90210

Morocco Junction 90210 would definitely be a story I would recommend to my friends. Its starts out as a jewelry heist and up until the end you think you know what’s going to happen, but then it takes a dramatics twist and BAM, you’re wrong, and everything you thought you knew was wrong. Morocco Junction 90210 was an interesting read because of its surprising ending and the way the narrator takes you through the story giving you facts and information about herself. These facts may seem of little importance sometimes, but in the end, with the knowledge we have about Minerva’s persona we understand why she keeps her newfound discovering to herself. Throughout the story I sensed that this was going to be a murder mystery, where in the end she would put the pieces together and we’d have our killer. The fact that didn’t happen was probably one of the reasons I loved this story, these kinds endings fascinate me, they make me go back and find clues that I may have missed or things I didn’t pay attention to. The dramatic twist was great, and I loved the way it fit into the stereotype we have of Beverly Hills. We have these rich people who don’t talk about all the bad things that happen and will do anything to keep their secrets hidden, embarrassed to be ridiculed by their peers. Some even go as far as killing themselves, as is the case with Eloise. She was so ashamed of her past, she knew that if it were discovered she would be shut out by her peers and her family would be left to bear the weight of her mistakes. Overall it was a good story to read, it made you think that Beverly Hills may not be the only place where people would rather die than clean out the skeletons in their closet.

Dangerous day in Silicon Alley

Two completely different stories, they are both set in LA, but the two worlds couldn’t be any more different. Well the settings definitely had a great impact on the narration of the story. ‘Dangerous Days’ was narrated from a person living in the ‘ghetto’, an area where a lot of Mexicans and African people live. There are gangs everywhere, people with shaved heads, others with pants around their knees, high crime rates and the streets are usually ruled by gangsters. In this story our protagonist seems to be tougher (and eye for an eye) than the protagonist in ‘Midnight in Silicon Alley’, he grew up in a neighborhood where if you didn’t push you got push around.  That is why when Yippie was killed he didn’t hesitate to go after the killer, he lives in a world where someone doesn’t have to be blood-related to be your brother.  Mr. Chen on the other hand is a man who likes to follow the rules, even though Cravitz is a cop he tends to make his own rules. In ‘Midnight in Silicon Alley’ the setting is completely different than ‘Dangerous Days’, here we see life in the suburbs, low crime rate, people dress more professionally to got to work, and ‘slang’ is rarely used among the citizens. Chen is more reserved and doesn’t like conflict, he actually thrives in following the rules and keeping order, that is why he prefers the suburbs. Cravitz would drive himself crazy in the suburbs’, he is the type of man who likes action and thrives on getting things done by any means necessary.

New vs. Old

Classic film noir and neo-noir films have many of the same characteristics; you can say they follow a specific set of guidelines. They all have a protagonist, femme fatal, and there is always the detective; someone who is not bound by law but by his own conduct. They both give off the illusion of bleak and distorted sceneries, giving off the feeling of a very dark and menacing world.  Classic noir and neo-noir films were and are directed at a specific audience in time. Even though classic film noir and neo-noir have many of the same characteristics, the neo-noir films ‘integrate new ideas and influences from contemporary film styles to provide a news spin on the loneliness and uncertainty that is felt by many of the young and disenfranchised of today’ (Robson). In neo-noir we see the femme fatal is an independent woman with almost man-like qualities that seem to be accepted by that society, in contrast with classic noir, that kind of independence is gained through moral degradation. In classic noir crime doesn’t seem to ‘pay’ for woman but in neo-noir we see the women get off scot free. Women are portrayed as smarter than men and in the end seem to manipulate the situation to their advantage gaining them freedom at the expense of the protagonist. One of the greatest differences between the two would have to be the skin color of the characters involved, in classic noir almost all of the characters involved are white and in neo-noir there is a diversity of races that can be seen portraying the protagonist, femme fatal, or the detective.

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