Village+Brainstorm

1. Crazy and Evil 2. Innocence and Knowledge (truth) 3. Seeking Truth but Having Secrets 4. Lies and Hope 5. Color of Red--meaning evil and passion Some of these are strange combinations; for example, one would assume that innocence is that absence of knowledge, but in this village, those who are innocent, or strivingly for innocence, are the ones who have knowledge of something "evil".
 * __Ackerman's Thoughts and Questions:__** I see some diametrically opposed ideas here, but maybe these are actually similar?:

How does this village define evil?

Is it right to sacrifice one's loved one in order to maintain an ideal, like the village?

Emily:

I still don't understand the character of Noah. Is he really the villian, or is the villian the idea of evil? Best way to keep a secret is only to tell one person. Newspaper reader must have known.

Rachel: Hmm... yes, I don't quite understand Noah either Emily. He's a little creepy, but when the movie first started, after we found out he was disabled, I thought he symbolized innocence.

I don't think there is evil in this village; there's only misunderstanding or misinterpretation.

Kent: Noah is acting in the ID stage still and only acting on impulse. Since he is human he has flaws, but I don't think he is evil. He loves Ivy, and since she still loves her fiance (I forgot his name) he wants to hurt her. He is jealous, not evil.

Natalie: I kind of agree with Kent, I think that Noah is not innocence, but not quite jealousy. I thought that he represented desire, and going along with what Kent was saying he is in the ID stage and goes to get what he wants almost instantaneously, sorry about spelling.

Tom says,

Rachel, do you think that maybe he represents misunderstanding instead, since he's such a misunderstood fellow himself?

Kaley: evil and change are inevitable; they left normal city because of fear of death, crime; they create perfect society, but Noah ends up doing what they're escaping. Media is always negative; society focuses on the pessimistic views of life.

Dan--What unites a society? The village elders are united by the problems of modern-day society; willing to do whatever, sacrifice everything to stay away from modern society b/c it's so horrible and that's sorta their common goal. Headlines of death and destruction--solidifies reasoning for town. Newspaper reader--does he know about village? No news like bad news=accurate; people tune in for the gore. Innocence is everything; evil is bad--Noah represents both. He's the cross-over.

Elyse--trying to protect from real world by keeping secrets

Ayla--they don't really offer much protection b/c they've all had pain. Money, wealth, power don't mean that everything works out well. "Every society needs a scapegoat"--trying to create a society that doesn't need one, but Noah becomes that way, allows the town continue b/c of altered reality. Elders trying to preserve the next generation. Ivy can go to towns b/c she was blind; she can go into modern world and still want to/be able to come back. Newspaper and radio=significance? Pain and suffering is what they're escaping.

Ben--relates to fear, trying to scare people into doing what they want; we manipulate statistics today into doing something, act the way we want--utopia of perfectness; understand concept of fear, but it can't work in real world b/c elders will die, and there's no one to leave it to. Ivy is influential, so how's it gonna work out b/c she knows the truth? Opening/Closing scenes set up fear, eeriness--forest!! You're a creature looking in.

Connor--cultural geography; stats from Mr. Fisch; they're all altered in order to make us do better in school

Dylan--parents use same scare tactic; peole want to hear the negative.

Rachel K.--trying to create world free of evil and pain. They failed b/c pain is a part of life. "Let us not hide from heartache...it's a part of life. Ivy is running toward hope"--certain things are necessary to society.

Rachel P.--getting rid of pain and heartache was a way of trying to preserve innocence. Mr. Walker talks about innocence b/c elders had lost it in the real world, but innocence can't be preserved for its own sake; society was going, it was an utopian ideal, but it will never work out.

Egan--closing shot: "I'm back, Lucius"

Molly--man laying over coffin like a dead person; Ivy lying over Lucius, who's she's going to save.

Sarah Cheney--beginnning suggests that town will die with them; at end, Ivy and Lucius will be able to save the town.

Kevin--coffin=price they paid to keep it free from outside influences; end=ends justify the means.

Joanne: I didn't get the chance to pose this question during class, so here it is: Why do all the village elders stand up at the very end, right before Ivy comes in? They all stood up so slowly and deliberately, it makes me certain there's some symbolism there, but I couldn't figure out what it was.

