Hamlet video Critique

In the this movie version of Hamlet the scene starts off in the dark to set the dark, creepy mood for the ghost when he enters, But Hamlet is the one talking before the ghost enters, yells in a creepy, almost insane and distressed tone. also he is running through the forest with the ground cracking below his feet. The music is also while he is running frantic. When Hamlet stops and says he wont go on anymore the music also stops and everything comes to a screeching halt. Than a clearly not human voice talks which sounds also like more than once voice talking at the same time. The creepy Ghost who is talking is made to seem sinister or not a good ghost which i think the purpose was to make it clear that he wants his revenge. When he appears he pushes hamlet against a tree and starts talking. The Ghost's eyes are an unnatural blue, again to show that he is not alive. He is also whispering very, very loudly. When he talks about what would happen if he told his tale of what he went through the ground starts breaking apart again and steam comes out of the ground.I think it would have been more effective if the director made the king not really that much more alive, or to show that he was creepy, not even make it look like king Hamlet, because when he talks he clearly gives us the impression that he is not human yet and probably shouldn't be trusted. the king starts talking about his murder, and emphasizes the word murder, but also the camera gives us a closeup of king hamlets mouth every time he says murder which is three times. Then Hamlet speaks in a whimpering tone, which shows that he is distressed and afraid. I thought he was rather distracting and took away from the effect because every time he talked i could not help but think of a whimpering dog. Then flashbacks start to happen back to some point in which we see hamlet's uncle, in light, having a good time. I think the director does this because he wants to make the ghost look bad and not to be trusted because when the flashbacks occur and we see the "evil" uncle he's simply playing some game and the creepy effect is lessened by the introduction of a lighter scenery. Then when we see hamlets uncle actually go to murder his father we see him walking through the snow, which looks very fake, only his feet until he goes to poor the poison in his ear. Then while he's pouring the poison into his ear all we see is his hands, and while king hamlet is thrashing about we see the uncle, with a look of fear in his face. all while this is happening the scene goes back to the creepy scene and looks at hamlet, who looks confused, the scene is still dark. Then when the ghost is talking to hamlet again, he has a lazy eye. also his eyes, still seem unnatural. The music is also creepy still all the way up until the ghost leaves. The camera goes back and forth between hamlet's and the ghosts eyes. The camera also views the ghost always at a upward angle and hamlet at a lower one. all the way up until the ghost leaves. When the ghost leaves he disappears and they try to touch but he just disappears. The music changes into more peaceful when the ghost leaves, and Hamlet sounds a lot more manly instead of being afraid. the music then goes into brave music as he swears to kill his uncle.

Cat's Cradle

Daniel Truong
Gallagher
English 12 CP, Period 6
12 January 2009

Cat’s Cradle


Kurt Vonnegut’s novel Cat’s Cradle the author raises the question of what do people do to seem evil and answers the question simply, to an extent by human carelessness. He asks this question by making the antagonists the Hoenikker family in the novel, making them appear innocent and just, searching for happiness using the ice-nine, and yet the characters who ultimately, lead to the death of almost every living thing would not be considered “bad” or “evil”, but careless in what they were trying to pursue, which was happiness using the dangerous ice-nine. The author uses ironies and a bit of humor to answer his question of what is evil.

The father of the Hoenikker family and the atom bomb, Felix Hoenikker, is not what anyone at all would be considered “evil”. In his spare time he spent his time playing with strings and whatever else he could find, yet he was the father of the atom bomb, one of the most destructive inventions in the history of mankind. He also creates ice-nine which in the end of the novel destroys the ecosystem of the planet and leads to the death of everyone on earth, yet is he what anyone would consider evil. Felix Hoenikker would be considered nothing but a big child by anyone who knew him. All anyone had to do to make him concentrate on the bomb was take away his strong he would always play with to make him continue his work on the atom bomb. “put quote here”. But it is not his maturity or the innocent way he acts that makes him evil. It is his actions and his creations that lead to the deaths of thousands of people, due to his bomb, and ultimately, the whole world, due to ice-nine


