DOCSLIB.ORG

Scapegoats and Redemption on Shutter Island Cari Myers University of Denver, [email protected]

Total Page：16

File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb

Download full-text PDF Read full-text
Scapegoats and Redemption on Shutter Island Cari Myers University of Denver, Cmyers@Iliff.Edu View metadata, citation and similar papers at core.ac.uk brought to you by CORE provided by The University of Nebraska, Omaha Journal of Religion & Film Volume 16 Article 2 Issue 1 April 2012 5-25-2012 Scapegoats and Redemption on Shutter Island Cari Myers University of Denver, [email protected] Recommended Citation Myers, Cari (2012) "Scapegoats and Redemption on Shutter Island," Journal of Religion & Film: Vol. 16 : Iss. 1 , Article 2. Available at: https://digitalcommons.unomaha.edu/jrf/vol16/iss1/2 This Article is brought to you for free and open access by DigitalCommons@UNO. It has been accepted for inclusion in Journal of Religion & Film by an authorized editor of DigitalCommons@UNO. For more information, please contact [email protected]. Scapegoats and Redemption on Shutter Island Abstract The themes of redemptive violence, scapegoating, and ritual in the films of Martin Scorsese have provided much grist for critical scholarship. While it is going too far to claim that Scorsese is intentionally interpreting Girardian themes (which are themselves borrowed from a rich mythological tradition), the comparisons between the theorist and the director are compelling. My goal here is to establish the primary themes of scapegoating, mimesis, the cycle of violence, and feuding identities that occur in both Girard’s works and Scorsese’s films and pull them forward into a more recent work of Scorsese, Shutter Island. Keywords Violence, Scapegoating, Ritual, Girard Author Notes Cari Myers received a BA in English Literature from Pepperdine University, an MA in Youth and Family Ministry from Abilene Christian University, and an MTS from Brite Divinity at Texas Christian University. She is currently pursuing a PhD in Religion and Social Change at the University of Denver and the Iliff chooS l of Theology. Her research focus is in Latino/a studies, specifically in Latino/a youth culture. This article is available in Journal of Religion & Film: https://digitalcommons.unomaha.edu/jrf/vol16/iss1/2 Myers: Scapegoats and Redemption on Shutter Island Summary of Girard’s Theory The mimetic model begins with human need – an inherent “lack” within an individual and the search to meet that need.1 When faced with an initial need or lack, the individual selects a model to imitate in order to gain what the individual requires. At this point, a person has two choices: to imitate God or to imitate another. Put plainly, why would a human choose to follow another human and not God in order to fill this void? Is this not a clear choice? Charles Bellinger gives a persuasive answer: The deeper, truer, more mature form of selfhood is a possibility toward which God is always drawing the individual. But insofar as the individual is actively resisting the call of creation, he is existing in a state of inner conflict. He loves himself and seeks to maintain control over his own selfhood, and he hates the pressure that is being placed upon him to become a more mature person…. the sinful human being becomes immensely frustrated at his inability to prevent his creation. In his anger over his inability to kill his deeper self, he develops a need to kill other human beings. He subconsciously construes the other person as a representation of that which he is trying to kill within himself….To attack the Other, the Enemy, becomes a psychological need for the sinful person, as he seeks to avoid becoming another to himself, that is, a new self. The most basic root of ill will toward others is ill will toward the self that one is in the process of becoming.2 Humans are never completely formed, finished, and perfected. The path of humanity is one of growth and progress. Only Yahweh can say, “I AM.”3 The rest of us may only say, “I become.” How humans respond to their unformed nature determines their path. We may turn to God and allow God to form and shape us or we may turn to others and look for what they have that we have not in an effort to seek our own completion. If we choose to turn to another human as the model for the next step in our own personal evolution, we seek someone who seems to encompass what we lack. What remains is the question about our perception of our own lack – how do we know we are missing something? Are these needs natural innate needs all humans Published by DigitalCommons@UNO, 2012 1 Journal of Religion & Film, Vol. 16 [2012], Iss. 1, Art. 2 share, or are these socially constructed “needs,” things that a human does not physiologically or emotionally need, but only perceives to need? Is the difference really significant? Perhaps there is a preliminary step required in which we examine how we perceive our needs, and how we distinguish