We finished the movie which dealt with the ideas of perceptions and social injustices. This idea will continue to unfold as we begin talking about Of Mice and Men in regards to how people view the different characters.
For this evening:
Pick a movie or tv show which depicts a character who may be perceived one way in the beginning but is not really how they seem. Give specific examples of how the perception is wrong and how we, as the viewer, come to understand the character better. Then, give an example of a time when someone may have misperceived you or an action by you.
21 comments:
On my favorite television show, Gossip Girl, there is a character named Jenny Humphrey. She is perceived in her school as the lonely girl who has no life or personality. If you look past all that and care to find out who she really is, she is a talented designer who has a passion to succeed. She is full of life and no one around her seems to care to see that. Her peers falsely perceived her when she deserves a fair chance like the rest of us. In my life, I was falsely perceived when I was awarded the biggest ditz award by my cheer team. They really don't know me and how smart I am. They don't care to see it, so there is definitely a social injustice going on here. All in all, everyone deserves a fair chance at happiness.
A tv show that is new every Monday night is The Secret Life of an American Teenager. This show is about a girl who gets pregnant at 15. Everyone perceives her as a bad influence. They all think she is stupid for making such a big mistake. The truth, as they all come to realize, is she is a nice girl. She is really kind and a bad thing just happened to her.
There are a lot of time when someone may misperceive me. Most of the time could be during basketball. When i play a basketball game i get mad really easily. I yell at the refs and push girls on the other team. This may cause people to perceive me as mean and nasty. I am not usually like that though. Usually i am nice.
In the t.v. show LOST, Sawyer, one of the main characters, tries coming off as a hardass and that is what everyone perceives him as but in reality he is actually a nice guy. Throughout the show he is a jerk to everyone but as he starts to grow on people he opens up and shows that he is a softie. As the viewer, you get to see that he is a good dude but the people on the show perceive him as like this bad dude who does what he wants. As the show has been on for a long time now most of the characters and viewers know him as a nicer guy. One time I brought my grandparents home something nice and they just thought I was trying to get something out of it but in reality I just was trying to be nice.
On my favorite television show, Make It Or Break It, there is a character that is perceived one way in the beginning and is not really how they seem. This character is Emily Kmetko. She is a new girl at the Rock. Everybody thought that she was weird because she was discovered at the YMCA and doing gymnastics at a local park. So nobody welcomed her there. They thought that she didn't deserve to get a chance at the National Team. This perception was really wrong. When the other team mates started to get to know her they accepted her like they should of done in the beginning. We got to learn about Emily Kmetko when she did a routie and told the story of hewr life. She told how she was discovered and how people treated her when she got to the Rock.
Sometimes people misperceived me. They think that i'm a quiet person. however if they take a little time and effort and get to know who I really am, a fun person to be around and a person who likes to dance, sing and act.
Last semester we read Into The Wild. I did not like the book and personally thought it was poorly written. I wanted to see how the movie was and instantly fell in love with it. It's one of my favorites. But by watching the movie, I had a better understanding that the people Chris met along his journy all thought he was crazy for leaving his family and home behing. Although when they showed flashbacks of his family strife I didn't blame him for leaving. So these bystanders of Alexander Supertramp all though he was a loony and negatively perceived him but if they had only known his past they might have realized what drove him to wonder into the wild. Once I was faciciously joking with a friend and they thought I was rippin on them and were mad at me for quite some time.
A show in which there is a character on the is mispercieved at the beginning would probabaly be family matters', Steven Ercel. Everyone who is not close to him just see him as annoying and nerdy and would never want to be his friend. But once you get to know him, he is sweet and considerate of his feelings. If he cares about ou, he will go out of his way to make you happy but doesn't usually succeed because of his clumsiness but it's the thought that counts. Like there is an episode where he tries to help Laura, the girl he loves, with her bag and ends up breaking what's inside. She gets fed up with him and ditches him as a friend but then realizes he is a good person. A time where I was percieved differently than I am really am would probably be like if I accidently bump somebody an I try to apologize but they don't hear me. Then that person doesn't like me at all just because of a little thing like that. People need to learn not to judge so quickly.
-Taylor Matteson
A recently new tv show, My Life as Liz, shows the struggles of high school and Liz's life. She comes off as someone who is really odd and she doesn't fit in with everyone. There is a group of girls and this one girl is so mean to her but one of the girls in the clique sees past that and is really nice to Liz and they end up hanging out. The perception is wrong because if all of the people see what we the viewers see, you would see that she has is basically like a lot of kids in high school. She has a mom and a dad, she likes this one kid who has/d a girlfriend and she has friends who just like to hang out. We come to understand the character better because we see everything that happens in her life, not just what the kids see at school. One time I was perceived badly because me and my friend where in a fight but I was just fighting back and when she told people about it, people looked differently at me for some time before we cleared the air and everything was all good.
