What Makes It Snow? Paper 1 Revisions

Crystal Evans

Professor Hampton

Intermediate Comp.

14 March 2019 What Makes It Snow? Paper 1 Revisions

Dancing in life’s snow is what makes us human, dealing with negative emotions and positive emotions shape our lives and make us well rounded individuals. Dancing in the snow is what makes life tolerable. Getting stuck in a rut is inevitable, getting out of a rut is another matter entirely. Through perseverance and resilience beautiful snow angels can be made. For each individual what makes it snow for them will be different.

Snowing is what makes life worth living. Snow is the good moments among the bad that we strive to reach once again. Snow can be defined as life in it’s duality it can great or devoid of happiness. Life is precious. Popularity doesn’t last. It’s better to have quality friends than quantity. We all fall from grace. No one is perfect. People criticize things they don’t understand. The monotony of life gets to a person.

A depressed person wants to feel things, feel less like an automaton going through it’s motions. A depressed person is a freak, a perversion of nature. They suffer in silence at the judgmental hands of others who don’t understand. If the time was taken to look into their eyes it would bear their soul and their grief leaving so much unsaid.

Tim Burton is a horror and Fantasy director. He is well known for his macabre and dark style of imagination in his work.

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He directed Edward Scissorhands in 1990 starring Johnny Depp as the main role. I chose Edward Scissorhands because it encompasses what depression looks like, from the lighting and his wardrobe we can ascertain a negative emotional context. Depp was excellent because he could act without saying very much at all and letting his eyes speak volumes. He mastered telling a story through little gestures and his awkwardness. Metaphors for depression and grief were sprinkled throughout this film. Vincent price was an american actor primarily known for his roles in horror movies he played the inventor, the one who made Edward in Edward Scissorhands. When the inventor died it left Edward incomplete and all alone much like depression can feel. The inventor was in the process of making and attaching Edward’s hands when he died, The hands crumbled and withered away like the old man. Edward is grief stricken and slices the inventor’s cheek. He was left all alone in the somber palace.

The assembly lines of robots making things are not unlike the monotony of life’s burdens (This is showcased primarily in the beginning of the film).Another example is watching the cars leaving the houses by The Boggs family home leaving almost in unison presumably for work. Edward was built like an automaton, depression causes it’s sufferers to run on autopilot like a humanoid robot. The pastel colored houses and the plainness of the suburban neighborhood bears resemblance to feelings of apathy and discontentment. The lighting of the film sets the mood especially focused around Edward and the castle.

Edwards suffers judgements at the hands of others, He is ridiculed, and called a perversion of nature. Depression isn’t talked about it’s tucked away, and can be scary when it comes out like “Edward Scissorhands” and his alarming yet picturesque scissorhands. Daily tasks are near impossible for Edwards Scissorhands putting on pants and a shirt is a daunting task for a man with scissors for hands as can be for a sufferer of depression, it seems like everything he touches he messes up. Depression is looked at the much the same in the respect that it’s judged harshly and is largely misunderstood. There must be something wrong with depression. People criticize things they don’t understand and can harshly judge someone wrongfully. The townspeople were reluctant to accept Edward and were quick to dismiss him. Edward had to go back to his isolation, aided by Kim in faking his death. The film shows an old lady retelling the story we assume it to be Kim. Kim danced in the snow all those years ago, and she recalls what it felt like. To dance in the snow is forgetting responsibility and stress and concentrate on something good. No one is perfect and we all are a little different in one way or another. We all have fell from grace and did things we aren’t proud of. Edward picked a lock with his scissorhands in the film (not his most brilliant moment). Edward (in jail) realizes who means the most to him after his negative experience. He was being ridiculed and the whole story wasn’t told to the townsfolk and I don’t think they would have listened anyway they thought he was a monster after that and his usefulness was over. Life is much the same way. Times get hard and only true friends stick by your side and those with altruistic intentions. It’s better to have a few friends than a ton that don’t care at all about your welfare. Popularity didn’t last long for Edward and it’s just as well because people want the newest hip thing and he probably wouldn’t have been on top much longer anyhow. Life is precious afterall we only get one and it’s short wasting time isn’t an option.

Traditionally In cinema, particularly horror or gothic, hands are used to communicate,touch is a sense that could essentially infect on contact (Ramahlo,2016,P. 96-99).Hands are zeroed in on to convey its message before modern times horror films especially silent ones relied on this imagery to present a really frightening creature (Ramahlo,2016,P. 96-99).Edward was himself but his hands were disjoint like a person with depression (Ramahlo,2016,P. 96-99). The scene that really portrays touch or a contagion is where Kim asked to be held and Edward replied “I can’t” it was really sad that he couldn’t make his hands comply and he was scared that he would hurt her. Joana Rita Ramalho has published works through the irish journal of gothic and horror studies and has a PHd in Gothic and film studies. Life has great things like love and touch and things get in the way of our happiness sometimes. Life has bad things like death,sorrow,grief. Life has essentially a dual function. Life is both! Life is hard and we don’t get a manual. Snow is a good moment although life has a lot of ups and downs live for the ups! Living for snow makes life worth it when going through a rough patch know it won’t last.

Negative emotions arguably makes us grow more as people (Wilson,n.d.,p. 249). Eric Wilson is a professor of english, he earned a phd in 1996 and has written eleven books. If positive things happened only, what can be learned? Negative emotions are teachable and makes us more well rounded.What makes it snow? Bad things happen like a death as well as good things like a marriage or a baby, Depression is impatient and doesn’t want to see it through to wait until a good thing happens. Although it doesn’t get easier getting over a loved one’s passing there’s learning in death, its painful yet there’s a buoyancy to it (Oxenhandler,2002, p.318). Noelle Oxenhandler is a teacher and writer who practiced buddhism for over 30 years, she has two master’s degrees, her essays have appeared across a wide variety of magazines. Edward grieved over the inventor but it didn’t break him.We can find beauty in knowing we will die, referring to an old concept or mantra “Memento Mori” (remembering that we must die) and reminding us not to stop living our lives and implies living our best life while also recognizing it will come to an end (Wilson,n.d.,p. 256). Edward didn’t stop loving just because the inventor died. He didn’t give up. He found the snow again. He continued to make his ice sculptures after he was exiled and presumed dead. Kim could see the snow raining down even though she no longer danced in it like she used to. Life keeps going. Some depression sufferers commit suicide and forget what beautiful snow they make. Some people that commit suicide have an idea about how they will set their plan into motion and carry it out(Parker, 2004,p.3). If depression is really bad than it may require a rigorous plan and intervention (Parker,2004, p.7). Not all people with depression is severe but all forms should be taken seriously. It would bring joy to a person to find the snow. A hobby or a passion could make it snow. Getting stuck in a rut will probably happen in a lifetime but it’s your reaction to it that matters. Through perseverance and resilience happiness can be recovered. We can find happiness’ hiding place. Dancing in the snow and recognizing life for what it is can be refreshing. Take a day to dance in the snow and make your weird heart happy and find your niche!

Works cited

Burton, Tim, director. Edward Scissorhands. Twentieth Century Fox, 1990.

Parfitt, Matthew , and Dawn Skorczewski. Pursuing Happiness. Boston, MA, Bedford St. Martin’s, 2016.

Parker, Gordon. Dealing with Depression: a Common Sense Guide to Mood Disorders. second ed., Read How You Want, 2011.

Ramalho, J. R. (2016). The aesthetics of the tangible: Haptic motifs and sensory contagion in gothic terror films. The Irish Journal of Gothic and Horror Studies, (15), 96-112,195. Retrieved from