Play

         

Music Technology 

In the movie Press Pause Play it is recognizable that music and art is becoming more and more democratized in where music and art that took months to make in the past, now can be done in the matter of minutes. Every year that goes by the creativity of these certain things are becoming into more of a cacophony. "When you fall into the trap of confusing the artist and the audience and believe that the audience knows more than the artist is more authoritative, is more creative, more talented then art ends. Then you have something else, you have cacophony, you have simply an apology rather for democratization and it's wrong to confuse democratization and culture political terms with the creation of art which by definition is for better or for worse an elitist business"(Andrew Keen). Today it is become so easy to create music on the internet that critics are just discovering and messing around with new internet technology that it becomes less of an art and music institution. These artists have the power; everything happens around the artist. Real artists can develop their own brands. According to Andre Stringer and Tracy Chandler who work for Shilo stated that people can self produce a music video or a song and still be very successful. "There is an essence in the world of make it happen, do it yourself, who cares what the man says, who cares what the world says, you go out on the streets and skate. It's not like a designated team to set of a baseball game and it's like you just do it"(Tracy Chandler). If people are self taught then one will be as successful as one would if they were in filming school. Some may think that people don't need film school to be successful like the members of Shilo but not according to Adam Watson. Watson differently as in when popular film producers win awards and none of them had not gone to film school and usually doesn't hear about ones that haven't been in filming school. It is easier for film students to describe the way they are filming in well known film terms then trying to describe the filming process when hadn't gone to school. Technology has made things easier to produce where people can be successful even when they didn't go to school."It's that idea of this grey gew and this idea like if you have itty bitty bio machines that can replicate themselves there's nothing to stop the world being covered in grey gew. These little things are going to replicate themselves until there's nothing left of the world except for these little machines. Our culture potentially might sicome into that same principal where if everybody is a musician and everyone is making mediocre music, immensely the world will be covered in mediocrity... People become comfortable with mediocrity which to me is the danger"(Seth Godin). If mediocrity keeps reoccurring in the future years creativity would be completely destroyed. Today, people rely on technology to make things sound and look better which then becomes an even bigger democracy in the world.

Seth Godin

   

Modern Day Music 

          When using technology when producing music it's easy to fix just about anything to where the music doesn't sound like the artist themselves. By fixing and editing major things to the music being song is not creative nor has the performance present anymore. "In our post-Industrial age, because of atomization, loneliness, the breakup of community, the way to somehow reify, or deify ourselves, is through the creative act . . . everyone thinks they have a novel in them, everyone thinks they can make a movie or write a song . . .that’s why everyone is buying camcorders and putting their stuff up on YouTube . . . It’s a reality they don’t like, but most people don't have talent…so for a serious young filmmaker these are very depressing times"(Andrew Keen). What Keen is trying to express is that the fact that great art that once was known to be great art work today will get lost in all the democratization. Also that people in this era uniquely are obsessed with themselves rather than the great artists that would be lost in all the selfish acts. When producers produce the music to the maximum perfection it doesn't sound good because it loses its meaning and vulnerability to the song and meaning itself. "I personally find perfection of music and art to be off-putting. I like listening to Billy Holiday because there is vulnerability. I love listening to Nick Drake because there's vulnerability and imperfection. I get really almost intimidated and bored by perfect digital art"(Moby). When hearing music and the emotion the artist brings along with the song it gives the audience a special connection to the song. our cultural economy may be coming to an end with the diverse music and the more high tech the equipment becomes in future years."Music today is sorta streamed to us. I people don't really sit at home with the record and listen to track 1 to track 15. We might go on Facebook, get a track on MySpace, get a track in an email. Music is this sort of stream of noise. I remember when I was a kid i went out and bought a record and it was this moment of this pure concentration and joy of listening to every bit and looking through the vinyl and watching the vinyl turn around and the needle in the groove. It's a full concentration and now is a thing where I always do something when I listen to music"(Anne Hilde Neset). In the past if you liked a song in the album by a certain artist they would have to buy the whole album. But today if there's one track that wants to be bought that can happen. The environment is not the same when just buying a record and comparing it to being at a concert. The artists try and bring others in and approach the audience in a unique way. When comparing the music and art industry from then to now it's different and challenging. As years go on they have to come up with a new way to create a form or art or music to keep the audience surprised. Music is going to keep changing as generation keep coming along.  

