The quotes I will use in the final paper

    After reading a part of Shelley’s Frankenstein, I have picked out some quotes that I will use in the final paper.

    Victor Frankenstein was born in Geneva. His father was a political figure who had reputation among the public. His mother was the daughter of his father’s friend, she suffered a lot in her early years but lived in a good life after married with Frankenstein’s father. Thus, Frankenstein lived in a very good family condition which allowed him to concentrate on the scientific knowledge. His cousin, Elizabeth, later joined the family.

    The family lived in the good life until the time before Frankenstein was about to go to the University, his mother got a severe fever and soon died. As the book stated “The consequences of this imprudence were fatal to her(Frankenstein’s mother) preserver. On the third day my mother sickened; her fever was accompanied by the most alarming symptoms, and the looks of her medical attendants prognosticated the worst event”(44). The death of Frankenstein’s mother may be the reason that he was so engaged in bring lifeless things back to life and created the monster: he wanted to bring his mother back to life so much.

    Later in the university, Frankenstein never stopped acquiring knowledge. He made big progress and achievement in the area of science. Then, he began to be interested in human bodies and the secrets behind them. After gained enough knowledge, he began his experiment on creating a human. With a thought “a new species would bless me as it creator and source; many happy and excellent natures would owe their being to me. No father could claim the gratitude of his child so completely as I should deserve theirs”(55), to support him, he was so engaged in his experiment that he even forgot to keep in touch with his family and friends.

    After days and nights working, Frankenstein finally brought his creature back to life. However, the creature, depicted in the book “yellow skin scarcely covered the work of muscles and arteries beneath; his hair was of a lustrous black, and flowing; his teeth of pearly whiteness; but these luxuriances only formed a more horrid contrast with his watery eyes, that seemed almost of the same color as the dun-white sockets in which they were set, his shrivelled complexion and straight black lips”(58), was so ugly and scary that filled Frankenstein with upset and disappointment. He let the monster left the apartment.

  But this is not the end, this is just the beginning of the horror and unfortune to Frankenstein and his family.

Ads about Frankenstein

Undoubtedly, Frankenstein monster is one of the icons of modern popular culture who is so famous worldwide that almost every one can recognize him and tells his story. So, when some companies want to publish commercials to make their products more popular, it may be a good idea to use the Frankenstein monster in your ads.

There are many companies that actually did it. The Vodka brand, Absolute Vodka, is famous because of their various and creative ads, and some of them are inspired by the popular culture. So apparently, they have used the idea of the Frankenstein monster. In one of their ads, the Vodka bottle becomes the Frankenstein monster with the iconic scars and the metal things which were at the monster’s neck. The title of the ad is Absolute Shelley, which combined the brand’s name and the author of the novel Frankenstein. I think it is a pretty good idea due to it is very easy to let the customers understand the idea. However, it does not show much the relationship between the product and the Frankenstein monster. So it may be a good idea, but does not work well as an ad.

Another alcohol company also used the idea of Frankenstein. It is Heineken. The famous beer manufacturing company published a series of ads for the Halloween includes the Frankenstein monster, Dracula, Mummy, zombies etc. It is a very good series of ads because all of the monsters above are very well-known and scary which are perfect to be used in advertisements at Halloween. The ads also tell people, “Even the monsters are drinking our beer at Halloween, our beer must also be your first choice”.

In our traditional point of view, the Frankenstein monster is very clumsy and awkward. But the pain relief medicine Osteo Bi-Flex’s commercial changed our mind. The commercial indicates that after taking the Bi-Flex medicine, the Frankenstein monster becomes more flexible and comfortable that he can do Yoga, play guitar and do some work in garden now. The commercial perfectly used the characteristics of the Frankenstein monster to indicate the effect of their medicine. It is a good and humorous commerical that works well on advertising their product.

There are still a lot of ads that used the idea of the Frankenstein monster, I cannot tell them all. But one thing is obvious: all of them showed the importance and popularity of the monster in modern popluar culture.

Summary of reviews of Frankenstein

Undoubtedly, Frankenstein from 1931 is one of the best and most important movies in the Universal’s history, countless movies that come afterwards are influenced by it. It also influenced many people, and there are two articles which review this iconic movie.

