Intertextuality in Shrek 2

Dreamworks’ “Shrek 2” is littered with intertextual references to other films or media, arguably much more than any other Dreamworks or Disney movie. Viewers got straight back in line to rewatch the movie just to try to catch all the small gags, some of which lasted less than five seconds and could easily fly over your head. While I could list many references to other Disney pieces, such as all the fairy tale creatures, the princesses from other works, and likewise things, I will stick to analyzing just a two minute piece from the beginning of the movie. I intend to do this for three reasons. First, it will make it more interesting and won’t just be a list of other Disney pieces. Second, it will emphasize how many references there are throughout the movie and how quick they can come. If there are so many within two minutes, how many are there throughout the entire movie? Third, I will avoid any sense of plagiarism from Adrienne’s post (she wrote about intertextuality in the first Shrek, and covered mainly other fairy tale pieces). I planned to critique Shrek 2 anyway, as it is my favorite movie, she just happened to have a similar idea.

I piece will be analyzing is the honeymoon scene. It is the second scene in the movie and acts as the intro. The end of Shrek has Shrek and Fiona married, and Shrek 2 begins with their honeymoon, a joyful collection of short clips from their adventures with Counting Crows’ “Accidentally In Love” playing in the background.

The first blatant reference, besides the existence of Little Red Riding Hood, nods to Fred Zinnemann’s 1953 “From Here to Eternity”, a memorable scene and the cover of which has two lovers rolling around on the beach. In the classic film, it creates an immense sense of innocent young love and purity, which Shrek 2 imitates for four seconds until a wave crashes upon the kissing pair. When revealed, a Fiona has been replaced by a mermaid, which looks suspiciously like Ariel from “The Little Mermaid.” Fiona tosses the mermaid far into the sea, where she is jumped upon and gobbled up in classic Jaws fashion. This all takes course in the span of just over ten seconds.

Immediately after, without any break, the scene transitions into a blatant reference to “The Fellowship of the Ring.” A ring is forged, one that looks like the One Ring from Lord of the Rings. The ring is tossed in the air and falls onto Fiona’s finger, the same way it fell onto Frodo’s. It then spells out in flame engraving “I love you” in the same formation as the prophecy on the One Ring, which says in Elvish “One ring to rule them all, one ring to find them, One ring to bring them all and in the darkness bind them.”

Another ten seconds later and the scene references Sam Raimi’s “Spider-Man.” In the 2002 film, Spider-Man hangs upside down in front of Mary Jane, who pulls down his mask to kiss him. In Shrek 2, Shrek trips on a rope trap, gets a facefull of mud, and hangs upside down in the same manner. Fiona wipes the mud down off his face with the same motion as Mary Jane and kissing Shrek, a shot for shot match.

Besides these main examples, the two minute piece contains Little Red Riding Hood, Hansel and Gretel, Snow White and the Seven Dwarves, Robin Hood, and Tinkerbell. Just a few moments before the honeymoon scene, The Big Bad Wolf is found reading “Pork Illustrated,” a clear knock off of Sports Illustrated. Throughout the entire movie, references like these and nods to past films flood the screen, but they are done so in a way that doesn’t make the viewer feel out of the loop if they don’t catch all of them. Masterpieces come in all forms, and I cannot recommend this movie enough.

Never Rely on Society: Ideology from The Roots

“The Roots” are a hip hop, neo-soul group from Pennsylvania formed in the late 80s. The song Never from their 2014 album, And Then You Shoot Your Cousin, is one of their many socially, politically, and existentially impassioned tracks. Its music video provides a chilling visual aid that elucidates aspects of the song’s intense message.

The video is set in an abandoned mid-sized city, with a gloomy post-apocalyptic atmosphere. Streets are generously littered. Buildings and public structures are in shambles. The video opens on a young man frantically wandering, running, looking behind him as though he’s being hunted. The post-apocalyptic narrative delivers a familiar message within the very first few seconds of the video. It is a popular plot choice in TV shows and movies for its ability to expose humanity’s savage, animalistic nature hiding beneath its civilized society. The concept of ideology within media is intertwined with symbolism. The Never music video is an example of a metaphor (in semiotic terms, a symbol) that critiques larger political and social ideologies.

The first minute of the video includes aerial shots of the destroyed city, and the young man wading through trash and smog. He momentarily pauses, exhausted, and fades offscreen as the camera pans into a dense fog and refocuses on a new scene. This transition subtly suggests a flashback, possibly to a time before the apparent apocalypse (but this is not totally clear). The camera passes the headlights of a parked car in a dim, hazy alley. There is a small group of people with their backs turned. As they face us, we hear the lyrics “I was born faceless in an oasis, folks disappear here and leave no traces.” Their mouths and eyes are fleshed over. It is a disturbingly vivid metaphor of forcibly silenced individuals. Maybe society refused to recognize their identities, maybe they robbed them of any way to speak about or express their identities. Some stand still with arms crossed, some writhe around confusingly, and all react differently to their hellish, post-apocalyptic sentence.

Another useful analytical tool for examining Never is the idea of representation within media. Representation pertains to any generalized depiction of a group, which may or may not be created by members of the group, and may or may not be created per the request of said group. The Roots’ members are predominantly African American, and much of their music has acted as a voice for marginalized groups including black communities, underprivileged classes, and youths. Although Never could be read as a representation of several different groups, or multiple, intersecting groups, the video presents a clear picture of a persecuted minority (in the sense of small numbers rather than race or ethnicity) suffering in a cultural wasteland, devoid of opportunities, riddled with dead-ends. The apocalypse that created it was entirely man-made and social in nature.

