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Explain Media Can Influence Public Perception
How media shape public perceptions
Explain Media Can Influence Public Perception
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In the Joyce Carol Oates story, Where Are you Going, Where Have you Been, the main character, Connie, lives in this false sense of life and love. Connie believes that in her future her life will play out “the way it was in the movies and promised in songs.” Most people follow they same way as thinking as Connie. They believe that in the end it will be this happily ever after, that it might start of in a certain way but end with this gracious ending. Since Connie believes this way it affects her decision in the end of the story. This way of thinking leads to her maybe going with Arnold Friend, “she watched herself push the door slowly open as if she were back safe somewhere in the other doorway”, this belief of her is almost drawing her to Arnold.
For several years you have been taking care of your grandma, who has been suffering in the hospital. You pray that she gets better. But day after day, you see the hurt in her eyes even though she tries to fight through it. You know that she won’t get better until you put her out of her misery and end her life. But once you know she is gone you will miss her deeply but it will be better for her and all her pain will go away. In the novel, Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck, one of the important characters, George, faces a similar struggling situation with his best friend Lennie. Lennie murders the wife of another important character, Curley. George has to make an important decision that will affect the rest of both
In “Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been” by Joyce Carol Oates, Connie is a normal teenage girl who is approached outside her home by a guy named Arnold Friend who threatens to harm her, and she obeys, if she does not get in the car with him. Connie is the main character in this story who teaches us that sometimes we might search for adult independence too early before we are actually ready to be independent and on our own. Connie is so focused on her appearance that she works hard to create a mature and attractive adult persona that will get her attention from guys. This search for independence conflicts with Connie’s relationship with her family and their protection of her. Connie’s insecurity and low self-esteem is triggered by her fear of intimacy. Connie confuses having the attention of men with actually having them pursue her in a sexual way.
George and Ophelia interpret their chance meetings based on their backgrounds. George grows up with the words “only the present has potent...
Joyce Carol Oates' "Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been?" is about a young girl's struggle to escape reality while defying authority and portraying herself as a beauty queen; ultimately, she is forced back to reality when confronted by a man who symbolizes her demise. The young girl, Connie, is hell- bent on not becoming like her mother or sister. She feels she is above them because she is prettier. She wants to live in a "dream world" where she listens to music all day and lives with Prince Charming. She does not encounter Prince Charming but is visited by someone, Arnold Friend, who embodies the soul of something evil. Arnold Friend symbolizes "Death" in that he is going to take Connie away from the world she once knew. Even if she is not dead, she will never be the same person again, and will be dead in spirit. With the incorporation of irony, Oates illustrates how Connie's self-infatuation, her sole reason for living, is the reason she is faced with such a terrible situation possibly ending her life.
We are born into this world with the realization that life is hard and that life is like a box of chocolates and it is hard to take it at face value. The majority of our time is spent trying to answer an endless stream of questions only to find the answers to be a complex path of even more questions. This film tells the story of Harold, a twenty year old lost in life and haunted by answerless questions. Harold is infatuated with death until he meets a good role model in Maude, an eighty year old woman that is obsessed with life and its avails. However, Maude does not answer all of Harold’s questions but she leads him to realize that there is a light at the end of everyone’s tunnel if you pursue it to utmost extremes by being whatever you want to be. Nevertheless, they are a highly unlikely match but they obviously help each other in many ways in the film.
Thousands of cancer patients, or any terminally ill patients, wish for life in the end, nevertheless for Vivian, who states, “It is not my intention to give away the plot; but I think I die at the end” (Edson), she knows that may not happen for her. Wit’s conclusion has a great deal to say of peaceful death and salvation and is connected to that theme of “Salvation Anxiety” since Vivian is not afraid of her cancer, Vivian 's peaceful death, and Jason and Susie 's reaction to Vivian 's death.
In the novel Alberto asks Sophie several philosophical questions. One of the first questions Sophie is asked is, who are you? It 's easy enough to answer this question by giving your name, but a person is not simply a name. To me a person is a combination of their personality, their morals and beliefs, and their actions. Personality, because that 's how they act. Their morals and beliefs, because that is what they believe in. And their actions, because none of the other things matter if a persons actions do not support their personality, morals, and beliefs. Another one of the early questions presented to Sophie by Alberto is, do you believe in fate? In the book Sophie gave several examples of fate, a friend who read horoscopes, hotels that do not use the number 13 for rooms, and black cats. She even mentioned how Democritus had not believed in fate since he was a materialist. I believe in fate, but at the same time I believe that all human beings have free will, which could be seen as a contradiction. To me a person can choose any path they want, but they will always end up where they were meant to. Much like in the Greek myth of Oedipus, where the parents were told that their son would kill his father and marry his mother. No matter how hard the parents tried to escape their fate, they still ended up exactly where the prophecy said they would. Another question Sophie is presented is, what is the difference between a
In Margret Atwood's work Happy Endings, we are presented with a series of different storylines in which Atwood portrays the lives of normal people going through real life problems throughout the short story. Despite insignificant differences, the story of each of the characters ends the same way, in death. Atwood makes a clear effort to comment on how everybody dies in the same manner, regardless of life experiences or financial stability. These stories all have one central theme in common, love. Atwood makes it seem like love is the ultimate goal in life to readers by making all storylines grounded around this one central theme. As we see in the short stories depicted love can also lead to irrational decisions that lead to terrible consequences. Atwood, who narrates the short story, introduces four characters to the readers, John, Mary, Madge, and James. Along with the characters Atwood introduces six alternate storylines all in which result in "the only authentic ending … [death]" (293). The story altogether is an illustration of the idea that the ending of the story could always be the same, but it's the middle or the struggles and strife in between that matter. Atwood's point is to focus the reader(s) on the importance
Joyce Carol Oates’s “Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been?” tells the tale of a fifteen year old girl named Connie living in the early 1960’s who is stalked and ultimately abducted by a man who calls himself Arnold Friend. The short story is based on a true event, but has been analyzed by many literary scholars and allegedly possesses numerous underlying themes. Two of the most popular interpretations of the story are that the entire scenario is only dreamt by Connie (Rubin, 58) and that the abductor is really the devil in disguise (Easterly, 537). But the truth is that sometimes people really can just be in the wrong place at the wrong time. Connie, a victim of terrifying circumstance will be forever changed by her interactions with Friend.
