Literature and Film Review

A note from my professor: Each response will require with a minimum of at least one textual reference footnoted properly according to MLA or Chicago style. There is no limit to how long you answer can be, but at a minimum, I would suggest that none of them can be answered in less than two solid paragraphs. Remember, there are two primary themes in this class that I want to see reflected in your work. They are: What does this work (novel and/or film) tell us about this moment in US history? What are the strengths and weaknesses of the two mediums, literature and film and how do they manifest themselves in the works we have read and the films we have watched? 1. Describe the significance of the plot changes in the film and novel, Mildred Pierce. Why do you think they were made for the film, and whether they help or obscure the author, James M. Cain’s original intentions? 2. Is the Depression a character in the novel of Mildred Pierce? How does it affect the main characters’ behavior? 3. How do the characters in the book and film of Motherless Brooklyn manifest their “motherlessness?” In what way is Brooklyn itself”motherless.” 4. Is Motherless Brooklyn a “noir” novel? Is the film more or less so? Be specific, both about your definition as a well as the novel and film itself 5. People who survive extreme life experiences such as the Holocaust walk away with a very different rubric on how to live life. In Enemies: a Love Story, how do Herman, Masa, Yadwiga and Tamara illustrate the different forms of coping? 6. How does the depiction of Harlem in “If Beale Street Could Talk Beale Street” differ from another book that we have read, “Cotton Comes to Harlem” and its own version of Harlem? Is it the same? What are some similarities and differences between the two? 7. How do locations in the story like Harlem impact characters in the novel and the film of Beale Street? 8. Describe the role of the 1960s in the minds of the characters in the novel and film of Chilly Scenes of Winter 9. Do you think the end of the novel, Chilly Scenes of Winter, is “truer” to the story than the end of the film, or vice-versa? Explain why.