Premium Essay

Escape Reality

In:

Submitted By bananatighe95
Words 491
Pages 2
Escape Reality

Your mind drifts off for those few moments, the emotions felt when the

world around has been forgotten. For just those few moments everything about

you, and the world you live in has been forgotten. Muhammed Ali gave that to the

people of Zaire. For those few moments, all of the trouble, misery, and mislead

government… is forgotten. The fight, and the charismatic Muhammed Ali, gave

the people of Zaire something to believe in for those few weeks before the fight.

The fight itself brought two completely different cultures and countries together.

Culturally, Politically, and Socially, we as a society are vastly different from the

culture of Zaire.

Muhammed Ali brings unity to Zaire throughout 1974. PolyGam, the

producer of this documentary chooses to show cultural differences. Zaire throws

their lifestyle in the culture. The soothsayer shows up several times throughout

the documentary. She remains a constant reminder that they are in fact in Zaire

and that Muhammed Ali embraces the culture of Zaire. The soothsayer is a

fundamental aspect of their culture. The soothsayer, is the fortune teller who

performs and tells the audience what the future will hold for Zaire. This would

never occur in the United States. Granted we have our occasional palm readings.

But for the majority we just live our lives and find out what happens when it

happens. Our American society is based on Manifest Destiny. Our Destiny will be

what it will be and we can control it and change it throughout our lives. Culturally

speaking, the conditions in which they live differentiate. As soon as the

Americans working for Muhammed and Foreman, asked and needed air

conditioning in their hotel rooms. The hotel only had a certain amount of air

Similar Documents

Free Essay

Escape from Reality

...Likhitha Reddy Professor Ervin Honors Special Topics: Films of Terry Gilliam May 6, 2103 Escape from Reality The modern world is plagued by the departure from an idealistic and imaginative state of mind into a realm of superficial social anxieties. Director Terry Gilliam, an American-born British director and member of the comedy group Monty Python, displays the theme of the rejection of pragmatism in favor of imagination in many of his movies. The theme of escaping from mundane reality into an alternative, inspired universe is most prevalent in his films Time Bandits (1981), The Fisher King (1991), and Tideland (2005). In Time Bandits, escape is more physical than mental as inspired pre-teen Kevin leaves his mundane life and consumerism-oriented world for a taste of adventure. The Fisher King presents a much different type of escape- Parry is a man who witnesses the murder of his wife and falls into a catatonic state only to emerge as a man who abandons his old life, including memory of his late wife, in order to find the “Holy Grail,” a worthless trophy that he sees in a magazine. Tideland is depicts another mental escape scenario and tells the story of the young daughter of two drug addicts in perpetual denial of her abused state who is aided in her fantasy world by doll heads that she wears on her fingers. Whether physical or mental, escape can provide a temporary panacea, but the problem with it is that one must always return. Time Bandits, released in 1981, was Gilliam’s...

Words: 5022 - Pages: 21

Free Essay

Sonnys Blues

...Growing up in an environment such as Harlem has had immense impact on the people sonny and his brother have become. This tough environment in Harlem would easily shape any person living in it but in particular Sonny and his brother. Harlem influenced the courses of action the brothers individually chose to take. The narrator described the city as a place that seems to entrap the people living in it and suck them into a lifestyle that they cant avoid. The lifestyle of drugs and crime, even if an individual such as the narrator doesn’t choose to participate in these actions, they are still surrounded by them. Sonny went into the military to escape this environment of Harlem. When Sonny gets home from the military, he falls right back into this lifestlye and lands himself a spot in jail for drug use. The military was only a temporary escape. The narrator learns that his brother Sonny whom he hasn’t had contact with in recent years, was recently taken...

