‘Successful texts transform our understanding of the ways individuals interact with each other and society’. Explore this idea with reference to Feed and ONE other text of your choosing. Not all texts are aimed at transforming our understandings of the ways individuals interact, however those that are, make humanity aware of the external factors that influence the way individuals interact rather than transforming original ideas. This concept is evident within the novel Feed by M.T Anderson, which explores the degradation of society as sophisticated language is no longer prioritised as a result of the cooperate world. Similarly, this idea is further demonstrated within the film Idiocracy directed by Mike Judge which explores the story of an …show more content…
individual who has awoken 500 years in the future into dystopian society in which the affects of corporations and consumerism have devoid the importance once placed on intellectuality and language which has resulted in a society with a lack of human rights and responsibility. Throughout the dystopian society of Feed, Anderson successfully creates awareness of ways individuals interact, as human beings are categorised as consumers first and as individuals second, if at all. In this dystopian society, those who are considered fortunate are connected to the ‘Feed’. Consequently, those connected to the ‘Feed’ have their thoughts monitored at all times and this information is used to build consumer profiles and to spam individuals with the mental equivalent of constant pop-up adds. This concept becomes apparent in the chapter ‘impact’ where Titus attempts to initiate a conversation with his friend Link, however, he is unable to because he was ‘getting bannered so hard’ (impact, page.8). Thus, this quotation highlights the extensive control and lack of empathy the cooperate world has towards Titus and his constant frustration of being unable to fight it. Furthermore, in the paragraph ‘missing the feed’ Anderson employs simile in order to portray an extensive understanding of the affects the ‘Feed’ and the overall cooperate world have had upon shaping Titus’ interactions. This is evident on page 47 where Titus is unable to comprehend past generations life without the constant reliance on the feed and compares it as ‘they carried them around outside of them, in their hands, like if you carried your lungs in a briefcase and opened it to breathe’ . Thus, Anderson’s intentional use of simile initiates a deeper understanding of Titus’ perspective of the great importance he places on the ‘Feed’ and he is unable to imagine a world without the dependence on corporations. Therefore, Anderson successfully transforms our understanding of the ways individuals interact, by examining an extreme example of the negative affects the cooperate world has upon society and its inability to treat human beings as individuals and not just consumers. Likewise, throughout the related film Idiocracy, Judge successfully creates an awareness of the ways individuals interact as a result of the immense power and control of corporations.
In the dystopian society of the film, the sports drink ‘Brawndo’ has taken over everything as a result of buying all major corporations during a global budget crisis. As a result, this has permitted Brawndo to sell, do or say anything they want without any realistic evidence. The society is brainwashed into perceiving that Brawndo is the answer to all of their problems due to the constant bombardment of Brawdno being advertised and branded on everything. The persona is the only person in this society who understands the corruption of this major cooperation and the negative affects it is having on the importance once placed on education and responsibility. For example, during the final scene the persona orders the society to ‘…go back and tell people to read books, tell people to stay in school, tell people to just use their brains’ . The deliberate repetition of ‘go back and tell people’ reinforces the significance of the message he is desperately trying to implant in this societies minds. Additionally, through this quotation Judge reveals the importance of educations and the privileges we have to be able to understand the manipulation of the cooperate world. Hence, this film successfully creates an awareness of the importance of treating humans as individuals and not as consumers and the further external factors that influence our interactions as human
beings. Furthermore in Feed, Anderson makes humanity aware of the external factors that influence interactions through numerous satirical situations within the world of the novel. Through satire, Anderson is able to shape and change the way we understand interactions and this renders Feed successful. A pivotal example of the successful utilisation of satire in the novel is when Titus’s father and Violet argue over the relative merits of having trees versus air factories. Titus’s father strongly supports modern technological advancement and therefore supports the deforestation in order to make room for air factories; however Violet points out that ‘trees make air’ and ‘…we need trees!’ (a question of morals, page 125.). This highly ironic example of satire has been purposely highlighted by Anderson to comment on how short-sighted this near-future American society has become. Furthermore, Anderson has chosen to include this satire in order to warn our society that we may be headed in the same direction if changes are not made. Thus, this text has successfully created an awareness of an external factor that shape individuals interactions with each other and society and encouraged a different perspective of thinking about societal values through satire. Similarly, the related film Idiocracy successfully incorporates satire in order to establish an awareness of the potential endangerment the cooperate world could have upon our society if certain aspects if human interactions are not adequately valued. The film displays an extreme example of this concept in which the persona is severely punished for possessing an IQ of over double anyone else and is taken to court in this future dystopian society. Furthermore, the persona is assigned a lawyer, who much like everyone else in the society appears illiterate and uneducated. This is evident within the colloquial and slang language the lawyer uses whilst desperately trying to reduce the persona’s accusations ‘the judge be like guilt man, peace (Scene 8). Clearly, this sentence is fragmented and the the use of the word ‘peace’ at the end of a sentence is definitely unprofessional under these contextual circumstances. Contrastingly, a lawyer in todays society is stereotyped as somebody from a high socioeconomic background and level of education. This successfully demonstrates Judge’s use of satire as somebody who is generally renowned for possessing an extensive vocabulary and formality; is now distinguished as improper due to the use of colloquial language and slang during a court case. Nevertheless, the use of satire is informing an awareness of the potential hazards of corporations and successfully invites the audience to rethink the way they perceive and stereotype interactions. It is evident, Feed by M.T Anderson and Idiocracy by Mike Judge successfully create an awareness of the ways individuals interact with each other and society through the extensive techniques and themes focused on the influences of external factors.Therefore, not all texts are aimed at transforming our understandings of the ways individuals interact, however those that are, make humanity aware of the external factors that influence the way individuals interact rather than transforming original ideas.
The film Jindabyne, is a story about death, marriage, and race in an Australian town in New South Wales called Jindabyne. In the film, four men go fishing, and one of them discovers the dead body of a young indigenous girl. Instead of reporting what they found to the police immediately, they decide to stay and continue fishing. They decide that there is nothing they could do for her, so they tie her legs to a tree and continue with their fishing, reporting the death only when they return home. After they are done with their weekend of fishing and report the incident, conflict starts, as the men are criticized for not respecting the dead. Through the story of the town’s reaction to the four fishermen’s response to the dead girl, the movie shows Australia to be fragmented and divided over white-indigenous relations.
Clive Thompson is a journalist, blogger and writer. He mainly focuses his writing on science and technology but this one chapter from his book Smarter than you think, “Public thinking,” has put a spin on writing and technology. Multiple times he talks about writing in many different forms. For example, he speaks of writing on blogs, on internet short stories (or fan fiction novels), in schools, in studies, and even on a regular basis. Thomson is trying to explain to his readers how writing, and the sharing of information across the internet, is beneficial to our society and ones well-being. In my readings of Thompson’s excerpt, I will examine Thomson’s examples and show how they are relevant and that it is beneficial.
This brief essay examines racism in the 1974 motion picture Conrack. The movie is an adaptation of Pat Conroy's autobiography, The Water Is Wide. The main character, Conrack, a young white male teacher portrayed by Jon Voight, is assigned to teach students from poor black families on a small island off the coast of South Carolina. The small community has little contact with the outside world and develops its own language. He finds the students essentially illiterate and their education neglected by state authorities. Poverty and their race cause neglect of their educational needs. The black school principal has convinced the students they are stupid and lazy. Conroy begins teaching the students useful, essential life skills. The community has no interest in learning about anything away from the island. The community has lived in fear of a nearby river because none can swim. While trying to improve the students' level of knowledge and their enthusiasm for
Mary Pipher’s “Writing to Connect” focuses on persuading its reader through personal experience, expert testimonies, and figurative language that his writing can change the world. At the end of the text, Pipher hopes that her reader believes that one’s words have value and can impact others.
One of the most essential ways in which feelings are expressed by humans is through language. Without language people are merely robotic figures that can not express their thoughts because language is in fact thought. When this speech is taken away through complete governmental power, a portion of human nature is also taken away. In 1984, due to totalitarianism, language has begun to transform into a poor representation of humanity and natural human expression. Orwell states, “But if thought corrupts language, language can also corrupt thought.” In the novel, a new language, Newspeak, has emerged. Newspeak has drastically limited the vocabulary of the English language
readers a dose of reality and human experience. People read literature and end up learning
There are numerous traits found in the world that are said to give us our humanity; These traits can be as simple as compassion for others, or as complex as a desire to rule and conquer. There are two crucial developments, however, that have contributed greatly to the development of human civilization - the development of writing and the creation of a hierarchical social structure. These two developments in human history have become the building blocks for the way that we live our day-to-day lives. Both writing and social hierarchies have evolved along with our society, spreading throughout the world and becoming key factors in the future of our civilization.
