Dear Spotlight Ensemble Productions, as we know, the playwright of “Crying on Television,” R. Eric Thomas, presents a heavy significance throughout this play for emotional resilience. A unifying principle that properly exudes my take on the strongest factor of the script is “To traverse through vulnerability.” I believe so because starting with the title itself, we as readers or audience are already given a “gist” of what exactly the scenarios within the script would consist of. According to past interviews and research, we also know that Thomas explained that each character reflects his own feelings of emotional trials throughout his lifetime. My viewpoint of this unifying principle will be displayed through presenting examples of the dramaturgical …show more content…
I mentioned how they usually cry because of a minor TV show situation, not necessarily a reason to boast into tears. That said, my next point is presented, which is Thomas’ use of irony when connected to emotion. The elements of irony I see within the script are dramatic and situational. As for dramatic, I’d like to touch on Mackenzie, Ellison, and Taffy’s meeting in Chris’ apartment. An instance of dramatic irony is shown here when Taffy is constantly eating what she believes to be cookies, but they are cat treats. This isn’t my main point of bringing this up, because after she is disgusted by the taste of the cat treats, she dumps them into a tote bag, which then leads to Ellison picking up this tote bag and noticing the cookies that she also believes that Mackenzie ate, and she bursts into tears. “Why would you do this?” he asked. If you didn’t like my cookies, you could have just told me!” Obviously, Ellison is unaware of what happened to her “cookies” but Thomas showing her actively crying instead of choosing to make her silently accept that maybe her peers disliked her treats presents another example of how open and comfortable these characters are with exuding heavy emotions. As far as we can see, there isn’t an instance of these characters suppressing their emotions compared to the beginning of the story, so to me this proves that the playwright wants us as an audience to understand how the plot prominently revolves around vulnerability and of course how they “traverse” through
As evident in the example above, Gloss is a master of description, but she is lacking in the description of her characters' emotions, as seen here: "It had been a while since Lydia had cried over anything. She was surprised when a few dry tears squeezed around the edges of her eyes. But it was the lost babies, she thought, and could not be loneliness, that made her feel this quick, keen need of Evelyn Walker's friendship (82)." It appears that Gloss attempted to show a little of Lydia's emotions, but though her point was expressed clearly, it was said far too dispassionately for the reader to care that Lydia was crying over the lost babies and loneliness.
When asked by George what she was crying about the only thing she can recall is that the incident was “something real sad on television” (6). In consequence of the failure to express emotion, the difficulty of evolving society
In order to live a full, "wholehearted" life, we need to gain a better understanding of the true nature of vulnerability. Millions of children have been introduced to vulnerability by author J. D. Salinger. Salinger was vulnerable to rejection, criticism, failing. His novel, I’m sure you know it, “The Catcher in the Rye” was rejected 15 times. One editor tossed it aside as juvenile. Perhaps you remember the book’s last lines: “Don’t ever tell anybody anything. If you do, you’ll start missing everybody.” Sure Holden Caulfield put up a tough front but the character created by Salinger is endearing and enduring even to this day – in large part because of his vulnerability. So if we want joy, love, and empathy in our lives, we need to let vulnerability into our hea...
It was also to show that people are more concerned with their own feelings than others. The entire time the man sitting next to Sedaris, he does not once ask if he is okay or acknowledge the fact that this man is sobbing. Instead Sedaris was more concerned with getting an extra bowl of ice cream. At the end of his story, Sedaris is crying along with his seatmate not out of sympathy, but out of self-pity. He has realized how much time has passed and how many great memories he has had. It was because of the grieving he saw the man sitting beside him doing that it might have been the first time in his life that David Sedaris had actually grieved. It was not the show off type of grief, it was genuine and heartfelt, the kind of emotions that more people need. Sedaris might have realized how little time people have and how quickly it can go by. It also shows that it doesn’t matter what class on a plan someone is in, when a certain emotion is hit everyone is the
...s showed up in the rats who suffered from a mix of depression and severe anxiety (Healy). This proves to show that we are making great advances in figuring out the secrets of depression. Laurie Halse Anderson did an exceptional job of portraying depression in a high school student in her book Speak. Suddenly, Melinda finds herself trapped in a closet with IT. She does not deserve to be punished for spilling her secret, but there he is. He moves in closer and then, “The only sound I can make is a whimper. He fumbles to hold both my wrists in one hand. He wants a free hand. I remember I remember. Metal hands, hot knife hands. No. A sound explodes from me. ‘NNNOOO!!!’” (Anderson 194). She pushes a shard of glass to his neck. Outside the door, much awaited help is coming. After a miserable year of struggling and silence, Melinda finally learns the importance of speaking.
He'd realized long ago that crying does no good" (Moore, 145). Moore describes how Wes's pain trying to support his family is difficult. Wes's tears symbolize his struggles to try to thrive and overcome the obstacles of being a father. However, tears mean nothing since it doesn't propel you forward to become more successful. Evidently, Wes had to change the way he made more money, which would eventually end up costing him his rights to be a free human.