between needs and wants. For now, let us simply begin with the observation that all humans have needs, and we may either choose to follow God and allow God to form us or we may turn to other humans and seek to obtain what they have that we have not. Beginning the mechanism at this point answers the question, “Why do we copy the desires of others?” The inner emptiness of each human inspires the mimetic process. Mimesis is the awareness that someone else has something that I believe I need and begins with a game of comparison. I examine my situation and my state of being to assess what I believe is missing. I then see another person and compare her situation and my perception of her state of being, and assess what she has that I need. I will then take steps to obtain what she has or wants, and imitate her in some way in order to obtain it.4 This portion of the theory describes the driving force behind the effectiveness of advertising and much of the social construction of trends, fashion, technology, education, romance, and friendships. If a famous and stylish celebrity is photographed carrying a designer lunchbox, one may be sure there will be a waiting list for that very lunchbox the next day. One needs only step in the halls of a local school or turn on the TV to see the mimetic desire at work. Mimesis may be either positive or negative, depending on the being one imitates. If one chooses to imitate Jesus, mimetic desire may be very positive: “What Jesus advocates is mimetic desire. Imitate me, and imitate the father through me….the only way to avoid violence is to imitate me, and imitate the Father.”5 Girard declares that mimetic desire is a “pharmakon – a https://digitalcommons.unomaha.edu/jrf/vol16/iss1/2 2 Myers: Scapegoats and Redemption on Shutter Island medicine and a poison”6 and can either create illness or cure it. When a person chooses another to imitate, he or she must choose wisely or come to ruin. When more than one person desires an object, a rivalry is born. This rivalry for the same object leads to envy, competition, and conflict. A mediator is the person with whom I am in mimetic relationship. This person, my rival, mediates reality to me. This makes us “interdividuals;” our identity is construed by the other or model, and we are a conglomerate of mimetic relationships.7 There are two types of rivalry at work here: internal and external. External mediation exists “when the distance is sufficient to eliminate any contact between the two spheres of possibilities of which the mediator and the subject occupy the respective centers.”8 External mediation exists when an eighth grade girl idolizes a pop star and copies the star’s wardrobe, haircut, and mannerisms. The possibilities for contact, or even actual awareness, between the girl and the star are minimal. Internal mediation exists when “this same distance is sufficiently reduced to allow these two spheres to penetrate each other more or less profoundly.”9 The closer the relationship between the people competing for the same object, the more potential exists for a violent outcome. In both secular and biblical literature, the theme of warring brothers or twins is rampant.10 Perhaps because the relationship is more intimate and has greater value for each participant, the dissolution of a close relationship would necessarily require greater violence. At some point in a relationship of this nature involved in a mimetic rivalry, the members must decide whether the object of their desire is more important than the relationship with the other. Perhaps this is the greatest act of violence – that break with the other and the replacement of an object where a person once stood. Girard goes on to clarify that “the distance between mediator and subject is primarily spiritual,”11 and while geography may be one factor, it is not the sole factor in rivalry. Published by DigitalCommons@UNO, 2012 3 Journal of Religion & Film, Vol. 16 [2012], Iss. 1, Art. 2 Expanding the relational dimension to the spiritual plane creates an even greater arena for rivalry – and introduces the concept of rivalry with one’s self. Eventually, mimetic rivalry leads to acts of violence, and peace may only be restored through the use of a scapegoat. In a real rivalry, both sides are both aggressor and victim, and the violence escalates to become all-encompassing. In order to stem the cycle of violence, the rivals, be they individuals or communities, must find a victim to carry the responsibility of the conflict: a scapegoat. Girard describes the function of the scapegoat within the mimetic process as follows: “The desire to commit an act of violence on those near us cannot be suppressed without a conflict; we must divert that impulse, therefore, toward the sacrificial victim, the creature we can strike down without fear of reprisal, since he lacks a champion.”12 The scapegoat must exhibit some weakness or vulnerability, or bear some marker that sets him or her apart from the rest of the culture.
