Good and Evil High Noon Essay examples - 1255 Words

GOOD AND EVIL The movie High Noon has interesting comparisons to the philosophies and views of Immanuel Kant and John Stuart Mill. It would be easy to analyze the lead character Kane as mirroring the philosophical views of Kant. This paper will analyze the somewhat contradictory actions of other characters which, to me, represent a quintessential truth about personal beliefs – that they are changed according to situation. I will be commenting on two characters in the movie which show a change in the views of the characters in relation to situational factors. We will be looking at Amy Kane and Mayor Jonas Henderson. Amy is Kanes new wife. She is a religious woman, a pacifist Quaker, who chose this lifestyle in response to having†¦show more content†¦Amy is a very dynamic character in the movie. She stays moral and true to her beliefs, but how she defines this or how her actions define her is what changes. Amy boards the noon train, bound to leave Kane behind, due to her beliefs, but rushes off the train when she hears the sound of gunfire. Amy chooses her husbands life over her religious beliefs, shooting Pierce from behind. Though she does not lose her emotional viewpoint on killing, she is able to put emotion aside and not let it interfere with what she ultimately realizes as a rational duty to herself and her husband. Another example of a change in the views of the characters in relation to situational factors would be Mayor Jonas Henderson. Jonas is shown as being one of Kane’s closest friends by the fact that he served as the best man at Kane and Amy’s wedding, as well as his own statement of the fact (Krammer amp; Zinnemann, 1952). When Jonas first learns that Frank Miller has been pardoned and will be coming into town in a little over an hour, his concern for his friend is evident. He tells Kane to get out of town â€Å"right now† and with his hand on his shoulder, directs him to the door. His obvious concerns are for Kane if he is in town when Miller arrives. His actions of trying to get Kane to leave town in that moment were driven by a duty to a close friend. The actions of JonasShow MoreRelatedPrayer1304 Words   |  6 Pagesprayer and regular in charity: And whatever good Ye send forth for your souls before you, ye shall find it with Allah: For Allah sees well al l that ye do. (Quran 2:110) Salat, usually translated into English as prayer, is one of the five pillars of Islam. The other four pillars are the Declaration of Faith (Shahadah), charity (Zakah), fasting (Sawm), and the pilgrimage to Mecca (Hajj). Salat should be performed five times a day: daybreak (Fajr), noon (Zuhr), mid-afternoon (Asr), sunset (Maghrib)Read MoreThe Wild West Rides Into The Sunset Essay1389 Words   |  6 Pagesgreat possibility that you were reading a classic Western. 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Through the knife heRead More The Virtues of Apathy Essay3588 Words   |  15 PagesHighmore describes it as a â€Å"juxtaposing of disparate elements† (Highmore 46). Surrealists took the evil, they took the wickedness and the debauchery, and they placed it in with the â€Å"clean† and the â€Å"good†. Opposites have the optimal effect of bringing out the different qualities of two objects. In order to defamiliarize what was good and normal, Surrealists had to place it in juxtaposition with what was evil and unusual. One Surrealist who has a particular knack for this sort of juxtaposing is Georges