"More:" An Analysis

This is something I found going through old stuff. It is the first analytic essay that I can remember writing that wasn't for an assignment. I decided to write it after watching a short film in my Science Fiction class entitled "More." The website that normally hosts it is currently down, so you may find it here. I'd highly recommend watching it first.

And so, without further ado, here is the exactly what I penned February 4, 2009, unedited since then (though it certainly needs it--retyping it verbatim was a mind-cringing experience):
---

"More:" An Analysis

Mark Osborne's short film, "More," reveals more about human nature to the viewer. Osborne uses a number of symbols to depict a fall that far too many people have succumbed to.

The core of the story is the core of the main character, literally. Toward the beginning, when he opens the flap on his stomach, he can see light coming out of it. In the middle, he takes his inner light and uses it to power his invention, artificial "Bliss." Though he becomes a worldwide phenomenon, the main character has no more inner light at the end of the story.
This inner light can represent many things. It may show the drive and creativity of the inventor. It may be the pure joy he has from his childhood memories. It could even be his innocence.

Perhaps one of the best definitions for the light is one that combines all of these possibilities, that is the essence of youth. The inventor, though always portrayed as an adult, still has the memory of a time when he didn't have to care about anything. When he faces trouble at work, he does what he can to bring back the "bliss" of his childhood. In his last act of youthfulness, he tries to bring his dreams to life, but it is clearly artificial. The general populace, who also want to have "bliss," start to consume his product vigorously, and, in the process, loses himself in his fake world, and in the process, his innocence. He realizes, too late, that he has become a cold, empty, heartless, unhappy person, trapped in his job and leading the world away from true happiness.

A major theme in this film is materialism. The inventor works in the factory to make the product that everyone wants: artificial "happy." He wants more than just "happy," though. He wants to be able to see what comes from inside of him directly, his pure joy, but has thus far been impossible to do; he can only see how good he is indirectly, that is seeing the light on hand after he opens up. He takes part of himself and puts it into his invention, which is made of fake happy and could never make him experience the joy he wants. Instead, he ends up with fake "bliss," which is ignorance. When "Bliss," the newest, greatest, best instant gratification product becomes available, he does not bring joy to others; he makes the problem worse. The people become less aware of what is really out there worth while to have. The children understand. They know that they need nothing to make them happy. The inventor thought he did and lost what was most precious trying to get more.

One of the most apparent symbols of "More" is the color scheme. In the normal world, almost everything is the same shade of gray. Gray represents the plainess of the world, the world that the people don't want because it is boring. The only products are in packages with bright yellow decorating them. Yellow is the contrast to the blue-gray of most of the environment, which makes the people want to buy them, with the logic that because it is different that it must be better. When a character uses the "Bliss" goggles, he sees a bright, multicolored, animated, false representation of the world around him. This is a step above just yellow, so the people declare the inventor the greatest inventor of all time, though he has the thing that allowed his invention to work in the first place. When color is in the real world (other than yellow) it is in two places. The first is the beautiful light coming out of the inventor until it becomes black and empty. The second is the children themselves on the merry-go-round. The variety of color in the real world is the essence of youth. The adults may have been colorful when they were young, but they lost it when they grew in both age and greed.

Another symbol in "More" is the contrast between straight lines, uniformity, and order and curved lines, individuality, and irregularity. The dull world is characterized by straight lines, uniformity and order, especially noticable with the assembly line, buildings, and aisles at the store. Everything is always the same and no one is really happy. There is a radical change when they view the world with "bliss;" the world becomes exaggerated like a Dr. Seuss book, with curvy lines and lots of bright colors. This fake world is unstable, though, because it bends the dull world into strange convoluted shapes. Again, the children are the only ones who understand. They are individuals on the perfect shape: the circle. They don't care what other people think. They see the true beauty in life and do not need to have "More."
---


So, that's it. What I wrote like a year and a half ago if I didn't really edit (except as I went--there are more than a few scribble-outs). I seemed to like lists of adjectives; maybe I was subconsciously in the mindset of "must...make sure...paper is...long enough." Most of the basic ideas are fine, but I'd definitely reorganize and do a thorough grammatical edit. If I do get around to editing, I'll make sure I post it here for comparison purposes.