ESSAY TOPICS – PLEASE CHOOSE ONE TOPIC ONLY
Topic: Please select one of the two essay topics below. Just do one, please.
Essay Length: 3-4 typed pages, double-spaced.
Film Selection: You can pull your examples from any films you have been assigned this semester. You can also pull all of them from one film only.
Format: Please submit a PDF of your completed essay.
Submission: Please submit your PDF through this module’s submission portal.
Points for Either Choice: Total points are 20 for the essay.
Examples: For each of the three examples can earn up to 5 points each.
For full points the response needs to specifically identify a scene and an example.
Points will be taken off for lack of specificity and improperly identifying or describing technique chosen.
Introduction and Conclusion: A brief introduction and conclusion needs to be included and can earn up to 5 points or 2.5 points each.
Introduction should identify which option you have chosen and the focus of your essay. Your conclusion will comment on the power of the tool you have chosen to engage audiences.
Please, no more than 4 sentences for the introduction and conclusion.
HEROES
(Read points and requirements above: Each essay requires a brief introduction and conclusion)
For both essay topic choices you will explore techniques used by writer/directors to create heroes that audiences find worthy.
There are many different kinds of heroes. The writer/director usually builds characters so they reflect logos, pathos and ethos.
Although most heroes have all three attributes, some hero’s exemplify one trait more than others: A hero like Sherlock Holmes has admirable logical skill (Logos). A hero like Harry Potter might be said to be exceptionally empathetic (Pathos). There are other characters we might identify with because of shared values like the heroes in Hidden Figures (Ethos). Admirable skills might be artistic skills like acting or painting, they are not confined to logic.
Most heroes have all three.
OPTION ONE – PATHOS
a) Identify three scenes where we see the writer/director using empathy (pathos) to emotionally connect the audience to the hero.
b) For each of the three scenes you have chosen describe how the audience is made to feel empathy for the hero.
Please identify each scene separately and describe and analyze the use of pathos specifically in that scene separate from the other two examples.
Please use separate paragraphs for each of your three example scenes.
USE HEADINGS in your essay: EXAMPLE ONE, EXAMPLE TWO and EXAMPLE THREE
Note: You can pull your examples from any films you have been assigned this semester. You can also pull all of them from one film only.
OR
OPTION TWO – ETHOS
(Read points and requirements above: Each essay requires a brief introduction and conclusion)
a) Identify three scenes where we see the writer/director using ethos (shared values) to connect the audience to the hero through shared values. Ethos are values or virtues that make up one’s moral code. A value might be that all people should have equal access to education or the right to vote. One person might support the death penalty whereas their opponent might support rehabilitation. In a dramatic context you might see one character rush into a fire to save a child whereas another stands by and does nothing. In this example you see their values put into action. These two characters have a different moral code and a sense of justice. For them what constitutes right and wrong and what their personal responsibility is are different.
b) For each of the three scenes you have chosen describe how the audience is made to identify with the hero through shared values.
Please identify each scene separately and describe and analyze the use of ethos (shared values) specifically in that scene separate from the other two examples.
Please use separate paragraphs for each of the the three scenes.
USE HEADINGS in your essay: EXAMPLE ONE, EXAMPLE TWO and EXAMPLE THREE
Note: You can pull your examples from any films you have been assigned this semester. You can also pull all of them from one film only.
FILMS WE HAVE WATCHED:
– Raising Arizona
-Get Out, 2017
-Parasite 2019
-The Grand Budapest Hotel, 2014
-Citizen Kane, 1941
– Blade Runner (Final Cut) (1982)
– Rope, (1948)
– Raging Bull, (1980)
– A Quiet Place
