Birth Of A Nation: Art Or Propaganda Essay -- essays research papers

Birth of A Nation Art or PropagandaMankind, engaging in war, driven by whatever instincts guide him, seeksto suffer the defeats and victories of battle in his memory and on his conscience.To accomplish this men have used paint and canvas, ink and paper, or instrumentand song in their travail to communicate the tragedy and glory of war. Never,before the career of D.W. Griffith had anyone attempted to bring the subject to consider. The result of his efforts, weaknesses aside, mark a change in attitudetowards film as a media. Perhaps audiences previously going to a pictureexpected emotional manipulation. After all, years before the film Birth of anation, makers of film employed techniques to evoke pathos from viewers whetherthrough the use of a sobbing mother, a frightened child or what have you. Inthis respect the film was not a ground-breaker However, through its effectiveuse of devices such as symbolic representation, foreshadowing and allusions, as well asbuilding on and arguabl y perfecting film techniques such as continuity editing,intercutting and close-ups, he transformed film from mere entertainment to artand propaganda.To present and explore a theme, symbolism is used everywhere inliterature. Whether the image is subtle or obvious it is regardless a sign ofconsiderable calculation and effort. In Birth of a nation Griffith placessymbols everywhere, in doing this he merges literary devices of written workswi...