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I recently watched a movie called “Wit” that I believe has connections with the material we have learned throughout this course. This movie is about an English professor who has been diagnosed with terminal ovarian cancer. During her story, she reflects on how the stages of cancer reacts to her body, the treatments, and the events that are significant in her life. The hardest part watching this movie is the way that she gets treated while living in the hospital, she is looked over by her doctor who doesn’t care about any aspect of her feelings, but only the results of how she reacts to the treatments. Her nurse is the only one who cares for Vivian’s condition because growing up Vivian wasn’t the nice person who made friends. She kept to herself and was successful teaching her class in college. This reminded me of some material we talked about in our course regarding power. Like Vivian talked about in the movie, she was always the one asking the questions and in charge, but this cancer has put her able to be treated like a number, powerless and relying on others to take care of her. This is just one of the many issues that are shown throughout the movie. When we talk about healthcare, we tend to think positive and how you come into the field wanted to connect with your patients. In the movie, Vivian was treated more like a research study because of the treatment that she was receiving. Her doctor was one of her old students that she taught and didn’t give much respect to her name. The sad reality is once you become sick you lose your identity, you are a patient and nothing more. Vivian is faced with her diagnosis of cancer and not having anyone to take care of her because of her actions and mean attitude of years of teaching. She loses her identity of herself and the bearing the pain is to much as she goes through her treatment. She spent her whole life talking about death talking about death, but when she faces this she seems powerless and hopeless. This movie shows how power can be shifted and taken away and the struggle it causes, but more importantly the issues regarding the healthcare system of injustice. The connection that you make with patients is important because it is part of their treatment to have a support system that cares about you. Overall this movie was hard to watch, but it represented the issues we spoke about in this course as well.

Amber Henderhan

Instructor Elizabeth Vu

5 December 2020

COMPSTD.1100

Text Review: Love, Simon

          A movie that I had recently watched that shows connections to what we have learned in this course is the movie “Love, Simon.” This movie follows the life of 17-year-old, Simon Spier, who is a senior in high school, who has a secret that no one knows. Simon is gay and he is not sure how to come out to anyone in his family or friend group, that is until he comes in contact with Blue online. Simon is writing to Blue, which we later find out is Bram, as Jacques; they share this connection and can be who they are without anyone know who they truly are. This connection started when Simon was on the site at home. Simon, then logged onto a school computer and left still logged into the computer and someone, Martin, comes along and snoops through Simon’s messages.

After Martin searches through Simon’s messages, taking photos of the messages first, confronts Simon about being gay, and eventually tells Simon he took photos, as blackmail, in order for Simon to help Martin get a date with Abby, Simon’s friend. Simon, follows through with this situation, thus hurting a relationship forming between Abby and Nick. Martin gets upset with how the relationship between Abby and himself are going, and in the heat of the moment, Martin outs Simon on the website.

Simon faces school the next day being looked at, friends not talking to him, and Blue no longer reaching out to him. At this point, Simon feels lost and out of place. There are many people who apologize to Simon for the way they treated him, but there is also some apologizes coming from Simon to his friends. Simon comes to terms with who he is and decides to officially write a blog post about it, not without using a post from Blue in his. Simon is riding the Ferris Wheel over and over until his tickets ran out of time. Martin than appears and helps Simon by giving money to the ride operator, everyone in hopes that Blue will show up. In the end it, Blue finally shows and it is a friend of Simon’s Bram.

The takeaway from this movie is not to out someone, it’s there moment and it shouldn’t be said by anyone else or let alone someone blackmailing a person and leaking the information because you didn’t get what you wanted. I did not personally write enough about the movie, but there are scenes where students are being cruel towards Simon and another student, who is already out, Ethan. A teacher witnesses the outcome and deals with the two boys mocking and making fun of Simon and Ethan. This movie also shows the difficulties that can be encountered from family and friends. It shows that we need to be more open and see when we are hurting others and when it is time for jokes. By the end, it ends happily and shows that love is love, and choose to love and be who you truly are!

Beastars is a Netflix  anime adaptation of a popular Japanese manga with the same name. The fantasy world focuses of animals in utopian sense as sentient anthropomorphic beings living together harmoniously. Herbivores and and carnivores living together, where it is illegal for carnivores to eat meat, specifically other animals. The very first episode starts with there being a murder at the local high school, Cherryton High beginning the investigation of which carnivore it could be at the school, with many suspects, yet Legoshi, the main character and lone wolf is the main suspect. The subplot also focuses of a white dwarf named Hal, and the bullying she faces with high school plots with her being a metaphorical “lone wolf.”

As the series continues it focuses of carnivores who have willingly stopped eating meat, yet still fall prey to their instinctual nature towards meat and sometimes what is seen as an inclination towards violence. Herbivores at times are viewed as skittish and nervous individuals. I think this overarching theme of comparison when focusing on the two main characters Hal and Legoshi shows that the simultaneous Othering between both animal groups that occurs during the series is why you see the violent outbreaks and arguments. Legoshi and Hal are almost like a modern Romeo and Juliet minus the unnecessary death at the end showing that they come from two different worlds that make it exceedingly hard to overcome.

Another main character, is Rouis who is an herbivore and highlights the caste system within the series with the school play. He was the first to get a lead that has only been reserved for herbivores.

