Blog Post #12: Midnight in Paris

     In the movie Midnight in Paris, the main character, Gil Pender, has a strong and constant conflict while he is on vacation in Paris with his fiance. He wishes that instead of living in the 2000s, he could have lived in Paris in what he thinks was a better time, the 1920s. This wish comes true when, every night at midnight, he is transported back to the "Golden Age." Gil meets famous artists and writers from the time period and a women named Adriana, Pablo Picasso's former lover. Gil and Adriana spend a night together walking around Paris. They get into a carriage and are transported into the Belle Époque time period (1871-1914). At the end of the night, Adriana wants to stay in this time period, just like Gil wants to stay in the 1920s. Gil seems to realize that a lot of people wish they could live in a different time. A time that they perceive to be better. He also realizes that no one is ever truly happy in the time and place that they live in and that's just life. Realizing this, he decides to go back to his own time.
     This conflict is a universal one that many people experience. People are never one-hundred-percent happy with their lives because that's how life is. This is a conflict that seems to be inspired by peoples' dislikes for their own lives and the constant want for something better. For some reason, people look into the past to find an ideal life, but for the people who experienced that past, it probably wasn't their vision of ideal. Wanting to live in the past is just a way of creating an imaginary world where there are no problems. Every time period has its advantages and disadvantages and once people realize that, it's easy to solve this conflict and embrace your own time.

Blog Post #11: Setting

     Sitting in south Minneapolis, the houses, all tudor style and similar in looks, were built in the 1930s. Most of the two-story houses were built up on a hill that separates them from the street. They have stairs that lead up to them, along with an iron railing to guide any coming visitors. Each block is split down the middle by an alley, which leads numerous driveways and detached garages. My house, being one of the larger houses on the block, is surrounded by smaller houses and sits in the shade of a large spruce tree that is taller than the house.
     A few blocks east is a block full of stores and restaurants. The tudors extend up a few blocks north of the Minnehaha Creek and the Minnehaha Parkway, and they end when the road is cut off by McRae Park and St. Joseph's Home for Children, which take up one block. Past this block is a cemetery, which also takes up one block. There is a transition in the size and cost of the houses in these two blocks, as the houses get smaller and cheaper.