Words: 1664 - Pages: 7

Free Essay

Sonny's Blues

..."I can’t tell you much about how I got here. I mean I don’t know how to tell you. I guess I was afraid of something or I was trying to escape from something and you know I have never been very strong in the head (smile).": James Baldwin’s rich and nostalgic language compels the reader to examine the impact of those living in Harlem during the 1950s and how it imprisoned those through the use of precise diction and vivid imagery. Baldwin effectively conveys the foreboding imprisonment of anyone that gives in to Sonny and the Narrator’s environment. Baldwin depicts the environment of Harlem by utilizing rich imagery to describe the people within Harlem who have succumbed to the environment. "I didn’t want to go. I certainly didn’t want to know how it felt…quick silver barmaid with menace was their reality" (Baldwin 8). Through the text, one can infer that the society at the time could affect a person’s character and suck them in. Baldwin portrays a negative environment by describing the barmaid as a semi-whore, this helps the reader to see that subtle observations of Harlem’s society. Baldwin quotes “When she smiled one saw the little girl, one sensed the doomed, still struggling woman beneath the battered face of the semi-whore”(2) ; through this brief yet revealing description, one sees how the people within that Harlem society succumbed to the environment through the use of imagery. “And now, even though he was a grown-up man, he still hung around that block, still spent hours...

Words: 773 - Pages: 4

Premium Essay

Royal Beatings

...or maybe you have or are suffering from an illness, we have all had experiences at some point in our life that have profound affects in where we’ve come from and in shaping who we are. Take a look at Rose in ‘Royal Beatings’. Rose grows up poor in the back of a grocery/furniture repair store, experiences the loss of her own mother and is raised by her stepmother Flo and father. Before Flo assumed position of stepmother, she was witness to a beating of a man. Sadly, Flo goads Rose’s father to carry out punishments with beatings and threatens Rose with a ‘Royal Beating’ one day. Rose doesn’t know what a ‘royal beating’ is exactly and so conjures up in her mind what it could be. This is a life, whereby, I’m sure anybody would want to escape. Rose does so by withdrawing into a colorful and imaginative world within. In ‘The Yellow Wallpaper’, the author describes the yellow wallpaper as a revolting, smoldering unclean flamboyant pattern stripped in areas on the nursery walls of a temporary rented mansion while her permanent home is being renovated. The described walls alone tell the reader of how one may feel about their own life if this person is undergoing or being treated for temporary nervous depression. Her husband/physician assures her nothing is the matter and she simply just needs the “rest-cure” treatment. Like any person can change in how they feel from day to night, the yellow wallpaper changes from daytime to nighttime too. By day, she tells us the walls have...

Words: 526 - Pages: 3

Free Essay

"Sonny's Blues" by James Baldwin Critical Analysis

...protagonist of the story finds music as his aim of escaping society’s African American brutal oppression in the 1950’s. Sonny’s brother makes the claim, “But there’s no need…is there? In killing yourself?” (Baldwin 59) referring to Sonny’s drug use in his musical escapes while playing nightclubs as a pianist in Greenwich Village. In the story "Sonny’s Blues" Sonny's brother makes the inaccurate assertion Sonny wants to die; in reality Sonny’s is simply trying to escape society's oppression. While living with Sonny’s brother’s family, talking in the afternoon with the brothers alone for the night; Sonny was talking about using heroin, “…what heroin feels like-when it’s in your veins…It makes you feel-in control. Sometimes you have to have that feeling.” (Baldwin 58) The commentary prior elaborated this statement when examining the singing quartet on their street and the struggles they went through to be able to sing like that, referring to the pain and passion in their voices. This helped illustrate the conflict of the time – American Culture built around discrimination and limiting the African American inner-city culture. Sonny was using heroin to feel in control of what is going on around him because in reality, he was not in control what so ever. His path or ability to get out of the poor inner-city life was closed by the American Culture at the time. When people aren’t given control over their perceived destiny, people have...