Load more

Recommended publications
  • Schizophrenia on the Main Character of the Shutter Island Film Based on Sigmund Freud’S Psychoanalysis Theory
    SCHIZOPHRENIA ON THE MAIN CHARACTER OF THE SHUTTER ISLAND FILM BASED ON SIGMUND FREUD’S PSYCHOANALYSIS THEORY A Thesis Submitted to Letters and Humanities Faculty In Partial to Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Strata One By: GOFUR NIM: 208026000004 ENGLISH LETTER DEPARTMENT FACULTY OF ADAB AND HUMANITIES UIN SYARIF HIDAYATULLAH JAKARTA 2015 ABSTRACT Gofur, Schizophrenia on The Main Character of The Shutter Island Film Based on Sigmund Freud’s Psychoanalysis Theory. A Thesis Of Department of English Literature, Faculty of Adab and Humanities, Syarif Hidayatullah Islamic State University, Jakarta, 2015. The purpose of this research is aimed to know schizophrenia on the main character of the Shutter Island film using psychoanalysis approach. The writer uses a qualitative desc riptive method in this research in which the data is collected from the script and watching film. Then, the writer analyzes them by using Psychoanalysis theory of Sigmund Freud. From the analysis, the writer finds that the main character has a personality problem because of regression to the primary narcissism and becomes schizophrenia as his defense. The main character regresses to the primary narcissism because of he is not comfortable of his psychosexual stages normally. The main character has bad experience during his childhood. Particularly, schizophrenia is linked to an early part of the oral stage called primary narcissism during which the ego has not separated from the id. The main character shows two symptoms of schizophrenia such as delusion and hallucination. Finally, he lives in his fictional story and keeps in his insanity when at the end of the healing method almost success.
    [Show full text]
  • THESIS By: Fadly Sholehudin Abdhillah Mutaqin NIM 13320114 DEPARTMENT of ENGLISH LITERATURE FACULTY of HUMANITIES UNIVERSITAS IS
    A STUDY OF FILM ADAPTATION IN DENNIS LEHANE’S SHUTTER ISLAND (2003) THESIS By: Fadly Sholehudin Abdhillah Mutaqin NIM 13320114 DEPARTMENT OF ENGLISH LITERATURE FACULTY OF HUMANITIES UNIVERSITAS ISLAM NEGERI MAULANA MALIK IBRAHIM MALANG 2020 i A STUDY OF FILM ADAPTATION IN DENNIS LEHANE’S SHUTTER ISLAND (2003) THESIS Presented to Universitas Islam Negeri Maulana Malik Ibrahim Malang in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Sarjana Sastra (S.S.) By: Fadly Sholehudin Abdhillah Mutaqin NIM 13320114 Advisor: Agung Wiranata Kusuma, M.A. NIP 198402072015031004 DEPARTMENT OF ENGLISH LITERATURE FACULTY OF HUMANITIES UNIVERSITAS ISLAM NEGERI MAULANA MALIK IBRAHIM MALANG 2020 ii STATEMENT OF AUTHORSHIP I state that the thesis entitled “A Study of Film Adaptation in Dennis Lehane’s Shutter Island (2003)” is my original work. I do not include any materials previously written or published by another person, except those ones that are cited as references and written in the bibliography. Hereby, if there is an objection or claim, I am the only person who is responsible for that. Malang, 04 Maret 2020 The researcher Materai 6000 Fadly Sholehudin A.M. 13320114 iii APPROVAL SHEET This to certify that Fadly Sholehudin Abdhillah Mutaqin’s thesis entitled A Study of Film Adaptation in Dennis Lehane’s Shutter Island (2003) has been approved for thesis examination at the Faculty of Humanities, Universitas Islam Negeri Maulana Malik Ibrahim Malang, as one of the requirements for the degree of Sarjana Sastra (S.S.). Malang, 05 March 2020 Approved by: Head of Department of Advisor English Literature Agung Wiranata Kusuma, M.A.
