Comments to Peers
Sebastian
For this contextual analysis discussion, the work of art that I had chosen is a movie called Shattered Glass. The film was released on October 31, 2003, and is currently available to watch on different streaming apps and can be bought in different stores. The editing of the movie was done by Jeffrey Ford and the director of the movie is Billy Ray with the screenplay also being created by Ray. Billy Ray was born in 1963 in Encino, Los Angeles, California, and is still currently alive in today’s society. He is well known for directing famous and successful movies such as The Hunger Games and Captain Phillips and the last movie he had directed was in 2019. The movie Shattered Glass is a biographical drama about a journalist and the scandal he had created due to his actions. The movie is based on an article by Vanity Fair under the same name by H. G. Bissinger. The film is about a journalist named Stephan Glass who works at the New Republic which is an American magazine company that still operates today. He is liked by most of his coworkers due to his upbeat attitude and his articles that are created being entertaining and exciting. His editor, Michael Kelly, favors him as well, but Kelly is eventually fired due to a conflict with the publisher and another journalist named Charles Lane who is not liked by the staff. Glass decides to write an article titled “Hack Heaven” in which it discusses “ a teenage hacker being hired by a large software firm he infiltrated” (en.wikipedia.org). The story grows to be very popular due to how exciting and interesting the story is and due to this it eventually reaches the team at the Forbes Digital Tool. One of the people working there named Adam Penenberg decided to look into the article in order to find its authenticity and he found out that there was no evidence of the hacker and the company being together like how Glass stated in the article. Due to this, Penenberg decides to call Glass and Glass gives him a number to the software firm, and Peneberg talks to the chairman of it. Afterward, Glass and Kelly are in a call with the staff from Forbes and they discover that the article is not credible. Glass defends himself however by claiming the sources he used had lied to him and that he is not involved. This does not cause the Forbes staff to fully believe Glass however and Lane decides he wants to prove that Glass is being truthful. He asks Glass to take him to the restaurant and conference center where the article takes place in order to prove he was not lying. This trip however proves to Lane that Glass had falsified the article he had written since the time the article took place was a time when the center was closed. Lane decides to suspend Glass instead of removing him from the company and this action leads to Lane receiving backlash from the rest of the staff at the New Republic. Due to a connection of the locations of the chairman of the fake firm and Glass’s brother, Lane finds out the brother had posed as the chairman. The break of trust leads to Lane going through all of Glass’s past articles and finds that most to all of them are falsified and overexaggerated in order to create enjoyment and grow respect for Glass. Realizing the amount of damage Glass had caused to the company, Lane fires him despite his begs and pleads. Lane receives hate at first for removing a favored member but once the others realize Glass’s error, Lane receives “support from The New Republic staff for bringing Glass’ deception to light, while the magazine’s attorney questions Glass over which stories of his were fabricated” (en.wikipedia.org). The movie ends with the New Republic finding out that 27 out of the 41 articles Glass had created were fake. Though the movie is based around real events, the human context of the film seems to be that lying and deceiving others always leads to failure and loss. I found the movie from a friend who had recommended it to me when I was in high school and I had really enjoyed the movie. I decided to watch the movie again since I enjoyed the story of it and I also liked how it was based on real events. The movie also contains many actors that I am familiar with and enjoy watching them such as Hayden Christensen. The artwork speaks to me because of how it helps me understand that the only way to be successful and remain successful is to be truthful to others and myself regardless of the outcomes. The artwork that I had chosen from module 1 can be compared to the movie because of the similar emotions that are felt between the two pieces. The artwork in the first module was Separation by Edvard Munch and in the painting, the emotions of loneliness and separation are shown. In the movie, Lane feels as if he is separated from the other members of the New Republic because of how he does not see Glass in a great view. There is a difference however between the two since the painting is more about a man losing a woman and the movie is about a man losing his credibility. The artwork that I had chosen from module 2 can also be compared to the movie because of how both show how people react when under pressure by difficult situations. The artwork I had chosen from module 2 was the novel called Lord of the Flies and in the novel, a group of kids has to survive on an island without any parents or societal benefits. In the book, the kids are forced to defend themselves from difficult situations such as the other kids who have gone mad in order to survive, and in the movie, Glass is forced to defend himself from the Forbes staff and Lane in order to cover up his lies and keep his job. Another artwork that can be compared to Shattered Glass is a romantic comedy play called Twelfth Night by Shakespeare. The story is about a woman who disguised herself as a servant for the duke and over time she ends up falling in love with him. The reason for this play to be similar to the movie is because of how both pieces of art show the consequences of lying to others. In the play, because the woman was disguised as a man she was unable to form a relationship with the Duke. The social angle that I have chosen to represent the movie is history and mind. I chose this angle because of how due to Glass lying about past events, history was made incorrectly and false information was spread around. Also, history plays a role because of how people learned from Glass’s mistake and history will now remember Glass as the person who falsified articles. The reason I chose the mind is that Glass tricks everyone into thinking that he is respectable and that he is someone who is soft and can’t do anything wrong.