Now first look at the review from Onion A.V.. At the beginning of the article, it states that thanks to the Frankenstein’s monster depicted in the movie, the 1931′s Frankenstein among the movies which are considered as icons. The monster’s appearance, as the article describes “dull eyes, flat head, working-man’s clothes, and bolt-adorned neck”, is so impressive that even now when we talk about Frankenstein, the first imagine comes to our minds is the monster’s appearance. The monster is so famous, even if you have not seen the movie, you can still easily recognize him, just like the article says “ You don’t have to have seen a film in which he appears to recognize him”. To me, I think it is one of the most impressive characters in the movie history, only the characters like Darth Vader and Superman can reach his height.

Then turn to the review from Oh, the Horror website. Served as the review’s author’s introduction to the horror movies, the Frankenstein has a huge influence on the author. Similar as the opinion from Onion A.V.’s review, the opinion here also considers the Frankenstein’s monster in the movie as an iconic character. Especially, it points out that the first time the monster appears in the movie is one of the best in the history “The Monster is immediately terrifying from the moment he enters the film. In one of the most stunning entrances in film history, the Monster lurches backwards into the frame before the camera captures a haunting, empty gaze from Karloff’s eyes”. When I watched the movie, I was also surprised by this scene and felt like it is familiar to me because I have seen several similar scenes from other movies. Apparently, those movies are inspired by the 1931′s Frankenstein.

There are countless movies released every year, but only few of the them can become the legend, and 1931′s Frankenstein is one. It has influenced many movies already and it will definately influence more movies in the future.

Summary of The Cemetery Skeleton

In this blog, I would like to talk about the article The Cemetery Skeleton, which is about the movie Frankenstein from 1931, with every one.

The beginning of the movie, as we all know, is a funeral and the graveyard is surrounded by many men and women. Then scene moves slowly, slides past all of the mourning people and stop at the end of the graveyard, a skeleton shows.

The figure skeleton is quiet common to be seen at graveyard, because the skeleton is the symbol of death. As the article states “The skeleton is an ancient and enduring symbol of death. Death’s Head skulls and crossed bones were often carved into headstones and full skeletal figures appeared as statuary alongside trumpeting angels and weeping stone maidens”, it is not hard to understand why a hooded skeleton is there and it seems that the skeleton is not an important part of the movie.

However, the skeleton is a hint of the rest of the movie, the disaster that will come later. After we see the skeleton, the hiding Frankenstein and his assistance appear on the scene. After all of the mourning people, including the gravedigger, have gone, Frankenstein and the assistance begin to undo the grave, take out the coffin with the fresh corpse inside. While Frankenstein is digging the burial, he throws a shovelful of grave dirt to the skeleton, who “stands off to the side, boxed in with pickets, its bony hands resting on the hilt of a sword”, unconcernedly. This shows, like the article says “a signal of Frankenstein’s maniacal focus on the job at hand, unconcerned with the consequences of his acts. As a symbolic gesture, it illustrates Frankenstein’s disrespect for Death itself”, the attitude of Frankenstein towards the death, his crazy experiment and his enthusiasm to the experiment. All of these indicate the birth of the monster Frankenstein later in the movie, and the disaster he brings to the citizens.

 

Is that really Frankenstein’s fault?

As we all know, Frankenstein is a scary creature, a man-made monster who is considered as an killing machine. Every one hates him, thinks that is his fault to bring disaster to human beings. These opinions are apparent in the movie from 1930.

However, is that really Frankenstein’s fault?

First, let us think about how Frankenstein was born. The scientist Frankenstein, the “father” of the monster Frankenstein, was a crazy man who wanted to create human by his hands. He did not accept the advices from any one else but just persisted his own experiment with his also crazy assistant. He stole the dead bodies with the assistance to make the body of monster Frankenstein, but he did not go to steal the brain with his careless assistance which leads the brain stolen was abnormal. Thus, if the scientist Frankenstein did not plan to create the man-made human or listened to others’ advices to stop the experiment, the monster will never be created. Also, if he could get an normal brain for the monster Frankenstein, the monster might be just as common as the human beings.