Words: 841 - Pages: 4

Free Essay

Creative Writing - English Assessment

...The escape. I woke up on a summer day, birds chirping, children playing, but all the joy and the innocence of this was behind me. I couldn't just get up and play, or sing, because I was chained to a wall. This is what happens in this country when you commit something really bad. The war finished a few years ago but the situation here wasn’t as beautiful as some people tried to show it. My friends and I were caught by police while we were having my 23rd birthday party. They just came in and took us somewhere. I was lying in my own filth, tied up for several days, without being able to go to the toilet; it's not a pretty sight. My body was slowly wasting away, no food, and only drops of water, I felt like I was slowly passing away even though I still didn’t know where I was or what I had done. I could see my team-mates, my friends, slowly going insane. They were talking in their sleep, screaming for freedom, but what was the point. The guards treated us like animals. Finally, after the next two days the guard unchained me and said, ‘’C’mon you murderer, get up, you are able to go for a 30-minute walk.’’ And after that I realised what had happened. We were caught by police by mistake... I was trying to talk to the guards there but no... They didn’t want to listen, they were just laughing at me. However, there was one old guard that was different to all the other ones there. He talked to me and told me what had happened and what I had done. He said that FBI and police were looking...

Words: 1992 - Pages: 8

Premium Essay

My Experience in the Charles H. Wright Museum

...in the Charles H. Wright Museum was very interesting . And Still I Rise: Our Journey Through African American History and Culture. This long-term exhibition serves as the central experience of the museum. You go from Africa and travel through a timeline of periods in history with negro being slaves, segregated, beaten, lynching, slaves on ships being sold. Escaping through the Underground Railroad and many other daring escapes to freedom. When you go downstairs to the ship where the slaves were chained and forced to as uncivilized humans in horrible conditions just to be sold as slave you can sense the effects of the things that happen. As I continued on with the journey you could see the progress that was made with the blacks. They were migrating to the north for better homes, jobs and to be free. The Changing America brought back a lot of painful memories of being segregated, discriminated against, where whites thought they were superior over the blacks. The Underground Railroad it was something to experience seeing how Harriet help those escape. The Ring of Genealogy was amazing to see all those symbols inside the ring of genealogy . You have to see and hear the story about it to really feel the effect of how these people whose name is on the nameplate made an impact in our society. Refection on the experience PART I Going back in the past seeing how people of color were treated as if they wasn’t human.; made me aware of what price was paid for me to have...

Words: 300 - Pages: 2

Free Essay

Ethics

...Latonya Williams Ethics/Professor Benjamin Buckley Writing Assignment 1/ Plato, Critio August 25, 2015 Socrates is sentenced to execution for going against the Athenians’ Law. The setting of this conversation is in Socrates’ prison cell. While waiting for the day of his execution, he is visited by his friend Crito. Crito’s motive is to convince Socrates to escape prison by presenting arguments of why Socrates should go against his sentence. His argument on a real-world level is more geared towards the opinions of what others would think of Socrates and his friends if he was executed. Crito also presents in his argument that if Socrates did not escape and decides to face his sentence, he would be in agreements with the Athenians sentencing him unfairly and this would be consider as him acting unfairly to himself. On the other hand, Socrates’ point of view is that by escaping he would be going against the Athenian’s Law and if he escapes, it would cause extension harm to him and the others. In this argument, Socrates stated “one shouldn’t return injustice or ill-treatment to any human being, no matter how one may be treated by that person.” (PG 38) In this statement he is stating that just because an individual treats you badly or do you wrong, you do not have to return the same treatment or take revenge. I agree with what Socrates is stating here. I am one to believe that Jesus fights ALL your battles. I have had many situations in my life where someone has treated me...