Word Count:1212
Works Cited ●
“Shattered Glass (Film).” Wikipedia, Wikimedia Foundation, 14 July 2021, en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shattered_Glass_(film). ● “Billy Ray (Screenwriter).” Wikipedia, Wikimedia Foundation, 5 July 2021, en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Billy_Ray_(screenwriter). ● “Gender Swaps in Shakespeare Plays: THIRTEEN – New York Public Media.” THIRTEEN, 26 Apr. 2016, www.thirteen.org/program-content/gender-swaps-in-shakespeare-plays/#:~:text=T WELFTHNIGHT,employmentbyservingDukeOrsino.
Second Peer review
Kaitlyn
For my module three contextual analysis discussion, I decided to write about the theatre performance of Dear Evan Hansen by Steve Levenson. Dear Evan Hansen was the first show Levenson had ever created that started as a book. It received nine Tony Award nominations, winning six. Born in 1984 in Maryland, Levenson went on to study theatre and English, which later turned into playwriting. He is still alive today. Levenson has also written many other shows that went on to be nominated and won tony awards. The musical is about a boy with a social anxiety disorder trying to connect to other people. He goes as far as making up a story about being friends with someone who completed suicide to get close with the family (Baronet, 2020). I first heard about this musical when it came out in 2016. During my eighth-grade drama class, I heard the song “You Will be Found,” I instantly wanted to learn more about the show. Growing up, I have always had terrible anxiety. Listening to the musical helped me feel connected, knowing that other people are going through similar issues. I saw the show in person in 2018, and I was driven into tears from my experience. The show was so powerful, with all the different mental health issues addressed that are not spoken about. As stated in the show, “you are not alone” really stood out to me because I learned I am not alone, and I can reach out for help if needed. I still listen to the music of the show every chance I get. I even had the opportunity to perform the song “You Will be Found” for my High School drama department. In my module one contextual analysis discussion post, I wrote about The Mechanical Ear by Chuck Baird. I had a difficult time trying to find a connection between the two pieces. However, I did finally understand that both works incorporated—a choice. Throughout the performance of Dear Evan Hansen, Evan is faced with the difficult task of coming clean in a lie that he told. Evan built up an entire lie to make himself appear more popular and “normal.” If he tells the truth, everything will backfire on him, and he could go back to the same life he had before. If he did not say something, he would be even more anxious, living his life in a constant lie. Even if he appeared “normal” on the outside, he would not be “normal” on the inside. The Mechanical Ear represents a choice depending on if a Deaf person wants the chance to hear again. Not all Deaf people want to hear. They like living their life deaf. A cochlear implant is a device used on the Deaf to give them the chance to hear and have a “normal” life. A “normal” life to a Deaf person is deaf, not changing who they are to fit in with the rest of society. In my module two contextual analysis discussion, I wrote about Elie Weisel’s biography, Night. The book and the musical are both similar because of stigma. Stigma in Night was based on Jewish people who were seen as lesser to those who were not. In Dear Evan Hansen, those with a mental illness were considered not normal and would never fit in with society. Stigma is how someone negatively thinks of a person because of how they act, what they look like, religion, and more. Another connection between the two artworks is the topic of never letting people forget. Weisel told his story to continue others to keep talking about what happened to him and others and keep fighting for equality so it does not happen again. In