NARRATOLOGY

MIDNIGHT SUN

               Midnight Sun is the fifth and an unreleased companion novel to the book Twilight by author Stephenie Meyer. The work retells the events of Twilight, but is written from the perspective of Edward Cullen instead of that of the series' usual narrating character Bella Swan. Meyer stated that Twilight was to be the only book from the series that she planned to rewrite from Edward's perspective. To give them a better feel of Edward's character, Meyer allowed Catherine Hardwicke, the director of the film adaptation of Twilight, and Robert Pattinson, the actor playing Edward, to read some completed chapters of the novel while they filmed the movie.

CRITICISM

                     Narratology focuses on narration. As we all know, midnight sun is a novel which retells the story of twilight but in new perspective: Edward Cullen.Edward Cullen tells the story the way he perceives everything in the story.

CULTURAL STUDIES

DED NA SI LOLO

             With a flair for the dramatic five siblings from the Hernandez family deal with the death of their father and prepare for his week long wake. During this time, the siblings confront issues of rivalry and family secrets, while also following various superstitious beliefs for wakes, funerals, and the dead. With all the family members arriving to grieve for the deceased Hernandez ... utter chaos is sure to ensue. 

CRITICISM

             CULTURAL STUDIES shows different beliefs and superstitions. In the movie DED NA SI LOLO, the family's beliefs were shown as they tend to consider and obey each superstition.

GENRE CRITICISM

My November Guest

My Sorrow, when she's here with me,
Thinks these dark days of autumn rain
Are beautiful as days can be;
She loves the bare, the withered tree;
She walks the sodden pasture lane.

Her pleasure will not let me stay.
She talks and I am fain to list:
She's glad the birds are gone away,
She's glad her simple worsted grey
Is silver now with clinging mist.

The desolate, deserted trees,
The faded earth, the heavy sky,
The beauties she so truly sees,
She thinks I have no eye for these,
And vexes me for reason why.

Not yesterday I learned to know
The love of bare November days
Before the coming of the snow,
But it were vain to tell her so,
And they are better for her praise 
 

Robert Frost

 

CRITICISM

 

               A poem contains different elements and one example of this is figures of speech. As I Examine the poem above using genre criticism, I have notice the use of APOSTROPHE. An apostrophe is a figure of speech wherein the receiver of the sentences or speech is absent.

LOGOCENTRISM

A Late Walk

When I go up through the mowing field,
The headless aftermath,
Smooth-laid like thatch with the heavy dew,
Half closes the garden path.

And when I come to the garden ground,
The whir of sober birds
Up from the tangle of withered weeds
Is sadder than any words

A tree beside the wall stands bare,
But a leaf that lingered brown,
Disturbed, I doubt not, by my thought,
Comes softly rattling down.

I end not far from my going forth
By picking the faded blue
Of the last remaining aster flower
To carry again to you.

Robert Frost

 

CRITICISM

 

             Logocentrism defines literary works with hidden meanings, and these hidden meanings can be unlock only by the speaker. A speaker of a certain poem is the one who gives the meaning of the poem. He is the one with the ability to pass the essence of the written work to the listeners through speaking.

NEOCLASSICISM

MATILDA

           Matilda Wormwood  is an extremely intelligent girl with a bright personality from an early age, but her spiteful and ignorant parents, Harry and Zinnia, neglect and even mistreat her. When Matilda reaches four, she discovers the local library and walk there every day to read while her family is out.

           By the age of six, Matilda begins to lose patience with her parents. In retaliation for her father belittling her, she mixes his hair tonic with her mother's hair dye. Harry later takes his family to his workshop, where he reveals that the cars he sells are actually faulty and irresponsibly managed. Matilda accuses him openly and he belittles her again. One of Harry's clients, Agatha Trunchbull , is the sadistic headmistress of a run-down school, Crunchem Hall. Harry enrolls Matilda in the school, where she befriends several children, but at the same time, learns, especially from Lavender Brown and Hortensia (Kira Spencer Hesser), of Miss Trunchbull's nature and her particularly harsh punishments towards the students, such as the dreaded "Chokey", throwing students out of windows and forcing a boy who stole her slice of cake to eat a whole cake in front of the entire student body to make him sick (though he finishes the cake without getting sick). Fortunately, Matilda's teacher, Miss Jennifer Honey, is a kind and lovely woman who adores her pupils and takes an immediate liking to Matilda for her intellect. Miss Honey speaks with Miss Trunchbull and requests that Matilda be moved up to a higher class. Miss Honey pays Matilda's parents a visit and requests that they pay a bit more attention to their daughter, but they refuse to listen, effectively making Miss Honey the only person who truly understands Matilda. Meanwhile, Matilda discovers that she and her family are under FBI surveillance, because of her father's shady dealings, and purchasing of stolen goods and car parts, but her parents refuse to believe her, the FBI agents having already fooled them into thinking they are speedboat salesmen.