    [Show full text]
  • The Remake of Memory: Martin Scorsese's Shutter Island and Pedro Almodovar's the Skin I Live
    Vera Dika THE REMAKE OF MEMORY: MARTIN SCORSESe’S SHUTTER ISLAND AND PEDRO Almodovar’S THE The history of cinema has given us objectification of consciousness (2012), SKIN I notable representations of states of or with more contemporary theorist memory, delusion, hallucination, and Laura Mulvey (1975) who interpreted dream. Cinematic states of conscious- the whole of narrative cinema as the ness arise in early German Expression- objectification of male sexual desire, LIVE IN* ist and Surrealist films, such as in The especially in relationship to the repre- Cabinet of Dr. Caligari (Das Cabinet sentation of women. But in our current des Dr. Caligari, Robert Wiene, 1920) cinematic era, one that arguably be- and Un Chien Andalou (Luis Buñuel, gins in the mid-1960s, or early 1970s, 1929). In Hollywood films there are and termed “postmodern” by the critic famous dream sequences, such as in Fredric Jameson (1983), a new form Spellbound (Alfred Hitchock, 1945), of “memory” begins to interject itself or re-creations of dream-like worlds, into the picture, or shall we say, into such as in the classic film noir, Laura the movie. That is, the viewer’s own (Otto Preminger, 1944), or renditions movie memories, not personal ones, of mad obsession, as in Frankenstein mind you, but cultural memories, ones (James Whale, 1931) or Dr. Jekyll and cued by cinematic elements strategi- Mr. Hyde (Rouben Mamoulian, 1931). cally re-created and recombined by the And in the US avant-garde film, works filmmakers. According to Jameson, this such as Maya Deren’s Meshes of the practice conflates past, present, and fu- Afternoon (1943), and Stan Brakhage’s ture, and puts our very understanding Anticipation of the Night (1958), cre- of history into jeopardy.
    [Show full text]
  • Andrew's Schizophrenia in Shutter Island by Dennis Lehane Thesis
    ANDREW’S SCHIZOPHRENIA IN SHUTTER ISLAND BY DENNIS LEHANE THESIS Submitted as Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Bachelor Degree of English Department Faculty of Arts and Humanities, Sunan Ampel Surabaya University By: Shafira Azhari Salsabila Reg. Number: A73215072 ENGLISH DEPARTMENT FACULTY OF ARTS AND HUMANITIES SUNAN AMPEL STATE ISLAMIC UNIVERSITY SURABAYA 2019 ii digilib.uinsby.ac.id digilib.uinsby.ac.id digilib.uinsby.ac.id digilib.uinsby.ac.id digilib.uinsby.ac.id digilib.uinsby.ac.id digilib.uinsby.ac.id vi digilib.uinsby.ac.id digilib.uinsby.ac.id digilib.uinsby.ac.id digilib.uinsby.ac.id digilib.uinsby.ac.id digilib.uinsby.ac.id digilib.uinsby.ac.id vii digilib.uinsby.ac.id digilib.uinsby.ac.id digilib.uinsby.ac.id digilib.uinsby.ac.id digilib.uinsby.ac.id digilib.uinsby.ac.id digilib.uinsby.ac.id viii digilib.uinsby.ac.id digilib.uinsby.ac.id digilib.uinsby.ac.id digilib.uinsby.ac.id digilib.uinsby.ac.id digilib.uinsby.ac.id digilib.uinsby.ac.id ABSTRACT Salsabila, Shafira Azhari. 2019. Andrew’s Schizophrenia in Shutter Island by Dennis Lehane. English Department. Faculty of Arts and Humanities. Sunan Ampel State Islamic University. Thesis Advisor : Sufi Ikrima Sa’adah, M.Hum. Key Terms : Psychoanalysis, Schizophrenia, Defense Mechanism. This thesis discusses Andrew’s schizophrenia and its treatment in Shutter Island by Dennis Lehane. Andrew is described to have schizophrenia due to traumatic events. The traumatic events including his guilt of killing hundreds of unarmed soldier during World War II and Andrew’s guilt of not taking his wife, Dolores to psychiatrists that led her to murder her three children, resulting on Andrew ended up killing her with no other choice and lost his entire family.