A movie that depicts perception is "Fantastic 4: Rise of the Silver Surfer." At the beginning of the movie everyone that the Silver Surfer was evil because he was trying to destroy the Earth. Toward the middle he said that he didn't have a choice for doing what he's doing. At the end he did an act of kindness that saved the Earth. We the viewers can understand the character by seeing how he acts. An example of a mis-perception in my life is when I went to Allen Park Middle School. I used to tap guys on the shoulder and put my elbow on their shoulders as well. They had perceived me as being gay(the newer meaning). I wasn't then and never will be gay. Now I'm not perceived as being gay.
Chris Daniels
In The Harry Potter series Severus Snape is thought of as evil by many people. Most of the people have heard rumors and passed tham on about Snape. Harry saw the mark of evil on his arm and immediately thought he was evil. In the latest movie he has been shown as a good guy. He was protecting Harry even though he killed Dumbledore. I was mispercieved one time when my parents thought I was quite in class. They went to the schools open house and some of my teachers said that I was really talkative and my parents did not believe them.
My favorite tv show 24, my perception of one of the characters Tom was a traidor but in the end it turned out he was one of the good guys who helped C.T.U in the end. the vice president wanted to have a nuclear strike and Tom went along with it and th president did not want the nulcear strike and Tom black mailed the presidents assitance so she would be out of the way and the nuclear strike would happen. Also he was part of the attempt to kill the president so the vice president could be in charge. But in the end he realized the president made the right choice and helped C.T.U. find the people setting off the nuclear bombs and stopped the vice president from black mailing the president.
The tv show that I think deals with perception is Law and Order. In the beginning, it shows how they think people are guilty for a crime. Later on at trials and after all the evidence, people are found innocent that were early on thought to be guilty. Perception is wrong in many ways. Everyone goes through perception. People do it because they see other people for something their not before they even know them. Just on the way people look, the way they talk, the way they dress, everything. When we watch tv shows with perception, it makes it realize its wrong. Like in the case with Law and Order, we see what the lawyers do not. We see that the people are innocent when the police think their guilty. One way people have misperceived me is because i'm a cheerleader. All people think its like the movies where the cheerleaders are the mean girls and are popular and take over the whole school. When its really not like that at all. Mr friends have thought that about me right when I became one and thought I would turn into someone different. They realized they were wrong.
One show that depicted a character to make me percive was blues clues. I thought it was going to be something intresting because they had the thinkin chair. An there was a blue dog named blue. I thought he would be really dumb and boaring. Watfching it when i was 4 made me see blue was awsome. He was a cool dog, then i asked if i could have a blue dog. Mommy said no. A time when someone will percive me will be tomarrow when i come in class where a pimp outfit. Eather your going to think im a dumbass or intresting. I am intreasting but not a dumbass all the time.
The TV show I chose was the "Ghost Whisperer". Melinda Gordon is a adverage woman in her 20's, newly-wed, and lives in a small town, Grandview, with an adverage life. The only problem is since an early age she has been able to see and comunicate with spirits. She doesn't tell people about her gift often, but when she does a lot of people turn her away at first. Their perception of her is that she's crazy or a lier. In actuality she is really risking her own life (in many cases) to help them and their past love ones live a happy life and move on from their mistakes.
I am openly bisexual and although I have come across very open accepting people, their are still some who's perception of bisexuals tints their perception of me. I have come across people who have backed away or goten wide-eyed at the fact that I am bi. They are under the impression that I "like" every girl I see and automaticly like them. This is not true, of course. My feelings for women are the same as my feelings for men. they vary with different people. there are some girls I can't stand, there are some that I tell them I love them but mean it only as a friend, and there are some that I do "like". I am truely just like every other person I just have two halves to the part of my brain that produces hormones that make humans attracted to others. One half makes me attracted to men, the other to women. I still have feelings, I still like to hang out with my friends and go to the movies with my boyfriend (yes, I have a boyfriend), I am an everyday teenage girl.