             Sometime later, Miss Trunchbull goes to Matilda's class for a weekly "check-up" and starts to bully the students. As a prank, Lavender places a newt in Miss Trunchbull's water jug to frighten her. Miss Trunchbull, however, accuses Matilda, and Matilda's rage at the injustice leads to her telekinetically tipping the glass over and splashing the water and the newt onto Miss Trunchbull, frightening her. Feeling sympathy for Matilda, Miss Honey invites her to her house for tea. On the way, they pass Miss Trunchbull's house, and Miss Honey reveals her secret to Matilda: when she was two years old, her mother died, so her father, a doctor, invited his wife’s sister, Miss Trunchbull, to live with them and look after Miss Honey while her father was at work. However, Miss Trunchbull mistreated and abused her niece at every opportunity. When Miss Honey was five, her father died of an apparent suicide and in his will, he left all of his assets to Miss Trunchbull, leaving his daughter with nothing. Eventually, Miss Honey moved out of her aunt’s house into a small cottage she rented from a local farmer. Matilda and Miss Honey briefly sneak into Miss Trunchbull's house while she is out, but her unexpected return leads to a cat-and-mouse chase with Matilda and Miss Honey only barely escaping unseen.

              When Matilda's telekinetic powers manifest again during an argument with Harry, Matilda trains herself to use her ability at her own will, and her first act is to sabotage the FBI agents' attempt to search Harry's garage without a warrant. That night, Matilda returns to Miss Trunchbull's house, and from outside, wreaks havoc in an attempt to scare Miss Trunchbull away. Miss Trunchbull almost flees in terror, but she finds Matilda's ribbon in the process and realizes that she was there. The next day, Miss Trunchbull visits Matilda's class again to get Matilda to admit her guilt, but as she begins abusing the children again, Matilda uses her powers to write a message on the blackboard, posing as the ghost of Miss Honey's father accusing Miss Trunchbull of murdering him and ordering her to leave town. Miss Trunchbull is driven insane by the terror and attacks the students, but Matilda keeps them out of harm's way with her powers and the student body forces Miss Trunchbull out of the school by pelting her with food and garbage until she leaves. Miss Honey's father's true will is discovered by the police, which named Miss Honey as the sole beneficiary of her father's assets, and Miss Honey moves back into her home, with Matilda visiting frequently.

          Sometime later, however, the FBI finally uncovers enough evidence to prosecute Harry, and they prepare to flee to Guam. They stop by Miss Honey's house to kidnap Matilda, but she refuses to accompany them, claiming she wants to stay with Miss Honey, who admits that she has come to see Matilda as the daughter she never had. In that moment, Harry and Zinnia then state that Matilda was the only daughter they had ever had and never understood, but they decide to let Miss Honey adopt her, this time on good terms with her. Harry, Zinnia and Michael escape, while Matilda lives a happy life with Miss Honey.

CRITICISM

           The theory Neoclassicism focuses on adaptations. The movie Matilda was an adaptation of the novel with the same title. The ideas are the same. The scenes are the same. Some might be different but they are obviously few. It is because the movie was just based on the novel.

DARWINISM

STARSHIP TROOPERS

               Starship Troopers takes place in the midst of an interstellar war between the Terran Federation of Earth and the Arachnids (referred to as "The Bugs") of Klendathu. It is narrated as a series of flashbacks by Juan Rico, and is one of only a few Heinlein novels set out in this fashion. The novel opens with Rico aboard the corvette Rodger Young, serving with the platoon known as "Rasczak's Roughnecks" (named after the platoon leader, Lt. Rasczak) about to embark on a raid against the planet of the "Skinnies", who are allies of the Arachnids. We learn that he is a cap(sule) trooper in the Terran Federation's Mobile Infantry. The raid itself, one of the few instances of actual combat in the novel, is relatively brief: the Roughnecks land on the planet, destroy their targets, and retreat, suffering a single casualty in the process (Dizzy Flores, who dies in the retrieval boat of wounds received in action).

