A Review of Room

Room by Emma Donoghue is an excellent book. It keeps readers captivated all throughout the story about what will happen to our main characters, and establishes an emotional link between the reader and the characters. It also offers an insightful look into reality. Often times, we hear stories about how someone get rescued from a kidnapping and Room does an excellent job of putting us in the place of the victim. You find that you want to keep reading and reading until you are finished. 

Throughout the book, I found that I had a hard time staying in the boundaries of our reading assignments. I often felt like I wanted to keep reading on ahead. Everytime I read this book, Donoghue kept on leading me on. I wanted to know what happened to our main characters, Jack and Ma. I think a perfect example of this is the escape from the shed. I found it really difficult to stop halfway into the escape section. After Ma and Jack's plan A failed, I wanted to know if they came up with a plan b. Room is just filled with cliffhangers and really just drags you into it. On top of that, it also offers a really interesting perspective of a kidnapping victim.

For me personally, I found the dynamic of Jack and Ma really interesting. Since I have never really experienced growing up/living in a kidnapping situation, I really didn't have an idea of what to expect. I found the concept of raising a kid in extraordinary circumstances was really interesting as well as very tragic. Even though Ma was stuck in Room, she still did an excellent job of raising Jack. I also felt that adapting to society after being stuck in Room for years was also a really interesting scenario. Often times, in kidnapping stories, you hear a lot about how it happened and the escape, but not about the victim returning to society. Room talks a lot about the return to society, and this really is an interesting look that hooks audiences. 

Overall, I felt that this was a 5 out of 5 stars. It is through the combination of writing a unique perspective from the victim and writing about extraordinary circumstances as well as the constant suspense that makes this book my favorite of 2016.     

Shading and Colors in the Persepolis Film

The Film Persepolis was a really nice animated film. It was captivating and really entertaining. What I really liked about the film though, was the coloring and shading of different scenes.

Persepolis first starts out as a color film. In the beginning, Marji is seen in an airport full of color. However, soon after, as she begins to reflect on her childhood, the film suddenly turns to black and white. This has two effects on the movie. It first lets us know that the film is like a flashback. Often times in animation, we see scenes turn black and white to reflect something that happened in the past. In the animation, It really gives Marji a chance to narrate, as she reflects within her flashback of the past. If it was like a standard animation film, we wouldn't really be able to hear her thoughts. Often times, in regular films, if a character suddenly get a thought, we won't know it until they say it out loud to someone else. However, in Persepolis, by basing much of the film as a reflection (by having color scenes in the beginning and middle before turning to black and white), the directors give an excuse to have Marji say her thoughts out loud without having to talk to another character. This keeps the film really true to the book in that we can know the thoughts of both Marji in the book, and Marji in the film.

I also really like the shading in the film. It really emphasizes the mood of Marji and the events occurring within the film. When Marji was really happy and life was good, the scenes tended to be brighter. For example, in the film, when Marji reunited with her family, the whole film became really white and bright, symbolizing her happiness. However, in Vienna, when she slept on the streets, the whole film became dark. All of the people and scenes became almost pitch black, symbolizing her depression. This can be compared to explosions in movies. Often times, in a modern film, when the director wants to show thrilling scenes, he/she will put in explosions. The reflects the mood of the movie by showing that the characters are pumped up and ready for battle. Just like in the color Persepolis, explosions symbolize how the characters are feeling. It shows them being hyped up. However, in Persepolis, rather that having lots of explosions like in Michael Bay films, they prefer to use more color to show thrilling moods.

Overall, I really loved the film. It is the combination of shading and color that really makes this film one of the most visually pleasing animation films that I have ever seen.