'How is the chicken used as a metaphor in the opening of City of God?' - Essay

In this essay I'm going to be writing about the different representations presented within this opening scene and how the chicken is used as a metaphor.

The scene opens with the sound of what seems to be the sound of a knife sharpening. The shot is an extreme close up. This connotes fear and danger. The shots at the beginning of the scene almost look like that they're from the chicken's POV. (They are at the chicken's eye level and everything is a close up shot. Also, whenever a human is presented on the screen the camera is at a low angle. This seems like the camera is at the chickens POV and the camera looking up at the humans could connote the human's power over the chicken. Also, the camera cuts and movements are fast and jerky which mimics the erratic head movements of a chicken.) This is effective because the audience will be able to see the world from the chicken's perspective which will allow the audience to empathize with the chicken. Also, these shots will make the chicken seem like the protagonist because the chicken seems like the central character. Also, at the beginning of the scene, there are shots of dancing and music while the chickens are getting chopped up and cooked. These two images contrast completely because the dancing and music connote celebration and fun, whereas the chickens being killed and the iconography used while the chicken is being killed (blood, knives ect) connote fear and death. These two ideas juxtapose each other and this use of juxtaposition makes the chickens being slaughtered looks even worse.  

The film City of God is set in the slums of Brazil where life is difficult and there is a lot of danger and gang culture. Trigger-happy and blood thirsty people hang around in these areas, you can tell this because everyone seems to carry around a gun with them, also it's obvious that they're blood thirsty and take pleasure in other people's/ creature's expenses because when the chicken breaks free, a gang of people chase after it and shoot at it for fun. This shows that the slums are dangerous and not a safe place to be in.  

'In the City of God, if you run away, they get you, and if you stay, they get you too.' 

The metaphor that the chicken is trying to represent is the feeling of isolation and feeling of being trapped. The chicken is used to represent fear and danger and this can be compared to the photographer character in the scene. They can both be compared to each other because they're both trying to escape from the slums in different ways. The photographer is trying to capture a good photo of the gangs in the slums so he can show the picture to publishers to make money which he will use to escape the slums. Where as the chicken is trying to escape so he won't be eaten. These two characters are in similar circumstances because the ways in which they are going to escape could potentially kill them. (The chicken may end up being shot or run over while escaping and the photographer could be caught taking photos of the gangs and he could be killed by them. The photographer is putting his neck on the line and the chicken is also -literally- putting his neck on the line.) The quote stated above pretty much sums up what this metaphor is trying to say. Basically, you can stay there and die, or you can die trying to escape. 

Another way in which the chicken could be seen as a metaphor is the fact that chickens can't fly, even though the chicken shown was trying desperately to do so, so he could escape. This is another metaphor to show that escape is difficult. This is also the reason why I think the animal they chose was a chicken because the chicken has meaning behind it. Where as if they had chosen a pig for example the meaning wouldn't have gotten across as effectively.