Bordwell and Thompson define narrative as "a chain of events in cause-effect relationship occurring in time and space" (Film Art, 75). Referring to the chapter "Narrative as Formal System" and Terry McMillian's essay on The Wizard of Oz (dir. Victor Fleming, 1939), identify and describe three questions McMillian poses to the film's narrative. For instance, when does McMillian pose questions to the film's cause and effect logic? How do the characters' traits inform her understanding of the film's causes and effects? For McMillian, how does the film's presentation of story information generate curiosity or suspense?
11 comments:
In Terry McMillian's essay on the Wizard of Oz she describes what kind of a life she had and mirrors it to what she saw in the Wizard of Oz. To help us understand what about it was important. The characters decisions poses questions the the film's cause and effect logic. McMillian was confused about Dorothy's sudden desire to return home. McMillian would shout at the TV "Dummy" "Dodo Brain" (p. 34) This is because McMillian wanted so badly for Dorothy to just leave. For McMillian, her logical idea would be for Dorothy to live her life, because in a way she wanted to see what would happen to her. The character's traits show an important question that McMillian was forced to answer. Like what would it mean to not have a brain. What effect would that have on someone. To no have a brain, a heart, or maybe courage. This redefined her ideas of those said traits. The curiosity and suspense comes from her own desire to see what happens to Dorothy, because she sees a lot of similarities to her and Dorothy's lives. She wants Dorothy to escape because in a way she would escape. This curiosity is what ultimately created this interest in Dorothy.
Nick Aldrich
Terry McMillian begins by describing her early childhood, some of the difficult things she experienced as a child in her home. She as a child made lots of parallels to Dorothy in the Wizard of Oz and as she describes her home vs. the movie, she does make great points of how she could relate to Dorothy. She related to the stories causes and effects in the sense that she wanted to “land someplace as beautiful and surreal as OZ.” (p. 35) However was confused by Dorothy’s eagerness to dodge an adventure by returning home before the tornado hit. She wanted Dorothy to escape the pessimism in Kansas the same way Terry wanted to escape Port Huron. In my opinion the character’s traits in the Wizard of Oz inform McMillain’s understanding of the causes and effects because she felt that her life paralleled very closely the ways that Dorothy felt and lived prior to going to Oz, feeling a connection to the film. For McMillian, I think that the fact that she felt she lived similar to the way Dorothy did before going to Oz lead to her suspense and curiosity because she identified similarities between themselves particularly and eagerness to get away, so watching Dorothy get a chance to escape drew much attention from McMillain’s own dreams and interests.
Andrew Fleckenstein
Terry McMillian tends to pose questions to The Wizard of Oz’s cause and effect logic when referring to an event; how it happened, relating to how Dorothy feels, and how she would have reacted or done if she were in her place. Then criticizing the effect of Dorothy’s decisions in what could have been done instead of the choices that were made by Dorothy. An example being that, instead of being gullible by listening to Professor Marvel and heading back home, McMillian would rather have kept going her own way away from the farm.
The characters’ traits in the film inform her understanding of the film’s causes and effects by her identifying her connection to the characters’ traits and how it plays a part in her life as well as in the film. By identifying the use of the brain, heart, and courage, McMillian is able to connect the importance of the mental and physical use of the traits. By questioning the great emphasis of the brain, McMillian is able to classify the significance of the use of the brain and what it means to have one. And by being able to question, understand, and then connect the emphasis of the use of the brain (for the scarecrow) in the film, it meaning becomes more implicit with critical analyzing of the trait.
For McMillian, the film’s presentation of story information is able to generate curiosity or suspense by presenting obstacles in Dorothy’s’ journey and the choices that can be made by her that will determine the ultimate after effect of her choices. The choices available are what disrupt the narrative for McMillan. Because McMillian is able to relate to Dorothy’s character of being ignored, wanting to run away from trouble, and finding her place ‘somewhere over the rainbow’, McMillian is able to place herself in her shoes and think of how she would run the show. In creating her own narrative, McMillian generates her own curiosity of how things would turn out if she were to run away instead of going back and constructs suspense in never knowing how it would conclude with her decisions.
Terry McMillian's essay compares her life to the life of Dorothy in the Wizard of Oz. By doing this, she is able to dissect the narratives causes and effects and question the characters motives. For example, McMillian asks what it would be like to not have a brain because the scarecrow character in the Wizard of Oz does not have a brain. Likewise, she can question what it would be like to not have a heart or not have courage because of the lion and tein man characters. Also, while examining Dorothy, she ponders why Dorothy was so dead set on not exploring the land of Oz and so intent on going home right away. These are just a few of the questions McMillian poses. McMillian is able to relate to the characters in this way. By posing these questions she is able to better understand the characters motives and traits.
