Writing assignment
# 4: MOTIF analysis
Length: 2 ½ pages
MAXIMUM, double-spaced, standard 12 point font.
A.
Pre-writing
1. Choose
a motif that you see present in The Godfather to write about.
Remember:
v In
film, a motif is not always an object; it can be an atmosphere created by
lighting, a sound motif of the soundtrack, or a location setting, among others.
v A
motif produces a theme. [E.g., In The
Wizard of Oz, Dorothy’s ruby slippers reverberate the theme of the journey
back home and back to safety.]
2. Decide what that motif represents in The Godfather.
3. As in your previous assignment, begin
with a list or outline of key shots of relevant scenes from the film that use
the motif. Keep these organized and as detailed as possible for yourself (you will not submit your outline).
B.
Writing
1. Describe and connect the examples in which you find the motif and apply an interpretation (leave behind tentative
language like “perhaps” and “maybe”; draw clear conclusions). Talk about the
theme that the motif produces.
2. Don’t be afraid to stray from the
literal; always look for “signs” and symbols.
3. Incorporate
a source in your piece. There are at least 3 articles available
from the course readings that apply here (readings on Little Caesar and The
Godfather). Use a relevant quoted citation
(with MLA
style parenthetical reference and full
citation under ‘Works Cited’), not just a
paraphrase. (Remember that you can use secondary sources to corroborate your
interpretation, or you can use them to disagree with what your source
concludes.)
4. Look back at the comments made to
previous assignments. Incorporate any
suggestions made there to your writing (ranging from grammar and sentence
structure to organization and accuracy or application of examples).
As with
assignment #2, this is a micro-assignment
so please stay focused on one argument. Begin in the midst of your analysis. Imagine these are paragraphs at the center
of a larger paper. In other words, the opening set-up should situate your analysis (without summarizing the film’s whole
plot) and not be more than one or two sentences—definitely not an
entire paragraph.
The style here is formal analysis, so please:
v Avoid
personal statements like, “I thought that was cool because…”; “I had to watch
that scene twice because it was so awesome,” etc.
v Try
to go beyond obvious statements
like, “The scene is shot from inside the car to show that Michael is riding in
a car to the appointment.” What else can
the mise-en-scene of this shot imply?
v Work
on focusing on what the viewer
perceives by way of the appearance of the motif, rather than just what
the characters learn (in the plot) from seeing it. E.g.: “When Clemenza pulls
out the gun Michael understands what he has to do.” [Just plot] à “Since the gun is shown in close up and is
the focal point of their conversation, the viewer understands that Michael’s fateful
act cannot be reversed.” [Interpretation
beyond plot.]
Motif
(narrative)
From Wikipedia, the
free encyclopedia [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Motif_(narrative)]
In narrative, a motif is any recurring element that has
symbolic significance in a story. Through its repetition, a motif can help
produce other narrative (or literary) aspects such as theme or mood.
A narrative motif can be created through the use of
imagery, structural components, language, and other narrative elements. The
flute in Arthur Miller’s play Death of a
Salesman is a recurrent sound motif that conveys rural and idyllic notions.
Another example from modern American literature is the green light found in the
novel The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald.
Narratives can include multiple motifs of varying
types. In Shakespeare’s play Macbeth,
he uses a variety of narrative elements to create many different motifs.
Imagistic references to blood and water are continually repeated. The phrase
“fair is foul, and foul is fair” is echoed at many points in the
play, a combination that mixes the concepts of good and evil. The play also
features the central motif of the washing of hands, one that combines both
verbal images and the movement of the actors.
In a narrative, a motif establishes a pattern of ideas
that may serve different conceptual purposes in different works. Kurt Vonnegut,
for example, in his non-linear narratives
such as Slaughterhouse-Five and Cat’s Cradle makes frequent use of motif to connect different moments that
might seem otherwise separated by time and space. In the American science fiction cult
classic Blade Runner, director Ridley
Scott uses motifs to not only establish a dark and shadowy film noir atmosphere, but also to weave together the
thematic complexities of the plot. Throughout the film, the recurring motif of
‘eyes’ is connected to a constantly changing flow of images, and sometimes
violent manipulations, in order to call into question our ability, and the
narrator’s own, to accurately perceive and understand reality.
USAGE
While
it may appear interchangeable with the related concept theme, the term ‘motif’ does differ somewhat in usage. Any number of narrative elements with
symbolic significance can be classified as motifs – whether they are images,
spoken or written phrases, structural or stylistic devices, or other elements
like sound, physical movement, or visual components in dramatic narratives.
To distinguish between a motif and theme a general rule is that a theme is abstract and a motif is
concrete. A motif is not necessarily a theme. The latter is usually defined
as a message, statement, or idea, while a
motif is simply a detail repeated for larger symbolic meaning. In other
words, a narrative motif – a detail repeated in a pattern of meaning – can
produce a theme; but it can also create other narrative aspects distinct from
theme. Nevertheless, the distinction between the two terms remains difficult to
distinguish precisely. For instance, the term “thematic patterning” has been
used to describe the way in which “recurrent thematic concepts” are
patterned to produce meaning, such as the “moralistic motifs” found
throughout the stories epic narrative One
Thousand and One Nights.