Pick three of the following topics / thoughts about the movie and write about your thoughts based on your own personal experience and the movie.
1. You can’t go to the past to fix the present.” - Esperanza said this when Henry visited his parents' house. Agree or disagree? Why?
2. Noam Chomsky said: "As soon as questions of will or decision or reason or choice of action arise, human science is at a loss" 1.
Patience quotes him in the movie, and then follows it up with these lines: "It means that not everything needs an explanation. Sometimes, things happen b/c we choose for them to happen. I chose to believe."
Is she saying that because she believed the miracle on Henry's wall to be true, then that made it true? Or is she saying something else? If you could choose for one thing to come true / exist, what would that be and why?
3. During the dinner date, Dawn said to Henry as he tried backing away from getting closer to her was: "I know you're gonna die. But all that either of us have is right now, and we should pay attention to that." Henry might be feeling selfish and pushing people away w/ the way he's acting. But when he said, "I am paying attention." And that's why he can't do this (meaning fall for Dawn, go where the date will eventually lead ). Did Henry stop being selfish there for a moment? Or did he revert back to himself again? Why?
4. I get the feeling that Henry senses that there are greater forces at work, somehow helping him, coming to heal him, yet he feels unworthy of this sense of grace. Why he feels unworthy, I don't know. The movie doesn't develop Henry's background well enough to make more than a guess. Maybe it's not unworthy, maybe it's pride or stubbornness in his own beliefs that life has just dealt him an awful hand. Maybe he has accepted this fate, for lack of a better word, and decided to deal with it in his own way despite a higher power demanding an audience. What do you think of this idea?
5. There's got to be a reason why Patience is named Patience. What about the name Esperanza? It's Spanish for Hope. What made me think about Hope (besides the Obama-themed poster of Henry) was when he was about to destroy the wall and he yelled, "Hope can't save you!" And the last of the virtues would be Love symbolized by Dawn and Faith by Millie (who was the first one to test the validity of the wall).
Henry, on the other hand, would symbolize the seven deadly sins - sloth, gluttony, lust, greed, anger, envy and pride. A stretch? Maybe. How would he symbolize the seven?
6. Do you think Henry symbolizes some philosophers' skepticism of one's senses? Or does Henry go beyond that to a total skepticism of everything: religion, senses, peoples' good intentions, etc. until he finally discovers that he's not going to die? Why?
7. "Everything happens for a reason." When Esperanza talks to Henry about her old boyfriend, Leo, and how that she prayed to God to give her a sign that Leo was o.k., how does the sign on Henry's wall signify an answer to her prayers?
PICK THREE OF THESE QUESTIONS AND ANSWER THEM FULLY. 400 WORDS TOTAL. DUE THURSDAY, 10/8/20 BY CLASS.
7. "Everything happens for a reason." When Esperanza talks to Henry about her old boyfriend, Leo, and how that she prayed to God to give her a sign that Leo was o.k., how does the sign on Henry's wall signify an answer to her prayers?
PICK THREE OF THESE QUESTIONS AND ANSWER THEM FULLY. 400 WORDS TOTAL. DUE THURSDAY, 10/8/20 BY CLASS.
1. I think that Esperanza was correct when she said “You can’t go to the past to fix the present.” Going back to the house could never make Henry happy again. The house isn’t what made him happy, so dwelling in the past won’t do anything for him. Henry’s world has changed for the worse. Not only is he dying, but he’s dying without anyone else in his life. Those are substantive things that are making his life significantly worse. That's why visiting the past in the form of his old family house wouldn't do anything. But let's pretend that returning to the past could theoretically help him. Even if that were true, visiting the house that is now lived in by someone else could never achieve that goal. It’s a different house. That house has no connection to his childhood. His parents don’t live there, and none of his or his family's belongings are there either. It’s Henry's childhood home only in location and design.