The protagonist is a young black man, and the faceless characters appear to be minority group members, details which, together, suggest a commentary on general racial inequality in society. The man repeatedly turns the same street corner only to find the same stop sign. He is trapped in a loop that he can’t escape. He desperately tries to find a way out of this purgatory, to escape his social situation perhaps; but society offers him no other option but to stop trying. This apocalyptic world was created for him to stay in indefinitely. The inclusion of other minorities implies that this song and video address a broader social ideology, in which all economically disadvantaged and socially “inferior” people are dismissed.

At the end of the video the young man drops to his knees in defeat. A golden light suddenly pierces the fog from the sky and shines on him. His help has come. The light lifts him from the street as he smiles. But, the light disappears. He is still on his knees, in the same dirty street, in the same destroyed city. He hangs his head. The video concludes that any hope that society might change its ways, or that the world could ever care about such marginalized people, is an illusion. The protagonist ultimately learns he must rely on himself; a sobering and saddening social ideology.

Feminism in Gilmore Girls

Gilmore Girls is one of those feel-good shows that exceeds the standards of TV drama with its clever writing and realistic characters. As a result, the show has received critical praise and has gained a large fan base. Through its exploration of the trials of single motherhood, its exceptionally intellectual humor, and its characters whose personalities defy gender norms, Gilmore Girls has made significant, positive contributions to feminism. Their portrayal of successful, independent, single women is inspiring and continues to impact females of all ages.

Gilmore Girls is a fairly complex show, with many subtle subplots, interwoven backstories, and complex character motivations. However, the show never strays far from its main focus of the lives of Rory (the daughter) and Lorelai (the mother). The concept of having two female leads, especially ones as successful as Alexis Bledel and Lauren Graham, was fairly new when the show was airing. Despite being narratively complex at times, the main overlying theme of the show is the life of a single mother: her personal trials, successes, and the struggles of raising a gifted daughter. For some context, Lorelei’s parents were among the rich and elite. They lived a lavish life and tried to raise Lorelai to be a perfectly well-behaved girl to represent their family. However, instead of complying to their demands, Lorelai rebelled and left the house. Despite becoming pregnant as a teenager and raising her child in a veritable shack, she overcame her trials, built a successful career, and raised a brilliant daughter all on her own. Lorelai's extraordinary feats and her overall independence depicts a powerful feminist message.

Throughout the show, Rory and Lorelai’s banter gives the scenes an academic atmosphere. Rory was a very good student, showing brilliance from a young age while developing a kind yet complex personality. The combination of these traits is rare in visual media, where women are often portrayed as gossipy, drama-obsessed, and vapid. Her intelligence and drive lead her to join a highly competitive private high school, and later gain admission into Yale where she would prove her leadership skills as editor of the university newspaper. Overall, Rory's motivation, empathy, and intellect inspires young girls, and sends a message that intelligence is something to be valued in a woman instead of something that is seen as “intimidating”.

Despite these aspects, Gilmore Girls does not always portray women in a purely feminist light. One stereotypically “female” activity that the mother and daughter do is shopping. The two love shopping and dislike physical activity greatly. This is something that I believe takes away from the feminist message in Gilmore Girls by reinforcing societal views of women as less physically involved. However, I believe that their assertive and intellectual personalities develop both characters as atypical female role models, making up for their relative disinterest in physical exertion.



Gilmore Girls features the journey of two women through the highs and lows of their lives. While they are relatively close in age for a mother-daughter pair, they are still separated by 16 years. This portrayal of a woman in her early 30s and a girl in her teens shows how age and experience affects the struggles one faces. Through this, the show manages to connect and relate to a large age-range of women. This is essential to the show's goal of female empowerment, as seeing and experiencing things alongside the characters captures the viewer's attention. This also allows the viewer to empathize more with the Lorelai and Rory, further emphasizing their impact.

Intertextuality in Shrek

Following its release in 2001, Shrek became an instant hit for fans of all ages. It’s storyline, witty humor, and character dynamics made it enjoyable for a variety of audience members.

Shrek’s plot revolves around an ogre named Shrek, who lives in peaceful solitude until it is invaded by a group of various (and annoying) fairytale characters. The characters have been banished there by evil Lord Farquaad, who after meeting with Shrek, decides to make a deal with him. To get his swamp back, Shrek must retrieve Princess Fiona from her dragon-guarded tower and deliver her to Lord Farquaad to be his wife. A classic adventure story ensues for Shrek, Fiona, and Shrek’s sidekick Donkey, and ends with a typical happily-ever-after finish for the protagonists.

When analyzed, the film’s intertextual references are plentiful and clear, and it is obvious that the creators of Shrek utilized storytelling intertextuality to open the film to a larger audience. According to Helle Kannik Haastrup, storytelling intertextuality “occurs when a film includes other films or texts through references and quotes” (85). Throughout the movie Shrek, there is a number of references to other works such as TV shows and fairytales.

The film premise has an overarching ‘classic’ fairytale theme, revolving the hero of the story (Shrek) rescuing the damsel in distress (Fiona), who is locked far far away in a tower guarded by a dragon. But along the way, the storyline mimics much of other fairytales, directly referring to their plots and characters as well.

At the start of the movie when Shrek realizes all the extra animals are at his swamp, three blind mice are at his dinner table, referring to the old story. Shrek then travels to his room after hearing a noise to the scene of a wolf wearing a pink dress and glasses, pretending to read and pose as an old woman, in reference to the old tale “Little Red Riding Hood”. There are numerous other fairytale characters that arrive to his swamp, who all refer to their own respective stories or fables.

Following this, the scene cuts to Lord Farquaad in his room, watching his magic mirror display 3 different princesses in a game show-like fashion, as they are all contestants to be his bride. Not only do the contestants refer to other fairytales (Rapunzel and Snow White), but this scene is also a reference to the popular TV show The Bachelorette. 

