Wednesday, February 10, 2010

PERIOD 7 - "AFTER THE FIRST"


After the First is a parable - a story that has a moral or teaches a lesson. To figure out the moral of the film, ask yourself what lesson Steve's father wanted him to learn. What lesson did his mother want him to learn? How do you know her feelings? What did Steve actually learn? Then decide what the film taught you.

18 comments:

Ryan Santom said...

i wasent heer for the movie due to a meeting i had to go to

sara ortiz colon said...

This movie was really interesting I thought that the boy was very anxious to learn how to shot the gun but i did not want to harm anything. he was very happy at the begininng until the rabbit was killed he realized he didnt want to harm anything just play with the gun so he learned his lesson but he did what he did to make his father proud of him

Rachel Afshari said...

I came into school late so I wasn't able to watch the movie. =[

Rachel Saltzman said...

To me, the film "After the First" really showed that first hand experience is crucial in understanding something. Steve thought that hunting/using a gun would be cool until he realized the power that he possessed with it. Before having an attitude towards anything, one must have experience; it is only "after the first" time that any judgement can be formed whether it be positive or negative.

Allison Shea said...

Allison Shea
I agree with Rachel, it is important to actually experience something, rather than just hearing about it. When you just hear about something it is not as real and you cannot really judge it until you have experienced it. What Steve thought about hunting was that it was cool. However, it took the experience of actually killing the rabbit for him to realize what hunting is actually about. It is not as easy as it looks.
I don’t think that Steve’s father was trying to teach Steve to be violent. I think he was trying to teach him the same thing that he was taught as a young boy. He was trying to help Steve become a ‘man.’ Steve’s mother on the other hand was trying to keep him a young boy and sheltered from hunting. She also meant no harm. However, I think that the father taking him hunting was important. If he did not take Steve hunting he would not have gotten that experience and would not have known the emotions that go along with actually killing something. I took out of this film that it is important to try things, the experience helps you grow and enables you to make better decisions.

Asher Abrahams said...

I agree with rachel. Steve went into the situation without enough information, in the begining of the movie he was excited about going hunting. By the end of the movie "after the first" expirence steves thoughts on the subject had completely changed. you could tell after his hunting expirences his opinion had changed because of his attitude. It just goes to show you have to try things,before you make a conclusion about them.

Haemin Burke said...

This movie showed me how one should wait on making a judgement on someone/something as its takes much more than just the first time in meeting someone/something to actually grasp an opinion.

Tom O'Connor said...

Before we watched the movie, you told us not to judge it, so I tried not to. In doing so, I realized that I ended up doing just that. It was hard for me to have an open mind about the Steve's obsession with the gun and the fact that the father told him that it gets easier the more you do it. I instantly related him advocating Steve to kill animals to the killing of humans. The idea that after you kill one human, the second one is not that bad was what I thought of. I now know that I have to try harder to not judge something before it is all over, because that is what I have been trained to do thus far in my life.

Osman Alnaal said...

The lesson the film taught me was that how a small thing such as killing a rabbit can lead a person to maybe doing something extreme, like killing people.

Emily Madson said...

I agree with Tom, it was really hard for me not to form an opinion about the characters shown in the movie. When we were doing our group discussions I realized that I had judged both Steve and his father within the first few minutes. I thought that Steve’s father was a bad influence and that he was oblivious to the fact that taking Steve out hunting at such an early age was a bad idea. I immediately made Steve’s father out to be the bad guy and didn't like him. Though I didn't form such a strong opinion of Steve I still thought that he was really naïve about hunting and strange because he was so excited about killing animals. By the end of the film though I realized that both characters were a lot different than I thought they‘d be and that often times I'm quick to judge, even if I don't realize it.

Allie Lonstein said...

I understand the lesson about not judging people that everyone has been discussing.

However, what I got from the story was how people have power over other people. I do not believe that the father's action to teach his son to hunt was good or bad. To me, it was so evident how much emotional pull and control he had over his son. At one moment I thought Steve would do anything his father told him to do.

It amazes me how people are like sheep, and follow the pack. Despite Steve's internal conflict, Steve shot the rabbit because his father made him feel like it was a right of passage and that it was the right thing to do

Ethan Hoell said...

the video shows two things first how people are either followers or leaders and how many ore followers second it shows that there is a defining moment in everyone's life that sets them apart from their parents in Steve's case it was shooting the rabbit he was hesitant and remorseful his father was excited

Robert DeArmond said...

One of the questions in the packet asked what does it mean to be told, "Don't be so quick to judge." I Believe that this is refering to the word hypocritism. By this, I mean that most likely if one is to jump the gun and accuse another of a various act, the accuser is more often than not guilty as well. On a side note, the fathers words which are, "It gets easier after the first" is a signal of ruthless agression. This is a trait that is usally passed down with a rites of passage. However, it being his first, Steven predictably would find this trait hard to obtain and grasp with it being his first.

Robert DeArmond said...

I disagree with everyone who found it hard not to judge. I had no problem sitting back and not letting my emotions take control. This was just a film and should not be seen as anything more and nothing less. With all the films that we are eventually going to view, I feel that this should be the least of our concerns and should also make for an easy blog.

Andrew La Belle said...

Absent

Mariane Leite said...

sorry on my delay to blog, but I was sick since the day we watched the movie, and could not have an access to the blog because of that. I believe that everyone made great arguments. And not just at the movie but in everything in our lives, we should never judge. Everyone is saying how bad a lesson his father was teaching his son. Yet would anyone say that if it were their family values. The way people look at things and demand what is right and what is wrong goes along in what their family beliefs, with their culture and traditions. For me and most of people it wasnt a very comfortable thing to see the boy to kill the rabbit, or to see his father saying how it gets easier with the time. But that what he learned, and he was just a bystander, he maybe was against as well as his son when he learned that, but it is not a easy thing to stand up about what you believe all the time, and mostly against your own parents. When you are young you look up to them to guide you to be as good adults as they are, and to view your parents as the "bad guys" its a hard thing to do. At least for me it is.

Jon Rohald said...

was absent

Zach Yanoff said...

I came in late and missed the first 40 minutes of class