ReplyDelete4. I think there are a few reasons why he chooses to ignore the apparent high power. I think one might be that he feels unworthy. He hasn’t exactly acted kindly to the church or his neighbors. I think another reason might be that Henry has just given up. I imagine that when you find out that you don't have very long to live, you come to terms with your life and tie up loose ends. He has also done things like waste money because he thought he was going to die. So maybe he doesn't think it would be worth it to accept the presence of a higher power that could help him. Lastly, I think he might be scared of what it would mean to accept the existence of a higher power. It would force him to evaluate a lot of hard questions that he might not want the answers to. Did he waste parts of his life? How would his life be different if he had started being faithful earlier on? Is he worthy of whatever he might get out of this? The one thing I definitely don’t think is preventing him from accepting the existence of god is stubbornness . The movie makes him seem like someone capable of change, so i don't think he is the person to reject god solely to protect his pride
6. I think Henry’s skepticism goes far beyond one just of his senses. I think Henry is skeptical of anything that can’t be proven. Henry’s response to people's claims about the stain, and how he interacts with other people tells us a lot about his thought process. I think to believe something Henry needs clear evidence, or that thing needs to be deductible by pure reason. The wall goes against both of those. There is no way that one could use reason to explain the effects of the wall. That’s also why he gives Patience her glasses that she left, and why he asks if she’s gone to the eye doctor. It’s because he doesn't believe it. He is looking for actual proof. For him we can’t just choose for things to happen, he needs an explanation.
Henry Poole
ReplyDeleteIn question 1 esperanza says you can’t go to the past to fix the present. I believe this to be true for problems of one's identity. This means that you are struggling to find who you are or you are just simply not doing well with yourself. I think this doesn’t apply to lessons that can be learned from the past that can help make the future better. We look back on our mistakes so that we don’t continue to make the same mistakes and this intern helps us have the wisdom to do the right thing. When Patience say things happen because we choose for them to happen, I think that this could be true in many ways. For example, if you really need a job then you choose to go get a job and make money but you can’t just hope it happens. I think everything is based upon our actions and in the movie i think the watermark is a sign from god. In theory god has a plan and maybe it was always god's plan to send Henry down the path that he went down with the 6 months to live and his neighbors. This in my opinion shows that Henry Poole went down the path he did so that he could enjoy the life he has after the events in the movie take place. This may sound basic however, I would want world peace and I say this because most of the world's problems are based on hate or bad feelings towards someone/something. I think it is more than skepticism when he says it is just a water stain. I think goes as far as complete denial of any spiritual or religious anything in the world. Poole in my opinion has just simply given up hope of life and believes he is destined for an eternity of suffering. Once he found out he wasn’t going to die i think his faith was restored or he was given faith in god because maybe he feels like he earned his life and had a realization that if he didn’t change then he would certainly die. All it took was for him to have some faith in anything and he was allowed to have his life. This is all saying that he was sick in the first place, because there was a good chance that it was just a mistake and he was never going to die.
When Esperanza said, “You can’t go to the past to fix the present” I think she meant that every past action and decision is final and has already been done, so relating it to the present can cause one to make decisions based on the past. I agree with her that the past can’t fix the present issue because it won’t change future choices for the better, it can only cause someone to be reserved and scared to take risks in fear that history will repeat itself. I say this not to say that the past doesn’t hold lessons for how to go about the present or the future, but it shouldn’t dictate the rest of your life. In other words, the past can’t fix the present, but it can be a reminder as to what not to do the next time you see yourself in a tough situation.
ReplyDeleteI think what Patience is trying to say by quoting Noam Chomsky and choosing to believe is that believing gets people further than people who chose not to believe. Furthermore, believing in the miracle allowed her to put positive thoughts into the universe and affirm those positive thoughts. Aside from Patience, other people who believed the miracle also affirmed said beliefs which I think can turn into reality. If I could choose one thing to come true, It would be for all living things to live on in the afterlife. I believe that when we die, our souls live on and we are still present, just in a different form. I want this to be true because humans and other organisms are so unique and over time we collect all these memories and develop a presence so strong that we can’t possibly be dead and completely extinct from the universe after our heart’s last beat.
I think Henry has an idea that there are greater forces at work, but he doesn’t want to get his hopes up and end up dying like he thought he would. There are people who openly and loudly express their belief in miracles such as Esperanza. She believes that by affirming those beliefs and sharing them with others, her prayers are bound to come true. However, people like Henry may not want to express their beliefs or be hopeful because they think they may jinx the prayer or cast some sort of bad luck over it. Henry probably is hopeful, but he doesn’t want to be too hopeful and have something bad happen.
2. I think Patience is could be talking about things more abstract than the wall. I think she’s discussing hope or happiness rather than the wall itself or the Jesus stucco job. When they meet she has no idea about the wall, all she saw was a man who seemed to be in pain, she had no idea why he was in it though. She said that Henry needed to take, as Kirkeguard said, a leap of faith. Henry can’t wallow in sadness or loathing, but must find hope even when it seems unlikely in illogical because that’s all he can do. If given the power to make something true that wasn’t, I don’t think I could make a decision. I’d be paralyzed by opportunity, and indecision.
