English 11.67
Writing Exercises: Creating a Strong Opening & Closing

Richard's group and Justine's group will take openings #1-#4, while Erin's group and Shannon's group take openings #5-#8.

• Step 1: identify strong attributes of each of the four introductions. What does this author do well?
• Step 2: identify weaker attributes. On what could the author improve?
• Step 3: determine which are the two strongest introductions, and be able to defend your choices.

Opening #1

According to Mark Caro the movie, In America (2002), deals with an Irish family living in New York without a set job, while trying to recover from the death of their child, Frankie. The movie starts with Christy saying “There’s some thing you should wish for… and some things you shouldn’t. That’s what my little brother Frankie told me. He told me I only had three wishes. And I looked at his eyes…and I don’t know why I believed him.” These three wishes that Christy received from Frankie will help out the family when they are in dangerous situations, such as crossing the border to America and losing all there money. The wishes are made at the most intense moments which enable the audience to get closer to the characters and effectively create emotions. During the event of telling the three wishes, it evokes various emotions, such as happiness, sadness, nervousness and relief to the audience and the characters.


Opening #2

Famine and misfortune has always been talked about as an aspect of the Irish culture. Families struggle to feed their children and take care of the house—things that many people take for granted. Jim Sheridan’s movie, In America, demonstrates how an Irish family comes together in times of desperate need, but still finds the time to help out a stranger. Feelings of comfort, devastation, joy, and remembrance are displayed through the characters, while the characters evoke feelings of suspense, hope, and disappointment in the viewing audience.


Opening #3

In America is the story of a family that immigrates in hopes of living a better life in the United States after dealing with poverty and losing a child in Ireland. At first, they endure much hardship as they search for the sometimes elusive, but often sought after American Dream. The family has a hard time finding jobs and a place to live, but they slowly begin to adapt to life in New York and even befriend people in the scary apartment complex they live in. Throughout the film, Jim Sheridan is successful in evoking varied emotions. The emotions run the gamut from happiness to sadness, uncertainty to confidence, and hopelessness to hopefulness. His scenes and the juxtaposition he utilizes cause the audience to feel one emotion, which is then immediately followed by another emotion stemming from the opposite side of the spectrum. According to Frederic Brussat, this movie depicts the “compelling portrait of the ways of four members of an Irish family coping with the contradictory, wrenching, and chaotic emotions of grief”. He explores a whole range of emotions through the characters and the film itself.


Opening #4
The movie “In America” by Jim Sheridan is an emotional rollercoaster for both the characters in the movie and the audience. There is a very powerful sense of realism in that the actors are able to totally convince the audience that this is a glimpse into a family’s life rather than a fictional movie. It has been said that, “some of the greatest and most lasting characters and images that have ever graced the screen can be found in the coils of the immigrant saga” (Fetters). Johnny, the father, is one of the most powerful characters in the movie and in fact, undergoes an emotional catharsis in the end. “Sheridan’s own brother Frankie was ten years old when he died, and Sheridan dedicates the film to him; this is a director who knows whereof he speaks” (Millikan).

Opening #5
On August 26, 1920 the United States of America adopted the 19th amendment to the Constitution. This amendment dealt with women’s suffrage and enfranchised them from society’s stereotypes by endowing them with many rights they had not been allowed. The United States of America has quite a lead on many social and political aspects, especially those dealing with women. In Ireland alone, over 30,000 women were held captive in Magdalene convents until the year 1996 when the last one closed. These women were abused physically and sexually, until they mentally dissolved. Peter Mullan, writer, director and actor, captured quite vividly, the lives of three women who were cursed to spend years in a Magdalene Laundry. The emotions portrayed by the actors in the movie The Magdalene Sisters effectively spread to their audience, helping the viewer to gain insight and opinion on basic human rights.


Opening #6

Although Ireland’s beauty cannot be expressed in words, its social stature has been portrayed to possess poverty and negligence. Through the movies and music that are prevalent in the social aspect of Ireland, one cannot help but to feel the pain or joy felt by the artist or director. Even though there are moments of hope in the productions, an overwhelming sense of despair and tragedy is ubiquitous. The traumatic movie, The Magdalene Sisters, is no different than the rest. Some of the specific emotions shown in scenes include agony and despair. The tragic experiences that occurred in the lives of the Magdalene Sisters brought about such a heightened level of sadness, that suicide became a major route of escape. The use of pathos to infer three major feelings of power in the scenes depicted leave a sense of wretchedness and expectations of hope that is apparent throughout this movie.

Opening #7

The most horrific films ever viewed are true stories. The truth affects audiences more than fiction simply because people fear history repeating itself. According to Sean Means The Magdalene Sisters is "A hard pill to take -- but worth it for its outpouring of raw rage, and defiance, on the screen." So many feelings are being portrayed thought out the entire film. While the purpose of the movie itself is inform the audience of a social injustice in Ireland, it only tells one side of the story, therefore evoking only negative feelings.


Opening #8

The culture of Dublin in 1964 is portrayed as one that is quick to judge and outcast anyone alleged of sexual impurity. The characters of The Magdalene Sisters, directed by Peter Mullan, met as a result of wretched personal circumstance in a convent, which can be likened to a sweatshop. Here they were forced to do laundry solemnly for the duration of their existence in seeking to free themselves from their sins, as thousands of young women did in twentieth century Ireland. One must not even look very deep within their heart to feel completely broken for the severe conditions under which the Magdalene Sisters coped. By the standards of American society today, their treatment is completely irrational and unjust. As Philip French states, “Its immediate effect is to arouse anger of the kind we experience when shown a totalitarian regime at work.” (French par. 4). For example, today it would be simply unheard of for a young woman to be removed from society, as Bernadette was, because young men find her attractive and for her to perhaps even revel in the attention. Although vanity may be a sin, it is not a crime. Women such as Bernadette were perceived as salacious by society and as a result the feelings evoked within the viewer are torn between these perceptions and the anger one would feel if this injustice occurred today.

Paul Marchbanks
marchban@email.unc.edu