Record Player

Chapter 1: Culture and Communication

Elite Culture

          Cultures in our society today can be defined as many things to different people. In the earlier centuries the elite culture and the popular cultures (mass culture) categorized people in class based on their wealth. "The elite culture consisted of fine art, literature, and classical music. Folk culture consisted of street carnivals, tavern drinking, and folktales "(Culture and Communication 4). This culture was specifically referred to as the "rich and famous" culture where they came from a lot of money. During this time the two main cultures couldn't come into each other's standings. The popular culture is referred to as a society that is for actions everyone that consists of our daily actions including things that entertain and our behaviors conditions. "... our attitudes, habits, and actions: how we act and why we act; what we eat and wear; our buildings, roads, and means of travel; our entertainment and sports; our politics; religion, and medical practices;our beliefs and activities and what shapes and controls them. In other words, it is to us what water is to fish: It is the world we live in"(Culture and Communication 4). When Ray B. Browne states this he means that all the things we do on a daily bases is automatically mass culture related society. As years and generations go by the cultures become less and less categorized than they were in the 19th century. In our society today all cultures are mass-produced by the help of technology and mass media. People usually recognize businesses by different brand types when glancing at the symbols. "Most of today's popular culture is mass-produced and is disseminated through the mass media. Popular music, cheap paperback novels, soap operas, videocassette movies, and a myriad of advertised products from designer jeans to disposable razors make up our everyday environment. Stephen King novels, Levi's jeans, McDonald's golden arches are instantly recognizable symbols or icons of contemporary pop culture"(Culture and Communications 4). We recognize these businesses all around the U.S. by just the icons and signs we remember from an everyday glance. Looking back at the culture from the early 19th century to now is very liberal and doesn't depend on the class people come from. As we still view some elite culture from time to time out society today has come to become a mass-produced culture that is present in our daily actions and behaviors.

Mass Culture

         There's a significant amount of time that goes into a communication process in which some people don't know about but hear about daily. There are different types of communications including intrapersonal and interpersonal communications but the steps to communicate an interpersonal takes a lot more exertion than intrapersonal. It takes several people to be able to communicate a news report starting with the source then the messenger, to the channel, and followed by the receiver."When communicators select symbols for their messages, they must keep in mind that each person has a different frame or reference and, as a result , certain symbols may mean different things to different people"(Culture and Communication 8). When sending a message to a big audience it is important to pick specific pictures that mean the same meaning to different types of people. When communicating to other people, pictures do a better job of understanding the message being applied than words. The receiver getting the message from the messenger sometimes has a hard time understanding the concept of the message being sent causing misunderstanding usually from the description of the pictures shown. If the message is misunderstood there's a feedback person who corrects the receiver if he/she has gotten the concept wrong."...a word takes on connotations or emotional meanings that are based on experiences rather than on the word's dictionary meaning. Take the words liberal and conservative. These words mean different things to different people, based on individual political points of view"(Culture and Communications 10).  If one thing means a certain thing to another person it might mean the exact opposite to a different person. We all think different things. This process can have some issues concerning communication noise. There are three different noises that could make everything go wrong. The three including the channel noise, semantic noise, psychological noise, and selective exposure which all lead to misunderstanding and miscommunications in between the communication process. "... we expose ourselves to information that reinforces rather than contradicts our beliefs or opinions... Selective exposure also helps to explain why people with extreme political views have difficulty getting their ideas across to the general public..."(Culture and Communications 11). When certain people have strong political views it can change the way the receiver will receive the message being delivered.