When Shrek finally gets to Princess Fiona, she is pretending to be asleep, so she can be awoken by a kiss from her ‘knight in shining armor’. This scene is an implicit reference to the tale Sleeping Beauty. Throughout the rest of their adventure, there are various easter eggs and references to other works that add to the film’s storyline.

The impact of the creators’ use of intertextuality within Shrek is that it makes the film more enjoyable to a wider audience. Many of these referenced tales are universal and have their own versions—with the same basic plot—throughout many different cultures. This makes Shrek more relatable to a larger number of people, as many groups have grown up listening to these tales.

Referring to tall tales and fairytales within the fairytale that is Shrek adds a layer of irony to the film as a whole. This is turn adds comedic value and opens the film up to a wider audience.

Semiotics in A Quiet Place

A Quiet Place, released in 2018 and directed by John Krasinski centers around a family of four with another child on the way, who cannot make a sound, or they will be hunted by monsters that use their sense of hearing to go after their prey.

At face value, A Quiet Place is a movie about a made up world with monsters who hunt their victims by sound. However, the messages and symbols in this movie are representative of something much greater than monsters on the hunt. Through the lens of semiotics, I will analyze A Quiet Place as a movie about family and sacrifice, more so than monsters in a fantasy world.

In Messages, signs, and meanings: A basic textbook in semiotics and communication, we learn about the difference between connotation and denotation. A connotation refers to the meanings behind words that are associated with them, while denotation is more representative of the word’s literal meaning.

These two concepts are very important in A Quiet Place because the symbols in this movie, through the family and the monsters have a much wider array of connotations than their denotative identifications.

The overarching theme throughout the movie is the family’s fear. They are obviously scared of the monsters, and all the scenes have a very dark setting, accompanied by the fact that there is little to no sound, making them all the more thrilling and even scary. While the denotation is their fear for the monsters, which is instilled into the audience as the movie progresses, the connotation behind this fear is “the possibility of failing to protect your kin” (Livingston).

What is truly being represented through the fear of the monsters is the fear of not being able to protect your family. In the movie, it is represented very literally, as if the parents fail to protect their kids from making sounds, they will literally get eaten alive. However, the true meaning behind it boils down to the fear that all parents have, that their kids will be in danger and they won’t be able to protect them at all costs.

Obviously, this fear is hyperbolized in the movie through the ever-present fear of being hunted, but even in the real world, parents are constantly fearful for their children whether the danger their in be as small as a scrape on the knee.

The familial aspect of the movie is also representative of much more than just survival for a family of four in this dystopian universe; it’s connotation is about the sacrifice members of a family make for one another, especially the parents. Both parents are so protective of their children, even going as far as putting their own lives in danger in order to protect the two children.

Not to mention the fact that the mother is having another child, meaning that she is putting herself through the pain of birthing a child in complete silence, in order to have a family. The two parents, played by real life spouses John Krasinski and Emily Blunt also do everything in their power to create a normal environment for their children. They run the risk of making noise in some of the things they do, but they want to make the children’s lives as pleasant as they possibly can, through any means necessary. Similar to the representation of a parent’s fear for their child, the symbols of silence are about a parents sacrifice for their child, which is also something that all parents experience, even if not at the literal level of the movie.

The movie also has a social-political meaning in its symbols. Krasinski was deliberate in casting a hearing-impaired actress to play the deaf child in the movie. In the movie, her lack of hearing puts the family at an advantage, because they are able to communicate through sign language already, but it also puts them at a disadvantage, because if she accidentally makes a sound she would have no way of knowing until it was too late.

The fact that he hired a deaf actress, however, makes it much more real for the audience. Since deafness is something the girl experiences in real life, that characteristic of her movie character is much more real and therefore intriguing, because its something she doesn’t have to pretend to be. The meaning behind this is that although she faces much different struggles in the movie than she does in real life, those struggles are exacerbated by the fact that she is hard of hearing, and this is true of real life too, as she must do and learn things very differently than a hearing person.

The movie A Quiet Place has meaning much deeper than that of monsters in an alternate universe. Through the use of the symbols in the silence, and the hunting of the monsters, we see that the movie is much more about family, a parents sacrifice for their children, and all that they would do for their protection. Although we do not have to stay silent, in fear of being hunted in real life, the emotions we feel toward our family, especially those that parents feel toward their children are very meaningful, and therefore relatable from the audience perspective.

Hostage: The Story of an Abusive Relationship

“Hostage” is a song by Billie Eilish, released in August 2017 with the music video arriving a year later, in October of 2018. The music video depicts Billie Eilish with presumably a boyfriend, clearly in some sort of abusive relationship with herself as the villain. She challenges the idea that women are never abusers by clearly portraying herself as one with this music video, and attempts to tell the story of an abusive relationship without making light of it, which I will be analyzing with semiotics.

Semiotics is the science of understand the meaning of X, with X being anything from a gesture to an entire novel (Danesi, 3). In the music video, Billie Eilish sings to her boyfriend in a soothing tone, and they appear as though they are dancing together at first. The relationship is clearly consensual and happy, as the dancing is a sort of push-and-pull, neither controlling the other, along with the lighting, which changes from a soft white to a comfortable, warm yellow (yellow having connotations of happiness and contentment). However, something begins to chance. She seems to languish in the power and control she has over him, telling him she’ll give him a ball and chain, and wants to hold him like a hostage.  As Billie says this, the lighting quickly changes to a harsh crimson, signifying danger, caution, and anger.

