Both the 2013 historical novel, ‘Burial Rites’ by Hannah Kent and the 2003 independent film ‘Lost in Translation’ directed by Sofia Coppola explore the ways in which isolation can be shown through more than just the protagonists eye. Kent and Coppola create a harsh setting that works to alienate protagonists from their surroundings. Combined with dissimilar social statuses and the overarching effects of sound, a sense of separation within the two texts is developed. The implementation of film and literary techniques support the conveyance of these ideas which ultimately fashion the ever-present theme of isolation.
While the setting of the texts are polar opposites they both work to highlight isolation in comparable ways. Tokyo is the most populated …show more content…
The outside buildings dominate the scene and while she looks blankly into the distance, her back hunched, the audience begins to understand the separation she feels within the culture and how little she in fact is. Bob and Charlotte spend multitudes of time in their hotel rooms and it becomes a prison of safety that they unknowingly trap themselves in. This isolates them even more from the foreign culture outside their hotel walls and shows that isolation can be created by fear of engaging with the unknown. Similar to the hotel room, Kent uses psychological and physical isolation when confining Agnes to a prison at Stora-Borg. In a cell, where one can’t ‘mark day from night’ and time is spent ‘waiting in darkness, in silence, in a room so squalid’ she is kept in permanent isolation and the psychopathy of Agnes is tested. In doing this, Kent creates a correlation between setting and isolation while incorporating imagery to weaken the way one perceives themselves. Her separation within the cell becomes so severe she ‘wonders whether (she’s) not already dead’. Both the hotel room and the prison cell work to isolate
While the setting of the texts are polar opposites they both work to highlight isolation in comparable ways. Tokyo is the most populated …show more content…
The outside buildings dominate the scene and while she looks blankly into the distance, her back hunched, the audience begins to understand the separation she feels within the culture and how little she in fact is. Bob and Charlotte spend multitudes of time in their hotel rooms and it becomes a prison of safety that they unknowingly trap themselves in. This isolates them even more from the foreign culture outside their hotel walls and shows that isolation can be created by fear of engaging with the unknown. Similar to the hotel room, Kent uses psychological and physical isolation when confining Agnes to a prison at Stora-Borg. In a cell, where one can’t ‘mark day from night’ and time is spent ‘waiting in darkness, in silence, in a room so squalid’ she is kept in permanent isolation and the psychopathy of Agnes is tested. In doing this, Kent creates a correlation between setting and isolation while incorporating imagery to weaken the way one perceives themselves. Her separation within the cell becomes so severe she ‘wonders whether (she’s) not already dead’. Both the hotel room and the prison cell work to isolate