Nick LaVake
In Terry McMillian's article "The Wizard of Oz" she compares the film with her early ages of life and how the film has helped instill certain values in her. These values she found through the film are still evident in her life today. As McMillan tells the story of her life and her relationship to the Wizard of Oz she does question the logic of the cause and effect of the film. In McMillian's life she had always known the woman to be at the mercy of the man. However, in the Wizard of Oz, Aunte Em is the head of the house hold. Also, she questions the singing aspect of the film and that she was not used to hearing songs like that or relating them to real life situations. McMillian also looks at the traits of the characters to help her understand the causes and effects. She realizes that Dorothy's gullibility causes her to go back to the farm. Also, that the traits or lack-there-of of the scarecrow, lion, and tin man causes them to become friends with Dorothy and go with her to see the Wizard. The story presentation stimulates curiosity by portraying some circumstances relative to McMillians childhood and also introducing new ideas to her such as the idea of courage. Intimidation is what gave the film it's suspenseful edge for McMillian but the triumph of good over evil is her big payoff.
Jacob Rengstorf
Terry McMillian's essay begins with events from her childhood. She relates these events to events that occur in the Wizard of Oz. One cause and effect relationship is when Dorothy goes out around town in the beginning of the film and ultimately returns home. McMillian questions this logic, as she would have not returned home, but instead left and started a journey away from home. She questions Dorothy's reasoning when comparing it to her own, as Dorothy is clearly not as independent of a thinker as McMillian is.
The character's traits of having no heart, brain, or courage helps her understand the cause and effect relationships in the film. The scarecrow has no brain, therefor he is dumb and doesn't think about stuff, the tin man has no heart so he is cold and gets rusty and doesn't know how to feel emotion, and the lion ha so courage so he cannot act as a lion should. The goal of the film is getting these three characters what they want, which comes from Emerald City. Dorothy also gets what she wants there, which is to get back home.
For McMillian, the presentation of the story generates curiosity and suspense by making the scope of the story and state of mind of the characters very narrow. All the characters want to do is get to Emerald City. They meet obstacles along the way, nearly meeting their end, but endure it all to reach the city. McMillion questions why dorothy only is concerned with getting home. It's clear that Dorothy feels an amount of guilt about wanting to run away, and that when she actually finds herself someplace else, she wants to return and apologize, but McMillion would have done things differently. Dorothy and the three characters are presented with a huge world to explore and play in, and all they do is ignore everything about it and just push on through to return home. Her own curiosity is spurred by wondering what would have happened if she veered off the path of the yellow brick road and simply never tried to get to the Emerald City.
In Mcmillians essay, she poses several questions to "The wizard of ozs" narrative. The most evident was the question why Dorthy didn't just stay in emerald city instead of trying to return to kansas. She reiterated this point many times during her essay. In other instances she mentions how the movie inspired her with a confidence ala the scare crow wanting a heart for courage. It translated into her own life with her standing up against her mother and asking for her to say "please". This is an example of the cause and effect model. She also questions the narrative by referring to Dorthys dream sequence, and how she would have dreamed up a perfect world rather then an abstract magical world. The character traits that inform Mcmillians understanding of the cause and effects would be the feelings of inadequacy of the tinman, scarecrow, cowardly lion, the wizard and the professor. These characters made Mcmillian think deeper about the narrative and how it relates to her life in terms of personal qualities. The films presentation of story information generate curiosity and suspense in Mcmillian because of the context it was in. She first saw it as a child, when color television was a new thing. It entranced her and the story intrigued her. Mcmillian says later that she could not sit through the movie as an adult. Now it is a dated film.
McMillian poses several questions to the story’s cause and effect. One of the first is when Dorothy runs away from home. McMillian’s childhood self completely understands and relates to Dorothy’s wanting to escape the dreary, constricting farm, but is not satisfied with her aimless wandering. McMillian wants to know exactly where Dorothy will escape to, where McMillian herself would be able to escape to in that situation, and where “over the rainbow” lies for both of them.
McMillian also poses questions relating to how the characters’ traits affect the film’s cause and effect. One place where she does this is in analyzing Dorothy’s naivety and gullibility. Her childhood self couldn’t stand how innocently Dorothy took Professor Marvel’s word and ran back home, instead of onward toward the rest of the adventure. McMillian couldn’t understand where the plot was going – surely the adventure didn’t lie at home? How could Dorothy be so dumb?
Finally, McMillian poses questions to the suspense and curiosity created by withholding information. She talks about how, when Dorothy first wakes up in Munchkinland, everything is perfect. It’s just like a wonderful dreamland McMillian would have created for herself, and she was nearly satisfied with that as the movie’s end. However, unbeknownst to McMillian, there was much more in store for Dorothy – a great deal of it bad. McMillian says that, watching the movie, she “had no clue that Dorothy was going to find trouble, though, even in her dreams. Hell, if I had dreamed up something like another world, it would’ve been a perfect one. I wouldn’t have put myself in such a precarious situation” (35). This initial lack of information made the experience all the more exciting for McMillian’s childhood self.
