Being There by Jerzy Kosinski

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Recommended: Media and its effects

In the short story “Being There”, by Jerzy Kosinski, there are multiple examples of satire that are displayed throughout both the book and the movie. A few of them are: media, death, politics, and racism. The satire of the media was very similar in the book and the movie. Media played a big role in society and still does to this day. Kosinski uses Chauncey Gardner, the main character of the story, to show how media can affect a person. Chauncey loves TV and is always watching it in his free time. Today, that seems to be the most popular hobby that goes on within households. Adults, teens, and children are constantly watching TV. In some families, television is even watched during dinner time. Since Chauncey was kept inside from the outside world his entire life, he never got the chance to get real lifetime experiences. Everything he knew was learned from watching TV which reflects how society is today. Nowadays, people learn most information from the media. Whether it’s from the TV, radio, newspapers, internet, YouTube, and social media networks, people now have access to information right at their fingertips. It’s not like in the old days when everyone learned from textbooks, adults, phone calls, face-to-face conversation, or physical experience. Experiences are now virtually learned through media which is how Chauncey learned everything that he knows. It got to the point where Chauncey thought he was on TV, and he even acted as if he were a character on the television shows. In the movie, when Chauncey and EE were kissing, Chauncey did not know what he was doing. He was just mimicking movements that he was watching on TV. Once the show stopped, so would Chauncey. Kosinski uses this scene to explain that the media plays a big pa... ... middle of paper ... ...ski show how the satirical elements such as media, death, politics and racism affected society in the olden days, but it reflects how our society has been shaped today. Everyone is too caught up in the media, worried about death, overly involved with politics and the news, and continuing with racist remarks. Kosinski uses satire to display that everything we do is based off of how we learn information and grow from society. Works Cited Being There. Dir. Hal Ashby. Perf. Peter Sellers. MGM/CBS Home Video 1980. Videocassette. Brown, Earl B., Jr. "Kosinski's Modern Proposal: The Problem of Satire in the Mid-Twentieth Century." Ebscohost. N.p., 1980. Web. Mar.-Apr. 2014. Kosinski, Jerzy. Being There. London: Black Swam, 1996. Print. Lazar, Mary. "Jerzy Kosinski's Being There, Novel and Film: Changes Not by Chance." Ebscohost. N.p., Spring 2004. Web. Mar.-Apr. 2014.

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