addition, dear Evan Hansen told a story about kids with mental health issues. The show shows that this is a problem in the world that needs to be addressed and solved, so the risk of suicide and addiction does not continue to rise. During the Module two contextual analysis discussion, I analyzed Bronte Bredemeyer’s analysis on The Perks of Being a Wallflower by Stephen Chbosky. The two pieces of art could not have been more similar. The book and the musical are very similar because they both have the main character of a teenage boy with a mental illness. Both characters are similar in many ways. Evan and Charlie gain many friends by not telling them the whole truth about themselves. They want to appear as “normal” and not be alone and will do just about anything to achieve it. Fun fact, Stephen Chbosky is the director of the upcoming movie version of Dear Evan Hansen. Dear Evan Hansen is considered a melodramatic show. Melodrama is a show that over exaggerates a plot to show the audience genuine emotions and leave them thinking and wanting more. Dear Evan Hansen did this by giving the audience a character to which they can relate. By exaggerating the way, Evan writes in his diary about how he feels, he is letting the audience in on his raw emotions, letting them see inside the mind of someone who has a mental health issue. Playing on Broadway at the Music Box Theater, Dear Evan Hansen is set on a proscenium stage. A proscenium stage is a stage that has scenes in front of the scenery. The audience is directly in front of the raised stage. They are watching the performance inside the frame of the proscenium arch. The main character of Dear Evan Hansen is Evan Hansen. The story follows him and his journey of self-discovery with his anxiety, fear of being accepted in society. Evan thought it was an excellent idea to fake a friendship with a character named Connor after he died by suicide. Evan wrote fake notes to himself, sounding like Connor so that Connor’s family would accept him almost as their son. Connor’s sister, Zoe Murphy, ended up falling for Evan. However, the romantic relationship did not last once Evan came forward about his fabrication of the letters. The social angle of Dear Evan Hansen is body and mind. Mind is a considerable issue taken on by the show. The entire show consists of thoughts that are happening inside Evan’s head that lead him to lie about who he is. As explained previously, Evan has a mental illness called social anxiety disorder. Social anxiety makes it hard for him to communicate with other people properly, and scared of large crowds, for example, school and parties. Because of this, Evan never felt normal in his own body. He always wanted to try and fit in with others and tried very hard to succeed, but it usually backfired, like trying to have kids sign his cast at school. The internet helped him a lot throughout the show, but it was also a problem. Evan posting a memory about Connor and his death brought him “fame” and help to the cause that no one is alone. He did explain that everyone is going through tough times, and instead of battling them alone, people can have a support system to fall back on. Although his intentions were pure, he did lie about being friends with Connor, and almost everyone turned against him.
Word Count: 1,209
References: Als, Hilton. “Pop Psychology Onstage in ‘Dear Evan Hansen.’” The New Yorker, 11 Dec. 2016, www.newyorker.com/magazine/2016/12/19/pop-psychology-onstage-in-dear-evan-hansen. “Dear Evan Hansen (Musical) Context & Analysis.” StageAgent, stageagent.com/shows/musical/7745/dear-evan-hansen/context. “Dear Evan Hansen.” Wikipedia, Wikimedia Foundation, 20 July 2021, en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dear_Evan_Hansen#Act_2. “Steven Levenson: Keynote Speaker: AAE Speakers Bureau.” AAE Speakers, www.aaespeakers.com/keynote-speakers/steve-levenson. Theatre, usfweb.usf.edu/courseresources/cas/hum1020/articulate/theatre/presentation_html5.html.