It all starts for Level One on the morning of Tuesday the 17th. Keep revising!

The essay below was written as an exercise in class and is not for NCEA but it does have interesting ideas. Have a look.

Schindler’s List examines man’s capacity for good and his capacity for evil. Discuss.

In the film Schindler’s List, through the characters of Oskar Schindler, Itzhak Stern and the Amon Goeth, director Steven Spielberg examines man’s capacity for good and his capacity for evil. There are strong comparisons between the three characters. Goeth is portrayed as being inherently evil, while Stern appears inherently good. Schindler however, is a character who, throughout the film is placed under pressure, and must decide whether he will do good or evil.

In the film Goeth embodies mans capacity to be evil. Throughout the film we see that Goeth, though given the opportunities to redeem himself, cannot resist the pull to harm, hurt and destroy other humans, he cannot resist the pull to evil. One of the strongest examples of this is where Schindler attempts to appeal to Goeth’s better nature. Schindler encourages Goeth to try pardoning someone, to let a Jew go free where he’d normally just kill them. Schindler explains to Goeth that real power is when one has every opportunity and reason to kill but chooses not to. Goeth gets his opportunity to try out pardoning someone when he comes across a young Jewish boy cleaning his bathtub. The boy has been unable to remove the soap scum. Obviously terrified the young boy stands rigidly before Goeth, awaiting almost certain death. The viewer can see that Goeth is weighing up in his mind whether to kill the boy or not. He pardons him. As the boy walks stiffly out of the house, back down to camp, Goeth leans on his bathroom sink, watching his reflection muttering ‘I pardon you’ to himself. We then flash back to the Jewish boy, just about back at camp, and as we watch a gun fires, and the boy collapses, dead.

Goeths true nature can be seen in this one action. All throughout the film Goeth murders innocent people, at random; shooting women and children off his balcony as he pleases. But in this scene the viewer is horrified to see that Goeth cannot do good. He pardons the boy, but this doesn’t sit right with Goeth. His desire to kill, overwhelms the opportunity he has to do good. He tries and fails to be merciful, and the viewer can see his cold hearted, murderous nature wins over him. Every man has this capacity, to do evil when we have the opportunity to do good. In the unfortunate case of Amon Goeth, he was a man who let his capacity to commit evil develop into a desire to do evil.

Itzhak Stern is the representative of man’s capacity for good. He is a stark contrast to both Goeth and Schindler as throughout the film. Consistently Stern puts himself on the line for the sake of the wellbeing of his fellow Jews; he, unlike Schindler, never gives in to selfishness, and acts only for the benefit of his people. We see this selflessness, when he is given power over Schindler’s company and is able to recruit whoever he wants. Stern hires Jews who are likely to be killed because they are deemed to be too old, too young or too sick to work. Stern knows what the fate of these people will be, and does all he can to protect them. In this way huge numbers of Jews were saved, as the healthy ones were sent to work at labour camps while Stern hired the others for work at Schindler’s factory. Stern goes to incredible lengths to secure the fate of his people. We see him making fake work passes for those who would otherwise be exterminated because of age, health, or working background. This shows him putting in extra work and effort to save the Jews destined for the concentration camps. Stern has opportunity to benefit himself in his job of running Schindler’s factory, he is able to make false statements in the accounting books to take money or make side deals for personal benefit. Instead he works overtime, ensuring the wellbeing of current workers and creating papers for new workers. Stern is the ultimate opposite of Goeth, who in every thought and action is thinking of himself. Stern is pure and selfless.

