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Recently, I have read the well received horror novel of the best selling video game, “Resident Evil”, by, Stephani Danelle Perry, “Resident Evil: The Umbrella Conspiracy”. The novel is cleverly crafted by Perry and nearly every aspect of the storyline leaves the reader either somewhat astonished or shocked. The writer’s various uses of setting, turning point, language, and characterisation is important in establishing the main theme of fear in the novel.

The novel is a terrifying tale of horror, set in an apparently secluded mansion, centred around eccentric events that have been occurring in the remote mountain community of Racoon City. Members of a special police division named STARS (Special Tactics and Rescue Squad), are asked to pursue leads they have received connecting the mansion to these strange goings-on in hope of finding out “who” is behind this. They then embark upon a journey much unexpected or prepared for as the plot unravels revealing its many twists and turns, until evil is ultimately conquered and normality is returned.

The prologue is the first area of the novel in which Perry immediately conveys her main theme of fear, effectively shown through word choice in a series of newspaper clippings describing the horrible events that have been occurring throughout Racoon City.
“˜Bizarre murders committed in Racoon City’, ˜Horror in Racoon! More victims dead.’”
The articles talk of several missing persons. Striking me most forcefully was the most horrendous of which, being two little girls ages nine and seven. They had been playing in the vicinity of the local forest and then disappeared without a trace left behind them. Later their bodies were recovered eviscerated and torn to pieces. Perry uses the words “bizarre”, “horror”, and “victims”, to emphasise the dehumanizing nature of these killers, and to display the anger being stressed by the newspaper’s journalist. Instantly, fear is imposed upon the reader and illustrates the dreadfulness that the story has to offer as it shall progress. Perry then uses setting to engage the sympathy of the reader towards the characters and civilians of the city, describing the broken, run-down condition of the desolate town;
“Since the trouble had started, more and more people were keeping their children and animals indoors, even during the day.”
The repetition of the word “more” indicates a sense of anxiety between the city’s inhabitants, frightening the majority of them from leaving their homes. There are many examples of this, each laying emphasis on the deserted, ghost-town state of Racoon’s streets, indicating that it is no longer safe for anyone to be roaming around, and as stressed by Perry, “even during the day”. This deepens my understanding of the seriousness of the characters purpose, which conveyed through a board-room meeting between the central characters later on in the first chapters, wont be an easy task.

Perry tells the story through the individual eyes of each of the characters’ in rotation, and are first introduced to all of the characters at once when they meet at the board-room meeting - being held to inform them of their assignment. The author crafts several characters within the first two to three chapters of the novel, no doubt to withhold any sense of isolation that the reader may develop as the story furthers and characters are separated. After being equipped and ready to be inserted into the field, the characters’ are transported by helicopter into the neighboring forest of the mansion, where Perry first depicts the characters’ realization of odd happenings.
“The forest was unnaturally still, the only sounds human. For the first time since they’d set down, Jill was afraid.”
The author again focuses attention on setting, underlining the intimidating atmosphere made present by the surrounding trees. Although being told from the perspective of Jill at this moment, Perry makes clear that the other members of her squad are also uncertain of what to make of their situation, once more bringing prominence to the theme of fear in the novel. Next the characters are confronted by the slaughter of one of their team-mates - killed by, what is not made clear by the author at first, but what can only be described as “zombies”. The language used by the author then changes from a slow, vague tone into an almost melodramatic, frenzied pitch as the team panic and race through the woods, not knowing what they are up against. Subsequently they draw their weapons and engage in a blind fire-fight whilst being pursued. Once the advantage is gained by the team they are able to deal with the “monsters”.
“Chris took his finger off the trigger but continued to point the handgun at the fallen creatures, ready to blow apart the first one that so much as twitched.”
Perry furthers the ambience of fear amongst the characters, showing that Chris is so shaken that he is unable to cope with what has just happened, and cannot take the creature away from his gun sight. Without doubt the most attention-grabbing aspect of the novel - is Perry’s stimulating action sequences, which create fear but also astonishment within the reader, arousing on numerous occasions throughout the novel.