The story then flashes back to Rico's graduation from high school, and his decision to sign up for Federal Service over the objections of his father, who disowns him. This is the only chapter that describes Rico's civilian life, and most of it is spent on the monologues of two people: retired Lt. Col. Jean V. Dubois, Rico's school instructor in "History and Moral Philosophy"; and Fleet Sergeant Ho, a recruiter for the armed forces of the Terran Federation.

Some see Dubois as speaking for Heinlein throughout the novel; he delivers what is probably the book's most famous soliloquy on violence: "[It] has settled more issues in history than has any other factor." Fleet Sergeant Ho's monologues examine the nature of military service, and his anti-military tirades seem primarily to be a contrast with Dubois. We learn, later, that his rants are part of a policy intended to scare off applicants signing up without conviction.

Interspersed throughout the book are other flashbacks to Rico's high school History and Moral Philosophy course, which describe how in the Terran Federation of Rico's day, the rights of a full Citizen (to vote, and hold public office) must be earned through some form of volunteer Federal service. Those residents who have not exercised their right to perform this Federal Service retain all other rights generally associated with a modern democracy (free speech, assembly, etc.), but they cannot vote or hold public office. This structure arose ad hoc after the collapse of the "20th century Western democracies", brought on by both social failures at home (among which appear to be poor handling of juvenile delinquency) and military defeat by the Chinese Hegemony overseas.

In the next section of the novel, after being denied all his higher preferred Service choices, Rico goes to boot camp at Camp Arthur Currie, on the northern prairies. Five chapters are spent exploring Rico's experience there, including his adjustment to a very different situation, entering the service under the training of the leading instructor, career Ship's Sergeant Charles Zim. Camp Currie is rigorous by design; less than ten percent of the recruits finish basic training. The rest either resign, are expelled, or die in training. One of the chapters deals with Ted Hendrick, a fellow recruit and constant complainer who is flogged and expelled for striking a superior officer during a simulated combat exercise (he caught Sgt. Zim by surprise after being struck by the sergeant for failure to perform during the exercise). Another recruit, a deserter who murdered a baby girl while AWOL, is hanged by his battalion after his arrest by civilian police and return to Camp Currie. Rico himself is flogged for poor handling of (simulated) nuclear weapons during a drill; despite these experiences, he eventually graduates and is assigned to a unit in the Fleet.

At some point during Rico's training, the "Bug War" has changed from border incidents to a full-fledged formal war, and Rico finds himself taking part in combat operations. The war "officially" starts with an Arachnid attack that annihilates the city of Buenos Aires (which kills Juan's mother who was visiting there), although Rico makes it clear that prior to the attack there had been many "'incidents', 'patrols', or 'police actions. Rico briefly describes the Terran Federation's loss at the Battle of Klendathu during which his unit is decimated and his ship destroyed. Following Klendathu, the Terran Federation is reduced to making hit-and-run raids similar to the one described at the beginning of the novel (which, chronologically, would be placed between chapters 10 and 11). Rico meanwhile finds himself posted to Rasczak's Roughnecks. This part of the book focuses on the daily routine of military life, as well as the relationship between officers and non-commissioned officers, personified in this case by Rasczak and Sergeant Jelal.

Eventually, Rico decides to become a career soldier, and one of his fellow troopers claims he is officer material and should consider volunteering for Officer Candidate School. He applies and is accepted. It turns out to be just like boot camp, only "squared and cubed with books added". Rico manages to make it through to the final exam, "in the Fleet". He is commissioned a temporary Third Lieutenant for his field-test and commands his own unit during Operation Royalty. It is revealed at the end of the chapter that one of the enlisted men he leads into combat is his former basic training instructor, Sergeant Zim. Although personally convinced that he badly mismanaged his men, he passes the final exam, and graduates as a Second Lieutenant.

Rico has a meeting with his father, who had volunteered for Service after his wife, Rico's mother, was killed at Buenos Aires. The final chapter serves as more of a coda, depicting Rico aboard the Rodger Young as the lieutenant in command of Rico's Roughnecks, preparing to drop to Klendathu as part of a major strike, his father being his senior sergeant, and a Native American Third Lieutenant-in-training (James Bearpaw, known as "Jimmie") of his own under instruction.

