Plan. For my essay, I will focus on the film Seraphima’s Extraordinary Adventures. I will rely on Aleksandr Solzehnitsyn’s three features of totalitarianism in asserting my central claim that Seraphima’s orphanage acts as a microcosmic example of a totalitarian regime. Especially focusing on the ideas that “only material results matter” and “survive at any cost,” I will explore the ways in which the orphanage personnel consistently display aspects of totalitarian rule. I will also argue that the idea of “surviving at any cost” does not only apply to she who is under totalitarian rule, but to the totalitarian regime itself.
Enthymeme thesis. The orphanage in Seraphima’s Extraordinary Adventures acts as a microcosmic example of a totalitarian regime because its main emphasis is on material image and maintaining its own existence.
Sources. (1) The Gulag Archipelago by Aleksandr Solzehnitsyn,
Close reading sections. (1) minute 26-minute 28: only material results matter, (2) when Seraphima falls while she is running with her cross: survive at any costs