Word: symbolic
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Dates: during 1990-1999
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...restless, promiscuous '70s with crystalline precision. As the leaders of two archly funny but disturbingly bleak suburban clans, Kevin Kline, Joan Allen and Sigourney Weaver give refreshingly honest performances, but the film's ending offers their characters no hint of redemption. The ice storm, as a natural symbol of change and the wiping away of sins, is like Noah's flood without the rainbow. --Erwin R. Rosinberg...
...Service is, from a historical perspective, perhaps the best and certainly the oldest evidence of the success of the United States government. Before 1865, the post office was the only real federal presence felt in most states of the Union. So if you're casting about for the primeval symbol of a unified American republic, look no further than your own mailbox...
...that technology would be a centralizing, totalitarian influence. Instead, technology became a force for democracy and individual empowerment. The Internet allows anyone to be a publisher or pundit, E-mail subverts rigid hierarchies, and the tumult of digital innovation rewards wildcats who risk battle with monolithic phone companies. The symbol of the atomic age, which tended to centralize power, was a nucleus with electrons held in tight orbit; the symbol of the digital age is the Web, with countless centers of power all equally networked...
...dances with the single-minded intensity of the divine. On her head she balances a solid granite boulder, symbol of her mortal burdens. Round and round in syncopated steps, her open palms fluttering up and down in tireless supplication, she strives toward ecstasy. On and on she circles to the soft crooning of "Mariam, Mariam, Mariam," bending and rising in private communion; the heavy stone never wavers. Suddenly she halts and smiles with such sweetness that the Virgin must surely have answered her prayer...
...provides leadership training to juveniles awaiting trial. At John Jay High School in affluent Westchester County recently, Cory introduced "Busting Stereotypes," a series of skits that show how one can make false assumptions about people. A homeless kid from the South Bronx, Cory himself is as powerful a symbol of misplaced assumptions as anyone is likely to find. --Reported by Megan Rutherford/New York