Bethany Davey
In regards to cause and effect in Terry McMillian's essay on the Wizard of Oz , it is important to understand that Terry, herself, was initially trying to live vicariously through Dorothy. She noticed the parallel patterns in both their lives up until Dorothy's trip to Oz. It was easy for Terry, as a child, to become whole-heartedly invested and enraptured in Dorothy's story and it's outcome. In regards to the film generating suspense or curiosity, McMillian was paying very close attention to the decisions Dorothy was making, as she was imagining herself having to deal with the same decisions and situations. In so doing , McMillian realized that certain decisions Dorothy made went against the decisions McMillian herself would have made. For instance, Dorothy's decision to return home after having just left, was one that McMillian wished she'd made since she had wanted to leave the boring oppressiveness of her home as well. McMillian was frustrated to see Dorothy cave so easily instead of enjoying the adventure. Understanding the specific character traits of the main characters made it easier for McMillan to accept the direction in which the story was going. While McMillian may not have understood Dorothy's desire to return home, she was able to understand the other character's desires for a heart, a brain, and courage.
Kelly Pelot
McMillian's essay on The Wizard of Oz offers discussion through a number of inquires regarding the film's narrative. One important question she poses is to the film's cause and effect logic. The film essentially introduces us to the unfolding events in mid-motion. Dorothy is running toward her Auntie Em's farm, seeking to gain support against Miss Gulch's motivations. We discover later that toto bit Miss Gulch's leg provoking her interest for removing toto from dorothy. Toto is indeed handed over to Miss Gulch's custody, but shortly escapes capture as a result of an unsecured basket. Toto's reappearance inspires Dorothy to reconsider her situation and run away, in search of a better world. One action effects the following event, which in turn effects how the next set of actions unfold.
Thus far, the relationships between the previously mentioned scenes serve logical function to the causality of narrative. However, McMillan questions why if after all the stress Dorothy received on the farm did she return to the drama after Professor Marvel tells her Auntie Em might be in trouble?
At first her response does not seem sensible considering the motivations she has expressed for running away. Yet when analyzing narrative as a formal system , it's important to study features of the narrative form in relation to one another.
The act of examining character traits will foremost help us understand why Dorothy was so quick to change heart and return home, but will also provide a blueprint of their innate desires and behaviors. These attributes help fill in what at first glance appears to be illogical behaviors, but are in fact the characteristics that complete the complexities of human nature.
McMillian relates completely with Dorothy. She understands that even though Dorothy's life is unfulfilling and deserves positive stimulation, Dorothy is still considerate of others, especially close family like Auntie Em.
I feel McMilian is less interested in how character traits informed her understanding of the film's cause and effects than in the lack of traits. Regarding The Wizard of Oz she questions what does having a brain, heart or courage really mean.s She discovered through the story of the film that these traits were critical characteristics that influenced the causality of the film. Underlining the absence of these essential features of the human spirit helps create an interpretive dialogue used to animate the adventures of self discovery. But also on a basic formal level these traits help shape our understanding of many of the motivations behind the action. For instance we are aware of Dorothy's unhappiness with her current home life. However, in spite of her temporary emotional state she does possess a unique and loving bond to Auntie Em that moves her to make certain she is not in any danger. Her considerate nature caused her to side with Toto, which lead her to run away. Yet it is this same characteristic of consideration that compels her to return to the farm. She is then caught in a tornado which knocks her unconscious and transports her into the world of Oz. Acknowledging character traits helps understand responses toward particular stimuli, thus enabling the viewer to comfortably follow the plot and occasionally predict the events to come.
There are a number of ways The Wizard of Oz generates curiosity and suspense. For McMillian one way the film creates curiosity is its use of sepia and color stock. She mentions how her son became mesmerized by the story. In that respect i think she was referring to the tension that the characters built off one another in order to create suspense. This invites the viewer to contemplate what might occur next, through considering what has perviously occurred.
Terry McMillan uses questioning and storytelling to describe her experiences with watching the “Wizard of Oz” as a child. She uses Dorothy’s situation on the farm as an analogy to her life. She knows how Dorothy felt isolated and asks herself question in regards to her family life. She also asks questions in regards to what it would be like to not have a brain like the scarecrow. She ties her dreams of getting away to something better to Dorothy’s fantasy world of Oz. McMillan was just looking for an escape similar to how Dorothy was looking for a place that her and Toto could live in peace. Despite coming across the utopia, McMillan was confused how Dorothy dodged everything related to Oz and just wanted to make it back home. The similarity drawn between their two lifestyles is really what creates that suspense and curiosity for McMillan because Dorothy has become a care who she can relate and identify with. The general theme of her essay is being able to identify with the characters in movies and this is what created the sense of closeness to Dorothy for McMillan.
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