Smoke Signals

          Victor and Thomas are two young adults that live on an Indian reservation in Plummer, Idaho and connect through Victor's father, Arnold that Thomas calls a hero. Throughout this film Smoke Signals there are several symbols that appear to be based around the whole story. Since the fire had happened Thomas always called Arnold a hero for saving him but for Victor he always had trouble getting along with his father. "You know there are some children who aren't really children at all, they're just pillars of flame that burn everything they touch. And there are some children who are just pillars of ash, that fall apart when you touch them... Victor and me, we were children of flame and ash"(Smoke Signals). Fire and water is very symbolic throughout this film because the way fire can help with protection but can also hurt and kill things. As it is the opposite for water it embellishes the fire also a source in protecting and healing things from burning. Another symbolic appearance in the film is when Thomas compares Victor's father to a salmon towards the end of the film. Since July 4th, the day of the fire Victor and Thomas has never got along well. "Thomas I wish that fire had killed you"(Smoke Signals). Victor always hated Thomas because he thought that Arnold had saved Thomas instead of his own son but then finally realized towards the end of the film that he saved both of them. When it finally came to dumping the ashes in the river Victor gave some of his dad's ashes to Thomas like he was a brother to him."Victor I am going to make one more trip to the river and I am going to toss these in and your Dad's ashes will rise and rise into the heavens, just like the salmon. Funny I was thinking about doing the same thing myself. I mean I never thought of my dad like a salmon but it would be just like cleaning out the attic, like throwing things away when they have no more use"(Smoke Signals). When Thomas relates Arnold to a salmon because of how salmon swim upstream and spend their whole life swimming upstream and get beaten against the rocks. With Arnold being a native and growing up around natives they struggle daily through these obstacles about being different from other people. Like salmon, Natives spend their whole life trying to fit in because of what other people think of them but in reality we are all the same. 

         

          Natives are known to have a certain stereotype of being alcoholisms but that can be present with any other race as well. Throughout the film Arnold always found alcohol to be a pain reliever from what had been done in the past with him being in the war and setting the house on fire killing Thomas's parents. "Thomas you don't even know my father. Did you know that my father was the one that set your parent's house on fire? Did you know that my father beat my mother? Did you know that my father beat me too? All I know is that when your father left your mother lost you too"(Smoke Signals). Victor and his mother were the only ones that saw the true Arnold and the main reason of why he left. Arnold was very violent towards Victor, his mother, and even Thomas but Thomas only looked at him for being a hero. It was hard for Victor to like his dad as much as Thomas did and that's why Victor would get mad at Thomas for saying those things. "I never had a drop of alcohol in my life, not a drop. What kind of Indian are you?"(Smoke Signals) This is an important quote from the film because Natives are known to drink all the time and being a son of a native Victor didn't want to become like his dad. When sheriff asked if he drank he was very surprised that he had never drank before in his life because of the stereotype that natives have. "Do we forgive our fathers in our age or in theirs? Or in their deaths, saying it to them, or not saying it? If we forgive our fathers what is left?"(Smoke Signals) This last quote that Thomas said in the film was that even when our closest loved ones sometimes may be violent and mean we can always find a way to forgive them. 

The Ceremony (Pg. 187-244)

Healing From Nature
          Nature can help people and things physically and mentally. Throughout the entire book Tayo sees that simple things including nature, Old Betonie, and Ts'eh have healed Tayo in many ways that has made him become a stronger and more willingly human being. "He lay in a shallow depression and heaped piles of dry leaves over himself until he felt warm again. He looked up through the branches and leaves, which were yellow and soft, ready to fall; the sky was heavy and dark, and purple veins striated the gray swollen clouds dragging their bellies full of snow over the mountaintop"(Silko 189). By the leaves covering Tayo like a blanket reminds him when he was carrying Rocky rapped in a blanket before his death took place soon after. Nature whether it's trees, leaves, grass, etc. symbolizes Tayo's journey he had gone through in his past life and the negativity that he was surrounded by turned out to be a healing sensation for him. But seeing dead bodies was another thing." He wanted to kick the soft white bodies into the Atlantic Ocean; he wanted to scream to all of them that they were trespassers and thieves. He wanted to follow them as they hunted the mountain lion, to shoot them and their howling dogs with their own guns"(Silko 189). Tayo had always disliked the hunters because they were destroying not just the nature but the living things around it. The imagery of the dead bodies triggers Tayo back fighting in World War II and referencing them as an allusion."The snow was covering everything, burying the mountain lion's tracks and obliterating his scent. The white men and their lion hounds could never track the lion now"(Silko 190). Tayo was realizing that nature was actually helping the mountain lion from getting killed by covering his tracks and scents from prey tracking the animal down. There are many ways in which nature can help certain things that people wouldn't realize. Without the natural surroundings people and animals would be in danger.