Oskar Schindler is the character who must choose between good and evil. He is, by nature, a businessman, whose aim in life is to acquire as many material possessions as possible. To begin with, he sees the Nazi treatment of the Jews only as a money making scheme for himself. He meets with Jewish accountant Itzhak Stern in an attempt to set up a company with him. It doesn’t really bother him that Stern is a Jew, because he is someone who can help him financially. We see his initial indifference towards Stern in his first meeting with him. Stern introduces himself and tells Schindler that ‘by law, I must tell you that I am a Jew’. ‘Well, I am a German, so there we are’ is Schindler’s reply. Schindler is initially portrayed as someone who is not necessarily evil, but indifferent. He ignores the plight of the Jews. But as the film progresses, and his involvement with the Jews increases, he can no longer remain indifferent. Circumstances force him to choose how he reacts to the ‘Jewish problem’. Schindler has a capacity for good, and a capacity for evil, as do all men. But when placed under pressure, he chooses to use his capacity for good. When his Jewish workers are to be taken to Auschwitz, a death camp in Poland where they will almost certainly be killed, Schindler chooses to do good. And we see that he does in fact have incredible capacity for good, because in saving his Jewish friends, he has to risk his life, and to give up all that he owns. The things that were originally so important to him no longer hold such a significant place in his life.

I have had lots of essays from Year 11 to grade but I don’t know if this one is going in the right direction …

Some important themes demonstrated in the television programme SpongeBob SquarePants are friendship, forgiveness and the importance of enjoying oneself. Stephen Hillenberg has used the town of Bikini Bottom as a setting to portray SpongeBob’s child-like innocence, which is key to making the viewer recognise the presence of these themes in SpongeBob himself. The sparing use of song is intended to particularly emphasise these themes in SpongeBob SquarePants.

The theme of enjoying oneself is effectively portrayed when SpongeBob sings the ‘FUN’ song, to teach Plankton what fun really is. “F is for friends who do stuff together,” SpongeBob is explaining to the audience and to Plankton what he believes fun is all about, simultaneously demonstrating that enjoying oneself is closely linked to friendship, another important theme of the show. The next lines “U is for you and me” and “N is for anywhere and anytime at all,” refers to the fact that true friends will always be there for each other and that SpongeBob himself views this as a vital element of ‘fun’.

Thanks Julia, you brightened up my marking pile!

This essay may help those of you who are revising Schindler. I have already had some feedback and students have told me to fix up the student’s punctuation – Jew’s to Jews – good spotting! And that the essay needs a discussion of filmic detail – camera work in particular and that quotations need to be added.

Analyse how one main character or individual changed to become more (or less) admirable.

In the film Schindler’s List, directed by Steven Spielberg, the main character of Oscar Schindler dramatically changed into a vastly more admirable character than when we were first introduced to him. As Schindler gained more wealth and power he had more experiences which tested his moral fibre and the decisions he made were what changed the viewers opinions of him to see him as more admirable by the end of the film.

Schindler was firstly seen as a selfish entrepreneur with a love of luxury and thrived off the profits of slave labour during World War II. His pot factory, however, soon became a haven for Jews as Schindler collected them from labour camps, mostly in Poland. As Schindler went to the labour camps he would be witness to many brutal shootings of the innocent and undeserving Jews. As the Holocaust worsened, Schindler heard more horrific stories which he could no longer ignore and quickly wrote up a list, with the help of his financial advisor, an intelligent Jew, Itzak Stern. With the names of hundreds of Jews. Schindler took the list to the commandant of the labour camp and demanded ‘what is one worth to you’, ‘tell me, just tell me, what is one worth!’ This is the major turning point for the character of Schindler as we see he has realised the true value of money and life. This quote shows how he is willing to pay any amount to save the lives of the Jews.

Schindler’s character is contrasted with the character Amon Goeth, the commandant of the labour camp. The contrast between the two emphasizes to the audience how admirable Schindler becomes. Both men reach positions of power because of the war and have many lives at their finger tips. Goeth, after a night of drinking, eating and partying, gets out of his bed and with a smoke in his mouth, idly shoots Jews in the camp below who are simply going about the chores they have been assigned. This horrific behaviour and brutality towards the Jew’s demonstrates how easily power can corrupt one’s mind and Goeth sees the Jews as worthless. The viewer is shocked by these scenes as we cannot understand how a human could mercilessly kill another and we then realise how ‘angelic’ the actions of Schindler are.