The author suggests that people in society are too careless and blame their carelessness on human error too often. He does this by creating an allusion to the song rock a bye baby that Felix Hoenikker sings to his kid. “Rockabye catsy, in the tree top’; he sang, ‘When the wind blows, the cray-dull will rock. If the bough breaks, the craydull will fall. Down will come cray-dull, catsy and all.” (Vonnegut 18) when Felix sings this song his kid runs out of the house crying. The song foreshadows the end of the book when everything falls out of order The author shows us how though innocent Felix Hoenikker is an evil man. “His pores looked as big as craters on the moon. His ears and nostrils stuffed with hair. Cigar smoke made him smell like the mouth of hell. So close up my father was the ugliest thing I had ever seen. I dream about it all the time.” This is when Newt is describing his father while he tries to play with him. The author describes Felix in such an ugly way to show that newt’s father is indeed, evil, yet the father just tried to do was play with his own child. When the auther talks about Felix Hoenikker, Felix represents people, or society. When the author talks about Felix’s pores which are big holes on his face, it’s an allusion to the ideas of society, and how incompletely they are thought through and are careless, and how some human ideas have big holes in them, as they are not thought through. Newt then goes on to talk about his ears and nose stuffed with hair as if society is not willing to listen to each other when thinking about ideas and discussing them. The hair blocking the nose is just like people blocking each other out. Newt then describes the cigar smoke, which represents the outcome of the poorly thought through ideas of society and people. Felix is smoking a cigar, which is hurting him because cigars are very unhealthy, just as a poorly thought through idea could damage to society.

Falker Hemmingway Style paper

Daniel Truong
Super Gallagher
English 12 CP, Period 6
24 November 2008

Faulker hemmyway dialogue
I

The American and the girl sat with him at a table in (Hemingway 120) the house filled with dust, moldy with age and lack of sunlight. Her voice was dry and cold (Faulkner 114),
“I want some poison” she said, (Faulkner 112)
“let’s drink beer” (Hemingway 120)
“Big ones?” a woman asked from the doorway. (Hemingway 120)
“I want the best you have. I don’t care what kind” (Faulkner 110)
When she entered – a small, fat woman in black, with a thin gold chain descending to her waist and vanishing into her belt, leaning on an ebony cane with a tarnished gold head. (Faulkner 109)
The girl did not say anything (Hemingway 121) for a long while we just stood there, looking.(Faulkner 115)
“its pretty hot,” the man said (Hemingway 120)
“we want two Anis del Toro.” (Hemingway 120)
“you want them with water?” asked the woman
“yes, with water” (Hemingway 120)
We were a little disappointed that (Faulkner 113) it tastes like licorice. (Hemingway 120)
The woman bought (Hemingway 120) a note on paper of an archaic shape, in a thing flowing calligraphy in faded ink.(Faulkner 109) with a twenty five cent (Faulkner 114) tax notice (Faulkner 109)
The woman come out of the bar (Hemingway 120)
“The train comes in five minutes” she said “What did she say?” asked the girl
“That the train is coming in five minutes.”
The girl smiled brightly at the woman, to thank her.
“I’d better take the bags over to the other side of the station,” the man said. (Hemingway 123)
“I’m sure that wont be necessary,” (Faulkner 110) She smiled at him (Hemingway 123)
“But what will you have me do about it, madam?” he said (Faulkner 110)

“I don’t care anything about it.” (Hemingway 123)
“Do you feel better?” he asked
I feel fine,” she said. “there’s noting wrong with me. I feel fine.”

College essay

Daniel Truong
Mr. Gallagher
English 12 CP Period 6

College essay


I have always been a follower and not a leader. My mom has always called me “hien” which in Vietnamese means “east and nice.” Throughout my life I had been very “nice”. I had always been known by most who know me as very mathematically intelligent, but lazy. My mom also agrees with all of this.

My mom came here as an immigrant from Vietnam with her mom when she as my age and works hard to somehow become successful enough to raise six kids and live pretty comfortably herself. My mother is also a great singer who continually impresses people with her singing. This inspired me to take music classes in school in which we usually sing in different languages such as Italian, Latin, French and Spanish.

