Blog Entry 4.1: Update

       Last night, I watched 'The Goonies' again. It was so much fun even thoguh I watched it for the assignment. Watching the movie, I wrote several important symbols, symbolic gestures, and archetypes. For example, the number of crime family is three which has significant symbolic meaning. A wishing well and a pair of scales of One-Eyed Willi seem to be one of the important symbols in the movie. I already finished writing the plot as well as the introduction. I am going to copy and paste the draft below.

      I am going to keep working on finding symbols and interpreting the movie. The final project seemed to be hard at first, but I find it fun since I selected my best movie.  :) 

--------------------- Introduction and Plot ----------------------------

(I'm going to the writing center after the Thanksgiving Day so please excuse me for the errors in the text)

           Treasure islands, pirate ships, exciting adventures, or stories of hero or heroine always appeal to children. ‘The Goonies,’ a movie about hidden treasure and four children who are seeking the treasure, has been still one of my favorite adventure movies since I watched it when I was younger. I recorded it on video tape and watched more than twenty times, but the movie never gets boring. ‘The Goonies’ was directed by Richard Donner and came out in 1985. Richard Donner also directed several superhero movies or supernatural films such as ‘the Omen,’ ‘Superman’ and ‘Lethal Weapon.’ It is interesting that Steven Spielberg wrote the story of ‘the Goonies,’ and the screenplay was written by Chris Columbus who also worked on ‘Gremlins,’ ‘Home Alone’ and ‘Harry Potter’ series. What else can you expect? It is no wonder that ‘the Goonies’ is such an exciting and well-organized adventure family movie. This movie shows ‘the hero’s journey,’ ‘monomyth,’ very well and I am glad that I have a chance to interpret ‘the Goonies’ since this is one of my favorite movies.

            The setting of the movie is a quiet and small village by the sea in Oregon. It is the last week for Mikey and his elder brother, Brand, to live in the village. Their house is going to be demolished by developers who are planning to transform the neighborhood into a golf course. Mikey, the leader of the Goonies, and his playful friends, Mouth, Chunk, and Data, happen to find a 17^th century pirate treasure map of ‘One-Eyed’ Willie. The four children, Brand, Andy, and Stef set out to find the hidden treasure. Meanwhile, a crime family, the Fratellis, just escaped from jail and hide in an isolated restaurant in the same village. The entrance to a secret cavern, coincidently, is under the restaurant where the Fratellis just occupied. The Goonies managed to sneak into the cavern, but Chunk was captured by the Fratellis and let the crime family know the hidden treasure.

            As the Goonies seek for the hidden treasure, they go through several traps which were set by One-Eyed Willie. The Fratellis confine Chunk in a basement room and start chasing the Goonies through the hidden cavern. Chunk is placed in the room where the Fratellis placed their brother, Sloth, who has a deformed face because Momma Fratelli dropped him when he was younger. Chunk and Sloth become intimate soon since they have one thing in common that they both love eating. The Goonies finally discover the One-Eyed Willi’s ship which is filled with treasure, but the Fratellis also find the Goonies and force them to put out all the treasure and leave the ship. The Fratellis are caught in a trap and triggers the collapse of the cavern. In the end, Chunk and Sloth save their friends and the Fratellis are arrested. Mikey and his family find jewelry in his marble bag and celebrate that they do not need to leave their place any more.
 

Blog Entry 3.5 In-class essay

The Meaning of Monsters

Jihwan Lee

    Throughout many types of literature, we can see a number of supernatural creatures such as gods, giants, dragons, vampires, and witches. Authors create new figures throughout history. What are the new creatures’ rolls in literature? There are three possible reasons which are the following: interest, instincts, and manipulation.

    First of all, supernatural creatures generate a reader's interest. As we see, those characters sometimes look different from human and have special abilities which human beings do not have. Some of them can fly, emit fire or even change the weather. This is exactly the same thing going on the novel, Coraline. Coraline’s other mother’s eyes are big black buttons. The other mother has supernatural abilities; she can change objects and create new circumstances. In addition, supernatural creatures sometimes act as antagonists, like Coraline’s other mother, which the hero or heroine have to overcome. It was not is to fight for Coraline against the other mother since she has supernatural ability. The stronger the antagonists are, the more interesting hero’s journey is, when he deals successfully with the opponent.

    Secondly, it is one of human beings’ instincts to create new objects. In other words, curiosity inspires human being to create something new.  As a primitive invented a new hand axe which had not existed until he created, a author creates new characters on his instincts. When the curiosity comes to a reader, he wants to read something new in order to satisfy his desire. As the author creates the new supernatural character who has peculiar button eyes, the other mother creates a new environment for Coraline to keep her in the other flat. When Coraline got out of the other flat, every journey seemed to finish as Coraline said that “I got you three back... I got Mum and Dad back. I shut the door. I locked it. What more was I meant to do?” (144) It was very interesting that at the moment when Coraline and the three kids in the picnic found something strange going on around them. Another creature which was the right hand of the other mom showed up. The right hand is also a new supernatural object which can not move by itself in real. The other’s creativeness led the other to create new figures and it made the novel more interesting. A new creature which is created by human being through their instincts captivates human again.

    Lastly, supernatural figures can manipulate people to become afraid of paranormal phenomenon. People can not resist those supernatural events by themselves, then it leads them to find a refuge in religion. When it comes to kids, the only thing that they can rely on is their parents. Most of the books for children should have some sort of educational objects. When kids explore a new place or bully their friends, they always get into trouble or pay the price. Coraline found her life at the new place boring and she thought her parents did not care about her very much. It was the beginning of the journey. As we see, Coraline went through dangerous situation and managed to come back to her real life. The other father told Coraline that “Nothing’s changed. You’ll go home. You’ll be bored. You’ll be ignored. No one will listen to you... You’re too clever and too quiet for them to understand.” (118) However, Coraline strongly resisted his other fathers thought. It implies that children are supposed to follow their parents and come back home no matter what happens. Even though supernatural things seem to be interesting or a exploring game with friends sounds good, children are told that they should follow rules. Children are manipulated by some stories books for educational reasons.

Blog Entry 3.4: Final Project - The Goonies

For the final project, I am going to interpret ‘The Goonies’ which is one of my favorite movies. As we learned in the class, I will find symbols, symbolic gestures and archetypes in the movie. I will also apply the hero’s journey, monomyth, to this movie. The setting and the plot also will be dealt with in the interpretation.

I am going to watch the movie during the Thanksgiving day and start writing out the research paper. 

< Outline Progress >

11/18 Preparatory research on the web

11/26 Watch ‘The Goonies’ and start writing out symbols and archetypes

12/2   Revise the research paper
12/9   Presentation/ Demos

Blog Entry 3.3

I've watched 'the Goonies' more than twenty times. Seriously. The movie came out long time ago, but it is still exciting. 'The Goonies' also shows 'the hero's journey' very well so I decided to interpret 'the Goonies' for the final project.

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< Please discard 'one piece.' I've changed my topic to 'the Goonies.'>

         I was struggling with what topic to do for the final project. I talked with one of my friends and she recommended I watch the animation. I like watching animations such as Toy Story, Shrek, or Miyazaki Hayao's animations, but this kind of animations which look like just for kids are not my cup of tea. After I watched the first episode, however, I got into this animation.