One of the final scenes where Schindler is leaving his factory to escape the police is a moment where Schindler’s transformation into a morally good and admirable person is concreted. With tears in his eyes Schindler exclaims this watch, one. And this car, that’s five for this car alone. As he reminisces over how many more lives he could have saved the viewer is convinced of Schindler’s transformation from a selfish entrepreneur to a selfless hero. He saved the lives of over one hundred families yet still feels guilty as if it weren’t enough. Schindler did a very admirable job at saving so many lives and many people would aspire to become what he had transformed into in such a tough situation.

Schindler went from one extreme to the other in his transformation so the change in becoming more admirable was much more dramatic to the viewer. Schindler began as a selfish man but redeemed himself by saving so many innocent lives then claiming it wasn’t enough. This made the viewer see Schindler as a character to admire by the end of the film.

Here is the link to the Schindler’s List exemplar on the NZQA site. The essay received a merit grade.

Here is an essay from a student preparing for the exams. It was written in test conditions. Any thoughts?

Describe a strong relationship or conflict in the text. Explain how verbal and/or visual features of the text help you understand this relationship or conflict.

In the film What’s Eating Gilbert Grape directed by Lasse Hallstrom a strong relationship is developed between Gilbert and Becky. How they thought about each other was reflected in their actions and conversations and this helped me to understand why their relationship was so strong.

Gilbert Grape lives in the small American town of Endora. In the beginning of the film we hear Gilbert’s dull and dreary voice describing living in Endora as “like dancing to no music”, “it’s a place where nothing much ever happens and nothing much ever will.” This verbal introduction helped me to understand that Gilbert has lost all of the spark out of life; his monotonous voice represents his repetitve daily patterns. Since his father died and his older brother “got away” Gilbert has had the tedious job of looking after his unusual family. This has eaten away at him as he feels trapped and he now is a shell of a person – alive but not living.

When Becky unexpectedly arrives on the scene we are immediately made aware that she will bring a change to Gilbert. Visually in scenes we often see her connected with air or water which helped me to understand that she was there to cleanse Gilbert. We can also tell that Becky looks at everything in a positive way when she expresses, “I love the sky, it’s so limitless.”

Becky does bring to Gilbert change so that he can view his world in a different light. Their relationship develops into a strong one because for Gilbert he has met someone who for the first time demands nothing from him. Becky also opens Gilbert up emotionally which is demonstrated when she asks,”What do you want for you? Just for you?” only for him to reply, “I want to be a good person.” We also understand from the visual and verbal features that Gilbert trusts Becky which is represented when he takes her to visit his very obese mother. This is a significant turning point because usually he is ashamed of his mother the “whale” and has never taken anyone to her before. Their relationship eventually leads to the next level but through the features of the film we can understand that it is because they are both so in touch with one another, not because they want to use each other.

Gilbert and Becky’s relationship is a strong one and the features in the film can help us to understand why. Verbally Gilbert opens up and his voice takes on a happier tone. However, by visually watching it we can understand that Becky is the catalyst for change about and it was her that bought this change about. They may not get married with a fairytale ending but Gilbert is at last free of his repressed feelings and emotions and that is why their relationship is so strong.

Some of you want further clarification about production techniques. In the visual text questions they are discussed at levels 1-3. Here is an example of a question from level one:

Describe at least ONE important idea in the text. Explain how the director used at least ONE of the following to show you that the idea was important. Support your points with specific details from the text.

Camera-work, Colour,  Special effects, Narrative point-of-view, Lighting,  Music, Editing, Costumes, Dialogue, Structure,  Props,  Sound effects

Production techniques are the features used to make the film interesting and unique. Techniques may include: music, dialogue, lighting, colour, special effects, soundtrack and camera work. By looking at the production techniques closely you will gain a better understanding of how the text has been produced in order to present the themes, characters, settings, and plot.

For information to help Year 11, 12 and 13 students read more here.