    [Show full text]
  • Space, Politics, and the Uncanny in Fiction and Social Movements
    MADNESS AS A WAY OF LIFE: SPACE, POLITICS AND THE UNCANNY IN FICTION AND SOCIAL MOVEMENTS Justine Lutzel A Dissertation Submitted to the Graduate College of Bowling Green State University in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY December 2013 Committee: Ellen Berry, Advisor Francisco Cabanillas Graduate Faculty Representative Ellen Gorsevski William Albertini © 2013 Justine Lutzel All Rights Reserved iii ABSTRACT Ellen Berry, Advisor Madness as a Way of Life examines T.V. Reed’s concept of politerature as a means to read fiction with a mind towards its utilization in social justice movements for the mentally ill. Through the lens of the Freudian uncanny, Johan Galtung’s three-tiered systems of violence, and Gaston Bachelard’s conception of spatiality, this dissertation examines four novels as case studies for a new way of reading the literature of madness. Shirley Jackson’s The Haunting of Hill House unveils the accusation of female madness that lay at the heart of a woman’s dissatisfaction with domestic space in the 1950s, while Dennis Lehane’s Shutter Island offers a more complicated illustration of both post-traumatic stress syndrome and post-partum depression. Thomas Mann’s The Magic Mountain and Curtis White’s America Magic Mountain challenge our socially- accepted dichotomy of reason and madness whereby their antagonists give up success in favor of isolation and illness. While these texts span chronology and geography, each can be read in a way that allows us to become more empathetic to the mentally ill and reduce stigma in order to effect change.
    [Show full text]
  • Title: Shutter Island Author: Dennis Lehane Description: Summer, 1954
    Title: Shutter Island Author: Dennis Lehane Description: Summer, 1954. U.S. Marshal Teddy Daniels has come to Shutter Island, home of Ashecliffe Hospital for the Criminally Insane. Along with his partner, Chuck Aule, he sets out to find an escaped patient, a murderess named Rachel Solando, as a hurricane bears down upon them. But nothing at Ashecliffe Hospital is what it seems. And neither is Teddy Daniels. Is he there to find a missing patient Or has he been sent to look into rumors of Ashecliffes radical approach to psychiatry An approach that may include drug experimentation, hideous surgical trials, and lethal countermoves in the shadow war against Soviet brainwashing ... Or is there another, more personal reason why he has come there As the investigation deepens, the questions only mount: How has a barefoot woman escaped the island from a locked room Who is leaving clues in the form of cryptic codes Why is there no record of a patient committed there just one year before What really goes on in Ward C Why is an empty lighthouse surrounded by an electrified fence and armed guards The closer Teddy and Chuck get to the truth, the more elusive it becomes, and the more they begin to believe that they may never leave Shutter Island. Because someone is trying to drive them insane ... Reviews The New York Times: [A]n eerie, startlingly original story ... [Lehane writes] with a crisp clarity that makes the layout of Shutter Island instantly cinematic ... [A] deft, suspenseful thriller that unfolds with increasing urgency until it delivers a visceral shock in its final moments.
    [Show full text]
  • PRESS RELEASE VENUE: 533 Sutter Street, @ Powell for Immediate Release Contact: Susi Damilano
    588 Sutter Street #318 San Francisco, CA 94102 415.677.9596 fax 415.677.9597 www.sfplayhouse.org PRESS RELEASE VENUE: 533 Sutter Street, @ Powell For immediate release Contact: Susi Damilano February 18, 2008 [email protected] ______________________________________________________________________________ ***WEST COAST PREMIERE*** CORONADO By Dennis Lehane Directed by Susi Damilano Opens (Press Night) March 22 through April 26, 2008 Previews March 19, 20 and 21 The POWER of CONNECTIONS Casting Announcement San Francisco, CA (February 2008) – The SF Playhouse (Bill English, Artistic Director; Susi Damilano, Producing Director) are pleased to announce the fourth show in their 2007-2008 season as the West Coast Premiere of Coronado by Dennis Lehane, directed by Susi Damilano. The cast includes: Kate Del Castillo, Chad Deverman, Bill English*, Loraine Olsen, Louis Parnell*, Stacy Ross*, Will Springhorn Jr., Rebecca Schweitzer, and Phillip Torretto. *Appear courtesy of Actor’s Equity. Coronado, a mystery thriller from the pen of Dennis Lehane (Mystic River, Gone Baby Gone), is a crime-noir ride through the lives and passions of Middle Americans told through three intertwining tales: a father and son searching for a missing girl and a stolen diamond, a psychiatrist and a patient having an illicit affair, and two lovers plotting a murder. Complete with shady characters, sex, and murder, Coronado taps into that unsettling place where the familiar turns eerie as it explores our connection to our past and future selves and the things we are willing to do for love, for money, and finally, for redemption. Coronado, Lehane’s first play, debuted in New York in December 2005.
