Group Report: “The Elephant Man”

“The Elephant Man” group, consisting of Dylan, Catherine, Tiffany, and myself, worked very well with each other. Each of us brought great ideas to the table of knowledge and we worked together to weed out any proposals that seemed extraneous to our presentation. Dylan brought an incredible body of knowledge in regards to critical theory to our group and we benefited greatly from it. We decided early on, as a group, to compare scenes from “The Elephant Man” to another movie that was closely related ideologically (but not too closely related), and we decided on Catherine’s astute recommendation of “A Clockwork Orange.” We met as a group four times (three times before class and once at Catherine’s house) and all four of us brainstormed various critical approaches to both films and we chose key scenes from each movie that we would show to the class, allowing them to make their own connections and to establish their own critical evaluations. In our group, there was a complete absence of ego and we respected each other’s opinions and ideas completely. I would say that, in terms of my own individual contribution, my reading of the play version of “The Elephant Man,” by Bernard Pomerance, helped to shed some light upon the film adaptation. For example, in the play, Merrick’s character is much more aware and critical of the individuals who are supposedly “helping” him. This is in stark contrast to the movie, where Merrick is depicted as passive and completely trusting and grateful to his “guardians.” Our presentation was the direct result of a group effort and I feel that we were all eager to contribute and that we all found it to be a rewarding experience.