In one of my favorite shows, Private Practice, one of the main character's (Addison) dad was percieved by Addison to be a terrible father. He would sleep with other women while he was still married to her mother. As a child, and even as an adult, she hated him because she thought that he had made her mother miserable from always being cheated on. In one of the episodes, Addison finds out that her perception of her father was wrong.. verrrry wrong. It turns out that Addisons mother married her father because her family thought it was morally correct for her to marry a decently wealthy, well brought up man. But what Addison didnt know was that her mom was actually a lesbian. Her father only slept with other women because they couldnt get a divorce because it would disgrace Addisons mothers family. He slept with other women because he couldnt sleep with his own wife. Today actually, someone mispercieved me. They thought that because i was always happy and peppy that i was a cheerleader. I, however, am i cross country/track runner :)
In the book (and movie) Dear John, John is perceived as tough military man without an interior. Everyone just sees the unbreakable front he puts on. In reality, he's a lot more than that. This perception was wrong because people always avoided him or acted like they were better. People even accused him of believing he was better because he often chose to stay away from a lot of people for fear of getting hurt like he had in the past. As the viewer we understand John better because we saw what happened in his past which led him to make certain decisions about his life. This helps us respect him more for that. In public, I'm often perceived as being quite when I'm definitely not. As soon as I'm comfortable enough to express myself, I will.
On the show, The Office, the main character and boss, Michael Scott is given the perception that he is dumb. However, in the end of most of the episodes he tends to solve whatever problem that is being caused in the show. The other characters on the show always make fun of him in their own sense of humor. As the episodes continue, you and the other characters being to realize that he might just know what he is talking about and isn't as dumb as their perceptions led them to believe. People mispercieve me because sometimes I am shy around new people that I don't know. But it usually only takes a little bit for them to just get to know me and I tend to open up right away. I try to be friendly and outgoing but I get nervous sometimes around new people.
In the movie Elf there is a human raised by elves named Buddy. When buddy goes to find his dad in new york city everyone thinks he is weird and dislikes him. They dislike him because he is dressed as an elf and talks about santa all the time because thats how he was raised but no one in new york is very spirited like buddy so they perceive him as a creep. In the end of the movie when buddy helps santa fix his sleigh and bring hristmas spirit to everyone they perceive him as friendly and caring because they now understood why he was so different. The perception of the New Yorkers was wrong because they didnt really talk to him just because he was dressed as an elf and they immediatly judge him as being weird, annoying, and crazy. We as the viewer already know why buddy acts this way. Some people misperceive me as stupid just because i have a lot of blonde moments. They dont care to see that when i put my mind to it i am actually pretty smart, but im out to prove them wrong this term (:
On the television show Pokémon, there is this character that is named Brock. He was perceived as the tough gym leader but turns out he has been caring for multiple children and has a kind attitude. Ash the main character thought at first Brock was a stuck up jerk just because he was a tough gym leader. It turned out Brock acted that way because he was tired of caring for all his little siblings because his parents left him all alone with them. A time when someone had misperceived me was when I bleached my hair. Most people thought that I would be one of the people that wouldn't do it. They thought I wouldn't do it because most people think I am a shy person when I am actually a very outgoing person when you get to know me. In the end I ended up proving there perceptions wrong and bleaching my hair.
In the movie solo artist there is a homeless guy that is percieved wrong in the begining of the movie. In the begining you think that he is a crazy homeless guy that cant provide for himself. Through the movie you find out that he attended a very prestigious school and is a very smart man. He does have a mental illness and cant handle himself so he ended up living on the street for something that wasnt her fault. You come to understand that it was not his fault and there is nothing he can do about it. Someone misperceived me when I went in for the first day of my job and I was sick so I couldnt work that hard. My boss thought I was lazy and said I needed to pick it up but then when I wasnt sick he found out I was a very hard worker. Misperceptions happen all the time and that why you need to get to know someone before you make judgements.
**MY COMPUTER WAS BROKEN**
A TV show that shows a character that is perceived one way at the beginning but is not truly how they seem is the show Ghost Whisperer. The main character Melinda Gordon, has a special gift. She can see and speak to ghosts, the purpose of her seeing them is to help them "cross over", or go into the light. In high school Melinda was tagged as the "weird" kid. People thought that she was crazy because she said that she could see ghosts. One episode, one of her former classmates is being haunted her late husband. Melinda ends up figuring out why the classmates dead husband is haunting her and helps him cross over. At the end of the episode the classmate ends up saying how sorry she was for publicly ridiculing Melinda in high school. She also said that she was sorry for never giving Melinda a chance to explain herself to everyone.
the most obvios charicture that comes to my mind that fits this discription is Serverus Snape from harry potter. everybody things he is a death eater trying to get harrey potter till the last book. it seams obvious the way he dresses all dark, is mean and favors slitheran. also how he hates harry. but at the end you find out he was bulleyd buy harrys dad so thats why he dosint like him. you find out at the end he is agents valdemort and was protecting harry the hole time. he was doing it because he loved harrys mother. so he was really a good person despite his looks. when i was really tired and was kinda hanging back from the group one time one of my friends thought i was sad haha.
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