Pan's Labyrinth

This movie incorporated a lot of fantasy into the film, like what we saw from Grimm’s Fairy Tales. In the beginning it talked about a Princess who had escaped, and was blinded by the sun and erased her memory, and then she died. The Father was a King, and knew the daughter would return in another baby. Ofelia was seen as the girl who was the princess of their world, and she was the one who needed to complete three tasks. In the beginning of the movie, we see a sense of fairytales. She finds the fairy, and goes into the labyrinth. Instead of having an evil stepmother, she had like an evil step father type figure, the captain. He didn’t care if Carmen died, he just wanted her to have a son. To me, Mercedes was like a servant, just like in these Grimm’s stories, or even Disney movies. She would have to clean the house, make the beds, bring the food, and she wasn’t happy being there. Ofelia would talk to her brother in her mom’s stomach, tell a fairytale story of a magic rose with poison thorns.
The Faun in the Labyrinth told Ofelia she needed to complete 3 tasks before the moon becomes full. Like in the Grimm’s fairytales, everything happens in threes. In the first task in the Book of Crossroads, she needed to throw 3 magic stones into the frogs mouth to receive a key. This book reminded me of Harry Potter with the diary, because it would show up with writing from blank pages. Again, with the number three in these fairy tales. When I first saw the frog, it reminded me of the Frog Prince. Ofelia completed the task, throwing the stones in the mouth, and retrieving the key. For the second task, the Faun gives Ofelia chalk to draw a door. Since this was the second task, it would become more difficult for Ofelia to go through with it. When Ofelia saw the blood in the book, I instantly thought death or violence was coming up. The mother ended up bleeding a lot. Another time I was reminded of Harry Potter was when the Faun gave Ofelia the mandrake root for the mother to put in milk and a couple drops of blood. The second task, Ofelia was warned not to eat the food from the feast. This instantly reminded me of Snow White, with the poisoned apple. For this task, she had to come back before the hourglass was finished. The guy who was at the table was pretty creepy, had eyes on the table. Ofelia found a dagger in one of the locks. There were three locks, and three fairies, again with the emphasis on the number three. When he chased after Ofelia once she ate the food, he would go after her with the eyes in his hands to guide him. I thought this part was pretty funny of watching him chase her. Ofelia almost failed this task, by not listening to the Faun, and eating the fruit. This goes along with the Grimm’s stories again by the role of women in the stories, she doesn’t think. If the fairies weren’t there to help her, like the dwarfs in Snow White, she would have failed. Since Ofelia failed at this task by eating the grape, the Faun said she would die like everyone else. The last chance Ofelia had of completing the task was to bring her baby brother to the labyrinth. She promised to do everything he asked. Though when it came the time to give the Faun her brother, she didn’t want to. She didn’t trust the Faun, but the captain came and shot Ofelia.
At the end of the movie when Ofelia was shot, she was brought into this world of fantasy of being the princess, and her parents were there on high chairs, (again there were three chairs). But in reality, she was still lying on the ground, dead. There wasn’t that much of a happy ending here, the ending of the movie was similar to the beginning, when it showed Ofelia all bloody. Though Mercedes was able to take the baby boy.

Run Lola Run

In the beginning of Run Lola Run, we see a sense of fantasy, because it shows Lola running as a cartoon character breaking names. Another time she was a cartoon character, was when she was running down the stairs in her apartment, trying to get past the man and the dog. It took her three times to go through everything until something good happened. Just like in the Grimms Fairytale, it happens three times. And there needs to be a happy ever after. At the end of the movie, they ended up with the extra $100,000, after Manni paid the man. The film switches from reality to fantasy. In the beginning, the reality was she didn’t show up to help Manni, so Manni was in trouble. If she had not been late, then he would not have been in trouble. They lost the bag of money of $100,000 on the train. Lola had to try and find $100,000 some way, to save her boyfriend. The first time we see the fantasy after this reality, she sees an old man show up, like a cartoon. Then she sees flashes of people pop up in her mind, like her mom, dad, and others who will be part of this movie. The cartoon of Lola was shown as her having curly red hair, and big eyes. The first time Lola runs by the man and his dog, the dog growls. Whenever Lola ran by someone on the street, something bad would happen to them, this is another sense of reality, it’s real, you can’t change it. On the street, the lady with the baby went to jail, the lady in bank died, the guy in car crashes. The second time it was a rerun, Lola ran down the stairs as the cartoon character, and tripped down the stairs from the man. This tells me that the reality will not be off to a good start, and they have one more try to get it correct. This time, when Lola bumped into someone on the street, something good would happen to them, or something bad. For instance, the lady on the street wins the lottery. Every time she saw her father in the bank, it would be a different story. This time, she throws things at her father. Manni almost made it through with the money on this scene, but he was on the street and once he heard Lola call his name, he got hit by a car. So they were pretty close in this second flashback, and they had one more time to get it right. The third time, I knew it was off to a good start, when in the fiction world of the cartoon character, Lola jumped over the man and the dog. Another instance of something happening three times, is her screaming very loud. She was able to win everything back by going to the casino.
There was also an interesting color change, of a red screen, after Lola or Manni got hurt, and it was like a flashback to them in bed. Lola asked Manni if he loved her, and Manni asked Lola what would happen if he died. This was right after they both got hurt, and having their own flashback. I see this “red” as signifying Violence, like in Perceval. The third time, they got through the violence, and was able to receive the money.