The relationship quickly deteriorates. Billie becomes more forceful, yanking the man around and pushing him from one side of the room to the other, going from affectionate and loving one moment to scornful and apathetic the next, clearly symbolizing the mood swings of real-life abusers and the uncertainty their victims face constantly in regards to how their spouse will react at any given moment. All items in the room the music video takes place in melt away, trapping the victim and leaving him with no way out. Any time the man attempts to retaliate against the abuse, the featureless white room he is in physically punishes him for it, showing that Eilish is in charge of what happens in it, like an abuser controls a relationship. Billie later traps him in a room with a one-way mirror with Billie on the other side, symbolizing the common isolation tactic used by abusers to get their victims to distance themselves from friends and family so they rely solely on the abuser.

Finally, the music video closes out on Billie Eilish trapping her partner in the room and leaving him in the dark. Even as she leaves him alone, the man reaches for her, showing that even after all the abuse, the victim still loves her. Billie Eilish does a wonderful job of showcasing an abusive relationship without making light of it, while also doing the difficult job of portraying an abuser without trying to justify abuse.

Freudian Psychoanalysis in Black Swan

Black Swan is a psychological horror and thriller directed by Darren Aronofsky. The movie showed the internal struggle of the main character, Nina, who is an obsessed perfectionist in the physical realm of her dancing career. The sick obsession earns her much external success, which is the starring role in Swan Lake. However, Nina begins to exhibit psychotic physical tendencies and appears to encounter various dreams involving an evil depiction of herself following and haunting her. Nina is bothered by her nightmares and arrives late to a show, she finds Lily prepared to dance as her replacement and stabs Lily, when she actually stabbed herself.

The film can be analyzed by applying psychoanalysis. Psychoanalysis is a procedure for the investigation of mental process, mainly through exploring the unconscious. Based on the Freudian Psychoanalytic Theory, the movie presents various aspects such as ID, ego, and superego. There are three characters that stand opposed to Nina, and each of them represents an element in Freudian psychoanalysis.

Nina’s ballet teacher, Thomas, represents the id. Nina is having trouble showcasing the black swan, which is the opposite side of the innocent white swan that Nina portrays perfectly. Thomas is the aspect of Nina’s subconscious that tells her to let go and release herself, and uses her sexuality to improve her performance. Since Nina is a virgin, she is viewed as the pure and good ballerina. After Thomas sexually “enlightens” her, Nina is evoked by the forbidden fruit that her mother prevents her from tasting.

Nina’s mother, Erica, represents the superego. Throughout the film, Erica is very rigid to Nina and controls every aspect of Nina’s life. She sets up Nina’s mindset to ballet solely, and tries to make Nina the perfect dancer. The mother makes Nina do all the right moves in the right time and tries to restrain her from living independently. She controls Nina as if she was still a child and imposes her morals on Nina. There are number of scenes in the movie showing Nina’s room before she completely went crazy, and they show her room stuffed with pink objects and toys that only children would have. This depicts the overly-protected image of Erica that influenced Nina’s self-actualization and self-evaluation.

Nina’s friend at the ballet studio, Lily, represents the ego. Lily is exactly who Nina wants to be, because Lily is free-spirit and fits right into the role of black swan. There are clips from the film show that Nina can see herself in Lily. The question of who she is and who she wants to be has finally made Nina blends herself with Lily and becomes the perfect ballerina, someone who can show both the white swan and the black swan. It ultimately leads to her killing Lily, someone that she fears of stealing her role, when in reality Nina stabbed herself.

In conclusion, Nina’s fragile mental condition is the result of a disconnection between her external and internal beings. Externally, she is talented and accomplished, but she feels empty and unloved internally. Nina wants to let out the black swan side of herself, which is conveyed in her dreams as a wish fulfillment. Her dreaming of her evil self is the evidence of the unconscious coming to play. The nightmares experienced by Nina are visual manifestations of her subconscious and ego.

Through the Psychoanalytical Lens: Freaky Friday

In the movie Freaky Friday, high schooler Anna Coleman and her mom Tess Coleman, an author and psychologist, can’t find a solution to their constant fighting. They receive the same mysterious fortune from the fortune cookies at a Chinese restaurant and wake up the next morning to discover they’ve switched bodies. As they work together to find a way to switch back, they gain greater understanding and empathy for one another. Using a psychoanalytical lens, Anna and Tess’ true motivations and behavior as well as the audience appeal for this movie genre can be discovered.

At first Anna Coleman seems like a typical teenage girl generally angry at the world because nothing seems to go in her favor. She has a teacher who likes to pick on her, a old middle school friend who now bullies her, a crush on an older guy who doesn’t know who she is, and a mom who seems to always side with her brother.

Tess, Anna’s mom, doesn’t see any of this, instead she chooses to believe that Anna is only being difficult because she wants to. Anna craves to be accepted by her peers, her crush, and especially her mother and that’s the reason for her seemingly harsh, angry behavior. It’s also revealed that the reason Anna has been acting out is because she’s worried that Ryan, Tess’ new fiance, will replace her dad who died several years before.

Anna’s mom, Tess, is a renowned psychologist with her own book and practice, yet ironically she can’t seem to figure out how to mend her relationship with her daughter. Tess’ behavior towards her daughter comes from a place of cluelessness and frustration. She simply doesn’t know how to help her daughter or how to interact with her without fighting. Instead of talking to Anna like a typical mother would to her daughter, Tess tries to treat her like one of her patients which Anna greatly resists.

A lot of Anna and Tess’ conflict comes from misunderstandings about the other person’s life, thus the switch allows them to understand everything they could’ve known if they had simply communicated better with each other to begin with. Tess is jealous of Anna’s youth and of her carefree life as a 15-year-old. Anna is also jealous of Tess’ job and the money it gives her and the freedom to spend it however she likes. When they switch bodies, they realize the other person faces a lot more hardship in their daily lives than they first imagined. Anna realizes Tess’ worklife is very difficult and stressful, and Tess realizes Anna’s high school life is more challenging and complicated than she remembered it being for her. By the end of the movie, they realize they would rather be themselves than live another person’s life.