Emo
          Although Emo seemed to be an innocent friend in the being of the Ceremony he turned out to be an evil person who turned against Tayo."In the moonlight he could see Harley's body hanging from the fence, where they had tangled it upright between strands of barbed wire. Harley's brown skin had gone as pale as the cloudy sandstone in the moonlight, and Tayo could see blood shining on his thighs and his fingertips"(Silko 233). Little did Tayo know that all of his friends turned against him and were actually trying to kill him. But if Harley, Pinkie, and Leroy didn't do as Emo said then they would get tortured that's exactly what Harley did. He had to pay the consequences of failing them. "The destroyers. They would be there all night, he knew it, working for drought to sear the land, to kill the livestock, to stunt the corn plants and squash in the gardens, leaving people more and more vulnerable to the lies; and the young people would leave, go to towns like Albuquerque and Gallup where bitterness would lose their hope and finally themselves in drinking"(Silko 231).  After finding out that Harley, Pinkie, Leroy, and Emo all turned against Tayo then the night they started to burn everything it all clicked for him. Them four were the destroyers all along, the destroyers that Tayo has been talking about for all these years."Was Emo there? Tayo asked. Well he was the one! He did it! Pinkie was standing there, washing dishes in a pan on top of the stove. The others were sitting around the tale drinking. They say there were empty beer cans and wine bottles all over the place. Anyway, they say they got to playing around with that rifle Sarracino keeps there"(Silko 241). Emo had killed Pinkie unnoticeably.

The Ceremony(Pg.164-186)

     

New Beginnings 

          There are certain things that some people never believe that can be fixed but little do they know that that something can. For Tayo he felt that he couldn't fix his post traumatic stress healed from the war he once served in and experiences he had to deal with. "...feeling the instant of the dawn was an event which in a single moment gathered all things together--the last stars, the mountaintops, the clouds, and the winds--celebrating this coming. The power of each day spilled over the hills in great silence. Sunrise. he ended the prayer with "Sunrise" because he knew the Dawn, people began and ended all their words with "sunrise"."(Silk 169). In this quote "sunrise" plays a big symbolic roll expressing the fact that everything always end and begin again. This healing for Tayo indicates the past memories he has dealt with being in the war where "sunrise" symbolizes the start of venturing on to something new and "dawn" resembles the end to his past war experiences that has left him guilt and regret. But there's always something that can help by keeping his mind off of those specific things. "He did not expect to find Josiah's cattle near Herefords, because the spotted cattle were so rangy and wild; but without Betonie he wouldn't have hoped to find the cattle at all. Until the previous night, old Betonie's vision of stars, cattle, a woman, and a mountain had seemed remote; he had been wary, especially after he found the stars, and they were in the north"(Silko 173). Tayo had found healing through hunting and not drinking alcohol and realizing that there's something that can change the way he feels about his past actions without putting him in danger. Its as if finding the cattle is Tayo's escaping and forgetting the past in now focusing on what matters. "He had been so intent on finding the cattle that he had forgotten all the events of the past days and past years. Hunting the cattle was good for that. Old Betonie was right. It was a cure for that, and maybe for other things too. The spotted cattle wouldn't be lost any more, scattered through his dreams, driven by hesitation to admit they had been stolen, that the land--all of it-- had been stolen from them"(Silko 178). Tayo and his post traumatic stress has given him remembrance of the things that have put him through hell when he went to the war and this quote expressed the healing process in which Tayo has remembered things can be good again. And how it's okay to forget about the past and focus on the present and the things that matter to him. After Tayo's healing process with Betonie he came to the conclusion that he can focus on the good things in his life and new beginnings will come and go.

New Life

       

Mother Nature 

          Women today and in years past have always gotten a reputation to always look their best everywhere they went. And Ts'eeh a women Tayo meets isn't that typical girly girl who cares about what she wears. "She was wearing a man's shirt tucked into a yellow skirt that hung below her knees. Pale buckskin moccasins reached the edge of her skirt. The silver buttons up the side of each moccasin had railbirds carved on them"(Silko 164). She isn't trying to impress anyone like a typical women would her age. Tayo starts to begin by connecting with mother nature and relating it to this women and Night Swan. "He went on dreaming while he moved inside her, and when he heard her whisper, he saw them scatter over the crest of a round bare hill, running away from him, scattering out around him like ripples in still water"(Silko 168). This quote is describing Tayo's relationship with himself, this women, and Night Swan and how this all relates back to the symbolic aspect of the color blue and the ocean itself. "The dark yellow plant from the rocky mesa stop smelled like wet tobacco; she laid it beside the ocher sandstone. And then she pulled out a long vine covered with tiny white flowers with six sharp petals like fallen stars"(Silko 170). This represents nature and the process of how rocks become stone overtime by water. Throughout a rocks life span before becoming a stone it stumbles upon other objects when it moves through the water. It is known that sandstones are a form of a rock with a different shape and size to it. It slowly makes transitions from rock into a smooth stone and this expresses how this symbolizes Tayo transforming into a new and different man.

