Analysis of Structuralism in 47 Ronin

Analysis of Structuralism in 47 Ronin THE ANALYSIS OF STRUCTURALISM IN A WESTERN FILM ENTITLED 47 RONIN DIRECTED BY CARL RINSCH AS THE IMAGING OF AMERICAN DREAM Capritia Dirgantari ABSTRACT Media or medium in singular form is the main means of mass communication that addressed to society. The author chooses 47 Ronin directed by Carl Rinsch to be the focus of this analysis which specified to discuss the ‘American dream’ that reflecting from this film. The objectives of this analysis are to identify, describe and analyze influences that given by media to the society. The author uses descriptive as the method of this analysis and applies Structuralism theory to examine the scenes of this film that represents the ‘American dream’. Structuralism theory emphasizes how films deliver its meaning by the utilization of languages that are used to establish purposes in communication. The result findings show that film as one of media represents ‘American dream’ that related to the society mindset, unconsciously or consciously. The author hopes the readers get better understanding of Structuralism theory in analyzing a film and comprehend the m eaning of ‘American dream’ that influencing the societies. Keywords: Media, Film, American dream, Structuralism INTRODUCTION The influence of mass media has grown exponentially with the advance of technology. First there were books, newspapers, magazines, photography, sound recordings, films, radio, television, and internet.Nowadays, everyone depends on information and communication to keep their lives moving through their daily activities like work, education, entertainment, personal relationships, and the other stuff with which we are involved.Societies gather much information that they needed from those media sources. Raymond Williams estimates that media can be defined in three senses: historical sense; technical sense; and etymological sense. Historical sense is an intervening substance or agency and technical sense means medium as communicating message to public. Williams also defines etymological sense of the media as a capitalist sense which developed during the nineteenth century (Williams, 1983). Media became profitable enterprises during this era because its commercials features produce generati ng business for example like advertisements, video clips, and films. America was one of the capitalist states that introduce the famous term of ‘American Dream’ and tons of films have been made in here. The author chooses a western film entitled 47 Ronin directed by Carl Rinsch as the main focus of this analysis to interpret how big ‘American Dream’ influences the public from the structure of this film. 47 Ronin is a 2013 American fantasy action film representing a fictional account of the real group of ronin—a samurai with no master—in 18th era of Japan, who revenged the death of their lord commonly called as ChÃ…Â «shingura. This film was directed by Carl Rinsch and produced by Universal Studios. 47 Ronin costs $152 million for making all scenes and visuals which crowned as the second most expensive box office ever behind The 13th Warrior film (Kit, 2012). Another favored feature of this film is the protagonist character was acted by famous actor Keanu Reeves and other five Japanese actors: Sanada Hiroyuki; Rinko Kikuchi; Tadanobu Asano; Jin Akanishi; and Kou Shibasaki. Universal Studios chooses those five Japanese actors to create better storyline and more genuine than choosing actors who was too mainstream in the United States, even though the scenario in this film giving no resemblance to the origin story of ChÃ…Â «shingura. This film broadly tells about a group of ronin who revenge to the death of their master. The story begins when Lord Asano accompany with samurai of Ako, find an unknown boy—Kai—and allow him to stay in province of Ako. Years later, Lord Asano arranges welcoming event dedicated to the arrival of the Shogun and Lord Kira in Ako. After that, conflicts emerge until Lord Asano penalized to obligating suicide by the Shogun’s order, called as Lord Ieayashu. Time after time the groups of ronin realize this tragedy happened because of Lord Kira, then the group of ronin led by Oishi and Kai sets up for revenge against the Shoguns order (Dresner, 2013). The author chooses this film because it reflects the definition of ‘American Dream’. The definition of ‘American dream’ in this analysis is someone’s struggle for achieving a high position to become recognizable by other people and it has triggered the passion of people from generation to generation (americanradioworks.publicradio.org, 2015). American dream popularized by American people and it is also valid for everyone from other countries to find their opportunities in foreign countries. The American dream offers the freedom of each people to