CRITICISM

            Darwinism focuses on man's evolution and maturity. It might be changes in the mind or physical changes that an individual undergoes. In the movie starship troopers, the problems of the said troopers are the BUGS. Bugs which probably underwent an enormous change because the said bugs were bigger than what nature could have allowed.

ARCHETYPAL CRITICISM

BATMAN RETURNS

             In Gotham City, a wealthy couple throw their deformed infant son into the sewer; the boy survives, however, and is found by a flock of penguins. Thirty-three years later, the child, Oswald Cobblepot, resurfaces as a criminal, the Penguin, who kidnaps millionaire industrialist Max Shreck. With evidence of his corporate crimes, Cobblepot blackmails Shreck into helping him leave the sewers to become part of Gotham's elite. The Penguin arranges for the Mayor's child to be kidnapped, whom he then "rescues" in order to set himself up as a heroic figure.

         Late one night, upon returning to his office, Shreck surprises his secretary Selina Kyle, in the course of her preparation for a meeting with Bruce Wayne regarding Shreck's proposed power plant. While innocently pulling relevant documents, Selina accesses Shreck's protected files, uncovering compromising information, revealing that the plant will drain Gotham's power supply. Realizing Selina knows too much, Shreck pushes her out of a window, leaving her for dead on the ground many stories below. Selina survives the fall after being revived by alley cats. She returns to her apartment, then suffers a psychotic break and reinvents herself as Catwoman, a catsuit-clad burglar dedicated to getting revenge on her boss.

         Shreck then hatches a plan to recall Gotham City's current mayor and elect the Penguin in his place, in order to cement his control over the city and complete his power plant project. The Penguin's gang of circus performers cause chaos around Gotham to create bad press for the Mayor. Meanwhile, Bruce's alter-ego Batman tries to defend Gotham from Catwoman and the Penguin's gang.

         Selina falls in love with Bruce, a situation complicated by Catwoman's teaming with the  Penguin in an effort to rid Gotham of Batman. They kidnap The Ice Princess, a woman chosen to turn on the Gotham Christmas Tree lights, and frame Batman for the crime. Finding The Princess balancing precariously on the ledge of a high building, Batman tries to save her, but to no avail; the Penguin unleashes an umbrella full of bats which frighten The Princess into plunging to her death, and makes it look like Batman killed her. When a shocked Catwoman rejects his advances, the Penguin tries, unsuccessfully, to kill her. When Batman returns to the Batmobile, he finds that the Penguin has sabotaged it; as the Penguin takes the Batmobile on a remote-controlled rampage through Gotham, he gloats about fooling the entire city. Batman ultimately escapes the Penguin's trap, however.

            When Bruce exposes the Penguin's plans to dupe Gotham, thereby ruining his election chances, the Penguin initiates a plan to murder all of Gotham's first-born sons by kidnapping and taking them into his lair to drown them in a pool of water that has been contaminated with Shreck's toxic waste. He personally attempts to take Max's son, Charles "Chip" Shreck, but agrees to take Max instead. Batman foils the Penguin's large-scale infanticide scheme, whereupon the Penguin then decides to launch missiles around Gotham using mind-controlled penguins. However, Batman is able to jam the frequency used to control the penguins and has missiles launched at the Penguin's base. Batman confronts the Penguin, which culminates in the Penguin falling into the toxic waters in his lair.

           Batman tries to persuade Catwoman to turn Shreck over to the police, even unmasking himself in the process, but Shreck draws a gun. Catwoman claims that she still has six of her nine lives left, and remains standing after Shreck shoots her four times. Catwoman uses a taser to cause an explosion, electrocuting Shreck and apparently sacrificing herself (using up her "eighth life"). The Penguin then emerges from the toxic water and tries to kill Batman, but he succumbs to his wounds. His penguins then take his body into the sewer waters as a final resting place.

               Later, Bruce is being driven around the city at night with butler Alfred Pennyworth and thinks he sees Selina's shadow on a wall. Alfred stops the car, and Bruce finds a cat, which he takes with him and leaves. As the Bat-Signal lights up the night sky, a silhouette of what appears to be Catwoman is seen gazing at it.

CRITICISM

         The movie is under the archetypal criticism because the main character is a fictional character. He was just an outcome of an imaginative mind. Batman and his adventures were never true. And Batman himself never existed.