The author then goes on to depict the characters’ chance finding of the mansion’s whereabouts, and the outlandish change in scenery as they enter to seek refuge from the turmoil in the forest. Surprise strikes both the characters’ and the reader, as the surroundings of the supposedly discarded mansion turn out to be rather incredible.
“It was a palace, pure and simple, what her father would have called a perfect score.”
Again being told from the perspective of Jill, Perry illustrates the magnificent spectacle of the mansions interior, describing it as “the epitome of lavish”. In contrast to the daunting feel of the forest outside, the mansion seems out of place and yet a sense of composure is displayed amongst the characters. The remarkable image of the mansion is sustained throughout the rest of the novel by Perry, through means of the evocative language used, wittingly creating fear and uncertainty in the reader as well as the idea of serenity. The fact that the palace was found in the middle of a forest infested with strange creatures seems bizarre and intimidating towards the characters, yet such majestic surroundings counter balance these feelings, not making clear what to think of the situation.
“Fluted wall sconces cast funnels of light across walls of cream, trimmed in oak and offset by the deep burnt ochre of the carpeting.”
Perry’s way with words again awaken many emotions within the reader, words such as “fluted”, “sconces” and “cream” give sensations of calmness, whereas words such as “offset” and “burnt”, still portray the theme of fear by hinting towards the idea of deformity. This forethought is then confirmed as the team first come face to face with their malformed enemy, and the separation and betraying of characters which follows.

Once the team had secured themselves in the building, the certainty that their surroundings weren’t entirely out of harm's way left separation inevitable, and in due course Chris Redfield was the first of the team to single-handedly encounter more of the creatures. Perry uses starling language and word choice to end the reader’s constant awe as she makes known the true horror and repulsion of what lies deeper within the mansion.
“Flaps of dried skin hung from its sunken cheeks, and the dark wells of the creature’s eye sockets glittered with hunger as it reached out with skeletal hands…”
The author changes the mood instantly to again coerce fear upon the reader, using such language which illustrates what can barely be imagined. Chilling images of a lifeless corpse and the idea of something starved and rotten hit the reader forcefully, and are left feeling to some extent betrayed by Perry’s previous words of the mansions greatness. The continuous use of imagery persists in creating nerve-racking moments in which the reader feels compelled to stop, yet carry on reading;
“…eyes wide as the twitching creature clawed at the wooden floor, pulling itself towards him in an eager, single-minded silence.”
Such vivid pictures of evil pulse fear through the reader hereafter, undeniably ending any fore-thoughts of excellence that the mansion represented. Perry continues to make matters worse by introducing betrayal amongst the characters, leading to the death of another one of their team-mates. This crops up a lot of angry frustration, ultimately leading to all remaining team members pursuing their former friend through hidden labs underneath the house, labs which had been the hidden creator of the mass murders on the surface. The team prevail in destroying the mansion and it’s labs and escape by helicopter after a long hard battle with their fate.

In conclusion, Perry manages to set the scene perfectly for an attention-grabbing thriller and is successful in producing much more. She closes the story very abruptly and we are left at the end of the novel feeling breathless, yet satisfied.

