Blog Post 3 Sydney Thiessa

QUESTION 3

At the beginning of Oleanna, the characters of Carol and John are already set up just by first glance at their appearance. Carol looks like an ordinary college student, dressed casually with jeans and a sweatshirt, and wears her hair down. John looks like an ordinary college professor, dressed formally with a suit. The audience is led to believe whatever Carol and John say because their appearance develops their character. Other than physical appearance, Carol and John display certain body languages that develop their character. Carol sits with formal posture: back straight, hands crossed in her lap. This also contributes to her ordinary college student character, as well as her lack of aggressiveness in speaking (she is continuously interrupted by John and isn't able to explain herself). On the other hand, John strolls across his office with ease and authority, typical of an ordinary college professor. Then, the characters change in the middle and the end of Oleanna, especially Carol. Her clothing becomes more formal than casual, and almost masculine with a black blazer and black slacks. She wears her hair up instead of down, also masculine. As she takes away her femininity in her appearance, she also takes it away in her mannerisms. No longer is she weak and timid, but she is forceful in her verbal and body language. Carol brings herself up to John's level of authority and sophistication simply with appearance. She not only deceives the audience with this change, but also deceives John. Both the audience and John are no longer lead to believe that she is an ordinary college student, so she must have some sort of ulterior motive to being an ordinary college student. Carol is able to get what she wants with this change, which she would have never have been able to do at the beginning of the film. John still remains in his professor-appropriate attire, but towards the end of the film, his clothing and hair become slightly disheveled, indicating his exhaustion with Carol and her accusations of sexual harassment. He also moves less than in the beginning of the film and tends to stay at his desk until, of course, the violent fight at the very end of the film.