make decisions that render better life; the freedom to wish better dreams; the freedom to gaining prosperity; and the opportunity to lead a dignified life (Adams, 1931). Hence, the author uses Structuralism theory in order to find out the main purpose of this analysis. The structuralism film theory explains in what manner films deliver its meaning by the utilization of languages that are used to establish purp oses in communication (Storey, 2009). An example of this is to understand how combination of scenes can create an additional idea, in this case ‘the American Dream’ portrayed in this film and affecting the societies. ANALYSIS This chapter intends to analyze the implicit meanings from ‘American Dream’ in scenes of 47 Ronin by using Structuralism theory. Structuralism assumes a film or any other kind of media as a signifying system, a set of patterns or relationships within the society. First of all, the author gives a brief explanation about Structuralism theory used in media. Ferdinand de Saussure, the founder of modern structural linguistics in the 1960s, in his essay ‘Object of Study’ theorized his structuralism assessment of language and he also shows the basis of structuralism theory (Eagleton 84). This essay states the role of communication tracts which substituted from one person to other person. Saussure explains that someone must omit the individual act to understand this communication tract, which he has concluded it as social phenomenon (Saussure, 1959). This study related to Claude Levi-Strauss’ the ‘unconscious foundations’ of culture, he argues th at to understand this structure we could correctly comprehend the meaning by discovering the value of myths (Levi-Strauss, 1968: 209). Myths purpose to provide stories that bring peace towards the existence of people. To understand the social meaning of a myth, Will Wright introduces the power of Western which symbolizes deep conceptualization of American social beliefs that contain of three stages: ‘classic’; ‘transition theme’; and ‘professional’ (Wright, 1975). The author describes each stage that mentioned above by proving some scenes taken from 47 Ronin film. According to Wright, the ‘classic’ stage divided into sixteen narrative ‘functions’ (Propp, 1968) which are: The hero enters a social group This happens in the prologue of 47 ronin film when Lord Asano the leader of Ako province saved Kai the protagonist character to live along with Ako society. The hero is unknown to the society In the early beginning of this film, there are scenes that explain the unknown background of the protagonist character. The narrator said, â€Å"No one knows where is he come from or how he arrived in Ako province†. The hero is revealed to have an exceptional ability After Lord Asano takes Kai to his territory, he said that he saw something special inside Kai that no one has seen before. The society recognizes a difference between themselves and the hero. The hero is given a special status This occurs when Oishi, a ronin who asked help from Kai which at the first time Oishi underestimates him. And this recognition continues when Oishi gave him a sword which is inherited from Basho, a comrade who died. The society does not completely accept the hero Unfortunately, one of the other ronin did not accept Kai’s existence in this group. He assumed that Kai is not a samurai and have no clear background of his life. There is a conflict of interests between the villain and the society Meanwhile the antagonist character, Lord Kira has ulterior motive to reigns the Ako province by using witchcraft. The villains are stronger than society. The society is weak In this film, Lord Kira has stronger troops and supernatural beings that can give adverse spells to Ako society. Contrast with Ako society who does not accept any witchcraft and they just rely on human strength. There is a strong respect between the hero and the villain Both Lord Asano and Lord Kira has mutual respect as the leader of province and each year they arrange a friendly competition. The villains threaten the society After Lord Kira made Lord Asano committed suicide—in this context commonly known as hara-kiri, Ako society has no power to avenge his death because it has a big risk to their future. The hero avoids involvement in the conflict When Oishi asked Kai for help, Kai denied it because he feels underestimate at the first time. But then Oishi gives explanation that he was wrong. The villains endanger a friend of the hero Lord Kira launched his second attack by trapping the ronin in a village. This raid laid to two victims of ronin. The hero fights the villains In climax, Kai fight the supernatural beings and Oishi fight Lord Kira. The hero defeats villains The result is the protagonist wins this battle. The society is safe After beheaded Lord Kira’s head, ronin come home and Ako society is safe. The society accepts the hero Ako society and other provinces are accepting Kai as one of the hero who saved Ako province. It is more visible again when Lord Ieyashu gives salute and respect Kai and other ronin as samurai. The hero loses or gives up his special status In the final scene shows that Kai doing hara-kiri as well as the other ronin does in order to uphold the honor as a samurai. These entire sixteen narrative functions give important role to finding the ‘American Dream’ that contains in this film. The author found that entire narrative functions represent the steps of someone’s struggle to achieve recognizable position within the society. And the second stage is ‘transition theme.’ According to Wright, ‘transition theme’ describes about the transition that happened in the protagonist character (Wright, 1975). For example in 47 Ronin, after Kai got banished to a foreign ship, he adapted with his surroundings by keep fighting with other bandits which contrast with his first personality in Ako province. The last is ‘professional’ stage which means as the official position of the protagonist that gives professional identity. This is happened when Kai got recognizable position from the society of Ako province as samurai. Each of the stages that mentioned by Will Wright are interrelated and what has been e xperienced by the protagonist symbolize the definition of ‘American dream.’ According to James Truslow Adams’ book entitled The Epic of America, he states that the American dream is â€Å"a dream which life should be better for everyone, with opportunity for each according to ability or achievement† (Adams, 1931: 214-215). That is to say, anyone have their right for having big dreams which led them strive to realizing their dreams and how fast they could achieve it depends on the ability of each person. CONCLUSION This conclusion intends to follow up the result of this analysis. Structuralism theory that used to analyze a film entitled 47 Ronin is capable in revealing how the western film industries influence the viewers through the three stages mentioned by Will Wright. Each type of these stages articulates its own mythic version of how to achieve the American dream. The first stage is classical plot, it defines the structure of human achievement by bestowing the relationship, respect, and dignity to differentiate yourself from others. The second stage transition theme argues that companionship and love are alongside with the social status of someone and this stage also reveals how someone’s life change and get a different social status. The last stage is professional plot. This stage argues that respect and companionship are to be achieved only by becoming one of the professional groups. The member of professional group must accept any obligation, responsible of the task that is offer ed, has solidarity to the team, and not competing with the same comrades in any social values. These three stages are representing the ‘American dream’ that is influencing the society nowadays. According to Levi-Strauss, he mentioned that the myth of a society through their structure reveals the communication of a theoretical demand to the members of that society (Wright, 1975: 17). Film portrays reality and reality portrays films. Moreover, the readers should notice that the world is the stage itself and everyone is merely the player. People have their own way to achieve their goals whether they become villain to the society like in ‘transitional theme’, become the professional’ group of the society or maybe become both of them. Hopefully, this analysis can give deeper insight to the readers by knowing influences given by the media especially in a film like 47 Ronin. REFERENCES Adams, James Truslow. The Epic of America. New York: Simon Publications, 2001. Dresner, Jonathan. The Many Things 47 Ronin Gets Wrong About Shogun-Era Japan (And the One Thing It Gets Right). http://www.historynewsnetwork.org/article/154304 USA: 2013. Eagleton, Terry. Literary Theory: An Introduction. Minnesota: The University of Minnesota Press, 2001. Ellis, Kate, Ellen Guettler. A Better Life: Creating The American Dream. http://americanradioworks.publicradio.org/features/americandream/ USA: American Public Media, 2015. Kit, Borys. Universal Pushes Back Keanu Reeves 47 Ronin. New York: The Hollywood Reporter, 2012. Levi-Strauss, Claude. Structural Anthropology. Hammondsworth: Penguin Books, 1968. Saussure, Ferdinand. Course in General Linguistics. New York: Philosophical Library, 1959. Storey, John. Cultural Theories and Popular Culture: An Introduction. 5th Ed. Pearson, 2009. Williams, Raymond. A Vocabulary of Culture and Society. Rev. Ed. New York: Oxford University Press,1983. Wright, Will. Sixguns and Society: A Structural Study of the Western. California: University of California Press, 1975.