Kobe wrote “Every day, night comes. When night comes, you have to rest. Houses are to rest in. If that so, it’s not that I don’t have a house is it?” (Kobe 1442). I interpreted this passage to how every one of us is looking for a family perhaps our soulmate to come home to and spend the rest of our life with. That whatever we do with our life at the end of the day we always want something we can come home to and call ours. Another reason I came up with this interpretation was because of this passage he decided to knock on the doors of one of the houses lined up in front of him, “the smiling face of a woman looks out of a half-opened window.” (Kobe 1442). If he wasn’t talking about looking for a wife then why did he mention that after seeing the woman’s face “hope blows through the neighborhood of my heart”? (Kobe 1442). To me this symbolizes how we feel when we meet someone new in our life or what we feel like dating a new person. The relationship makes us feel excited and hopeful that everything will go smoothly. But life doesn’t always go according to our plans. Just when we think everything is going in a right direction problems arise and we do not have a choice but to end the relationship. In the essay after having a short conversation with the woman asking her if this was his house, I interpreted this to are you the right person for me, and when the woman said no and shut the door to his face that is when we realized everything is not always what it seems to be and we get a real taste of
The overuse of biblical allusions throughout the story helps to expose the naive nature of Connie that reveals her as a victim of evil which shows that lust often transgresses on an individual’s identity. In “Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been,” Joyce Carol Oates expressed the subjective ideas by symbolizing Arnold Friend as a devil that tempts a clueless teenage girl Connie, who wanted to experience love.
Mrs. Dalloway’s characters’ comprehension of life in relation to the act of striving for significance is juxtaposed with their understanding of the perceived finality
No matter how hard society tries to achieve the perfect life, it does not always go as planned. It doesn’t matter if the characters are bored and depressed, confused and guilty, or virtuous and lucky; the gradual path of version A is not always in reach. Atwood states near the end of the short story, “You’ll have to face it, the endings are the same however you slice it. Don’t be deluded by any other endings, they’re all fake, either deliberately fake, which malicious intent to deceive, or just motivated by excessive optimism if not by downright sentimentality. The only authentic ending is the one provided here: John and Mary die. John and Mary die. John and Mary die” (690). The idea of this short story is not the fact that every one dies, but with the eventful memories that can make the life worthwhile. The author says, “So much for endings. Beginnings are always more fun. True connoisseurs, however, are known to favor the stretch in between, since it’s the hardest to do anything with. That’s about all that can be said for plots, which anyway are just one thing after another, a what and a what and a what. Now try How and Why” (690). This short story forces the readers to question the meaning of life. Every story has the same ending, because very life has the same ending. Life is exciting because of the experiences that can lead each individual onto their own path in life. The how and the why are the inspirations, the feelings, and the interpretations that the reader goes through as they make their own way through version A. Be adventurous and make memories because the story isn’t in the ending; it’s in what’s done on the way
the lack of knowing her true self lets Arnold Friend overpower her in the end. The words and letters on Arnold’s car symbolize warnings that Connie should have picked up on. Because Arnold symbolizes the devil, the evil inside of him gives him advantages to manipulate Connie into leaving her house, despite everything inside of Connie screaming at her not to go. The symbolisms in these objects or people are all deeply rooted to the theme of this short story, “Where Are You Going? Where Have You Been?”.
Elizabeth Tallent’s “No One’s a Mystery” and Joyce Oates “Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been?” both explore the idea of abandonment and self-actualization within youthfulness. The two short fictions highlight the experiences of two young girls in the midst of an adolescent rebellion and how their actions could potentially affect their coming of age. The essence of being young is outlined within each of these short fictions as they both center themselves around a figure who goes on some sort of journey in which a mental advance of conscience is gained. Through the use of intricate and excessive dialogue, Tallent and Oates each create a story that allows readers to truly fathom the narrators’ emotions on a more cerebral and vehement level.