Michael Whitaker
6-28-09
SPCH 1318
One Hour Photo
My scene only involves one person. Si just came home from work, and is sitting alone in his living room watching television. It’s very dark, quiet and lonely and something that one of the characters on his television says is foreshadowing of what is going to happen later on in the movie.
A. Non-Verbal Communication - Messages expressed by nonlinguistic means.
I. Public Distance; clearly from his very empty living room, Si does not have visitors very often and he keeps his distance from people when he is not in the store developing photos. When forced to be around others physically, he still seems far away from them mentally.
II. Social Distance; Si only gets emotionally involved with the family he sees at the store on a weekly basis. There is no phone in sight; he only has one chair in the middle of the room, showing that he clearly is not expecting any visitors any time soon.
III. Touch; although he is not touching a human, you can tell the way he clutches the remote that he is lonely. He grips it differently based on what he's hearing on the television, like grabbing it tighter when he feels hurt.
IV. Time; the way he uses his time is also a form of non-verbal communication. His time is used to be alone; self loathe, put stolen pictures on the wall,andbe alone with no real attempt to contact other people, at first not even the people that he is becoming more and more infatuated with. This has been occurring for years also; because you can see the family aging through the pictures, he pasted everywhere. He is communicating that he's alone and needs love but no one is around to see and respond.
V. Physical Environment; There are pictures of a family who does not even know him all over his wall, like it's dedicated strictly for them. He has one chair, one old television, a very plainly painted room, and two spotlights, but the spotlights are just to shine on the pictures. This scene shows how disturbed he is initially. It is as if he made his home into a visual of what is inside his head. The only people around are a family that is not his.
B. Self Concept - The relatively stable set of perceptions you hold of yourself.
I. Self esteem; someone who has high or even regular self esteem does not isolate himself or herself completely like this. He's showing that his confidence in himself is not very high because he clearly is longing for a family of his own, but is not taking any action other than obsessing with another family.
II. Reflected Appraisal; Si's perception is that the family he is obsessing with actually cares about him more than they really do. He sees them as family and expects them to see it the same way, not realizing they only see him as an associate, not a friend or family member.
III. Cognitive conservatism; if people with low self-esteem are more likely to interact with people who view them differently, Si is showing this concept right now, because the only person he's interacting with is himself and he clearly has a negative view of himself. If you are isolated from everyone all the time except work, you become pretty much your own critic.
C. Communication Climate- The social tone of a relationship.
I. Recognition; Recognition is a level of message confirmation. There was no recognition of his feelings towards the family. He does not send messages that he is interested in being their friend, therefore they cannot show recognition of the fact that he adores them, resulting in him sitting alone in a lonely empty room by himself. His room itself could send a message if they saw it, but it would clearly not be a good message.
II. Impervious Response; he failed to get the picture that the family doesn't want to interact with him. His whole environment shows that he only responds to his own feelings of loneliness and self-pity.