Shannon Corcoran Blog #5 The Decalogue

The Midrash in the first segment of the film can be the computer compared to a false god. The father trusted the computer for detailed calculations while not putting his faith in God. The father believed in everything the computer said but he did not believe in God. When his son went out ice skating, the ice cracked and the boy drowned. The father paid an ultimate price for putting is faith in the computer, a false god. Although the meaning of the film was not obvious because it was a little hard to find out what the other god was and what the punishment was.
The Midrash in the second segment of the film is the act of killing. The main character killed a person but later on he regrets the killing. He kills not thinking on the crime he did nor what the reactions were going to be. To me it was harder to find the meaning behind the story and how it will affect the characters in the story.
Some of the visuals that gap the understanding of the film are the snow in the first segment. The snow is a symbol of death. Also snow is a symbol of sadness. The death and sadness is of that of the little boy. The ice breaks killing the boy. With the ice breaking also can symbolize in the film the breaking structure of truth the father had with the computer. Once the ice broke the truth in the computer also broke.
A visual in the second segment of the film is rope. Rope ties us together and shows where it have been. When the main character kills with some rope. Later, when the main character is being executed, he dies by being hung. The material on which he is hang is rope.
The films relate to feeling because we know what death is and the fear of death. The films shows how some people try to avoid death, either by trusting in a computer or fighting to avoid being executed. The films also shows the effects of death, either it is new or been a while. They show people are sadden by the deaths.
With the flux of the moment people do things on what they think is right or fun. But with the eternity on their hands people will regret the actions they did. In the first segment the action the father regretted is trusting solely on the computer and nothing else. While in the second segment the main character regretted killing the person because now he has to die. The father has to live with eternity regretting his actions. While the eternity of the main character in the second segment is death. He will forever be dead.

Shannon Corcoran Blog #4 Northfork

The story about Northfork is about about a town that is about be flooded and the town is dealing with the situation. When the film starts most of the town is deserted and the last few people are packing up and moving away. One scene of this is when there are three cars that take different paths in three different paths at a crossroad. This is like the people of the town are scattered into the four winds. The father and son have the job to eventuate the people from the town but they have some of their own trouble about the moving. The trouble is whether or not move the father's wife from her grave. They don't know what is better, move her from her resting place to move her to a better place or leave her in her resting place but have it covered in water.
The film Northfork had several different religious symbols. Some of the symbols are obvious like an ark with two of everything (including two wives), some angels, and a great flood. Some of the symbols are not too obvious. One of the symbols is when the boy dies, he takes a plane ride. This could symbolize him flying off to Heaven. Also it shows that the other angels can too “fly”.
One of my favorite symbols is the term of moving to a higher ground. The term higher ground could mean a better life. With some people the higher ground can mean heaven. The people move to heaven in order to get safe. They are going to be saved from the flood. The flood can be the great flood in The Bible but this time the people are saved.

Shannon Corcoran Blog #3 Witchcraft and Religious Services

Every year the Harry Potter books are up on the list of books of people wanting to ban. A main reason for this is because people believe the books are promoting witchcraft. But what is really witchcraft? To me, witchcraft is just a form of a ritual. A ritual is a set of actions performed with symbols. With witchcraft the ritual is casting of a spell, even though it is a very fast ritual. One would have to cast the spell in a certain way, saying certain words, and for potions mix certain items together in a certain way. When one is casting a spell they have to pay attention to the signs and symbols because if the signs and symbols are wrong then the spell is no completed.
With religious services, they are mainly based on rituals. The religious leader says certain words and act in a certain way. The way on how the religious leader conducts is based on symbols. Some people believe if one performed the service based on the symbols then there be a result. The results will be slower and not in a way someone would expect.
To me, religious services and witchcraft are both rituals. Although they are both very different and used for different reasons. They both had to be performed in certain ways, have words said in a certain way, and both have symbols. They both are used to get results even though the results are different. The results may for different things and may have different timely for the results. So some religious services may count as a ritual as the same for some witchcraft. In the end they are loosely based on the same foundations of a ritual.
If some people want to banned the Harry Potter book because they have witchcraft in them then the same people should look at the religious services and then try banned them.