She explains how feeling vulnerable is exactly what people seek when going through hardships. How being recognized and desired after going through grief is homologous to what it means to be human. Butler points out that majority of society has troubles locking emotions up in their heads, and explains how hard it is for them to unlock their emotions in the fear of being unrecognized. That to be vulnerable, means to let others into our emotions while obtaining the ability to communicate in order to understand their emotions as well. Butler clarifies this by confessing that grief itself, and vulnerability, are the underlying examples of how we are substantially affected by other’s recognition. Though, with the capacity of vulnerability, we also create dimensions of negative connectedness as well, Butler
It is the first time that Lizabeth hears a man cry. She could not believe herself because her father is “a strong man who could whisk a child upon his shoulders and go singing through the house.” As the centre of the family and a hero in her heart, Lizabeth’s dad is “sobbing like the tiniest child”She discovers that her parents are not as powerful or stable as she thought they were. The feeling of powerlessness and fear surges within her as she loses the perfect relying on her dad. She says, “the world had lost its boundary lines.” the “smoldering emotions” and “fear unleashed by my father’s tears” had “combined in one great impulse toward
Using a humorous and sarcastic tone, Carr addresses how serious this “emotional distress” that the American people know seem to suffer from. Carr uses this sarcastic tone to show the people how pathetic and chronic this situation has become. Carr starts out the essay by, “Alm...
This paper focuses on the Geraldine case (Dominguez, Tefera, Aronson, & NCTSN, 2012). Geraldine’s trauma occurred in the home when her father shot her mother. This paper will focus on my personal reactions to this case, how my reactions effect interactions with the people I am working with and finally self-care strategies. Personal reactions are the things that make us feel or act a certain way that others may or may not see, but we know that something has affected us these can be to good things and bad alike. I might react to winning the lottery by passing out, just the same I might get depressed if a close friend dies. These are reactions to the situations we are presented in life.
In the world today watching television is so addictive that everything else looks unattractive. The author argues that television is not lethal as drugs and alcohol but it can have many effects such as children getting more violent and reality seem second best. Every person lives are filled with emotions including anxiety, depression, and stress so after long hard work day the best medicine is to turn the television on and not to worry about anything. For example, I usually drive from site to site to take care of business. So when I return home from work I will sit on my couch and turn the television on and flick the channel until I fall to sleep. As Marie Winn describes, "the television experience allows the participant to blot out the real world and e...
The main purpose of the scenes is to focus that in the pain of realization, Chris concludes that happiness can only be found when shared to other people but he seeks to return from the wild to his family and friends. By flashing forward to Chris’s death, and to the voice over of his sister saying “What would his voice sound like now? What would he tell about now?- I realized that my words had less and less meaning. It was Chris’ story to tell”. This voiceover reminds us that throughout his journey, the people both influence and are influenced by the person he is and bring him to the final and tragic reality and realization that happiness is only real when shared. When Chris was writing while crying, to the point of view shots makes the audience understand how Chris continue his self-realization and accepts his fate. This also states in the audience that the situation is more important to
Brown believes that if a person does not open up himself, then he will not connect with other people on level passed the surface. As I have learned through my Ethnographic Research course, vulnerability has the power to transform an embodied text and to knock at people’s perception of themselves. I have continued to notice when an ethnographer is distant from their text and hesitant to connect on a deeper level. As a result, the ethnographic text lacks the ability to evoke response or limits the influence of the journey on the audience. While there a lot of risk and even pain with exposing one’s emotions through vulnerability, there is even more rewards. Brene Brown is inspiring as a speaker because in addition to developing a strong argument on the power of vulnerability; she has the unique quality of perfectly models her message. Brown expressed in her Ted Talk that she spent a whole year struggling with vulnerability. Speaking about her journey Brown openly admitted, “vulnerability pushed, I pushed back. I lost the fight but probably won my life back… What are we doing with vulnerability?” If she was talking about vulnerability, but was unable to show something of herself, her message would have fallen short. However, Brene Brown not only shows us with her words and her research how influential authenticity is, but she demonstrates it to us on a human level. While I was already aware that vulnerability is an important characteristic to tap into, Brene Brown is an inspiration for how anyone can challenge himself or herself to become even more
Even when he tried to stay optimistic, fear and anxiety set in often in Schwartz’s mind. He experienced fear and anxiety related to impending death. Worries of missing out on his son growing up and not experiencing romantic moments with his wife ever again filled him with both terror and grief. He expressed this fear to his psychiatrist and his concern that he might be depressed. Dr Cassem assured him that crying was a sign of acknowledgment of his love for his family. He also worried if there was anything he could do t...
A second reason for people’s love of reality television, is the fact that reality TV can stir the viewer’s emotions. “While some cheer for their favorite celebrity on Dancing with the Stars….” (Lehmann). “ Or cry with joy watching Say Yes to the Dress…” ( Lehmann). These are just two of many example quotes that show that people sometimes get very emotional by simply watching other people live out their lives so publicly. Many people id...