The appeal for this kind of movie comes from the innate curiosity about what it’s like to be someone else and live someone else’s life. This is an impossible desire that can only be fulfilled in fictional movies. This may also come from our desire to be extraordinary and free from the constraints of ordinary life. In that case, this movie has a similar appeal to that of superhero movies.

The switch in Freaky Friday reveals a lot about Anna and Tess’ motivations and inner feelings and helps them to better understand each other. A psychoanalytical examination of the movie shows the deeper reasons behind the conflict between Anna and her mother as well as some of the possible reasons for the movie’s appeal to a wide audience.

Ideologies of The Matrix

The Matrix is a movie about a cyber-hacker (Neo) who is shown how the human population is being subdued by the government so that their bodies can be used as an open energy source. After Neo has seen the truth of the world around him, and fully realized his capabilities, he is able to do whatever he pleases, even manipulate time.He is no longer held back by the reality around him, and is able to do things he never imagined. The Matrix describes two separate ideologies, one where humans are completely controlled by the government, and one where there are no limitations on what a human can do.

At the beginning of the movie, Neo lives in a world where the government has complete control, and one of the opening scenes shows that there are almost no restrictions on the government in what they can do. Neo, along with everyone else in the world, are in a society whose ideology borders on absolutism. Neo is a cyber-hacker, so he is specifically trying to get around the digital limitations the government has put on the people. His everyday job is subversive to the government’s regime. The subjects have no freedom to their lives, and must follow obediently what the government has said that they should do. They do not know that the world they live in is not reality, but instead a simulation made by the government to keep the population subdued. There is no autonomy in the people or their choices.

One of the main protagonists in The Matrix, Morpheus, is considered the most dangerous man in the world. He notices Neo’s hacking skills, and decides to show him the truth behind the world he lives in. He ‘wakes up’ Neo, and helps him gain control of his real body. He then teaches Neo how to master different things, like controlling things with his mind and different forms of martial arts. Neo does not learn any of this information, Morpheus simply downloads it directly into Neo’s brain. Once he has gone through all of his ‘training’, Neo is able to do things that he never imagined possible in his simulated body. He is a martial arts master, and able to even beat Morpheus in a fight. 

There are no limitations to Neo’s abilities, either mental or physical. He does not have to abide by ordinary laws of physics or what is natural, and isn’t controlled by anyone, not even the government. He has complete autonomy, and becomes an unstoppable force. At the end of the movie, one of the major twists is that the audience is shown that Neo has figured out how to manipulate time, and stop bullets in mid-air. The message that The Matrix is attempting to send this that if humans were to have complete autonomy, even though it would not work societally, it would allow people to achieve things far beyond their expectations. When humans are subjected to government control, they are fearful and weak, but when they have control over their own actions they are unstoppable.

"One Love"- A Representation of Unity

Bob Marley revolutionized the music industry with his happy and reassuring songs that aimed for the unity of the people. The song “One Love” expressed his desire to unite the people of different cultures and races. The song’s music video illustrates a black child singing the song’s lyrics as he sits in a chair. As the kid sits in the chair singing, the video cuts to different people dancing happily while singing. The music video ends with a large group of people walking and singing as they embraced one another regardless of their race and culture. With the help of the study of representation, we can identify that the message Bob Marley attempted to deliver was that of loving one another despite of differences.

Prior to the release of the song, Bob Marley was known for his lyrics about love and peace. In a time of constant fight between races and cultures across the world, Bob Marley became the voice of peace and unity. In America, the song became an anthem that aimed to help the relationships between African Americans and Whites. Due to this, the music video focused on the depiction of these two groups and their similarities that allows them to unite.

In the music video, we are able to observe the two groups (Whites and Blacks), which Marley aims to “get together and feel alright”. The two groups are displayed as being joyous while dancing together. The depiction in the music video of the two groups was contrary to the actual events that were happening in America at that time, for violence reigned. However, it allowed for the “open up of culture to the play of power”. Marley’s video represented a new world in which whites and blacks placed their differences aside and came together through love. As depicted in the video, the power battle was left behind and the two groups enjoyed their time together.

Furthermore, the music video illustrates an innocent black child that sings the song with passion and hope that one day the fight between the groups will stop. The kid’s vision is centered in the idea that unity will be a “contribution to the development of society”. Through the depiction of the Kid, Bob Marley is able to express his desire. Also, Marley is able to show that the kids are the new generation that will make the unity possible. The lyrics “hear the children crying (one love)” represent the children as the factor that will bring the groups together.

At the end of the video, the two groups are able to come together as a whole as they dance and laugh. The black child leads the group in order to represent the reality of his dream. His voice was able to bring the two groups together through love. By creating this video, Bob Marley was able to represent the power of love to create change in a divided society.

The song “One Love” highlights the importance of love in bringing peace and people together. The music video displays the possibility of a dream becoming a reality. Through the use of the lyrics and the video, Marley is able to represent the change between the two groups that leads to love and happiness.

Grand Theft Censorship

Grand Theft Auto (GTA) is an open world action-adventure video game series published by Rockstar Games, and was first released in 1997. Since then, the game series has had numerous sequels and spin offs leading up to its most recent release of GTA 5 which came out in September of 2013. The video game series has had critical and commercial success, having shipped more than 250 million units, making it the fourth highest selling video game franchise of all time, right behind the Mario, Pokemon, and Tetris franchises.

           

The GTA franchise allows the player to take on the role of a criminal in a big US city. There, the player can either complete missions and tasks, or just roam around the giant and incredibly detailed open world city and do pretty much anything they want. I will specifically be addressing the most recent GTA game, GTA 5, since it the most up to date, expansive, and interactive game of the series.

