Prompt 1:
Walter Kneff is portrayed in the film as a weak man, easily persuaded by Barbara Stanwyck's character to assist her in the murder of her husband. He is shown to be astute and charismatic, able to close a deal when selling insurance. However, towards the end of the film, he is shown to have a strong survival instinct, able to shoot Phylis when his life in threatened. This survival instinct is what convinces him to attempt to flee to Mexico, but he is stopped by his wound before he can escape from the office. This survival instinct is what prompted him to attempt the massive coverup after the murder of Mr. Dietrichson. Kneff's intelligence is shown by his ability to almost pull off a perfect murder, which was foiled only by coincidence.
While you have a good skeleton here, your response is lacking true exploration of the prompt- it would have been beneficial to consider how Neff changes in the film (or perhaps doesn't- maybe he always had this innate 'evilness' inside that was triggered by opportunity).
ReplyDeleteMy Favorite Demartz. You have a good foundation for your answer in this blog post, but I agree with Mrs. Genesky that you could have gone into more detail about the character and his responses to certain situations. I like how you referenced his character as an insurance salesman as well as a murder (that sounds a little harsh). Where do you think Neff's survival instinct came from? I think it's facinating that Neff and Phyllis are so similar and so alike at the same time. It's strange how people work like that sometimes. Overall, good blog post, but I think you could have done better!
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