Ogre 4

1. Throughout the book, Abel was blind to all the signs around him. Abel was told that signs brought Abel to where he is today. This is hard for me to understand because Abel never really saw any signs around him, he was always blind to the signs. If Abel had seen the signs throughout the book before the end, then he probably would not have ended up where he did. He would not have been working under Hitler’s commands, killing animals, because he used to care for the animals previously. Abel is alienated on himself, he doesn’t see signs. Finally at the end, Abel sees what he has been doing. It said, “For these symbols are diabols, and no symbolize anything. And saturation with them brings the end of the world.” This I found interesting because it said the signs he went through brings them to the end of the world, or the Revelation, as in the apocalypse, the end of the Bible. This is the end of the World. Whatever Able did throughout the book, brought him closer to reaching the end of the world. The book talks about the sign of Jesus Christ on the cross, and the veil of the temple. These signs bring us back to the bible.

2.Tiffaugues always had been fascinated by the phenomenon of twins. According to the bible the beginning of the world began in Genesis. When Tournier described about the mirror twins, the first that came to my mind was Abel. It said Haro’s left half corresponds to the right half of Hajo, and Haro’s right to Hajo’s left. They are mirror twins who can be superimposed on one another face to face, not one on top of the other like the others.” One of Tournier’s main theme is duality, which makes me see that these twins are part of his duality theme. The Narcissic Myth is mirror upon mirror, which is like looking at a mirror with because of these twins. Abel is left and right handed, which goes back to the sinister warnings. I think that Tiffauges sees Lothar as a reflection of himself, because it said he could already see himself galloping through the triumphant light of the setting sun.

Ogre 3

2. Tournier writes about a lot of animals in this book. In the previous chapters, it was talking about how he nurtured the pigeons, and the Elk. That’s probably one reason why there have been an increasingly number of animals in this book, because he takes the time to care for them. But in these chapters, instead of taking care of the animals, he does the opposite, and kills the animals. He does not like doing this, because he faints. Tiffauges had to exterminate the boars that ate the crops. He would shoot with a pistol and hit behind the ear. We see a whole different side of Tiffauges in regards to the animals. When he actually is working under Hitler’s commands, he has to kill the animals. The other animals were the prehistoric bulls, also known as the auroch. Tiffauges was supposed to talk about the encounter of the aurochs, and when he gave information, the Master of the Hut just laughed. Tiffauges was wearing glasses, which the Third Reich hate men in glasses, they symbolized intelligence, study, and speculation, also known as, a Jew. It was surprising how Tiffauges was compared to a Jew here, because after all, he is working under Hitler’s commands. It just shows that Tiffauges is blind, until he finally understands what is going on. Auroch also resembles the resentment of abandoned children. This can go back to Nestor the Ogre, because Ogre’s usually eat children, but Abel doesn’t hate children, he likes children. Another animal was the lion. What I found interesting about the lion, was they bit the legs of the person, and it was passed to the ogre to eat. Nestor as an ogre doesn’t like to eat people.

3. For the Bluebeard fairytale, the main character was married, and after that was avoided by girls. I can see this as Abel, because after he was with Rachel, no girl wanted to be with him. When it said, “But he soon realized that this recollection was superficial and rested on a confusion. In fact, when he was rubbing his horse’s coat until it shone, he was really repeating the modest satisfactions of polishing his boots and shoes, raised to an incomparably higher power.” In stead of tending to other animals, it seemed as if he was tending to himself. Giving him the courage he needed to rise to a higher power. I see this as foreshadowing, because Abel will rise up to a higher power by the end of the book. He will continue to rise higher in power under Hitler’s command, once they know he is capable of completing the tasks.

The Ogre- Day Two

The first one was the pigeon. Tiffauge had a really great interest in the pigeons. Tiffauge had two pigeons, one of each hand, that represented twins. What I really found interesting about Tiffauge and the pigeons is when he found the pigeon who was half dead, hungry and cold. He made the pigeon a nest, took care of him, and fed him. For this section, it was easy for me to visualize how Tiffauge tried to feed this pigeon. Putting the food in his mouth, then giving to the pigeon. Just like the Elk, Tiffauge took care of an animal who needed help, and was hard to take care of themselves on their own. It was interesting how when Tiffauge was trying to leave because the Germans were coming, he stopped to save the last pigeon, who was a black shadow. When I think of black shadow, I think that it foreshadows death.