Also, the new born children learn everything normally based on either imitation or be taught by others, so does Frankenstein. However, no one taught him or let him to imitate. Once he escaped out of the laboratory, he started to learn by imitate other people, like he imitated the little girl to smell the flowers. But because of the abnormal brain he had, his imitation was awkward and I think why he threw the little girl into the water. He did not do it on purpose, he just imitated from the little girl and mistakely killed her. So, it was a misunderstood that the farmer said Frankenstein murdered his daughter.

In addition, the hostility from human beings made Frankenstein felt that humans were enermies. He was scared by the assistance’s torch, was jailed by the scientist and was chased by the people from the whole town. All of these made Frankenstein began to hate human beings.

Thus, in conclution, the disaster Frankenstein brought was mostly because of the humans’ own fault but not just Frankenstein’s.

Something about remix

After watching the video “Everything is a remix”, I think I have something to say about “remix”.

The most common area that you can remix is music. Remix happens all the time in music. However, there are different reasons why artists make remix.

First, the artists are influenced by the artists or songs from past and want to show respect to those artists or songs. The King of Pop, Micheal Jackson (R.I.P.), is one of my favorite artists, he has influenced countless artists who came after him. R&B singers like Usher and Chris Brown are among the singers influenced by MJ. The singing and performing style of Usher is obviously influened by MJ, same as Chris Brown. One of the songs from Chris, She Ain’t You, sampled the song Human Nature from MJ, and in the music video Chris weared like MJ to show his respect to the King of Pop. Also, many rappers are influenced by MJ. Kanye West, famous producer and rapper, sampled a lot of MJ’s songs into his music. Good Life is one of the songs sampled MJ’s music and it was very popular when it released. Other legends, like Beatles, also have huge influence on nowadays music. Some famous rock artists/groups like Coldplay and Green Day are apparently influenced by Beatles.

Another reason why artists make remix is the original music is so popular or success that every other artist wants to follow the trend and attracts fans’ attention. It happens in Rap music the most. For example, Wiz Khalifa’s hit song Black and Yellow was so hot at that time that almost every one knows this song, so many rappers like Lil’ Wayne made a remix called Green and Yellow to follow the trend and support his favorite team Green Bay Packers on last year’s Super Bowl. Snoop Dogg and Game did the same thing, they made the remix called Purp and Yellow to support LA Lakers.

In addition, sometimes artists make remix for their own songs just because the original ones leaked in advance. Although this is a very rare reason for artists make remix, it actually happened before. On 1995, 2Pac and Dr. Dre’s new song California Love leaked before 2Pac’s album released, so they decided to remix the song. Thus, when 2Pac’s album All Eyez On Me released, on the playlist there was no California Love, instead, California Love(Remix) was on the list.

That is all what I want to say about “remix”.

What’s up everyone!

What’s up every one!

My name is Xiaoshen Wang. My major is Engineering. I am glad that I can meet all of you guys in ENGL 106 class. I hope we can know each other more so I will post this self-introduction to let all of you to know me a little bit more.

My hometown is China. It is a great country with 1.4 billion population. I know you guys may be surprised about the large population we have, but it is really just a number to me because I feel very comfortable when I was living in my country. I also like America very much, the people I met are all very awesome and I have made a lot of friends here.

I like sports. Football is my favorite. It was kind of disappointed that almost on one around me likes football when I was in China. However, I feel much better since I came here because most of the Americans are crazy about football. There is no doubt that I support Boilermakers, also, Pittsburgh Steelers(I know it sucks that they got Tebowed) is my favorite team although I am now in Indiana. I like Colts pretty much too, but just please fire Caldwell and pick Luck, then wait for Peyton to come back. I also like basketball(D-Wade is the man) and soccer.

I love music, and rap is my favorite. I started to listen to rap since 12 years old. Listening to the rap songs is the best way for me to relax, I feel chilled every time I put on my headphone. I am a big west coast rap fan, 2pac is my favorite. I cannot stop nodding my head every time I hear G-Funk, especially songs from Dr.Dre, Snoop Dogg etc. I also make my own music. I have released a mixtape when I was senior in high school and it has sold 50 copies. Although it was not a large amount, to me it was still a kind of approval and encouragement.

I think that is pretty much what I want to talk about myself. I hope after this introduction you can know more about me.