ReplyDelete3. When Henry moved back and “couldn’t do this”, I saw him regressing and being selfish. It might seem noble to him to spare Dawn the heartbreak of his death, but I see it as his own fear taking over. “It is better to have loved and lost, than to have never had loved at all.” That saying is the way I think Henry should have handled it. He should have let Dawn be happy, let Millie be happy, and let himself be happy rather than pushing them away because at least when he died, Dawn and Millie could have remembered and cherished the time he spent with them while alive. I think Henry is therefore robbing all three of them at the chance of happiness, and specifically robbing Millie of a chance to heal the psychological wounds left by her father leaving. Overall I think Henry was selfish because he was scared of letting himself be happy.
5. I think it’s a stretch to say Henry embodies all Seven of the sins. He is human though so I think there are a few he displays over the course of the movie. Wrath is an obvious one because of his anger towards Esperanza when she tries to pray to his wall. He literally destroyed his home in a fit of anger because of this. His relationship with Esperanza and the wall can also be seen as greed because he sort of hoard the wall, or at least doesn’t let others prey to it?. Gluttony can be seen when he buys a gluttonous amount of alcohol, and sloth in how he just gives up hope and basically waits to die. The feeling of superiority that I feel he expresses toward believes would fit pride, but I also feel as if this is a reaction to envy he feels for those who have faith because his life is so bleak. Lust is the only sin I can’t think of that he shows. If we considered lust, there really doesn’t seem to be lust, as he seems very caucus with his relationship with Dawn, and all of the others around him.
3- In the scene after the dinner date Dawn told Henry she wanted to just focus on the present. Henry said he was and that’s why he backed away from Dawn. In this scene I think Henry was thinking about Dawn more than he was thinking about himself. He clearly had feelings for her and when you like someone you want to keep them away from pain or sadness. Henry knew that if they only focused on right now and didn’t keep in mind that he was dying, it would have just hurt Dawn more. She would have grown closer to Henry and that would have made it harder for her to say goodbye to him when the time came. At this point in the movie Henry started to care more about Dawn and when you care about somebody you tend to put their feelings before your own. I do not think Henry was going back to being selfish, I think he was trying to protect Dawn from the pain he saw in his future.
ReplyDelete6- In this movie Henry was very skeptical. I don’t think he was as skeptical of his senses as he was with others around him. He was skeptical of Esperanza when he met her. He wasn’t sure about her religion or how she felt about the wall. I think part of the reason that he was being so skeptical was because he had just found out he was sick with something that was not well known. After finding something like that out you tend to see things in a more cynical light. When he found out he really wasn’t dying that skepticism wasn’t as prominent.
7- Esperanza prayed for a sign that her old boyfriend, Leo was ok. After she did that I think she would have taken anything as a sign. People tend to read into things and see them the way they want to see them when looking. She was looking for anything to show her that Leo was doing good, even if he had died. When she saw the stain on Henry’s wall right away she took it as a sign. Henry didn’t see anything on the wall but Esperanza could easily see it there. She was looking into things, seeing things that might not necessarily be there. It was an answer for her because it was a clear sign. When she saw the sign it was an answer letting her know that Leo was ok.
At the dinner date when Henry tried backing away from Dawn I believe that it was in an act of selflessness, he was not “reverting back to his old ways.” Though I do believe his intentions were to protect Dawn I think Henry was mostly concerned with Millie’s wellbeing at the time. The reason why Henry tried ending things with Dawn was to prevent another father figure from leaving Millie’s life. Henry knows that when Millie’s father left a year prior, she hasn’t talked since but now since touching the wall Millie has finally started talking. Henry knows that Millie talking again has greatly improved the lives of Dawn and Millie. The thought of being the reason that Millie will become depressed and mute again, not from intentionally leaving but dying, concerns Henry so much that he is willing to break things off with the first person who has made him truly happy in a very long time.
