Engl

Sample 2

Student Sample #1

Benenhaley

Eng 112-0001

18 Nov 2020

Film Analysis 1: A Patch of Blue

A Patch of Blue was first written by Elizabeth Kata in 1961. In 1965, Guy Green turned the novel into the film. The story is about a teenager named Selina, that lives in a tiny apartment in Los Angeles. The film is in black and white, because in that particular timespan, colored movies were not as popular. The black and white film easily blends in with the life of Selina, a very unhappy, uneducated teenager. Selina lived with her mother and grandfather, who treated her like Cinderella. The mother was very mean to Selina and made her do all the cooking and cleaning, and abused her if the work wasn’t done to her liking. The film A Patch of Blue uses symbolism to show that happiness can be found in spite of the chaos.

A Patch of Blue uses a caterpillar as symbolism to represent new life and happiness.

While sitting at the park, a caterpillar falls on Selina’s neck, and she struggles to reach him. Caterpillars may be furry and ugly, but as new growth takes place in their life, they turn into a beautiful butterfly, and that is the representation of her unhappy, ugly life turning into something beautiful. Gordan, who is a young, educated black business man comes through the park and see Selina frantically trying to get the bug out of her dress, and he offers to help her. When he shows her the caterpillar and explains that he is harmless, that is the beginning of their friendship. Gordan accidentally kicks over her beads that she is working on, and unlike her mother and Ole Pa, who won’t help her to clean them up, Gordan bends down and helps her pick up all of the beads that are scattered on the ground. Selina, can’t believe how nice he is to her, and she begins to smile, and starts to look forward to him visiting her in the park. Selina, like the caterpillar started out, feeling ugly and useless, starts to blossom into a beautiful butterfly, full of life.

Early in life, things started to take a dreadful turn for little Selina, that changed her life forever. At the age of five, Selina’s mother had a man in their home, when her daddy returned from the war early. The dad came in and a fight took place. Rose-Ann picked up a bottle and threw it at her husband and missed. The broken bottle cut Selina’s eyes causing her to become blind. The second day that Gordan came to visit Selina in the park, he brought her a bottle of pineapple juice, which she had never tasted before and she found it to be wonderful. The film uses the symbolism and similarities with the bottles to show that the dark colored bottle caused bitterness, pain and unhappiness, but the white bottle contained a sweet, good liquid that gave her happiness and delight.

A simple outing in the park, was the one place where Selina found peace, but was often discouraged from going by her mother. When Selina was talking about going to the park, Rose-Ann told her that if she knew how her face looked, she wouldn’t want to go out and let anyone see it, and that left her feeling like she was ugly. Selina asked Gordon if her face looked bad, and he said no, just the noticeable thing with her eyes. While shopping at the store, Gordon bought her a pair of sunglasses, and told her that people wore them to hide behind. Once again Gordon turns the darkness in her life into light, by showing her there is more to life then being stuck in darkness, even though the sunglasses were dark, through them, she found the real light. He shows her how to count steps, to be able to get around by herself, he takes her to the store, and shows her how to shop and have fun riding on the shopping cart. Gordan shows her how to use a phone, and even gives her a dime to keep if she needs to call him. Selina is now a happy teenager, who now has some independence in getting around, and even though she has never physically seen him, she confesses her love for him. The film used the dark glasses to show that through them, she saw light and peace.

A Patch of Blue shows symbolism in Selina’s family and Gordon, by demonstrating that her family, the ones that were supposed to protect her and help her to blossom into a loving young lady, were the very ones that caused the abuse and unhappiness in her life. A stranger that happened to come through the park, was the one that taught her about life, and love. Gordon removed her from the family, and sent her away to a school, so that she could learn and develop from being a caterpillar into a beautiful butterfly.