The second time Tiffauges fed an animal was the elk, also known as “the Monster.” I found it interesting how the Elk was considered a monster just because it was blind, even though the Ogre is really considered a monster. Tiffauges told the “Monster,” he was “beautiful and gentle, strong and without malice.” I can visualize Tiffauges telling this to Nester the Ogre. It’s surprising how the man called the Elk a monster, even though he wasn’t really considered a monster to Tiffauges. Tiffauges just wanted to help out the Elk. It just shows that people view animals as Monsters differently than others. The Elk could have been the sweetest Elk around, but it was considered a monster. The Ogre can’t see, and the Elk can’t either. Just like the Elk, Tiffauge is blind to everything around him, because Tiffauge cannot see the signs until the very end. I think that the Elk will continue to come see Tiffauge throughout the book.

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1. When I first read the beginning, and it said he was an ogre, the image that immediately came to my mind was Shrek. We then find out that Abel wrote about how Rachel saw him as an ogre. Even though he said he is not crazy, it seemed to me that Abel was crazy. He works in a garage, and writes about ogres, sounds like he’s crazy to me. When we find out about him as being the owner of a garage, he seemed more normal, because he talked about his life, and it made sense to the readers. Though I have to say, it was a bit confusing in some parts, reading through his letters, because it jumped back and forth. The mythical part of this book was in large part due to the ogre. It reminded me of a fairytale, when the ogre helped carry the guy across to the other side. Also, it reminded me of Don Quixote a little bit, when the ogre was fighting, like there were fighting scenes in Don Quixote, it wasn’t real. These two characters differs from one another. They live different lives, though Nestor is seen as the hero, saving Abel in different situations. Another fairytale character mentioned was Pinocchio, and the wicked fairy that turns the coach into the pumpkin.

4. I think that Rachel is an important character because she was the one who told Abel “You’re an ogre.” Because she said this, Abel probably wrote about the ogre, incorporated the ogre’s in the stories, and took a liking towards the ogre. Abel lost Rachel, which is why the Ogre is an important subject in the story. He already lost Rachel, he doesn’t want to lose the Ogre as well. He wrote about the Ogre, Nestor, so now it has become part of his life, his stories. In the bible, Rachel means purity. In the book, Nester said, “Condensation is full of intriguing mysteries. Because it is life. But there’s something about purity just the same. Purity equals nothingness, and we find it irresistibly attractive because we are all sons of nothingness.” This tells me that purity equals Rachel, which equals nothingness. Abel thought Rachel was nothing, so he created the ogre because of Rachel.

100 Years of Solitude 16-20

1. Meaning of flood & subsequent drought
In Macondo, it rained for four years, eleven months, and two days. On page 315 it said, “The sky crumbled into a set of destructive storms and out of the north came hurricanes that scattered roofs about and knocked down walls and uprooted every last plant of the banana groves.” The flood seems to symbolize Noah’s Arc. The town had been filled with so much water, that they would need a large arc save them. The flood and the drought affected the entire city of Macondo. Whenever something comes to the city, it doesn’t affect just one person, but the entire population. If they had brought in an Arc into the book, it would have expanded to the modernity in the town. On page 316, “The worst part was that the rain was affecting everything and the driest of machines would have flowers popping out among their gears if they were not oiled every three days, and the treads in brocades rusted, and wet clothing would break out in a rash of saffron- colored moss. The air was so damp that fish have come in through the doors and swum out the windows, floating through the atmosphere in the rooms.”

5. Assassination of Aureliano Amador
On page 374 it says, “It was Aureliano Amador, the only survivor of Colonel Aureliano Buendia’s seventeen sons, searching for a respite in his long and hazardous existence as a fugitive. He identified himself, begged them to give him refuge in that house which during his nights as a pariah he had remembered as the last redoubt of safety left for him in life. But Jose Arcadio and Aureliano did not remember him. Thinking that he was a tramp, they pushed him into the street. Then they both saw from the doorway the end of a drama that had begun before Jose Arcadio had reached the age of reason. Two policemen who had been chasing Aureliano Amador for years, who had tracked him like bloodhounds across half the world, came out from among7 the almond trees on the opposite sidewalk and took two shots with their Mausers which neatly penetrated the cross of ashes.” Aureliano Amador tried to get forgiveness for what his brothers brought into the town, the big force brought in. It was sad that they didn’t recognize him, and pushed him into the street. It seems like Amador really wanted forgiveness because he didn’t mean for any of it to happen. It was interesting how the cops had shot him on the cross of ashes, because it had been referred to before. Aureliano Amador was the only brother who tried asking for forgiveness, and seeking shelter, but was turned down. It was the only place left for him to go, and he was not even recognized by his family. This ties back to the fact that members in Macondo were being forgotten, just like how his family didn’t recognize him.