John Berger’s “Ways of Seeing” (1972) and Susan Bordo’s “Beauty

    Analyze the film Nightcrawler by thinking through some of the ideas that Berger and Bordo discuss. You can and should incorporate your own perspective as well (though trying to avoid pure opinion as much as possible, in favor of defensible claims), but you must meaningfully engage with (and cite) Berger and/or Bordo (at least one of the two) in order to satisfy the requirements of the essay. You will need to formulate your own argument about what critique(s) the film makes of contemporary American culture, but in doing so you might consider the following questions: What does the film suggest about the power of images? What effect(s) can images have on individuals and, in turn, how has the commercialization of images affected American culture What does the film suggest about violence and sexuality in American culture? (How) do they intersect with one another? (How) does the film exploit and/or critique gender biases that have prevailed in human societies throughout the ages—specifically those that still exist in America today? How has the profit motive/commercialization informed what we see on a daily basis—on television, in magazines, on the news, in films, etc.? Remember, the above questions are meant to be suggestive of possible avenues that your argument and analysis might take; you do not have to address each of these questions in your essay. Instead, you will choose what particular topic to discuss and develop your own argument. Remember that your main argument