Transformation

The Ceremony( Pg. 141-163)

Bar where Harley and Leroy picked up Helen Jean

         After a late night out Tayo's friends Harley and Leroy picked up a young woman by the name of Helen Jean from a bar. Helen playing a major role in the Ceremony is a typical Native American who is trying to find a job that would be able to pay for her rent and ended up getting pulled into the the prostitution aspect of it all. "The way the men looked at her tensed Tayo's hands into fists. He didn't feel the fun or the laughter any more. His back was rigid; he sat down stiffly in the chair Leroy pulled out for him. Harley kept Helen Jean between himself and Tayo, and away from Leroy"(Silko 148). Tayo started to realize that Helen Jean represents his mother by the way she presents herself to men and how men were all over her. He is very protective over Helen because of the similarity he felt between his mother and Helen."Monday she borrowed Elaine's blue dress, and she went down to the Kimo theater to apply for the job they advertised in the theater window...She looked at the doors that said PRIVATE and OFFICE and tried to imagine what the desks looked like and what kind of typewriter they had... At the end of the corridor he pulled open a door, and she saw a push broom, and a scrub bucket"(Silko 150). Helen Jean finds herself to be an intelligent human being that could do a job that any other white people could do. But being a Native American like she is coming from the Towac reservation she was treated the same as any other Indian would be treated. By the end of her recognition of the low paying wage and her boss that wanted sexual appearance from Helen Jean she decided to quit. She thought that her ability as a typewriter was so superior to the rest of her race that she could find a job that would top all the rest of them would ever dream about.

Kimo Theater 

         

Transformation from bad to good

          Healing in different variations follows the same rebuilding process in a certain situation which in this case Tayo is healing from his post-traumatic stress that he gained in his experience in World War II. After his transformation from Ku'oosh to Betonie his current medicine man he has begun his healing process."He thought it might be old Betonie telling him to get on his way, telling him that he'd slept too long and there were the cattle to find, and the stars, the mountain, and the woman"(Silko 155). Betonie was telling Tayo that he needs to live and not regret his life choices he made and live in the moment by not letting his past hold him back. One night after drinking the pain away Tayo learned that enough was enough."He gagged as he pushed the door open, and something gave way in his belly. He vomited out everything he had drunk with them, and when that was gone, he was still kneeling on the road beside the truck, holding his heavy belly, trying to vomit out everything--all the past, all his life"(Silko 156). Although this specific healing process of escaping the alcoholism portion of his life was painful and hard he knew it was the right thing to do. After this experience Tayo felt like it was a cleansing for him and his body and just getting rid of all the bad stuff that he has put himself in. Sometimes it can be very crucial knowing that the past is the past and letting things go is okay."He carried the beautiful white shell beads on the end of a stick because he suspected where they came from; he left them hanging in them, they haunted him; all he could think of, all he dreamed of, were these white shell beads hanging in that tree...He lost touch with the life he had lived before the day he was lost somewhere on that trail where he first saw the beads"(Silko 157). During this process of healing Tayo biggest concern is letting go of the past. In this quote this white shell beads symbolizes an experience that he can't forget about whether or not he decides he wants to or not. All of this evil is haunting him and following him wherever he went.

A start to new beginning 

The Ceremony( Pg. 106-140)

         
         

