Thesis Proposal

Primary Sources:

-Boiler Room

-Wall Street

Secondary Sources:

Fraser, Steve. Every Man a Speculator A History of Wall Street in American Life (P.S.). New York: Harper Perennial, 2006.

Pedersen, Jason A. Wall Street primer the players, deals, and mechanics of the U.S. securities market. Westport, Conn: Praeger, 2008.

Stevenson, Robert Joseph. Boiler room and other telephone sales scams. Urbana: University of Illinois P, 1998.

Thesis Statement:

In comparing these two films, there is a more profound narrative complexity in Boiler Room requiring a more active, cognitive attention span to follow the narrative threads of each character. Wall Street contains less of these threads throughout it's story line, thus agreeing with The Sleeper Curve argument in Johnson's Everything Bad is Good for You in that today's blockbusters are causing audiences to be more cognitively active while watching a film.