Describe how a character faced pressure and explain how he/she coped with it.

In the film 'Mean Creek', directed by Jacob Aaron Estes, a character that faced pressure was Clyde. He faced this pressure by accepting the fact that he is vulnerable to insults due to the fact that he has a homosexual father. He coped with this pressure by tolerating his friends calling him a 'faggot'.

Clyde is a shy, peaceful teenager who is vulnerable to insults such as been called a 'faggot' due to the fact that his father is homosexual. Marty, an angry and a violent boy who like shooting bottles whilst calling them names of real people, often uses this insult on Clyde. The first time the viewer hears of this word is in the beginning when they(Marty, Clyde, Rocky) were in a car near a waterfall and Marty held some kind of addictive drug for Clyde to try it. In a very agitated tone, Clyde said "... get it out of my face" and Marty responded with "faggot". Clyde always either look or walk away embarrassed and just never seems to attack anyone for insulting him through that word. This behaviour makes you question the kind of pressure teenagers with a homosexual parent has to go through.

The slang definition of a faggot is a male who is homosexual. Even though it is his dad that is homosexual, everyone takes it as an opportunity to say it to Clyde's face. The way Clyde condoned this pressure is very remarkable considering the fact that most teenagers will most likely take this kind of insult personally and stir up a fight. An example of when the average teenager; when put in Clyde's shoes will act in a provocative manner is when George said to Clyde "shut the fuck up, Clyde! You faggot!... skinny, butt-munching faggot!I hate you, you know that?... Because all you do is fucking prance around school, talking about your fucking faggoty, fairy fathers!...It makes me sick! And I... I fucking hope they fucking die of fag disease!". This is a great example of some of the situations where you would expect the victim, in this case Clyde, to fight George for been insulting but as usual, Clyde just stares in horror as he slowly digests what George just said to him about his dad and does nothing about it.

To conclude, the character that faced pressure was Clyde. He faced the pressure of having a homosexual dad, by accepting that fact that he is vulnerable. By accepting the fact that he is vulnerable, he coped with this pressure by condoning and looking the other way.

Describe an important idea in the text. Explain how verbal and visual features of the text help you understand.

An important idea in the film 'Mean Creek' directed by Jacob Aaron Estes is revenge and its consequences. This idea is verbally conveyed through the use of music and silence. It is also visually conveyed through the use of lighting and camera angle to help paint the picture of what the film is about.

In the film, Sam, an introverted little boy is bullied by George when he messes with his video camera. George is an overweight annoying boy whose best friend is his precious little video camera. When Sam's older brother Rocky and his friends, Marty and Clyde hears of this, they plan a revenge along with Sam and his girlfriend, Millie to make him pay. A quote from Marty about the revenge plan is "we're planning on stripping him, throwing him in the river, and then we're gonna make him run home naked". The outcome of this revenge was that when George was accidentally pushed into the water, he drowned due to the fact that he could not swim. This consequence had a huge effect on the characters knowing that they had to deal with the fact that they are responsible for George's death. The significance of this idea is that revenge is never the solution to get even and that everything has its consequences.

The verbal technique used to show the idea of revenge and its consequences is the use of music and silence. After the death of George, when the group (Sam, Rocky, Millie, Clyde, excluding Marty) was in Sam and Rocky's bedroom, the background music was soft and slow indicating a very sad mood and dark atmosphere. The groups feeling of remorse hung heavily in the air as there was silence in the bedroom shadowed by the soft music in the background. A quote from Millie to George questioning about this incident is "... when we graduate high school, and go to college and become doctors and lawyers and all that, what do you think it'd be like?". This question makes the audience thinks about the effect this revenge is having on these characters.

Lighting and camera angle is used to visually make the idea of revenge and its consequences more understandable to the viewer. Before the revenge took place, the lighting of the riverside was bright portraying a beautiful day to go boating. The camera angle was mostly eye level, revealing the surroundings of the riverside and just giving it a peaceful tuning to it. The lighting changed from bright to dark when George fell into the water. We also got a close-up view of George under the water when he was struggling to come up for air, and then soon afterwards the camera was shaky giving us the feeling that we were looking directly from George's video camera. There was a loud 'pop' when his head hit the camera and there was blood in the water. Soon afterwards, the screen went black. The screen going black signifies death and for a moment makes the viewer feel sick inside knowing that these teenagers have to deal with the consequences of their prank.

An important idea in the film 'Mean Creek', directed by Jacob Aaron Estes, is the idea that revenge is never the solution to get even, and that everything thing we do has its consequences. This idea is verbally conveyed through the use of music and silence. The idea is also visually conveyed through the use of lighting and camera angle to help paint the picture of what the film is about.