Father Steals Best: Crime in an American Family Essay

This particular story is about a family of criminals in Oregon and received attention throughout the United States and has been cited by politicians, law enforcement agencies, and researchers in criminology, and psychology. Dale Vincent â€Å"Rooster† Bogle, taught his children to steal, so that by age 10 his sons were already breaking into liquor stores or stealing tractor-trailer trucks. His daughters turned to petty crimes in order to support their drug addictions. By the time of his death in 1998, 28 of the Bogle clan had been convicted of crimes, including several of Rooster’s grandchildren. Tracey Bogle, the youngest of Rooster’s sons, is quoted as saying, â€Å"Rooster raised us to be outlaws†¦There is a domino effect in a family like ours†¦What you’re raised with, you grow to become. You don’t escape.† The Justice Department’s statistics show that approximately 47 percent of inmates in the state prisons have parents o r other close relatives who have also been incarcerated. The Justice Department believes that ignoring this family cycle of criminality may be very difficult, and end up costing tax payers an expediential amount of money. It is astonishing that given all the research that is done about other issues on criminals, there is either no research or very little research regarding this subject of family criminal activity. This I’m sure is due to the limited availability of records that contain the criminal records of multiple generations of families. It is possible that with the proper research and funding, that reducing crime today may also reduce crime in the future. Moreover, research may underestimate the effects of policies that treat or deter criminal behavior by not taking into account the effect on future generations. Although there are studies that provide some evidence of intergenerational criminal correlations, there is no real focus on identifying why this relationship exists. Criminal behavior has always been a focus for psychologists due to the age old debate between nature and nurture. Is it the responsibility of an individual’s genetic makeup that makes them a criminal or is it the environment in which they are raised that determines their outcome? There has been limited research regarding this debate which has resulted in a conclusion that both genes and environment do play a role in the criminality of an individual.

Reflection On Progressivism - 1379 Words

After completing the survey in the Introduction to Teaching textbook, I learned that my philosophy of education closely correlates with the views of progressivism. My understanding of this philosophy highlights the child as a whole and the importance of active learning that readies students for the world ahead of them. Progressivists also believe that experiences are a large part of a students learning which is why active learning is so common allowing students to learn about themselves and learn how to problem solve. Rather than believing in strict common core curriculum, progressivist believe that the interest of students should be the main source of deciding curriculum and activities. John Dewey ‘father of progressive education’ was a†¦show more content†¦A student can be involved in their education and the progress they make rather than being a bystander with a lecture style classroom and are active participants in their learning and evaluations. Overall, th e use of a progressive outlook in the classroom creates a student centered and directed environment that focuses on the student and their interests promoting growth and knowledge rather than testing and repetition. The INTASC that has always stuck out to me and would fit well into a progressive classroom was standard #2: Learning Differences. Council of Chief State School Officers define this strategy as â€Å"the teacher uses understanding of individual differences and diverse cultures and communities to ensure inclusive learning environments that enable each learner to meet high standards† (2011). With a progressive philosophy of education, the main goals are to give students an education that is personal and relates to their life. The focus of meaningful life and education can be explored and expressed in learning differences. To start the year off on a high note, I plan to meet with parents and students as an introductory meeting. 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Anna Arnold Hedgeman, Civil Rights Activist, Feminist

