There are thousands of scenes from movies and television shows that represent important communicative acts. In this particular case study, I will take two scenes of my choosing, one that shows miscommunication and one that shows successful communication, and explain what happens in them through the lens of human communication, using key terms and concepts that I’ve learned in class. The first scene I’ll examine is from the Nick Cassavetes-directed film John Q, and the scene is an example of successful communication.
The scene takes place towards the end of the movie and it begins with John Q, played by the great Denzel Washington, talking to his sick son Michael. The communication between the two centers on Michael’s health, but it’s specifically about morals and growing up. “When you say you’re going to do something, you do it, because your word is your bond,” an emotional and sincere Denzel Washington tells his son.
The interpersonal communication going on in the scene takes place in a Chicago hospital room where Michael is being treated for an enlarged heart; his only cure is a heart transplant, which were extremely scarce at the time. John’s current part-time salary and health insurance cover merely 30% of what they would need to get Michael on the donor’s list, and ultimately surgery. In desperate fashion, John takes patients and staff members at the hospital hostage in an attempt to get his son on the list. Eventually, John decides that the best option of getting his son a heart is to sacrifice his own, which means he’d be killing himself. John walks in the hospital room to have a final talk with his son, and this is where the communicative act I’m aimin...
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...h person’s perception in this specific communication drastically affects the meaning that’s taken away. Michael isn’t aware of what his dad’s done - hold people hostage in the hospital for him - and he’s also not aware that his dad’s about to kill himself. So, Michael’s perception doesn’t necessarily affect the meaning of the conversation simply because he doesn’t know the consequences of the situation his dad’s in. John’s perception affects the conversation, though, he’s obviously aware of what he’s done and that he’s about to take his own life, he’s also more aware of Michael’s current health condition. Knowing these things, John’s telling Michael important stuff from the perspective that he’s not going to be there as Michael’s growing up. I think if John wasn’t planning on killing himself, the meaning of this conversation would be dumbed down and less emotional.
John has just ripped up his signature and has given his final speech: “Elizabeth, in a burst of terror, rushes to him and weeps against his hand… He has lifted her, and kisses her now with great passion” (Miller 133). As soon as Elizabeth realizes that John is going to die, she quickly runs over to him and cries. The audience can clearly tell that she has loads of emotion going through her right now. Then, right before John gets taken away, John takes Elizabeth and kisses her with great passion. This is Elizabeth and John’s tremendous moment. This is where the audience finally sees the top moment of their progress. This is the moment where they show that they actually cared about each
Conversation Analysis (CA) is the study of talk-within-interaction that attempts to describe the orderliness, structure and sequential patterns of interaction in conversation. It is a method of qualitative analysis developed by Harvey Sacks with the aid of Emmanuel Schegloff and Gail Jefferson in the late 1960s to early 1970s. Using the CA frame of mind to view stories shows us that what we may think to be simplistic relaying of information or entertaining our friends is in fact a highly organised social phenomena that is finely tuned in a way that expresses the teller’s motivation behind the talk. (Hutchby & Wooffitt, 2011). It is suggested that CA relies on three main assumptions; talk is a form of social action, action is structurally organised, talk creates and maintains inter-subjectivity (Atkinson & Heritage, 1984).
Key terms will be pointed out and highlighted, as well as described in relation to the examples extracted from the film. To begin with the film started out with a communication climate that was both tense and without verbal communication. This was mainly due to the variance in membership constructs of the characters involved. The character's included the brain Brian, Andrew the athlete, the criminal Bender, the princess Claire, and the basket case Allison. There was a great deal of interesting nonverbal communication taking place between these people. Their reactions and responses to each other demonstrated perceptual errors, which would be shown as the story progressed.
The narrator, John, is intelligent but both boring and bored – a silent observer who scarcely shows a significant amount of humanity. In fact, this strange personality of John becomes exceedingly apparent from the very first line of the book, “Call me Jonah. My parents did, or nearly did. They called me John.” (Vonnegut 1). John’s introduction demonstrates wonders about how he views the world. He is an observer – a note taker – and his actual identity and humanity aren’t immensely important to anything (a fact which he is painfully aware of). His interactions with other characters are often bland or awkward, and his constant use of sarcasm ends up showing how cynical the world looks through his eyes. The conversation he has with Dr. Breed shows the observant aspect of John, though in that case he is actually performing an interview (Vonnegut 42). That being the case, his demeanor doesn’t change from that conversation to when he isn’t giving
...son dies, it really does not mean anything to the doctors, except a free bed. This scene plus the others which take place in the hospital show change in the way that men pull together when someone is in need. The hospital scenes also show that men are so accustomed to death, they know when someone is going to die, and can tell the degree of an injury when it happens.
Effective communication is one of the most important things to maintain a happy relationship. Communication will help to create a better atmosphere and to know what are the interests, thoughts and feelings of your loved one. All romantic relationships need a lot of communications from both sides. The main factor is interpersonal communication, which couples are able to overlap environments and create a relationship. We reviewed the movie “The Breakup” and have found the concepts of Integrating, differentiating, and terminating. This movie shows how ineffective communication can dissolve a relationship. The lack of communication is the main factor why Brooke and Gary break up. This couple tends to rely on other people instead of trying to solve their problems talking to each other. They avoid talking because every time a new conflict will begin. In many of the scenes the couple creates big arguments from small issues. In this paper, we will explain the scenes of the movie that can be compared to the interpersonal communication concepts.