Words: 514 - Pages: 3

Free Essay

Crj 320 Wk 6 Field Report Crime Scene Investigation

...activitymode.com/product/crj-320-wk-6-field-report-crime-scene-investigation/ Contact us at: SUPPORT@ACTIVITYMODE.COM CRJ 320 WK 6 FIELD REPORT CRIME SCENE INVESTIGATION CRJ 320 WK 6 Field Report Crime Scene Investigation - Murder Kicks Refer to the scenario Crime Scene Investigation – Murder Kicks, The Death of a Soccer Star, located in the online course shell. Write a three to four (3-4) page paper in which you: 1. Analyze the victim and physical evidence of the body as shown in the photograph. 2. Analyze the physical elements shown in the photographs of the inside of the house, noting how these elements connect to the crime. 3. Analyze the physical evidence from photographs of the exterior of the house, noting what might be the escape route. 4. Analyze the photo taken by a neighbor of a truck the week prior to the crime. 5. Propose a list of evidence that should be preserved and provide a rationale for each item on the list. 6. Propose a chain of preservation for the evidence. CRJ 320 WK 6 FIELD REPORT CRIME SCENE INVESTIGATION To purchase this visit here: http://www.activitymode.com/product/crj-320-wk-6-field-report-crime-scene-investigation/ Contact us at: SUPPORT@ACTIVITYMODE.COM CRJ 320 WK 6 FIELD REPORT CRIME SCENE INVESTIGATION CRJ 320 WK 6 Field Report Crime Scene Investigation - Murder Kicks Refer to the scenario Crime Scene Investigation – Murder Kicks, The Death of a Soccer Star, located in the online course shell. Write a three to four...

Words: 765 - Pages: 4

Free Essay

The Doll Interpretation

...The Doll Interpretation The belief that a person’s childhood experiences have a long lasting effect on that person’s psychological development is commonly held by professionals and masses alike. The colloquial term “daddy issues” implies that the early absence of a father figure in a female’s life is to blame for later promiscuity and trust issues in romantic relationships. Although the effects are not always severe, a child’s adolescent environment and experiences continue to affect his or her subconscious well into adulthood. In Edna O’Brien’s short story, The Doll, O’Brien utilizes religious allusion and a detached point of view to illustrate the effects that a repressive Irish Catholic childhood had on her narrator. O’Brien’s subtle use of religious allusion conveys to the reader the ideals of the narrator’s childhood society that have been ingrained into the minds of its members. The narrator describes her victimization by her teacher as being “a cruel cross to bear” (O’Brien 49). This allusion to the crucifixion identifies the narrator as a Christ-like character, contrasting the teacher, playing the role of Pontius Pilate, who acted out of fear of losing power. This description further elucidates the ideology of the society to associate any suffering as a Christ-like sacrifice and falls in character for the pristine little girl, constantly plagued by the “cruelty and stupidity” of her world, to use this description to excuse the ways of her teacher (O’Brien 54). The...

Words: 1103 - Pages: 5

Premium Essay

Suckmyass

... Risk your life to help them or take off? Self conservation is supposed to be an instinct, and the main thing that triggers that instinct is fear. That's when the fight or flight option kicks in, and that's the point where you choose to be selfless or selfish. Most people would choose the selfish route for multiple reasons; you only have to worry about your own life, there won't be any dead weight holding you back, and nobody will be there to cloud your judgement. Survival requires selfishness so that you don't have any dead weight holding you back. For instance , in 2005, there was a pregnant woman named Rosezina who went into labor during hurricane Katrina. Knowing that she needed assistance, she left through her building’s fire escape and swam for two blocks. Unfortunately, she had to leave her 5-year old son who was screaming “mama! Come back!”. She swam until she reached a hospital where she gave birth and was reunited with her son days later. If she would've chose the selfless route and took her son with her, who knows what would have happened? She had to make the hard selfish decision of leaving her son so she could have a safe birth. For those who argue that you need to be selfless in order to survive obviously did not give it that much thought. Recently there was a man named Blake Lyon stopped his vehicle to help a woman who was pretending to be hurt. When he got out of his car she hopped in his car and spent 30 minutes trying to run him over. Blake’s friend...