article edited with additions by Jone Johnson Lewis Dates: July 5, 1899Â  -Â  January 17, 1990Known for: African-American feminist; civil rights activist; founding member of NOW Anna Arnold Hedgeman was a civil rights activist and an early leader in the National Organization for Women. She worked throughout her life on issues such as education, feminism, social justice, poverty and civil rights. A Pioneer for Civil Rights Anna Arnold Hedgemans lifetime of accomplishments included many firsts: First black woman to graduate from Hamline University (1922) - the university now has a scholarship named for herFirst black woman to serve on a New York City mayoral cabinet (1954-1958)First black person to hold a Federal Security Agency position Anna Arnold Hedgeman was also the only woman on the executive committee that organized Martin Luther King, Jr.s famous March on Washington in 1963. Patrik Henry Bass called her instrumental in organizing the march and the conscience of the march in his book Like A Mighty Stream: The March on Washington August 28, 1963 (Running Press Book Publishers, 2002). When Anna Arnold Hedgeman realized there were going to be no female speakers at the event, she protested the minimal recognition of women who were civil rights heroes. She succeeded in persuading the committee that this oversight was a mistake, which led eventually to Daisy Bates being invited to speak that day at the Lincoln Memorial. NOW Activism Anna Arnold Hedgeman served temporarily as the first executive vice-president of NOW. Aileen Hernandez, who had been serving on the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, was elected executive vice-president in absentia when the first NOW officers were selected in 1966. Anna Arnold Hedgeman served as temporary executive vice-president until Aileen Hernandez officially stepped down from the EEOC and took the NOW position in March 1967. Anna Arnold Hedgeman was the first chair of NOWs Task Force on Women in Poverty. In her 1967 task force report, she called for a meaningful expansion of economic opportunities for women and said there were no jobs or opportunities for women at the bottom of the heap to move into. Her suggestions included job training, job creation, regional and city planning, attention to high school dropouts and an end to the ignoring of women and girls in federal job and poverty-related programs. Other Activism In addition to NOW, Anna Arnold Hedgeman was involved with organizations including the YWCA, the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, the National Urban League, the National Council of Churches Commission on Religion and Race and the National Council for a Permanent Fair Employment Practices Commission. She ran for Congress and president of the New York City Council, drawing attention to social issues even when she lost the elections. A 20th Century Life in the United States Anna Arnold was born in Iowa and grew up in Minnesota. Her mother was Mary Ellen Parker Arnold, and her father, William James Arnold II, was a businessman. The family was the only black family in Anoka, Iowa, where Anna Arnold grew up. Â  She graduated from high school in 1918, and then became the first black graduate of Hamline University in Saint Paul, Minnesota. Unable to find a teaching job in Minnesota where a black woman would be hired, Anna Arnold taught in Mississippi at Rust College. She could not accept living under Jim Crow discrimination, so she returned north to work for the YWCA. She worked at black YWCA branches in four states, ending up finally in Harlem, New York City. In New York in 1933, Anna Arnold married Merritt Hedgeman, a musician and performer. Â   During the Depression, she was a consultant on racial problems for the Emergency Relief Bureau of New York City, studying near-slavery conditions of black women who worked in domestic service in the Bronx, and studying Puerto Rican conditions in the city. Â  When World War II began, she worked as a civil defense official, advocating for black workers in war industries. In 1944 she went to work for an organization advocating for fair employment practices. Â  Unsuccessful at getting fair employment legislation passed, she returned to the academic world, working as an assistant dean for women at Howard University in New York. In the 1948 election, she was executive director of the presidential re-election campaign for Harry S Truman. After he was reelected, she went to work for his government, working on issues of race and employment. Â  She was the first woman and the first African American to be part of a mayoral cabinet in New York City, appointed by Robert Wagner, Jr., to advocate for the poor. As a laywoman, she signed a 1966 black power statement by black members of the clergy which appeared in the New York Times. In the 1960s she worked for religious organizations, advocating for higher education and racial reconciliation. Â  It was in her role as a part of religious and womens communities that she advocated strongly for the participation of white Christians in the 1963 March on Washington. She wrote the books The Trumpet Sounds: A Memoir of Negro Leaership (1964) and The Gift of Chaos: Decades of American Discontent (1977).Anna Arnold Hedgeman died in Harlem in 1990.