The identity that these two groups, though dynamic and imaginary also lends true to almost a caste system within the fantasy world. Who and what you are determines what you can and will achieve and breaking out of that is nearly impossible.

                                              Jake Sully in his Avatar body with another Avatar

In the movie ‘Avatar’ the plot shows us many encounters of different cultures and species with many different thoughts and outcomes when the meet. Jake Sully goes into the land of the Avatars and begins to experience their culture to bring back information to his own people. When he is there, they welcome him, but hesitantly because he is an outsider, and they fear what he might do to them. This is something that we have reviewed many times throughout this semester of people with cultural difference taking time and struggling to accept each other. The idea of Jake going into the Avatar world is for his people to be able to gain power over them and eventually overthrow them. While working on getting information about their people, he begins to fall in love with their culture and ideas and has a very difficult time relaying the information back to his own world. This internal struggle is something that can be viewed within many different cultures in the real world today because chances are if people who discriminate against others gave them a chance, they would have the same reaction that Jake Sully experiences in this movie. When his own people realize that he is beginning to like the Avatar’s and not want to take them over anymore; his own people begin to turn against him. His own people take greed and power over the actual feelings of the culture that they are attempting to destroy, which is something that many conquerors in history have also had in common. He decided to abandon his own people and fight for what he believed was right, which is something that I think this author wanted us to learn from by showing us how beautiful the culture was and wanting us to fight for it as well. Overall this movie left many feelings and I think it had many important messages for fighting against discrimination and differences and fits many of the things we learned in class very well. The author raised many thoughts and questions on ideas such as is conquering another civilization for your own benefit really worth what you’re destroying? and if everyone went into the Avatar world and lived with them for a while would they still want to take them over and destroy their land?

Catfish: The TV Show exposes the aspect of identity within online relationships. The hosts of the show Nev and Max, work with individuals who believe they are being “catfished” to help uncover the truth. Specifically reviewing Season 6: Episode 1, Shawny, the individual who wants help, met an online man named Jack. She explains it was first just a flirtation but then developed into much more. Jack and Shawny have only texted and never talked on the phone leading to some questionability of Jack. But the pictures sent back and forth from Shawny are also not her true self. Through further digging of Nev and Max, Jack turns out to be her ex-husband, Brandon. Shawny turns out to really be named Ebony who catfished Brandon, as well as Nev and Max to try and get her family back together.

The idea of identity is seen in this broadcast as both Ebony and Brandon were posing as people they were not. Ebony posed Shawny as a musical personnel who was always busy traveling from show to show, city to city. This is what caused her communication to be limited by text and never able to talk on the phone. The identity of Shawny was posed and shaped not only with a different name but a different lifestyle, occupation, and personality. The ability for individuals to make online profiles and to manipulate others shows a real injustice within online relationships and dating sites. In general within society nowadays, people have to be careful with who they meet online because you never know the true identity of a person. How are online identities really built? Is identity perceived by a physical picture or is it the person behind the screen?

The idea of catfishing relates back to the Asian American identity of Daniel and Deming in The Leavers by Lisa Ko. When Deming was adopted by Peter and Kay, they changed everything about Deming that made him Asian American, just like Ebony did to Shawny. Peter and Kay stripped away his identity of being an Asian American, trying to change him into someone he truly was not. When changing one’s identity, it takes a piece of originality away from that individual. Did Ebony enjoy being someone else’s identity? How did Deming feel for his identity to be changed by his adopted parents? Did Brandon enjoy the identity of Shawny or Ebony better? Overall, Catfish: The TV Show sparks the conversation to the audience that identity can be manipulated and misconstrued in the online relationship world.

I am sure many of you have read this text, its been historically used as the “summer reading” book for many students going into their sophomore year of high school.  While it has been years since I fully read the entire text, I know doubt remember the impact it had on my when I initially read it.  The story follows Holden Caulfield across a three day time period in Manhattan.  Holden was recently expelled from his fourth school and seemingly doesn’t know where to turn.  Throughout the novel he runs into people form all sorts of backgrounds whether that is a prostitute, elevator operator, or a cab driver.  All of these characters push Holden down even farther than he initially was.  Holden also constantly tries to reach out to figures from his past.  These include old girlfriends, academic advisors, and teachers.  All of these encounters feel pointless, nothing good or bad necessarily come of them.  Holden is wasting away in Manhattan, avoiding going home and accepting the fact that his mistake has seriously derailed his life.  While on the surface I have no obvious connections with Holden, which is probably a good thing.  However, when I first read the novel I felt personally connected with Holden and his inner thoughts.  Throughout the novel he narrates his feelings of pain while growing up and facing the real world, he describes how he pushes away others in order to protect himself in a way.  Holden is a sixteen year old, in New York City by himself.  The personal growth and discovery he experiences over these three days ties in closely with some of the material we have discussed over the course of this semester.  Whether its Deming in The Leavers or Marji in Persepolis.  Holden determines his self identity through his experiences with strangers, old friends, and authority figures.  Much like the Deming and Marji, Holden bases his identity off of their perceived thoughts of the other.  I believe in writing this piece J. D. Salinger wants us to take away the perplexity of growing up and discovering who we really are.  Holdens journey is long and confusing, as I said seemingly pointless at times.  However, you have to remember that every event is a learning opportunity and those are what shape us

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