Rachel P.--lots of blue, yellow, red; //Red Badge of Courage//: red can show courage; Noah, Ivy, and Lucius were only ones brave enough to find bad color--they were enough

Natalie: red symbolizes guilt. Noah feels guilty about killing people.

Dan E--Am. flag: red is bravery, courageous, bold (wanted to eliminate this b/c they don't want anyone to be bold, courageous, brave. They want them to fear the woods); connection to //The Omen//: contrasting red on white

Hayley: red is the bad color b/c it's the color of blood, and that's what they're trying to get away from.

Ben: //Sixth Sense//--so much is red

Ayla--red is associated with blood, pain, suffering; What's Shymalan suggesting about white dress splattered with red?

Kayley: red is the color of the Devil

Egan--red is the color of passion--how can something be evil and good?

Riley--yellow is innocence; cloaked in innocence to hide from the unknown which is red; yellow is infection (they escape and being scabbed over to be protected)

Courtney--yellow is the color of the sun--our life source (represents rebirth)

Dan E.--yellow can also represent cowardliness

Rachel K.--no need for evil if you have innocence

Connor--elders thought they were doing best for the village (all two-sided)

Emily--red is stop; yellow is yield, caution (beasts cannot touch)

Dylan--forest is lined with yellow flags--proceed into forest with caution

Laura--blood is within all of us; this color is inside all of us (evil is inside all of

Ackerman--evil cannot exist with good; black cannot exist with white; Marx--diametrically opposed opposites that don't seem to be able to exist next to one another, but when looking more closely, one sees that they are two sides of the same blade--very similar, cannot have one without the other

Rachel--evil is the corruption of good

Kent--Satan was a fallen angel...Ackerman--he understood God, had goodness in him

Kim--//Wicked// (enough evil inside her that she cannot control it; everything good she tries to do becomes evil in the eyes of others)

Rachel K.--if everyone thinks it's evil, then one might as well start acting that way.

Anna--//Pirates of the Caribbean// connection

Riley--what about Kevin?

Ayla--he's the kindness is the real world. There is always some goodness in the world.

Elyse--"I hear kindness in your voice"

Riley--but he's uncertain about his choice at the end

Kaley--why avoid technology? Is technology evil?

Riley--confidence to fight the monster? Monster is like a god--they sacrifice to him, but he's not real.

Kim--they do have some technology...lamps. As society evolves, it becomes more evil. Technology makes evil more possible.

Sarah Cheney--technology inspires learning--no thinking, no fighting the monsters.

Kent--if they had technology, they'd be more able to destroy.

Emily--Ivy knows more than the rest of the town.

Kim--elders make it seems like an utopia.

Rachel K--Lucius=Lucifer (Lucius leads them to evil)

Egan--Lucius was the first to go into woods; he's redeemed and forgiven.

Rachel P.--Luz Spanish for light. Jungian--persona, anima. Lucius is the light-bearer, the catalyst (he's bad and good at the same time); this forced Ivy, who's blind, sees more clearly than the rest of the village. He projects his conscious on her, and she must follow it through.

Kim--Ivy on a building can destroy it.

Riley--ivy grows on you.

Ben--if Ivy stayed in the town, it would have died.

Rachel K.--ivy with red on it is poison

Molly--Lucius is light; helps Ivy grow.

Egan--blindness is ignorance (she's ignorant to hysteria in the town; she can discern town more easily)

Kent--Ivy being blind and can see more clear; Lucius is light-bearer, so maybe he's projects light (that's his "color")

Rachel P.--she can't find him; he's the light in the darkness

Rachel K.--the things that happened to Lucius shed light on the evil in the town.

Ayla--Lucius's problem sheds light that there can't be a town free from red; Ivy--ivory is white

Kevin--Noah died in a red suit; if he's innocence, innocence is tainted and destroyed

Dan E.--evil could triumph over innocence

Ayla--Ivy is representation of innocence; maybe Noah is the ignorance??

Riley--Noah is the primitive nature; he's the ID

Kent--town was ignorant about how to treat Noah; town doesn't understand Noah's abilities; he's not taught correctly.

Anna--Noah is misguided, well-meaning intentions.

Riley--human nature is misguided? Primitive nature can become evil or good

Kim--what's good to some isn't good to others--that's the horrible truth.

//Tom: Since I didn't get a chance to pose this in class two days in a row now, I'd like to know if the town being disguised as a "wilderness preserve" has any significance.//