What Cultural Associations Might This Bucolic Setting Convey

Description

Forms of Cultural Inscription in Wes Anderson’s Fantastic Mr. Fox Wes Anderson’s Fantastic Mr. Fox (2009) is a stop-motion film adapted from Roald Dahl’s 1970 novel of the same name. The film features a manifold cast of anthropomorphic animals trying to survive eradication at the hands of Boggis, Bunce, and Bean: three farmers who obliterate half the woods to stop the titular Mr. Fox from rapining their chickens, ducks, geese, and apple cider. Though advertised as being for children, the film boasts a complex narrative with dynamic characters and no shortage of adult content and themes. Moreover, the challenges and hardships these characters face are startlingly and, perhaps, disturbingly human. The film, therefore, is not merely an entertaining story about animals that embody human characteristics but a didactic mirror that reflects back to us an image of our current lives and selves. This essay will afford you the opportunity to muse upon and to advance your understanding of, our current cultural circumstances and the coded value systems that inform, shape, and govern them. Reading Plot, Setting, and Characters: Provide a brief yet coherent summary of the film—one that will make sense even to readers who have not seen it—by noting the significant features of its plot and setting, and by noting the significant traits of its main characters. What happens to the characters by story’s end? What cultural associations might this bucolic (or pastoral) setting convey? What, literally, do the characters’ names mean? Whose point of view does the story endorse? Are any of the characters recognizable as types (the mother, the maiden, the crone, the trickster-hero, the shapeshifter, the shadow, the Christ figure, the hostile brothers)? Or do they resist or alter such types in interesting or provocative ways? How do the characters dress and in what circumstances? Which characters are strong, which weak? In the former case, what is the source of their strength? And in the latter case, what is the source of their weakness? Are there any character binaries, and are those binaries hierarchically arranged (mother-maiden, for example)? Broadly, in this stage, you should retrieve and summarize the coded structures—that is, the patterns of behavior appropriate for people within certain situations—of the film through your reading of plot, summary, and characters. (This section should comprise about 1–2 pages of your essay.) Interpreting Theme: Identify and interpret the film’s principal themes by examining in detail those scenes that best reveal and illustrate those themes. These themes will emerge from your response to the readings in this unit, from our discussions, and from your own insights into the film, its coded structures, and its use of repetition and opposition. (Repetition and opposition are the chief means by which the creator of a text generates meaning; attending to them will allow you to thematize the film—which will entail an examination of social types and ethical values— and to make connections between the film and its larger cultural context.) Broadly, in this stage, you should put forth a plausible and (decently) persuasive interpretation of the film’s central 2 meaning by providing evidence of the coded structures that generate and reinforce that meaning. (This section should comprise about 2–3.5 pages of your essay.) Criticizing Culture: Analyze and critique the themes developed in the film or the codes themselves, out of which the film has been constructed. How should we understand the film (its plot, setting, characters, and themes) in regard to the ways we currently conduct our lives and our notion of what it means to be human and civilized and normal? What are the potential benefits and risks of the coded systems the film represents—in terms of race, class, gender, sexual orientation, age, ethnicity, companionship, love, and physical and/or mental ability and disability? Does the film help us to think about these matters productively or does it simplify and, ultimately, misrepresent them? Broadly, in this stage, you should test what you take to be the central meaning of the film against the real-world ethics of today. (This section should comprise about 1–2.5 pages of your essay.) As was the case in your previous essay, be sure in this one to consider the attitudes and beliefs of your audience (members of this class and of the SDSU community at large). Be sure, also, to provide a clear thesis—an explicit statement of your argument. To help you develop your ideas, be sure to incorporate at least three paraphrases or summaries from the assigned readings and at least one paraphrase or summary from a relevant essay in Reading Popular Culture that we have not discussed in class. (Of the minimum requirement of four citations, be sure to include at least one paraphrase and one summary. Do not, for example, include four summaries but no paraphrase, or vice versa.) Your essay should be 5-6 double-spaced, typed pages (please use 12-point Times New Roman and follow MLA style). Your essay should also include a Works Cited (not included in the 5-6- page requirement). The first draft is due October 9; the revision, October 12; and the final, October 30. Citations for Non-RPC Works Fantastic Mr. Fox. Directed by Wes Anderson, Twentieth Century Fox, 2009. Dilley, Whitney Crothers. “Adaption and Homage: The World of Roald Dahl and Fantastic Mr. Fox.” The Cinema of Wes Anderson: Bringing Nostalgia to Life, Wallflower Press, 2017.

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