    [Show full text]
  • Shutter Island
    MOVIE REVIEW Afr J Psychiatry 2010;13:313 SHUTTER ISLAND A Paramount Pictures Presentation. A Phoenix Pictures / Sikelia / Appian Way Production A Martin Scorsese Film. Screenplay by Laeta Kologridis Film reviewed by Franco P. Visser Hollywood has succeeded in delivering yet at Dachau following what would probably be another psychological thriller, this time in the remembered as the worst human atrocity in the form of Shutter Island. Directed by the famed history of humanity. director and filmmaker Martin Scorsese, the Here already Teddy took a psychological film is based on the novel Shutter Island by ‘knock’ as he and his fellow soldiers were Dennis Lehane. The viewer is immediately exposed to the aftermath of the Nazi introduced to the world of Teddy Daniels extermination camps. The inclusion of Mahler’s (played by Leonardo DiCaprio), a Deputy U. S. music that was banned by Nazi Germany, in Marshall who is sent to Shutter Island, a mental conjunction with Teddy’s wartime and post-war institution for the criminally insane, with his experiences in Germany makes for brilliant ‘partner’ Chuck Aule (played by Mark Ruffalo) viewing. Not many people know about to investigate the escape of one of its patients. Mahler’s background, and the meaning of the Shutter Island, a facility providing “a moral piece of music used in the film might be lost on fusion between law and order and clinical most individuals. Next time you sit down to care”. It is not long before a seemingly ‘normal’ view a movie be sure to take care and listen to investigation for Teddy and Chuck turns the music being used in the film that you are towards the ‘abnormal’.
    [Show full text]
  • An Acoustic Exploration of Sound in Martin Scorsese's Movie Shutter Island
    INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF SCIENTIFIC & TECHNOLOGY RESEARCH VOLUME 9, ISSUE 03, MARCH 2020 ISSN 2277-8616 An Acoustic Exploration Of Sound In Martin Scorsese‘s Movie Shutter Island J. Rajasree Menon, Dr. Ramanathan P V Abstract: Technology has a long history in the making of sound movies that often juxtapose movements with sounds. Establishing a unique parameter for the analysis of sound has often been a difficult task for scientists across the globe. Numerous interpretations and documentations on soundscape have ideologically established ‗sound‘ as an integral ingredient in film making; as the ultimate repository and supplier of humour, textuality and connotation. A movie does not bloom only on visual effects. It needs a meaningful soundtrack to add intelligibility and coherence to the visual experience. The present paper attempts to explore how the theme of violence, power, truth, grief and masculinity built on an effective soundtrack in the movie Shutter Island actively engages the audience to experience the real sensory impact of the movie. Sound, however, occupies a sharp sensorial realm worth attending to with some explicitness – even when one must admit that silence very often steals the show! The paper titled, ―An Acoustic Exploration of Sound in Martin Scorsese‘s Movie Shutter Island‖ theoretically examines the various techniques of soundtracks as employed in the movie Shutter Island. Martin Scorsese, the well-known filmmaker, has created a unique style through his fabrication and use of music to contrive the soundtracks of this movie. Scorsese‘s use of a unique pattern and style of sound effects in the movie Shutter Island, is one of the prominent and fundamental factors engaging our attention to enumerate the technicalities of soundscape in the acoustic phase of film making.
    [Show full text]
  • Shutter Island Film Text Analysis
    Shutter Island Martin Scorsese has once again used his masterful directing talents to produce an award winning thriller entitled ‘Shutter Island.’ Starring the widely admired actor Leonardo DiCaprio, the film takes place on the fictional Shutter Island where there’s an institution for the criminally insane. The narrative focuses on Teddy Daniels, a U.S marshal who is investigating the disappearance of Rachael Solando with his new partner, Chuck (played by Mark Ruffalo), although it is revealed to the audience that the marshal has ulterior motives for coming to Shutter Island. He’s tracking down the man who started the fire that killed his wife, although he tells Chuck that ‘it’s the smoke that got her. That’s important.’ As the story unravels, the audience begins to see that everything is not what it seems and there’s something very strange going on in Shutter Island. Scorsese cleverly weaves the motif of water throughout the film to symbolize the reality that surrounds and traps the main character as he eventually faces the truth that he is the 67th patient and he’s invented a villain ‘Laeddis’ to blame for his wife being dead. An example of this motif is how he decides to leave the island on more than one occasion, but the ocean is too rough so he is stuck on the island. Water also makes him uneasy which he would subconsciously associate with the murder of his children. While water represents reality, fire represents fantasy – it symbolizes Teddy’s fantasy world and recognizes his insanity. Wherever fire appears, Teddy (or Andrew) is hallucinating.