The audience sees through staging and conversation between the two main characters that the communication of modern relationships
In regards to the death of John, Didion remembers: “I now know how I’m going to die, he had said in 1987 after the left anterior descending artery had been opened by angioplasty” (Didion 203). Didion is illustrating John’s awareness of his imminent fate. John goes on to show a premonition-like awareness of his future by coming to his conclusion after a meeting with his cardiologist. Didion comes to this conclusion much later by saying: “Only after I read the autopsy report did I begin to believe what I had been repeatedly told: nothing he or I had done or not done had either caused or could have prevented his death” (Didion 206). Didion’s realization hof the imminent fate of her husband serves the purpose of illustrating a major logical shift in her own character. Didion is now realizing that she cannot control everything. More importantly, Didion is realizing that nothing she has ever done could have changed the events of her life in a matter in which John Gregory Dunne would still be alive. In the end, Didion concludes: “He had inherited a bad heart. It would eventually kill him. The date on which it would kill him had already been, by many medical interventions, postponed” (Didion 206). John’s biology is what killed him. He has been aware of this fact ever since he had a pacemaker put into his body. He was on borrowed time.
While John resumes his position, he begins to experience “excruciating agony” (Huxley 251). In Foster’s novel, he describes how notions of a Christ figure include “agony”(Foster 119), offering a correlation between John’s crucifixion as well as Christs. As Foster explains, the author may be trying to get the reader to view the character with, “redemption, or hope, or miracle”(Foster 124). Incidentally, John’s characterization contains those three interpretations of a Christ figure as seen when he has an incredible desire to save the people of the Hospital of the Dying from soma. John emphasizes how soma is “poison to soul as well as body” (Huxley 217), therefore he attempts to try and save this rotten world from soma, which acts as the antagonist against John. In this case John wishes to “bring [them] freedom”(Huxley 217), unveiling the purpose for his actions. Foster accentuates how a Christ figure works in order to “redeem an unworthy world” (Foster 120).This same goal is desired by John, which is prominent when he opposes soma. Since soma dominates the world, it allows the population to submit to the unworthy beliefs of society. When John is seen opposing soma, it accentuates John’s purpose--to save the corrupt world from
...ssion and intrusiveness. John’s lack of having an open mind to his wife’s thoughts and opinions and his constant childish like treatment of his wife somehow emphasizes this point, although, this may not have been his intention. The narrator felt strongly that her thoughts and feelings were being disregarded and ignored as stated by the narrator “John does not know how much I really suffer. He knows there is no reason to suffer, and that satisfies him” (Gilman 115), and she shows her despise of her husband giving extra care to what he considers more important cases over his wife’s case with a sarcastic notion “I am glad my case is not serious!” (Gilman 115). It is very doubtful that John is the villain of the story, his good intentions towards doing everything practical and possible to help his wife gain her strength and wellbeing is clear throughout the story.
The film, The Breakfast Club, is an impressive work of art, addressing almost every aspect of interpersonal communication. This is easily seen here, as I’ve gone through and shown how all these principles of interpersonal communication apply to real-life, using only two short interpersonal interactions from the movie. I’ve explained aspects of interpersonal communication, nonverbal communication, verbal misunderstandings, communication styles, gender issues, and self-disclosures. With that said, I believe I have demonstrated my ability to apply principles of interpersonal communication with simulated real-life examples.
There are a lot of things that happened in history that helped make family and consumer sciences what it is today. I am going to talk about some specific things that happened that I think helped shape what family and consumer sciences is today. They are the beliefs of family and consumer sciences, the history of family and consumer sciences, and who was involved in making family and consumer sciences a discipline.
He wanted to swim through her blood and climb up and down her spine and drink from her ovaries and press his gums against the firm red muscle of her heart. He wanted to suture their lives together.? This quote can portray Johns disturbed mind set, we see that he is consumed with rage ...
...n 2006). Relating to the movie, the behavioral expectation that is held consists of if medical treatment is needed a person will receive it if they or their insurance will pay for it. Violation of this is seen when John holds up the hospital until he receives what he is asking for. The societal reaction in response to John is very mixed. Some people see it as wrong and that he should just abide by the rules like everyone else. On the other hand, others see him as a hero for doing such an outlandish act for his family. John makes an announcement to the police that are surrounding the building after he lets three of the hostages go and says “When people are sick they deserve help. I will not bury my son, he will bury me” (John Q). After he says this he strongly wins over the public and people began to realize he does not mean harm and just wants his son to be better.
Castaway is a movie about a Fedex worker who boards a plane that ends up crashing in the Pacific Ocean. The protagonist, Chuck Noland faces many struggles and has to survive under the extreme conditions of being stranded. The movie showcases many topics but one main topic showcased in Castaway is communication and different variations of communication. Communication is using words, sounds, or other behaviors to express information, ideas and thoughts to someone else. Another type of communication is non-verbal communication; it is the act of communicating without speaking. Miscommunication is a variation of communication; Actually miscommunication is more like an antonym. Miscommunication is the failure to communicate clearly.