A Man Lay Dead

in the air, that's all he remembers from that day. *Flashback* Blood covered the walls and furniture, stray bullets scattered all over the room. On the floor lay a man and woman, their bodies covered in blood, a faint smile still etched on their faces. There, hidden in the corner stood Theo Baldwin, no older than eleven, trembling…

Jarmusch’s film Dead Man (1995) is the departure from a typical western genre turned postmodern shown through cinematic qualities that emphasize a surreal feel and dream-like state throughout. The film is shot in black and white and follows the narrative tale of William Blake (Johnny Depp) a man wanted for the murder of a wealthy mans’ son, after he shot him dead in defense on his first night in the western town named Machine. Blake is met by an out casted Native American who goes by the name…

a Western film look when it is written backwards and the themes are put on their head? This is how Jim Jarmusch envisioned his take on the Western when he directed Dead Man. The film is about an ordinary accountant William Blake, played by Johnny Depp, who is traveling to the town of Machine to start a new life. When Blake finds that there is no job for him, a set of unfortunate circumstances forces him into becoming a wanted man. Along with an American Indian guide, played by Gary Farmer, Blake…

DMW: A Rhetorical Approach Human life is the most sacred phenomenon man-kind possesses, for centuries humans have pondered their existence, and its meaning. Every person’s life has an intrinsic value which should never be taken by anyone, including governmental systems. Capital punishment dates back as far as 17th century B.C. During that time the Draconian Code of Athens, the death sentence, was the only punishment for all crimes. According to the Death Penalty Information Center, “Death…

The movie Dead man Walking had several themes throughout the entirety of its course. A common theme that was well distributed throughout was grief and loss. In a way, the entire movie was circled around grief and loss. When Mathew was about to get injected with his medication to die, he told the parents of the woman he killed that he hopes that his death gives them some relief. The father of the son stated that there would be zero chance of him being a grandfather; he would never know what like…

Dead Man Walking Film 1) I picked this movie because I was interested in learning more about the issue of the death penalty. The plot also sounded interesting. 2) The situation in the film took place in Louisiana in 1995, and Matthew Poncelet was held in the Louisiana State Penitentiary. 3) The most prominent theme in this movie is the Life and Dignity of the Human Person. It is violated both because Matthew’s life literally gets taken away because he was sentenced to the death penalty and…

Helen Prejean is a member of the Sisters of St. Joseph of Medaille in Louisiana. Now, she is involved with death row inmates at the Louisiana State Prison in Angola. The thesis of her article is “I see the death penalty as connected to the three deepest wounds of our society: racism, poverty, and violence.” Helen Prejean states in her writing that she refuses to believe that God would put hate to hate and violence to violence together. She said she does not believe that God provides human…

In her book Dead Man Walking, Helen Prejean had the purpose of showing why it is necessary for people to take action to fix injustice regarding several systems in American society, with her central focus ultimately being the death penalty. She achieved this by using logos, pathos, and ethos to make a well rounded appeal as to why these systems are flawed and why it is one’s responsibility to fix them. Prejean uses logos to open her readers’ eyes to the flaws with the criminal justice system…

When Sister Helen Prejean wrote the book Dead Man Walking, she was seeking to unmask the illogical ideas behind the death penalty. Her intent was to save prisoners from the horrors of the death penalty, while exposing the faulty reasoning behind it. Prejean’s novel is a wonderful example of disobedience from social norms with positive intentions. However, the riots in 1968 following Martin Luther King Jr’s murder give a tragic example of how progress slows when intent becomes darker. These…

Unjust Systems Sister Helen Prejean, in her book Dead Man Walking, uses statistics, stories of injustice, and her childhood experiences to relate discrimination and poverty in cities like New Orleans to the death penalty: both are unfair systems that need to be reformed. Prejean first demonstrates ethos, using anecdotes of her experiences as a white child in the segregated 1950’s to convince the reader of her understanding of discrimination. After ethos, Prejean uses logos in the form of…