          There has come a time way back where race didn't matter and we all were one "tribal" group. Today starting from centuries ago we have come and reunited together and to not categorize races by putting ones in certain groups. As we all once knew white people was the favorable and minority group over all the other race groups but as we look back today they were like all the rest of the groups. Tayo holds a grin towards the white people and always has since they get first priority on everything they own. "For all the anger and frustration. And for the guilt too. Indians wake up every morning of their lives to see the land which was stolen, still there, within reach, its theft being flaunted. And the desire to stop them from destroying what they have taken"(Silko 118). Seeing these lands that were once owned by the Indians getting taken over by the white people is a piece of them that will be lost forever. Tayo blames the white people for stealing their lands forcing them to leave behind their memories and attributes in which they strived to obtain living on those specific lands."They want us to separate ourselves from the white people, to be ignorant and helpless as we watch our own destruction. But white people are only tools that the witchery manipulates; and I tell you, we can deal with white people, with their machines and their beliefs"(Silko 122). Race started to become a social construct where as a society gives people a certain meaning to which they are suppose to act upon those specific meanings. As it is mentioned earlier in the book that the Native Americans and the White were in separate schools teachers telling students untrue stories about each others' cultures. When this social construct had occurred the whites would have seniority getting the good jobs that paid well and owning lands taken away from the Native Americans that at one time called home. "The Gallup people knew they didn't have to pay good wages or put up with anything they didn't like, because there were plenty more Indians where these come from"(Silko 106). Indians were happy to have a job that paid but it was even better for the white people since they could pay them low wage. The Indians wouldn't argue to have a job because there are many others unemployed that would take a job if one was complaining about not getting paid enough. As we look back on times like these and realize that social construction gives everyone a new judgmental perspective on things.

          Betonie is another important character in The Ceremony. The Laguna Pueblo's medicine man, Ku'oosh that used to be Tayo's medicine man told Tayo to go see Betonie, a medicine man that is healing Tayo giving him new ceremonies in which Ku'oosh couldn't. "What kind of man lives in a place like that, in the foothills north of the Ceremonial Grounds? Auntie wanted to know. Grandma told her, never mind, Old man Ku'oosh knows him, and he thinks this man Betonie might help him"(Silko 107). Betonie is there to help Tayo with his healing but Auntie Thelma was very judgmental to begin with. She was quick to judge him on where Betonie lived and why he lived in such a poor neighborhood near the Navajo reservation. Betonie and Tayo have a strong connection because of their similarity in race. "Go ahead, old Betonie said, you can go. Most of the Navajos feel the same way about me. You won't be the first one to run away"(Silko 109). Betonie knows how Tayo feels to be a mix of different races. Being both Native American and white Betonie knows how it feels to not fit in. He's grown up in both the white and Native American societies and the whites targeted his race the most saying he didn't belong there. When Tayo finally comes to Betonie's house he noticed something very symbolic about a certain room in his house. "Tayo sat down, but he didn't take his eyes off the cardboard boxes that filled the big room; the sides of some boxes were broken down, sagging over with old clothing and rags spilling out; others were jammed with the antennas of dry roots and reddish willow twigs tied in neat bundles with old cotton strings"(Silko 110). This quote symbolizes oxymoron and that those boxes were there for a reason but contradicting specific terms that would usually not be paired together. Silko quotes this converting the meaning that at first Betonie comes across as being a hoarder to the readers. But actually Betonie placed those boxes in a specific placement that all fits together making the the hoarding room into a more symbolic room.

The Ceremony Part Three

New beginnings 

          There comes a time in everyone's life where they are willing to find love wherever it may be. Whether it's old or young love people live to find love and cherish it. In The Ceremony, Josiah, Tayo's uncle finds love to this woman by the nick name of Night Swam. When seeing this Mexican women at Lalo's store, right then Josiah knew that this women was his everything. "By late July Josiah divided his time between the cattle, which were past Flower Mountain then, still heading southwest, and this woman"(Silko 78). His love for cattle didn't matter as much when he met this women. Before he ever met this women his first priority was to take care of his cattle, finding food for them and water for them to drink but now it's her that he cares about most. The Night Swan resembled the ocean whenever she made love to anyone. She was the symbol for the season of spring and the how it is the start of new beginnings. Racist as Josiah's sister, Auntie is he didn't care about what she thought as well as a lot of other people. "I try to tell him to stay with our own kind; but he doesn't listen to me. That woman is after anything she can get now"(Silko 85). The age that the Night Swan and Josiah are at Auntie thinks that the Josiah's girlfriend is not in it for the right reasons. Auntie thinks that the Night Swan is trying to find anything she can get since she's getting old. "He held out the note. She smiled, but she did not look at it, She looked at him" (Silko 90). Little does Josiah know that his nephew Tayo made love with his lover when giving her a note written by Josiah. And that's the society that we live in today. We get so caught up in love that the torture it is giving to one another whether it's family or friends is horrendous. That's when the society of divorce and cheating on a wife or a husband comes in ruins oneself's life.