           

GTA 5 takes place in a recreation of Los Angeles California. While most games have a direct and specific objective, the majority of GTA players decide to just roam around the city and cause mayhem wherever and however they feel like it. The game is rated M for Mature, and has been criticized by many to be extremely violent, have themes of drug use and crime, and be extremely sexualized with the use of strip clubs and prostitutes. While the game is meant to be sold and played by users 17 and older, there are many loopholes for children younger than this to have easy access to the game. GTA 5 broke industry sales records and became the fastest selling entertainment product in history, earning over $1 billion in its first three days.

           

According to Althusser’s ideological state apparatuses, GTA causes . Many people have criticized GTA for causing a rise in violent behavior among players outside the game. The game has taken this ideology and sparked up even more criticism by making police and the law the “enemy” in the game. This has sparked controversy between game developers and government officials. By having so many American youth playing the game, it has caused negative psychological disruption shown through their behaviors and actions. However, the GTA franchise has purposefully not used actual names, locations and brands in the game, even though it is clearly representative of real life.

           

Because GTA is an American video game, it has had the privilege of being able to choose whatever content to put in their game. By being so successful in both its game design, and its financial success, the GTA franchise has reached such a large audience and psychologically affected many of its younger players to be anti-government and adopt anarchy. Not only this, but the game doesn't explore the real-world consequences of these actions, and makes these horrific actions seem entertaining.

           

In conclusion, the GTA franchise has been extremely negative toward youth behavior and their perception of the government and the law. Because of the United States policy against censorship, People who are opposed to the ideology of the game have no way of combatting its widespread influence on today’s youth.

Power Struggles in Far Cry 4

Far Cry 4 is an action-adventure first-person shooter created by Ubisoft and released on November 18, 2014. The user plays as Ajay Ghale, a young Kyrati-American, who is caught in a civil war in Kyrat, a fictitious Himalayan country filled with poverty, a drug trade, and authoritarian rule. The story follows Ajay Ghale as he helps the rebel group known as the Golden Path fight against the tyrannical king Pagan Min.

The story begins with Ajay Ghale as he is traveling to Kyrat to fulfill his mother’s dying wish: to bury her ashes in her homeland. On the way there, the bus he is on is ambushed by Pagan Min’s royal army and you learn just how powerful and psychotic the Kyrati dictator is. Pagan Min holds him prisoner but treats him well as he claims that he was romantically involved with Ajay’s mother.

Ajay is able to escape with the help of the Golden Path, a rebel group created years before by Ajay’s father, Mohan Ghale. Ajay meets the current leaders of the Golden Path, Sabal and Amita, who tell him that he must help them fight and be the symbol for the people. Ajay has no choice since the Royal Army has control of the only airport and sealed the borders.

The power dynamic of the Golden Path is interesting because although Sabal and Amita are working together towards the same goal, they each have different morals and ideas on how to get to that goal. Sabal tends to favor traditional values whereas Amita favors more progressive ones, one of which is relying on the drug trade to build up an army. This power struggle between the two causes stalemates that Ajay Ghale is forced to work out. There are many scenes in which Ajay Ghale walks into a heated argument between Sabal and Amita and where you have to choose whether to go with Amita’s plan or Sabal’s. Each plan has its benefits but also has drawbacks and it can mean the loss of soldiers, important locations, or other consequences.

The goal of the game is obviously to free Kyrat from Pagan Min’s rule and the way you do that is by freeing various radio towers and outposts controlled by the Royal Army. The radio towers allow the Golden Path to spread the word of their cause to the people of Kyrat in order to strengthen their group. As you progress through the game, Pagan Min’s power diminishes as the Golden Path’s power rises until you finally reach Pagan Min’s doorstep. You then have the choice to let him leave Kyrat in his helicopter or kill him. This power is given to Ajay Ghale but also to the player.

The player also must choose who becomes the new leader of the Golden Path. If you choose Sabal, then the country becomes a religious fundamentalist theocracy and all of Amita’s supporters are executed. If you choose Amita, then the country becomes an authoritarian drug state where all the farmers are forced to work in factories and children are enlisted in the Golden Path to fight against the remaining Royal Army. Whichever person you choose requests that you kill the other to prevent another civil war and you again have the choice to let them live or kill them. In the end, all the work you do seems as if it was for nothing as you learn that Sabal and Amita are no better than Pagan Min.

Far Cry 4 is a game in which the player is constantly dealing with power struggles and must make the ultimate decisions. It is an open world game, so you are free to roam wherever you please. Though there are some limitations, in the game the Royal Army closed the borders so that you are stuck in Kyrat. The lack of power you have in the beginning is limiting but changes drastically throughout the game as you help the Golden Path grow to power and overthrow the authoritarian government. The different conflicts, power struggles, and limits in this game can allude to those of modern-day countries similar to that of Kyrat where poverty, drug trade, and tyrannical rule exist.

"Bad Blood": Intertextuality Overload

Taylor Swift’s music video for the song “Bad Blood”, released in 2015, features a storyline reminiscent to that of an action movie, with Swift training for the duration of the video leading up to a final confrontation with her enemies. Swift packs the video with her female friends and introduces their different “characters” in a manner similar to that of a film’s credits scene. The music video also expands on the action movie theme by littering numerous references to hit films throughout the video. By analyzing the music video using the concept of intertextuality, Swift sends a message of female empowerment, proving that women can be their own heroes.

Intertextuality occurs when a media text includes references to or borrows content from other media texts. According to Haastrup, these references can be either explicit— alluding specifically to another text through quotation such that anybody can understand the reference— or implicit— wherein only those with a familiarity of a genre might be capable of understanding. Whether explicit or implicit, the references to other media texts are included because they serve some purpose to the media product. Specifically, intertextuality works as a storytelling device that advances the plot and assists in character building.