Growing up in a home with five other siblings isn’t the most relaxing thing in the world. Because in my home, in the culture I live in being the oldest means getting all the responsibility the most people my age would have gotten on top of responsibilities my siblings should have to themselves. My brother would go to school and it would be my job to help him study and do homework along with my other siblings, but if they ever brought home a test with a bad grade on it I would be the first to get yelled at and punished, often more severely than my brother or sister who got the bad grade in the first place, and even though it was unfair to me it has shown me how much mature I am now that I see my brothers and sisters go through the things I used to go through. This is when I came to a realization on how much value my life can be. I am talking about my transition to being a selfish kid to being a responsible young adult, actually helping other people’s lives. After seriously considering this I started to tutor kids in both math and chemistry making sure they can get the grades I think everyone should be able to get.

Doll's house movie critique

In the movie a doll’s house the director made choices to adapt the play differently than what was written. A movie and a book are very different and may require some adapting to create a clean good product where as a book would not face the same challenges writing a book than directing a movie.

In the Movie Nora walks in wearing a red fur coat which is a symbol of wealth whereas in the book the couple are made to seem like they have a lot less money because they have to save up and spend “Carefully” in the book. The movie also shows Torvald wearing a suit which most people who have to spend their money carefully, can not afford.

In the movie and in the book Nora is made to seem like a spendthrift and Torvald treats her like a child both in the movie and in the book. But the movie adds more to it when Torvald waves dollar by dollar at her because in the book it makes it seem like he’s just counting the money instead of waving the money at her.



In the book it dosent seem like the people aren’t as rich as the movie makes it seems

The clothes the girl wears makes her seem like she is really a lot more rich than the book leads on because they had to spend the movie more wisely so wouldn’t that make them more poor whereas in the movie the woman walks in with a fur coat and the man is wearing a suit

The movie adds more to their relationship with the money waving

The age difference is more significant in the movie whereas the book the reader could picture them being the same age

The woman seems a lot more like a nagging child in the movie instead of someone’s wife in the movie

That tree fits both the movie and the book well because the tree has no real description in the book where as the movie the tree is thin and does not have much to it which contradicts the wealth the couple have established in the movie. Because the reader would expect after seeing the woman’s fur coat and the man’s suit and the talk about the housekeepers that the tree would be more full and big

Although both in the movie and the book the woman seems to be a spendthrift in both

Red shift explication

Daniel Truong


In the poem “Red Shift” by Ted Berrigan the poet suggests many ideas about change and how it can be very negative throughout one’s life. The poet also suggests that speaker failed in trying to obtain his dream and regrets things that he has done in his lifetime.
The poem begins on a cold winter night where a man is walking through the streets on a winter night remembering about things he once had. He describes his two children, Frank and Allen and describes a scene where he is at long island talking to women than he describes it all being thrown up into the air just like he lost everything. The speaker’s life changed from being a successful man who lived in long island to being an elderly alcoholic who is reminiscing about his lifetime.
The speaker describes a boy and a pretty girl who is 19 which would later be his girlfriend. The girlfriend becomes a nagging woman whom he eventually leaves and leaves the currently old man, depressed and wondering the streets drunk and not sure about who he is. The speaker describes himself as a ghost with a body who lives only to nag. That he wonders around the streets and just nags at people.
The speaker describes himself as pronouns meaning that he has no identity. The poet is trying to describe humans or more Americans that try to achieve the American dream because it’s what you’re supposed to do in America and people lose everything because they conform with the rest of America and how people end up unhappy because they decided to follow the path that the rest of Americans tried to do. The last line of the poem “The world’s furious song flows through my costume” adds conformation to my idea. Costumes represent the pronouns that people become and the furious song is the regret that people have trying to conform with other people’s ideas and the world is simply the people who failed trying to conform to other people’s ideas and ideals.
The poet suggests in his poem that people try to conform to each other ideas instead of trying to come up with their own. He does this by describing the successes and failures of people who have failed and succeeded in trying to achieve the American dream. The poet also describes the speaker as pronouns and never introduces him he does this to show that the speaker is many people all conforming and not having their own ideas and identities.