Unit 2 HTRLLAP
By: Laura Taylor
Chapter 21: Marked for Greatness
Chapter 22: He’s Blind for a Reason, You Know
Chapter 23: It’s Never Just Heart Disease... Chapter 24: ...And Rarely Just Illness
In Pixar’s Up, the wife of Carl Fredricksen, Ellie, dies from an unknown illness when she and Carl were both old. Ellie collapses while out on a picnic with Carl and the last we see her alive, she is in a hospital bed. Her death is sudden and beautiful as when we see her in the hospital bed she looks the same as she did when she was healthy. It was mysterious in origin, as we the viewers don't know why she suddenly collapsed or what the illness even was. Her death came right before Carl was going to show her the tickets to South America in order to complete their life long dream. Carl is understandably upset and depressed by his wife’s death. Her death was orchestrated to drive Carl into a cranky, sad old man that only wants to be closer to his wife. His longing for his wife eventually leads him to attach thousands of balloons to his house in order to travel to the place that his wife and him had always want to travel to. By doing so, he feels closer to his wife. While his life with his wife was a less than ten minute segment, it was used effectively to show what drives Carl to take the extreme measures he did to visit a place.
Chapter 25: Don’t Read with Your Eyes
A twenty-first century reader looking at this would interpret it as overprotective, overbearing, and a bit sexist that Victor considers Elizabeth to be his only. Victor considers Elizabeth to be a like a present to him, like a young child looks upon a treasured toy. He thinks of her as an object, there only to give him happiness, which is not how a person should be treated. Her beauty and gentleness is what define her to him, which is the traditional, sexist way to view women.
Works Cited
Carl & Ellie. Digital image. Flickr. N.p., 27 May 2009. Web. 8 Nov. 2015.
Foster, Thomas C. How to Read Literature Like a Professor. New York: HarperCollins E, 2003. EPubBud. 2010. Web. 25 Sept. 2015.
Keogh, John. Frankenstein. Digital image. Flickr. N.p., 1 Nov. 2010. Web. 8 Nov. 2015.
Krumbholz, Mathias. Lightning Pritzerbe 01 (MK). Digital image.Wikimedia Commons. N.p., 24 Sept. 2010. Web. 8 Nov. 2015.
Lee, Pak Sang. A Man, 30-40 Years Old, Blind Due to Onchocerciasis. Digital image. Flickr. N.p., 2004. Web. 8 Nov. 2015.
Shelley, Mary Wollstonecraft. Frankenstein. Charlottesville: U of Virginia Library, 1996. Print.