David McDaid]]> Film]]> Mon, 23 Apr 2007 14:01:42 -0400 http://www.readourpapers.com/film/the-murderer-the-salesman.html The character was played by Jason Robards, whose acting and mannerisms fit Hickey's 'easy flow of glib' and 'persuasive convincingness' well. Hickey is a round character due to the complex ideology he has in his mind about letting go of guilt and of clinging to empty dreams. Hickey concentrates on his quest to help his friends and fellow bar patrons, though in the back of his mind he fears that they will fail despite his encouragement. Even with his good intentions, he cannot prevent the thoughts of their past records of postponement and procrastination from creeping into his mind. Hickey's epiphany of realization comes when he determines that he needs to change, and by doing so will be able to help those around him who are in worse shape than himself. He concludes that by forgetting their hopeless dreams and aiming for something achievable their lives will become more fulfilling. Before this enlightening thought he constantly relied on alcohol to keep him afloat. Much of his motivation for drinking was the weight and pressure of his wife, Evelyn.
With Hickey's actions we see that he has a pipe dream of his own, to be free of female compassion and have no constraints. He murders his own wife to achieve this, shooting her in the head to gain freedom. This act releases him of the guilt he should have felt from lying to her with empty promises of cleaning up his act. Though he loved his wife, he seemed to love alcohol and losing his inhibitions more. Spending his evenings at the bar and his nights in a prostitute's bed, his wife was put on the backburner. She continued to take him with open arms, slowly driving Hickey to the drastic decision of killing her. Eventually Hickey believed that his wife was actually encouraging his actions indirectly by continuing to love him and stay by him despite his lack of change. She obviously knew about his drinking and infidelity, but she did nothing to stop it. Evelyn knew Hickey could not handle his temptations; those temptations including drowning himself in alcohol and sleeping around with other women. Hickey eventually contracted a STI (sexually transmitted infection), which he lies to her about, saying he must have gotten it from drinking out of the same cup as someone else. Hickey later sees that his wife has a pipe dream as well, hers being that Hickey would stop his negative behavior.
Hickey's solution to the 'problem' of Evelyn is a rather violent one, his happiness achieved by the bullet that stops her life short. With her death comes his freedom, all of the weight she had placed on him is immediately lifted from his shoulders, including any guilt a person should feeling after murdering his or her spouse. Now that he is liberated his life is open to possibility, though ironically the path he chooses is one that does not involve alcohol. In the past Hickey had spent the majority of his time having a good time with his friends at the bar, buying rounds of drinks to drown their sorrows and dreams. After the death of his wife, Hickey is a changed man. At first he keeps the reason for this ' his wife's death ' a secret from his fellow bar mates, but eventually the truth is revealed. He makes such an effort to get people to like him, paying for drinks at the bar, buying presents and entertaining those around him, that no one would have ever expected such a thing from him. Hickey wanted people to have a good time, to enjoy themselves, and to like him. He brought presents and often put on a performance, and his arrival was looked forward to by everyone at the bar.
In the final scene, Hickey tells the story about how he came to murderer his wife. Hickey felt what he was doing was right; though he was not completely certain. He questioned himself, asking how he could do it, but quickly reaffirmed that it was 'the only way out.' Hickey truly believed that this action would set both Evelyn and his own mind free. Even after admitting the truth to his friends at the bar, their view of him remains the same. Hickey's insanity was not taken to heart by his fellow comrades, their only concern being where the next drink was coming from.
With the play's conclusion, Hickey has become a man who faces his actions. He sees that there are things in his life that need to change, and he takes the necessary steps to correct them. He frees himself from the grip and pressure of his wife by killing her, now leaving him free too live his life the way he chooses, and becomes a better person for it. He stops drinking and instead turns his attention not to himself but to those around him, with goals of helping his friends at the bar give up their hopeless dreams and get out and do something with their lives.]]> Film]]> Wed, 11 Oct 2006 01:28:32 -0400 http://www.readourpapers.com/film/crash.html In the film Crash, I found myself getting upset when the black woman was getting rubbed on by the white officer in an improper manner. The officer had no duty to be doing such acts upon someone, especially when the officer sees colored skin as inferior people. The camera was really close to the action when the officer was doing his feeling, I believe that is what got me upset, how graphic, and real it seemed. My mind sped off and leads me to assume this is what happens on the streets, maybe right down the street from my house or yours. It's a horrible thought, that the husband could not have fought back, possibly would have gotten shot and killed.]]> Film]]> Wed, 11 Oct 2006 01:28:15 -0400