The 2009 movie Food Inc. describes the major role that food production plays within many lives. This movie revealed that there is a very small variety of companies that consumers purchase their food from. These few companies actually control what is out on the shelves and what we put into our bodies. These companies have changed food production into a food production business. Many of these companies experiment with ways to create large quantities of food at low production costs to result in an enormous amount of profit for themselves. Some of the production cost cuts also result in less healthy food for the population. Instead of worrying about the health of the population, the companies are worried about what will make them the most money.
Before the civil rights movement could begin, a few courageous individuals had to guide the way. Dr. Vernon Johns was one of those individuals. Dr. Vernon Johns was a pastor and civil rights activist in the 1920s. Johns became the pastor of Dexter Avenue Baptist Church in Montgomery, Alabama in the late 1940s. During his time as a pastor, Johns preached many sermons on how African American people were being treated not only in the community but in society. Johns on multiple occasions upset his community through his ideas on social change. Through a sociologist perspective, many sociological concepts were displayed in The Vernon Johns Story. Some of those concepts included: ascribed status, conflict theory, deviant behavior, alienation, and
Feed is a novel set in a dystopian and futuristic society where a chip named the feed is implanted in nearly everyone’s brain. It follows the life of Titus and his friends, which begins on the moon. This is where he meets his love interest, Violet, a smart and beautiful young girl who is incredibly different from every other girl he has met. Titus, on the other hand, is the common teenage boy in this novel, absorbed with trends and illiterate to a certain degree. The two of them struggle through identity crises and the effects the feed has on the world, and the chip ends up claiming her life in the end. Synergy is a large area in basic human interactions since it helps them to develop relationships and acts as a stepping stone to understanding
Movies are everywhere. They are a part of everyone’s life. Think about it, how many movies do you
The phrases and specific words that Rios uses in his conclusion open the door for interpretation of language from the reader’s perspective. Specifically, when Rios speculates that “Maybe [the complexity of human interaction is] what keeps us human, and engaged, and necessary” (Rios 508), and this positively inspires original thought from the reader. Words, especially words like “maybe,” can be so powerful because they allow for agreement and disagreement, instead of proselytizing the reader. Rios uses this tactic effectively in his writing to motivate the reader to think deeply about the effect of such language on the real world. Additionally, Rios summarizes his essay in the conclusion by providing even more food for thought: “Language is more than what we say—it’s also how we say it, and whether or not we even understand what we are saying” (Rios 508), and this point actively involves the reader’s personal experiences with language by using “we” instead of something like “people” or “humans.” This method transforms his piece of writing into a more relatable and personal essay, and such words push all readers to think of times in their personal experience that language was used in such a
Literature has had a major impact on society, and, also our history. Literature has reformed and shaped civilizations, changed political systems, and has exposed injustices (3). Our literature has changed and developed as we have, keeping up with our society. “...literature is crucial for the advancement of society (3).” With literary works, we can convince others to view things a certain way, share our opinions, and more. Literature is greatly intertwined with our society and everyday lives, and they would not be the same without it. Literature plays an irreplaceable role in our
As the world turns around and around, our knowledge increases. Everyday that passes by is one lost to the overflow of information in our unending world. Soon, all that we will have left will be an innumerous amount of useless information. We might be understanding how our world works, but does it cost us? As we focus on the way our world works, we lose contact with the things that matter the most. We start focusing on how to survive in our world that we forget to live it. In literary works, The Rememberer and The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, both authors demonstrate the consequences of losing focus on what truly matters in life. Each main character follows a simply devolution, where they lose focus in life and become an unintelligent creature; leading society to wonder is there a cure for our over thinking.
Light hearted and full of wonder, Alexa takes the world as she sees it. The magic of movies captures her sense of astonishment, and grows her imagination. As big as the sun is Alexa’s imagination. Similarly to Poseidon “who have an active imagination and an intense inner life beyond their everyday existence” (Stassinopoulos pg 220-221). Poseidon, who is known for his imagination, loves his mythical existence and enjoys the extraordinary. Further, dreams are an enormous part of Alexa’s life. They allow her wildest thoughts to be played out right in front of her. Additionally, dreams are not only a thing of the night, Alexa is a repeated daydreamer. Alexa’s life can hit boring patches that “can bring about the urge to escape from the responsibilities