Words: 571 - Pages: 3

Free Essay

Going Home Theme

...the eyes of his own people for trying to be somebody else.Even though no matter how he acts, his skin will always be black and his eyes brown.He is raised by aborigines, so he will always be affected by the black heritage. He is raised in thiscertain way, and even though he tries escaping it, he will not succeed. While the heritage affectshim, the people around him will also judge him because of his looks. The story proves that peoplewill always be prejudice towards him, even though he tries his hardest to become white. He will bereminded of his past every time a black aboriginal looks him in his eyes.The racism towards aboriginals is very extreme in this society. All the aboriginals look like drunkenbastards, and it’s almost impossible to escape the stereotypes. That’s why the government andpolice are trying to stop the aboriginals committing crimes - ALL of them, even the innocent ones.The Past:The Past is a poem about a man sitting in suburbia, in a home with an electric heater. He falls intodream about his past, where he was sitting in the nature in front of a campfire. He is probably alsoan aboriginal who has moved away from his camp. He describes that he’s (..) haunted by tribalmemories, which could indicate his aboriginal past. Also seeming that he has this aboriginal past isthe quote; (..) But a thousand thousand camp fires in the forest - Are in my blood. The man in “ThePast”, and Billy from “Going Home” both have an identity crisis. They are aboriginals and belongin the...

Words: 351 - Pages: 2

Free Essay

Delirium

...mandatory for citizens 18 years old and over. Lena has looked forward to the procedure for years, convinced as she is by the government that love is a horrible disease that must be destroyed from mankind's system. However, mere months before her scheduled procedure, Lena falls in love with an Invalid (a person over 18 who has not taken the Cure and lives in the Wilds) named Alex. He was born in the Wilds outside the city, and has pretended to be cured in order to live undetected in the city and be in the resistance. He offers Lena the means of escape from the procedure that will destroy her ability to love. The two of them would leave the city and live in the Wilds, joining the rebels who oppose the procedure and the government. Although Lena struggles with the thought of leaving her life behind, she ultimately decides to go just seven days before her procedure. Alex and Lena are discovered meeting together a few nights before their planned escape. Lena is captured and held in her home, tied down and under guard, until she can have the procedure to cure her of her love sickness—and render her docile and...

Words: 1462 - Pages: 6

Free Essay

Thought Piece on the Movie 400 Blows

...The struggle of Antoine throughout the movie is very explicit. He was just a plain victim of unfortunate lying like when he punished by his teacher because he was holding a sexy photo even though he does not own it. It was just too unfortunate of him that every time he lies, he was caught up. And when he tries to say the truth, no one believes him. I believe that there is always a risk in lying and that is being caught. Good for those who lie but was not caught. But there was one lucky mistake that Antoine did. It was when he left a candle lighted. He was reprimanded but suddenly it turned out that her mother defended him. And they decided to go into a movie house and stroll around the streets of France. I admired the friendship of Rene because he offered something new, something that distract Antoine from his problems about his fam ily. He brought pleasure to besieged Antoine by going on into arcades, movies and puppet shows and smoking. I am okay with this because he did this for a pleasure. And why would Antoine stay in the school where he is an eye sore to his teachers if he can do stuffs outside that would make him happy? Rene even offered Antoine a place to stay. But I doubted him when he did not tell the cops that he was also liable in stealing the typewriter. Yes, I considered the action of Antoine and Rene as a stealing although there is an intention to return it. But they already stole it. Rene redeemed my respect when he tried to visit Antoine in the observatory center...

Words: 606 - Pages: 3

Premium Essay

Alcatraz

...Alcatraz Part II INTRODUCTION In this paper, I will discuss the key events following the creation of Alcatraz, examining the significant purpose of each incident, and explaining why the establishment of Alcatraz has lead to become such an important American figure in the Criminal Justice world. This paper will also go into more depth of some of America’s well-known gangsters who were held at Alcatraz and their plotted extreme escapes. I will examine each aspect of Alcatraz and try to draw significant conclusions and information from this supermax prison and the famous criminals that served time there. Once Alcatraz had been built, there were many questions about whether or not this prison was able to handle such a significant crowd of elegant prisoners. Many issues had came up for prison officials and the media had given an image to the public that incorporated those issues, causing questioning from the public about whatever was going on in Alcatraz was being deemed constitutional. David Ward, along with Gene Kassebaum in Alcatraz: The gangster years, do a great job in bringing out detailed facts about topics and concerns that was being brought up after the migration of America’s most dangerous criminals into this institution. This paper will look deep into whether or not creating such a commendable prison was worth all the attention from concerned officials and citizens. SUMMARY A theory that I had encountered throughout the second part of this book was how much attention...

Words: 1239 - Pages: 5