Themes and motifs n stuff

Niki was kind enough to share that he had lost track of his notes

thought he might not be alone in that

so.......



Chinatown
Themes
• Greed
• Illicit sexuality & voyeurism
• Corrupt nature of society
• Seeing but not 'seeing'
• Doing good/does evil
• Investigation leads to confusion
• Knowledge is useful/dangerous
• Utopia - dystopia

'Chinatown' is a metaphor for a messed up state of mind, a place where you have no idea what's going on
It is then a synecdoche for the city of Los Angeles, a place where you have no idea what’s going on, and it's best to let it alone for good or ill.
Los Angeles in turn is a symbol for capitalism itself. The city is both a utopia and distopia of advanced capitalism.

Main character Jake Gittes;
Immediately introduced as a succesful, sharp dressed, capable, confident, even cock-sure
He has a sardonic manner and is alternately intimidating and coaxing with his clients.


Opening scene;
A set up for near the end

Paradoxes
• LA- utopia/dystopia
• Gittes as insider/outsider
• Water- life/death
• Doing good/does evil
• Investigation leads to confusion
• Knowledge is useful/dangerous

Motifs
Water
Sand
Chinatown

Summer Fun

A2yr2 Summer Assignment

Your summer assignment is in two parts.

The first is literary.

You are required to choose two excerpts of key text from Chinatown. Each are to be approximately 100 lines (slug lines and character cues don't count). For each a commentary is required.

You are building your skills and showing off your abilities so do your best.

The second assignment is from the monograph Global Issues.

You are required to read the introduction, and Chapter One. In class we will have distributed the remaining chapters. A précis is required for each of the three.

It is recommended to do the reading over the course of the summer and each of the two commentaries at the beginning and end of summer respectively.

Be Great!

Mr. Holmes & Mr. Browning


Global Issues Chapters

Everyone - Introduction + Wealth & Poverty


Ika Seb Max - Population


Sylvia Gustavo Michelle - Food


Carl Marina - Energy


Sarah Nick Vince - Environment


Nora Mel Alex - Technology


Hanna Esther - Alternative Futures

key moments

Film noir codes

genre

HBDF

colon, semi colon

colon

Usually after a complete sentence and...

1) Before a list.
I could only find three of the ingredients: sugar, flour and coconut.

2) Before a summary.
To summarise: we found the camp, set up our tent and then the bears attacked.

3) Before a quote.
As Jane Austen wrote: it is a truth universally acknowledged, that a single man in possession of a good fortune, must be in want of a wife.

4) To complete a statement of fact, where the colon is used in place of the following or thus.
There are only three kinds of people: the good, the bad and the ugly.

semi colon

use them to link two complete sentences (using a comma is comma splicing)

I had to go home early; I had a head cold.

or linking two sentences witha conjunctive adverb

I would have worked late; however, I had a terrble head cold.

or in a list where commas are already present

On vacation this year we visited the following: Vienna, Austria; Zurich, Switzerland; and Siena, Italy.