Rosa H: The Hours

It is kind of difficult to say just one topic from this movie. First of all, these three women lived through the book "Mrs Dalloway". the book written by Virginia Wolf. These three women have several characteristics in common; their points of view about life, the happiness was just some of them. At some point they were happier than ever and wanted to go back to that point. It was very difficult to find a way to scape what they got, and go for the thing they wanted. The complexity of living life, and the fear of living it the way it goes on. Make decision, love, live, die. These are just few topics about this amazing movie. How they were making decision that not only affected them but people around them. All these elements that go into making their lives  through illness, sadness,  love, lesbianism, family to what really it treats, a real life. 

MIND MAP

ACADEMIC WRITING IN HIGER EDUCATION

(from monologism to dialogism)

The hours

This movie shows the real intentions, feelings, scares and desires of not only three women, there are the real stuff on humans. It also shows how writing and reading helps to surrender, crush, immobilize and identify us in someone else, in a character. It also talks about how we all get connected, how our feelings and thoughts define us and make us who we really are. The movie make us ask ourselves what is life, how we should live, what is love. "...to look life in the face, to know it for what it is,  to love it for what it is". 

DIEGO CUERO " THE HOURS"

 “The Hours” Here in this film we can find three women: Virginia Woolf ( the writer)  Clarissa ( a publisher) and Laura (the  mother). The characters are from different  chronological time, but they are linked in the movie for  the love, happiness, tragedies, Sadness, loneliness, suicide and lesbianism which are developed all along the movie and Mrs. Dalloway (Virginia Woolf’s book). The movie try to tell us why we make a decision to live or die?.

Woolf’s struggle with mental illness led her to commit suicide, every scene is colored by the knowledge that she will ultimately decide to take her own life. She is so sensitive to the world around her and unusually receptive to small details of her environment, which she believes have incredible significance. Her sensitivity makes her a great writer.

Laura Brown feels surprised by the direction of  her life has taken. She thinks that she should be happy, because her husband is kind, her son loves her, and they live in a nice home. Laura feels that something is wrong with her but tries to convince herself that she is normal. Laura attempted suicide. Like many women of her generation, married young and has the roles of wife and mother at a relatively young age.

Clarissa takes great pleasure in the day-to-day details of life, she questions the choices that she has made and has doubts about what her life has come to. Nostalgia for her love .She loves the small domestic details of her life, and she enjoys the simple acts of buying flowers and keeping a beautiful apartment. 

DIEGO CUERO CENTRAL STATION

I think a possible title for this film could be: A boy in search of his father or a woman in search of love.  Dora, started writing letters in order to work . People who did not know how to read or write at a train station look for her and used her writing services. once, a woman with a little boy called Josue, asked her to write a letter to Josue’s father.but  she was run overed she was Josue mother. 

Dora took the boy to her home. And he discovered that Dora did not do her work she just wants the money.Joshua is a temperamental child, with a marked character, and Dora is someone similar.

The next day Dora escaped with Josue  They bought the bus tickets and went to look for Josue's father. Dora tried to abandon Josue because she was thinking that  she was not a good person for the Josue education.she was not a very good example,she drinked and  her values were lost.

So in the road they found a truck driver, Dora was so ho that day and tried to flirt him but he was Christian, and he was not ready for the action. So the driver  abandoned them. May be he thought that the devil,the snake,the woman had arrived to him.you know Adan and Eve,the apple,the sin.

Josue and Dora continued walking and hiking, they arrived  in  a town but Josue’s father had left the house six months ago.

Conclusion

we see issues like moral values, friendship and the importance of family in the lives of people. Dora shown their moral conscience and their values ​​when rescues him knowing that children are bought to remove organs and Josue ran much danger there. I think that the film is very sincere and honest. A film about life, here we can see the  truly weight and  the importance of writing is.

Central station's plot / Andreinna delgado - Ana María Rodríguez / Andrés Bolaño

Dora was an old woman who wrote letters for people who did not know how to read or write. She used to be a teacher, but later she started to work at the Central do Brasil, the biggest train station in Rio de Janeiro.

She served many people in the station. One day, a middle-aged woman and his son, Josué, approached to Dora to ask her to write a letter to Josue's father. They wanted to tell him that they were OK living in Rio, and that Josue wanted to get in touch with him. Josue's mother made it clear that she didn't agree with it because she thought he was just a drunker.

Often, Dora did not take the letters to the post office. Sometimes she just stayed at home with her friend and mocked the stuff people asked her to write. Dora kept Josué and his mother's letter.

Several days later, Josue and his mother went to Dora again to ask her to write a new letter. Josue suspected Dora had not taken the letter in the mail. Dora did her job, and when Josue and his mom left the train station, a bus crashed the woman. Then, Josue remained alone.

Feeling guilty, Dora took Josue to her home, but she didn't know what to do. Then, she decided to "sell" him to a couple who wanted to adopt him, but later she found out their intention was to sell Josue's organs. Heroically, Dora decided to rescue him and escaped from Rio de Janeiro.

Dora assumes to take Josue with his father, who lived in Bom Jesus, in Northeast Brazil.

During the trip Josue gets drunk because of a bottle of wine Dora left. There is a point where Dora decided to abandon him because, she thought, he would be better without her. She put some money in the kid's bag while he was sleeping and gave indications to the driver to take him to Bom Jesus. She left the bus and buys a ticket to go back to Rio.

Nevertheless, when she was in the cafeteria at the bus station, she realized the kid had got down from the bus and left the bag in it. Then, they remained with no money or food, so a truck driver offered to help by taking them to the town they want.

They stopped in a restaurant and Dora was flirting with the driver. She went to the restroom and once she came back the driver was already gone.

Some hours later she gave her watch to another driver in order to take them to the town. When they finally arrived at their destiny, they realized they had to get some money and Josue had the idea of selling letters. Then, they bought some food and they looked to  Josue's father. They didn't find him. Instead they found Josue's brothers and Dora decided to leave him there because she thought it was a better place for him.

Conclusion:

Many times, when people don't know how to read or write depend on other people to communicate their ideas in a formal way also when there is a situation in which those people need writing skills. In the movie Central Station we can see how Josué depends on other people because he doesn't have these important skills, he doesn't know how to read and not only him, but many other people especially in the town where is developed the story. These people must trust in the other people who help them write something even without knowing what are they actually writing. In relation with the text: Theorizing the Space of Literacy Practices by Lesley Bartlett and Dorothy Holland this movie shows us the situations in which the literacy education is absent, especially in poor people and how they need to “communicate oneself” through people who know how write and provide this as a service.

   

Notes from the movie "The Hours"

I would say there is not just one topic for the three stories. Themes such as having a double life, sadness and suicide are developed all along the movie.

Nevertheless, there is a common issue throughout the film that links the stories of Virginia (character based on Virginia Woolf), Laura and Clarissa. Deep inside, the are unhappy, even though they seem to have succesful lives. There is something they hide.

In certain way, reading and writing emerge in the middle of their tragedy as a "blowoff valve". I found particularly interesting how Virginia wrote down all her wishes and frustrations on her novel "Mrs Halloway", and the way Laura felt identified with the character in Virginia's work.

It was surprising to find Richard (the poet in 2001 story) was Laura's son, and to see the way her decision (in some way influenced by Virginia's novel) affected Richard's life. His relationship with his mother, at the end, made him to kill himself. This way, the circle was closed.