In the article Cinematic Carcerality: Prison
Metaphors in Film it explores that various ways that prisons are shown to
compare certain elements of life. The
use of prison metaphors in film gives insight into how prisons are depicted in
everyday life, also “highlights that, even in the “free” world, people may be
confined or restrained” (Alber, 2011, p.218).
This is an important reflection on how some people view their lives on a
daily basis. Furthermore it develops an
ideal that although there are situations in which a person feels “trapped” by
their circumstance that this form of imprisonment isn’t far from natural
thought.
The article further elaborates on the
different views of movie depiction of imprisonment as it relates to life. For instance we’ve all heard the saying that
once you get married you now have the old ball and chain, this is another
example of using a prison metaphor. That
statement suggests; that marriage is something that will have/keep you trapped,
and that once a person decides to marry that they will be stripped of their
freedom. Other examples are “when a film
use similar colors in order to encourage us to link certain entities” (p.219),
using both the visual and auditory to paint a metaphorical picture that further
envelopes a person’s thinking of what a prison is and does.
For example, “the film The Shawshank
Redemption represents the prison as both a womb and a tomb. On the auditory
level, the voice-over narrator Red (Morgan Freeman) compares the new fish, who
have to undress during the course of the induction process, to new-born babies
(‘‘They march you in naked as the day you were born, skin burning and half
blind’’), while later on, he argues that the prison takes the inmates’ lives
away (‘‘They send you here for life and that’s exactly what they take’’). In
this case, the metaphorical reading is evoked by the interplay between the
auditory and the visual level. The tenor (the prison) is presented visually,
while the vehicles (the womb and the tomb) are present verbally.
This interpretation of prison is
relevant to pop culture because it relates to normal life, sometimes people
tend to feel that aspects of their life are like prisons, such as jobs and relationships
they feel stuck and trapped by the monotony of those situations. And this is why those metaphors shed light
and help to deal with those situations a little better. Therefore I agree with the author that most
films usage of metaphors is relevant in the way that society views prisons.
Cold, decrepit, and isolated are all ways that we view prisons, and there are
people in society that view their home life, work and their lives in that same
manner, so it’s very fitting that movies and television portray this
environment the way that it does.
Prisons by design are made to make
people feel isolated, look intimidating and cold desolate places. This is done
by design; by doing this they are letting you know that you’re no longer a
normal member of society. And the images
that are portrayed an emphatic way of elaborating that metaphor into real life experiences;
although they are different in nature they have the same definitive meanings. Throughout history this portrayal has allowed
society to give different meanings to the word prison. No longer is it just a place, it can also be
a state of mind along with an environment in which we socialize on a daily
basis. The interpretations that these
films gives us are significant, “prison metaphors that describe a segment of
the world outside prison in terms of imprisonment frequently correlate with
social criticism and are used to shed a critical light on a certain aspect of
society (e.g., class) by demonstrating how restrained people may be even
outside the walls of the prison”. (pg. 217)
Taken in context these cinematic
metaphors also let us see things in a different light than we would normally
see things. Say for instance in a film a
woman has sex with a man that she’s having an affair with, feels guilty about
it when she sees that her husband has prepared an intimate candlelight dinner,
and immediately rushes to take a shower.
Films make us believe that not only is she taking a shower to cleanse
herself but also to cleanse away her spirit from that bad deed because in the
shower she breaks down and starts crying.
This is just an example of the power of these cinematic metaphors, and
how relative they are to society.
References
ALBER, J. (2011). Cinematic
Carcerality: Prison Metaphors in Film. The Journal of Popular Culture, 44(2),
217-232. doi:10.1111/j.1540-5931.2011.00829.x
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