The arrangement in Ishmael and The 11th Hour leave the reader unsatisfied in the former and give the reader a sense of hope in the latter.
The arrangement in “The 11th Hour,” as we discussed in class, has a sense of building. Like the horror movie trailers that we watched, there are quick flashes of scary scenes and foreboding music. The expert testimonies compound from every conceivable field of study, leaving the viewer feeling the full weight of the damage that humans are doing to the earth. But then the tone of the film completely changes. The focus begins to be on hope and how this generation can change things. They can “redefine design” and set an example for all of the generations to come. This arrangement of scenes gives the reader a direction to go in, from chaos to order by changing the cause and effect.
In Ishmael, the arrangement is different. The reader is warned in the beginning that much of what they discuss might not make sense in context. This is true because at times the Parts of Ishmael seem to be disconnected discussions of interesting, but unrelated topics, such as the story of the Takers and the Laws of Nature. Eventually the reader is able to synthesize the information, to the extent that the Takers must enact a different story in order to be subject to the laws of nature. But, there is no clear cause and effect for personal action because of the arrangement of the story. This leaves the reader unsure of how to proceed, although they are now fully conscious of how they are impacting the world.
The arrangement of “The 11th Hour” and Ishmael show how the author must give the reader a plan of action, because although they may realize the problem on their own, they must be led to the solution.
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Adrienne, I completely agree on your point about, “how the author must give the reader a plan of action, because although they may realize the problem on their own, they must be led to the solution.” In "Ishmael" and in "The 11th Hour", we are given the brutal facts about our human nature and our environment. After being convicted by the facts by “expert testimonies compound from every conceivable field of study,” in "The 11th Hour", the audience feels “the full weight” of being responsible for our actions. The author and the director were able to successfully convince their audience by an anti-sentimentalist approach, resulting in the audience feeling at fault. If the author or director does not give the audience “a plan of action” then the audience would most likely do nothing about what they had learned. If this would happen, then the author/director would not fulfill their expectations of displaying the genre. Therefore, it is essential for the author/director to guide the audience in a way of how they could solve the current issues.
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