    [Show full text]
  • Dennis Lehane Award-Winning Novelist & Screenwriter
    12 Western Avenue, Petaluma, CA 94952 tel: 707.773.0654 fax: 707.778.1868 www.barclayagency.com Dennis Lehane Award-winning Novelist & Screenwriter “[Lehane] deserves to be included among the most interesting and accomplished American novelists of any genre or category. .” —Washington Post Book World Photo: Gaby Gerster / Diogenes, Zurich Gerster Gaby / Diogenes, Photo: Dennis Lehane grew up in Boston. Since his first novel, A Drink Before the War, won the Shamus Award, he has published twelve more novels with William Morrow & Co. that have been translated into more than 30 “No one writes crime fiction languages and become international bestsellers: Darkness, Take My Hand; like Dennis Lehane. Great Sacred; Gone, Baby, Gone; Prayers for Rain; Mystic River; Shutter Island; The ones are practicing the craft Given Day; Moonlight Mile; Live by Night; and World Gone By. with their own take, but when it comes to capturing a working-class surround that Dennis Lehane’s novel, The Drop, was inspired by his earlier short story yields both heroes and villains entitled Animal Rescue. The Drop has also been released as a movie featur- — both of whom may be on the wrong side of the law ing James Gandolfini in his last role, alongside actors Noomi Rapace and — Lehane is without match.” Tom Hardy. Lehane was a staff writer on the acclaimed HBO series The —Denver Post Wire and a writer-producer on the 4th season of HBO’s Boardwalk Empire. Lehane currently is a writer “With its fresh, precise language, and producer on the televi- its acute sympathy for the passions that shape — and sion adaptation of Stephen sometimes warp — its central King’s Mr.
    [Show full text]
  • Special Topics of Calamity Physics
    Nancy Pearl Presents “Book Buzz” Public Library Association 2012 Contact: Virginia Stanley, Director Library Marketing 212.207.7592 [email protected] is THRILLED to be part of this Book Buzz… Hosted by the One and Only… Into the Darkest Corner* by Elizabeth Haynes • “This intense, gripping account of domestic violence and its aftermath is utterly unputdownable. A stunning debut.” — S.J. Watson, author of Before I Go to Sleep • “Check the locks on your doors and windows and surrender to this obsessive thriller.” — Karin Slaughter, author of everything gory ISBN 13: 9780062197252 On sale: 7/10/2012 $24.99 100K Galleys available in Booth #523 and on Edelweiss. * We this book! One Shot at Forever by Chris Ballard • Friday Night Lights meets Hoosiers meets Dead Poets Society. • An unlikely coach leads a high-school baseball team and a small Illinois town to a season they'll never forget. ISBN 13: 9781401324384 On sale: 5/22/2012 $24.99 100K E-Book: 9781401304324 Galleys available in Booth #523. Beautiful Ruins by Jess Walter • A funny, romantic story of an almost-love affair that begins on the Italian coast in 1962 . and is rekindled in contemporary Hollywood. • “A ridiculously talented writer.” — New York Times. • Author of The Financial Lives of the Poets. ISBN 13: 9780061928123 On sale: 6/12/2012 $25.99 75K E-Book: 9780062098085 Galleys available in Booth #523 and on Edelweiss. An Unmarked Grave by Charles Todd • Author of the award-winning Inspector Ian Rutledge mysteries returns with World War I nurse and amateur sleuth Bess Crawford! • For fans Elizabeth George, Anne Perry, Martha Grimes, and Jacqueline Winspear.
    [Show full text]