Included in the multitude of references found in the “Bad Blood” music video are films that feature strong female characters such as Kill Bill, The Hunger Games, and Divergent. The inclusion of samurai swords and the scene of Swift fighting in the snow pays homage to the monumental moment in which the Bride fights against O-ren in Kill Bill. The entire training sequence implicitly refers to the scene in which the tributes learn how to fight and survive in the arena in The Hunger Games, with Swift even donning the famous Katniss braid. The training sequence is also reminiscent of the sort of behavior and activities the Dauntless (the brave faction) participated in throughout the Divergent series.

One thing shared between these three films is that they all feature a strong female lead who seeks to gain control of their lives. The Bride, Katniss, and Tris are women have been subjected to the power of a higher authority and they seek to finally break free of this control. Despite the barriers in their way, these women stand firm in what they believe in and fight to reach their own goals. In the case of Katniss and Tris, they even became leaders in their own right, someone to look up to in desperate times.

The deliberate inclusion of these movie references serves as a tool of character building for Swift’s character in the music video, as well as in real life. Swift’s character in the music video follows in the lead of the women in these movies by learning how to stand up for herself. Swift will not allow her enemies to humiliate her and is dead set on making sure they do not prevail. Through her physical and mental growth, Swift mimics the strong willed nature of The Bride, Katniss, and Tris, ultimately refusing to be broken. Similarly, Swift refuses to allow her enemies in real life (i.e. her rivals, critics, and the media) to defeat her. She is capable of rising through the constant hate and contempt thrown her way, effectively becoming her own hero. Swift does not collapse under pressure, but rather becomes stronger because of it.

By including references to films such as Kill Bill, The Hunger Games, and Divergent, Swift aligns herself with the strong female leads in these movies. The intertextuality included in the “Bad Blood” music video assists in character building by showing that Swift is ultimately the one in control of her own life; she refuses to let others tear her down. The music video also serves as extension of Swift herself, mirroring her actions and emotions in real life. Much like the females in these action films, Swift is capable of being her own hero and she plays that role well.

The Eyes Have It

This critique will examine the importance of the main characters’ eyes in the anime “Satsuriku no Tenshi,” or “Angels of Death,” through the lens of semiotics. The series was released by J. C. Staff in July of 2018 and finished the season with 16 episodes.

“Angels of Death” follows Rachel Gardner, who woke up in a basement without her memory. On her way out, she is pursued by a bandage-covered, scythe-wielding serial killer. In her attempt to escape, though, she finds herself in the hands of another psychopath who wishes to kill her. The first killer attacks the second and promises Rachel that he won’t kill her until they make it out of the building. As the two make their way to the top, they are confronted with a number of other killers who they have to thwart in order to escape.

In order to analyze this anime, I will be using semiotics, which is the study of signs. According to Danesi, “a sign is anything … that stands for something other than itself.” In other words, a sign is a symbol which represents either another symbol or an abstract idea.

The primary sign that I found in “Angels of Death” is that of eyes. Eyes signify “windows to the soul.” In other words, by looking at someone’s eyes, you are able to learn about their character. Typically, this would refer to looking at how someone’s eyes express, or don’t express, the way that they feel about something. This is the case within the show when characters are talking about Rachel.

Throughout the series, people tell Rachel that she has eyes that are alive, yet dead at the same time. It is later revealed that this is because Rachel is a murderous sociopath who kills people and sews them back up. Her eyes, like her personality, are dead because she doesn’t give a second thought to murdering people, but alive at the same time because she still desires close relationships, which causes her to sew the bodies back together.

Another prominent example is Isaac “Zack” Foster, the first serial killer that Rachel encounters and the one she eventually befriends. Originally, Zack appears to be a heartless killer bent on causing chaos. However, it is later shown that his murder spree stems from the pain caused in his childhood. Zack’s father hated him and tried to set him on fire when he was young. Instead of accepting his fate, Zack ran towards his father so they would both die together. But Zack survived. This caused his mother to hate him, so he was sent to the orphanage.

He was eventually adopted but his foster parents were abusive and turned out to be murderers, as well. They killed kids and forced Zack to bury the bodies. Ultimately, Zack killed them in their sleep and ran away. Afterward, he started killing people who looked happy because, to him, happiness equated to evil.

This same idea is present in his eyes, one of which is a black, the other yellow. This can be traced further to darkness and light. The black eye represents darkness and, therein, the side of him that only wants to kill. The yellow eye represents light and, further, the side of him that wants to do good. Put together, his eyes are the representation of his internal struggle with good and evil. While he wants to do good, the only way he knows how to do so is by killing the people he perceives to be bad.

Thus, in “Angels of Death” a character’s eyes serve purposes beyond giving them a unique physical appearance, even so as to reveal what sort of emotional and mental struggles are going on beneath the surface.

Queen B's Subtle Conservatism

In 2016, pop star Beyoncé released her genre mixing, critically acclaimed visual album Lemonade. In the film, she explores blackness, feminism and police brutality by evoking historical revolutionaries like the Black Panthers. Beneath this layer of social justice, however, lies a set of socially conservative values. Nowhere is this more evident than in “6 Inch,” a collaboration track with rapper The Weeknd that celebrates an unnamed, tireless, empowered stripper. Examined ideologically, this video reveals itself as a valorization of capitalism in the guise of female empowerment.

The scene opens inside a dimly lit apartment building. Beyoncé acts as singer and protagonist, narrating the very plot she performs. Moreover, the camera follows her through a rotation of apartment, car and club, illustrating the monotonous lull of life on the grind. Further, a subdued red light illuminates each setting, adding an air of noir and mystery. This nighttime imagery ultimately conjures a world of moral ambiguity and darkness, a stage on which the protagonist must persevere.

