OPPapers.com Essay Index >> Book Reports >> Train Spotting
We have many free term papers and essays on Train Spotting. We also have a wide variety of research papers and book reports available to you for free. You can browse our collection of term papers or use our search engine.
Train Spotting Trainspotting presents an ostensible image of fractured society. The 1996 film opens, famously, with a series of postulated choices?variables, essentially,
to the image or character on screen. The use of voice-overs has many useful functions. In Train Spotting the voice over introduces the films protagonist Renton, explains
mainly of scientific prose, but towards the end he uses certain details that portray the occurrence in a more poetic light. With the figurative language "resembled
the staff and patients at great danger of injury. Violence training has increased the staffs' awareness towards protecting themselves and other patients by having
say a word, but simply stares at the Duke, as if waiting for him to tell her he is joking. Duke Vincentio, now enjoying this drama he has created, announces to Lucio
Submitted by rickvalentine on January 28, 2007
Category: Book Reports
Words: 1226 | Pages: 5
Views: 199
Popularity Rank: 71,945
Average Member Grade: N/A (Add a Comment / Grade this Paper)
Trainspotting presents an ostensible image of fractured society. The 1996 film opens, famously, with a series of postulated choicesvariables, essentially, in the delineation of identity and opposition. Significant here is the tone in which these options are deliveredit might be considered the rhetorical voice of society, a playful exposition of the pressure placed on individuals to make the "correct" choices, to conform to expectation.
As such, the introduction might be read as contributing to the formation of two narrative constructs: that of "normality"or at least that considered "normality" by prevailing ideologyand that of "subnormality," the remainder. In its uncompromising rejection of the former, the commentary of Ewan McGregor's Renton roots him thoroughly in the latter.
We see this division alluded to on a number of occasions. In the nightclub, for example, Renton quickly notices how the "successful" separate themselves from the "unsuccessful"the former group embracing their newly-found partners and the latter nodding their heads sheepishly. "Success" is, however, more often linked with boredom and absurditywith the easy life, with game-shows and bingo; "failure," despite its inherent misery and hardship, is shown to be exhilarating: a knife-edge. The tension inherent in this opposition is offered, arguably, as a reason for the behavioural patterns depicted; "what people forget is the sheer pleasure of it," as Renton confesses.
We might describe the group of friends, united by failure, as classic anti-heroes; as characters with whom we sympathise despite the horrors they commit. It is a reading underpinned by nihilism, and one can't help but recall the Zarathustrian "Table of Values" expounded by Nietzsche. The existence of different subcultures, defined by values which may completely contradict those of other groups, accords with a wider postmodern refutation of absolutes. These subcultures...
You must Login to view the entire paper.
If you are not a member yet, Sign Up for free!