Night Swan's rocking chair 

       

Abandonment

          After realizing why the Night Swan made love to Tayo that night before he went to war was because she wanted to make a statement to him. This was a new beginning for Tayo when he finally realized after the war his abandonment that was given to him. After his mother, Laura gave Tayo up and had to live with Auntie Thelma he started to feel insecure and ashamed of himself. "He didn't remember much: only that she had come after dark and wrapped in a man's coat-- it smelled like a man-- and there were men in the car with them: and she held him all the way..." (Silko 60) Laura having Tayo with a man of a different race made Tayo not a normal kind. Tayo felt abandonment from his mother and never knew why until after he came back from the war and looked back on the healing process he went through with the Night Swan. "Right as the sun came up, she walked under that big cottonwood tree, and I could see her clearly: she had no clothes on. Nothing. She was completely naked except for her high heel shoes. She dropped her purse under the tree"(Silko 65). Although Tayo's mother was a prostitute and an alcoholic Aunt Thelma told this to Tayo as a kid. It was like Auntie was blaming her shame on Tayo. There was never a time where Auntie would tell Tayo something good about his mother. "Auntie, he said softly, what did she look like before I was born? She reached behind the pantry curtains and began to rearrange the jars of peaches and apricots on the shelves, and he knew she was finished talking to him"(Silko 65). The way Auntie talks about Laura to Tayo is very poorly. She never likes to talk highly of her sister and that's because she got stuck with taking care of a kid that is not even her own race. The reason why Tayo's mother's abilities are not spoken from Auntie is because she wants Tayo to feel the abandonment and the "hatefulness" that she gave to her own child.

Cottonwood Tree

Reel Injun

        In many films, Native Americans have developed certain stereotypes that are found to be untrue and in the 1990's people started to finally recognize them as more humanlike. In films including Reel Injun, Iron Eyes Cody, The Cowboy, and even cartoon shows including Pocahontas that all portray false stereotypes and representing them in all the wrong ways. In films like these, Native Americans appear to live on reservations and dressed in a warrior like outfit to evoke the daily style of an average Native. By the makings of these targeted films on the Native Americans, people have become very racist towards them making fun of their languages, clothing, where they live, etc. Dances With Wolves and Little Big Man were two of the first films to start the non stereotype and taking the time to learn the Native's culture. "The Natives were fleshed out as characters and allowed to be see as more complete people, they weren't just warriors, they weren't just peaceful"(Reel Injun). In Dances With Wolves Native's weren't seen as their usual selves but more humanlike and after this film were released they finally were excepted as regular people. Although the Native's weren't in the spotlight they thought of it as progress for finally getting recognition for who they actually are as a person. On of the main characters in Dances With Wolves known as Graham Greene had to learn the language of the Lakota. Films before this one, Native actors would make up the Native's languages giving people the wrong impression to what the languages really sounded like. Even when this movie came out there were still false recognition to some Native nations. As Russell Means says, "To treat my nation like we don't know how to fight...we the Lakota, who are responsible for first nation to ever militarily defeat the United States of America on the field of battle and the Lawrence on the plains have to teach us how to fight" (Reel Injun). Although Dances With Wolves showed people a different side to Native Americans, Means was offended when he saw his own nation being shown as a nation that didn't know how to fight. Like all Native nations they all need to know how to fight but by giving the audience a different prospective on their ability to do things.

       Flags of Our Fathers another stereotype was recognized to be known as another Native American stereotype. Adam Beach a character from the film produced in 2006 played a drunkin' Native. As Adam said, "Ira Hayes was consumed by alcohol. I myself can't even attempt to drink one in a crowd because there's another drunk Indian. I've always called myself a child of an alcoholic so throughout the film you watch it that's me, that's not acting"(Reel Injun). This film has given Natives a new characteristic that they get drunk and so they will usually not drink in front of crowds fearing the judgement they will get from others. The results that are shown from this film is the insecurity about their ability to do what they want without being judged so they tend to not do it. "We don't always have to make great representations of Native people, were not asking for that, were not asking to be nobles or righteous or good all the time, were asking to be human"(Reel Injun). It has progressed throughout the years that Indians are becoming for humanized now that films today are becoming more and more realistic. Mostly all of the things stated in movies on Native Americans they are mostly likely to be misleading to viewers watching it. Today as more movies get produced about Indians the more practical people get about Natives and how they are just like everyone else.
  In other films such as