ReplyDeleteWhen Patience tells Henry, "It means that not everything needs an explanation. Sometimes, things happen because we choose for them to happen. I chose to believe." I believe that she is saying that things are much more likely to succeed if you truly believe they will. Although I do not think that this example works with Henry’s wall because there is no logical way that by touching a wall Patience could be cured of her bad vision, I do believe that this example works with something that someone could logically work towards. Yes, like “The Little Engine That Could!” For example it is more likely for someone to succeed on a test or succeed in a race, etc… if they believe they can. If they doubt themselves then it is very unlikely that someone will succeed, a good mindset leads to good outcomes.
I believe that you can go into the past to fix the present, but only with specific things. Obviously if you fail an exam with no retakes you can’t go back and change your grade, but you can change relationships. I truly believe that if you are currently in a bad situation with someone you can apologize and try to make amends. Yes there is a chance that the person will not want to resolve the problems that are present, but if they do then that is a perfect example of how you can go into the past to change your present.
1.I think this is true simply because the past can’t fix the present, It only changes. At first I didn’t agree with the statement at all, as I have many instances where I know for sure that had I done something differently, I would’ve avoided a world of issues. But the deeper I thought about it, the more I realized that I would’ve also been a completely different person and who doesn’t even have everything that I enjoy today. That other person would just have different issues. There is no way to go back ad fix the issues of the past without creating new issues in the present. Life will never be perfect, so there is no point in fighting for the impossible. That may not have been what esperanza meant but that’s what I got from it.
ReplyDelete3. I think in that moment he wasn’t being selfish. Millie was traumatized when her dad left without an explanation, and it would do a lot of damage to her if she got used to him being around as well just for him to die. He did the responsible/ selfless thing of sacrificing a chance to spend his last few months with people by his side. He instead created distance. It was probably easier for him to have done that anyway, knowing that he already had walls up but in the long run it would’ve been harder for him in his final days knowing he had a chance to have someone at his side, holding his hand but instead he would be alone.
7. I think that the Jesus symbol on the side of the house was most definitely a sign. I don’t know if it was a sign from god, but it was what she was looking for. I think it the watermark did happen for a reason because she wanted to know that she was okay and it was an obvious sign that she couldn’t ignore. It was clearly for her because any other person wouldn’t have thought as much of it. It was a sign for her to let her know that Leo was okay. I’ve seen stories of people who asked god for a sign that their family member was okay and god gives them a sign based off of that person’s favorite color or animal. In order for it to be a sign, it has to be something specific to the person asking for it or else everything becomes a sign and a coincidence at the same time. If it hadn’t happened she may have spent the rest of her life wondering but instead, it gave her closure.
When Esperanza said “You can’t go to the past to fix the present”, I disagreed wholeheartedly. I felt it was a very shallow minded thing to say to sound semi-intelligent. She only says this because Henry decides to visit his old house so he can feel the happiness he felt when he was a child, but it didn’t work. Not only have we done great things in the past, but we have also made great mistakes in the past. Things like the escalation to World War 2, Chernobyl, or more recently, the handling of coronavirus in the USA, are all great examples of mistakes that have been made in the past that led to something getting way out of hand. If similar circumstances would arise today, wouldn’t we use these past experiences to know what not to do? Would we not use these examples to show what techniques and mistakes led to something catastrophic, in order to make sure not to repeat them. You could almost say it’s the basis of advanced human development: trial and error. It is vital to use the past to fix present problems. Not only to know what to do, but also to know exactly what should be done. The Constitution, originally written over 200 years ago, is the groundwork for the entire idea behind the present US to this day. This whole class is about looking back at great men from days gone past to grasp their lessons and teachings. A lot of the men and women we talk about have very real philosophies that are timeless, and most of them 1000 of years old. Teachers always tell us to learn from our mistakes, and if we couldn’t fix anything from the present from the past, we wouldn;t have history classes. She makes a blanket statement that can easily be disproved. But maybe she meant to be more precise. Maybe she meant nostalgia couldn’t fix the present. But there are counter examples for this too. People who feel nostalgic from another part of their lifetime can feel better when they reconnect with an old friend, or listen to the music they used to listen to. Nostalgia sells too. Game companies might release an updated version of an old game, or an artist can incorporate music styles or imperfections from past decades, and tactics like these, if executed well, always do very well critically and commercially. So I think that Esperanza’s statement is false on all fronts. The Bible was written over 2000 ago, yet I bet Esperanza probably uses a lot of its teachings to fix her problems.