Despite the challenges, this working woman endures. And, moreover, succeeds. “She’s stacking money, money everywhere she goes,” chants The Weeknd, as a jaded Beyoncé stares out the window of a shiny black Mercedes-Benz. Beyoncé continues the accolades with “she got that Sake, her Yamazaki straight from Tokyo,” flouting her cultured and expensive palette. Of course, the laundry list of status symbols rounds out with the eponymous chorus line, “six inch heels, she walked in the club like nobody’s business.” Each of these lines confers respect and legitimacy for working women, no matter their chosen profession. Further, however, they celebrate the material and monetary accomplishments of a steadfast individual.

Herein lies the free market ideology that undergirds Beyoncé’s themes of social justice. Instead of critiquing capitalism, a system of inherently unequal distribution of power, Bey’s track valorizes the success of one woman’s capacity to yield it to her advantage. “She grinds form Monday to Friday, works from Friday to Sunday” sings the idol, offering an all-too-convenient formula for success. Ultimately, the “6 Inch” narrative differs very little from the “American dream,” a factually dubious ideal that alleges anyone can bootstrap her way to the top. As the ever-increasing concentration of wealth will counter, however, this narrative is not the rule but the exception. By glorifying the protagonist’s accumulation of capital, Beyoncé legitimizes such unequal social relations.

Lastly, listeners cannot ignore the parallels between Beyoncé and the protagonist she portrays. Beyoncé was born to a middle class family, and worked steadfastly to become the hundred millionaire pop legend she is today. In “6 Inch,” she stands fiercely in the apartment twirling a spinning a roped bulb around a la David and Goliath; later she sets fire to the building altogether. The message is clear: Beyoncé earned her wealth, without assistance, standing up to those in her way. Viewed from one angle, this message feels inspiring. Yet, contextualized to an album that values solidarity amongst racial and gender minorities, the blatant class-based exhibitionism seems to produce tension. When aligning revolutionaries across the axes of sexism and antiblackness, shouldn’t class figure into the equation? Ultimately, by revering individualism in “6 Inch,” Beyoncé cements an ideology of free-market capitalism.

Spec Ops: The Line: Deconstructing Violence in Gaming

One of the most popular video game formats today is the “third-person shooter” which follows a character over their shoulder while they blast away at anything in front of them with brutal force. Like many shooter-style video games, there is usually very little thought put into who the character is shooting and why. Because many games use this format, third-person shooter players quickly accept violence as necessary, justified, and enjoyable. In 2012, Yager Development released a game called Spec Ops: The Line that challenges these conventions. It used action game cliches to force the player to contemplate their agency in the violence from games, and by extension to question the ideologies that frequently support action games.

Most games, such as the Grand Theft Auto  series, treat violence extremely casually. It seems to have no permanent effect on the game world or the psychology of the players. Usually games present situations where the violence is justified or lacks consequences. Players can mow down civilians and shoot policemen indiscriminately. The players are allowed to hide behind a mantra of “That’s just how you play the game.” Effectively, they present themselves as subject to the whims of developers and the mechanics of the game world. Spec Ops inverts this relationship.

Spec Ops begins as a conventional action game. The player is a soldier commanding his Special Forces squad through a Middle Eastern war zone in an attempt to find a U.S. soldier named Konrad who recently went rogue and took over the city of Dubai. At one point in the middle of the game, the Special Forces squad believes that Konrad is hiding in a camp underneath a skyscraper. Due to Konrad’s hostility, they decide to unleash a white phosphorus bomb on the enemy camp to subdue him. The player presses a button to launch the attack, but in the next cutscene the squad discovers that they were tricked by Konrad into bombing a camp full of innocent civilians. The squad is traumatised by the horror they cause, but the player’s character brushes it off, saying that the destruction was Konrad’s fault for tricking them. Spec Ops takes this argument in a meta direction.

Throughout the game, Konrad taunts the squad by saying that they could give up any time they wanted and prevent the deaths they keep causing. The squad never listens. Eventually, the game’s loading screens stop displaying helpful tips. They just ask the player if they “feel like a hero yet.” This undermines the entire foundation of shooter games. Spec Ops presents violence as horrifying. The squad often kills innocent or undeserving people by mistake. The destruction in the game is treated like a disaster and not a righteous conquest of foreign landscapes. Through Konrad, the game constantly dares players to simply stop playing and prevent more sadness and pain in the game world.

The white phosphorus attack would ordinarily be passed off as a manipulation of the antagonist or the game developers, but Spec Ops calls that whole line of thinking into question. Instead of treating the player like an ideological subject, it emphasizes the player’s godlike power over the game world. Each player has the agency to stop playing whenever they want. That makes every tragedy that occurs in Spec Ops their fault. Each friendly fire incident or war crime is committed by the player pressing a button with a vague prompt from the game. This basically means that the player has to choose to commit these crimes.

The game also utilizes a late plot twist to further its emphasis on the agency of game players. After all of the psychological stress of the game’s story, the protagonist learns that Konrad was a hallucination from the very beginning. Konrad’s plot twist emphasizes the player’s role in the atrocities committed in the game. The protagonist recognizes that they are the one responsible for the chaos in the story. The player simultaneously realizes that Konrad is a fictional character who had no true influence on their decision to keep playing the game. The player and the protagonist are forced to come to terms with their villainous role in the game world. Players come to understand just how horrifying the action in most video games would be if it actually happened.

Spec Ops: The Line forces video game players to reevaluate violence in video games. Instead of casually accepting violence, Spec Ops makes players realize how terrifying war can be. In Call of Duty, war is a romp. In Grand Theft Auto, killing civilians earns money for the player. In Spec Ops, these actions have severe consequences for the mental state of the characters and the setting of the game. The end result is a game that asks its audience to question the value system that made them enjoy violence in the first place.