ReplyDelete(1) When Esperenza said “you can’t go to the past to fix the present”, clearly henry has some baggage with him and he thinks that going back to his parents house will miraculously fix that. He clearly has a lot of deep rooted emotional distress and he believes that all of those problems and that distress must be from his past. He is blinded by that fact and since he is dying anyway he seems to just give into his beliefs and gives up entirely. She is basically saying that henry needs to live in the present and with what little time he has left he should be enjoying it. He can’t just make his whole personality trait his past and then project it onto others that try to be kind or enter his life. You don’t have to completely shut it away and forget about it but just being aware that it is something that is bringing you down is a good start. You should find better ways to cope with those feelings rather than being angry at yourself, the people around you and the whole world. (3)I think during Dawn and Henry's dinner date when she confronted him pushing her away and he bounced back with “i am paying attention” was a mix of him being a bit selfish but at the same time looking out for dawn and even dawn’s daughter, Millie. It was a bit selfish at the start because i think the thought started more about him and him getting attached to people again. But I think as dawn and henry’s relationship grew he started to realise he wasn’t the only one that was going to be affected if he were to get close to them. Dawn and her daughter both went through a trauma of dawns husband/Millie’s dad leaving. It even left Millie mute and clearly traumatised. So i think that henry realised they already had that important figure dip out of their life and if he were to die right as they were starting to let him into their lives he realised that it would hurt them even more because it would be the second time this type of scenario would be happening to dawn and Millie. (6)I think that it would make sense that henry would represent something like a philosopher's skepticism when it comes to someone’s senses. Throughout the whole movie he only trusted what he could see and what he saw sas a bad stucco job and a water leak. But to everybody else believed in the deeper meaning of the stain.Everyone had a different idea than him in regards to the wall of his house. So who’s senses are right?
ReplyDelete- Andersen Cabble
I agree with Esperanza when she said “You can't go to the past to fix the present” I feel like this is a statement that is said a lot but it holds significance. In order to move forward with your life you can't dwell on the past. I think it is important to learn from it and look back on our mistakes so that we may never make those again. Life is going to move forward regardless and I think it's our responsibility to move with or get left behind. The past gives us courage, protects and gives us wisdom so we should use that to our benefit but not get lost in it.
ReplyDeleteWhen patience says not everything needs an explanation and that things happen b/c we choose for them to happen and that she chooses to believe i think that she was talking about how sometimes things happen in our life because of our motives and like the positive outcome of believing in something rather than not.Like what we really want will drive us to make certain decisions in pursuit of what we want even if we aren't like consciously saying it out loud.I do in fact believe that the watermark on the wall was a sign from god trying to get across to Henry. I think it was his fate to end up at that house and in that neighborhood for his last 6 months. If I could choose for one thing to become true it would be for everyone to be created equally.Initially it was world peace but I think there are so many different variants of peace among people like everyone has their own idea of what world peace may be and so that would never work. But I believe that everyone should be able to create that for themselves and have equal opportunity too.
I think the sign on the house was a sign from god to Esperanza letting her know that her boyfriend Leo was okay. But after she prayed I also think that she would have taken almost anything to be a sign cause she really wanted to know. I think once we pray about something it's rare that things are just coincidences like I think that if something is supposed to be a message for us we will know. Esperanza could have taken anything as a sign but that was obviously a clear sign from god about Leo.
I agree with what Esprenza said, I believe it's very important to be able to move on from the past and to finally understand that you can’t fix what's happening now until you're willing to accept what happened and move forwards. It's a very important thing to recognize in the movie and in real life it overall is a very important aspect of knowledge. Her quote especially relates to modern day life because of quarantine and being able to move past what's happened to be able to live in the present.
ReplyDeleteHe reverted back to himself and kept people out so they don't get attached and upset over his death. At the moment he actually might be both now that i think about it because he's being selfish in the way of not wanting to hurt her and bring any more suffering to her and her daughter. He might have thought at the moment that it was a good idea but he really was doing the opposite, he tried to push her away but at this point she already has feelings for him and they're obviously mutual based on the way he acts towards her. By pushing her away in the moment he hurt her more by saying that he doesn't want to date her because he's sick.
The face on Henry's wall gave her a sign that he was safe and happy in heaven. The face was a sign because it was her depiction of the face of god.The face was her sign that he was safe. Her quote shows more that you don't have control of what happens to you. It's an eerie yet comforting feeling that gives you something to hold on too when a bad thing happens because it will only make you stronger.
emily