INTERPERSONAL MOVIE PAPER

Communication and Relationships in Film
You are to select a film and examine several theories of interpersonal communication discussed in your
text to see how they are portrayed in film. The focus will be on how communication is used to initiate,
maintain, and terminate relationships. The film will serve as a vehicle for learning about interpersonal
communication and relationships. You will analyze what the film has shown about the ways people
relate to one another.
The paper should be 3-5 pages long, with a bibliography of at least two sources. Your textbook can be one
of the sources. DO NOT go under two and a half or over four and a half pages. Your analysis should focus
on issues of communication, incorporating material from the readings, your online assignments. You will
need a strong introduction and a conclusion in this paper as well as identify three or four points
(concepts) that you found most enlightening, controversial, or even possibly incorrect. You will be
expected to discuss what individuals did, what happened, and why. Relevant communication theory and
text material should be introduced for each example. You should write this paper as if you were going to
demonstrate your expertise and knowledge to an individual that has little or no knowledge of
communication theory. That “pretend reader” should learn a lot from reading your paper.
The paper should be 3-5 pages, word-processed, double-spaced, 12pt Times New Roman font, with a
cover page. You must cite the course textbook using MLA formatting. When saving your document,
include your last name and the assignment, and save as either a Microsoft Word file (.doc or .docx) or a
Rich Text File (.rtf).
Submit this paper in the appropriate assignment drop box in Blackboard by the deadline.
Course Objectives:
1. Recognize the components of the communication process and the types of communication in which
human beings engage (one-on-one, group and public speaking).
2. Students will recognize and accommodate gender and cultural differences in communication settings
and appreciate diverse communication styles.
3. Students will describe the role of free speech in a democratic society and be able to critically evaluate
and analyze the message and delivery style of public speakers.
Chapter Objectives:
By completing this assignment, students will be able to:
1. Define intimacy and describe a range of options for conveying intimate messages.
2. Analyze the themes of a close relationship using both Knapp’s model of relationship
development and the dialecticalmodel.
3. Explain the different conflict management styles.
4. Distinguish between constructive styles and methods of dealing with interpersonal conflict.
5. Analyze both Verbal and Nonverbal communication in relationships.
6. Apply the communication process and perception in interpersonal relationships.
The great news is that interpersonal communication can be tied into many chapters that we have
already discussed in the course this semester.
Some topics you might choose to discuss:
 Perception in interpersonalrelationships.
 Communication Process
 Models of Communication
 Theses of a close relationship using both Knapp’s model of relationship development and the
dialectical model.
 Conflicts in relationships and the methods and styles of dealing with interpersonal conflict.
 Listening
 Self-Concept
 Non-VerbalCommunication
 Verbal Communication
Select as many concepts/theories that apply to the film. Do not hesitate to go beyond and think
outside of the box. As you watch the film, you may want to take notes and have your textbook handy.

ANSWER

Interpersonal Movie Paper

People use different communication methods to initiate, maintain, and terminate relationships, and such can be observed in character relationships in a movie. For analysis, this essay will analyze the film Fences by Denzel Washington, who also plays the lead role as Troy. Fences is a 1950s story about a family man in his fifties, Troy, who works as a garbage collector in Pittsburgh. Racial divisions taunt Troy, unfairness outside and inside feels and often expresses about what could have been. He goes to work every week and brings a $78 check and a bag of potatoes at the end of the week, which he hands to his loyal wife, Rose. Troy also carries a bottle of gin with him, which he often sips in the backyard where he is building a fence with his workmate and friend Bono. Troy is a storyteller and never wastes a moment to narrate about the past, but he is a man in conflict weighed down by the unfairness of life and the fact that he has been in the same position for eighteen years. He has very little hope for the future. He disapproves of his son, Cory, playing a white man’s game on the basis that it would take him nowhere, which springs from the experience of being a good baseball in his young years but denied an opportunity because he was black. Troy is the family’s sole provider and has severe unresolved issues with his brother Gabe who fought WWII and sustained head injuries and PTSD. The movie has few characters that focus on their relationships, including how they communicate verbally and their non-verbal cues that make the movie intense and the relationships wildly unpredictable.

Fences display various instances of cognitive dissonance communication theory. This is where two or more characters hold contradictory or incompatible attitudes and beliefs (Goyer 1964). This often happens between Troy and his son Cory. The immense dissonance about the two is their view of the world. Troy feels that Cory is wasting his time on football and believes it would get him nowhere. From his own experience as a baseball player, this is, of course, where he was denied the opportunity to advance because he was black. When Jackie Robinson crossed the racial line and became a big deal in baseball, Troy was already too late. The audience can feel a lot of regret and pain that persists when Troy speaks about it, which is often. He believes he can still hit a ball across a park. However, Cory believes that he can make a football career as the opportunity is there for both black and white races. Cory picks the idea and believes in it to the level of confronting his father on a disrespectful scale. Their communication gets strained by this, where Cory is continuously angry and accusing his father of never liking him. In turn, Troy is a proud man who, in turn, explains to Cory in a dramatic confrontation that he does not have to like his son; the only thing he had to do was perform his duty by making sure his family was fed, clothed and housed. He additionally says that no law requires a man to like his son.

Another communication theory observed in the film is the narrative paradigm. The narrative paradigm suggests that human beings are storytellers. It states that “instead of using traditional logic, we are more open to judging the credibility of a speaker through narrative logic” (Fisher et al., 1984). In the movie, there is no more extraordinary storyteller than Troy. He has stories about everything, and as soon as the movie starts, the audience has a clear indication that he is a great speaker. A good example is when Troy narrates how she met Rose. He stood in front of her and said that he did not want to marry her but be her man. Rose, in turn, replied that if he were not into marriage, then he would have to move on and stop blocking the rest, for she needed a husband. The story is told by Troy in jest, mimicking and dramatizing Rose as Bono listens. Troy is charismatic; listening to him tell story after story makes both the audience and the characters to want him to keep talking. This gift makes it very easy for him to manipulate, humiliate, and harass other characters in the movie. His exaggerated passion for Rose and words of love enables him to hide his affair with Alberta, leading to an illegitimate child, Raynell. When he confesses to his wife Rose about the affair, it is a narration about how he had been stuck in the same spot for eighteen years and felt disappointed by life. He has a response story to everything and believes he is always right.

Using Rose, the motherly, loving, and kind mother in Fences, a correlation can be made from how she views the world and explains herself to the communication theory of reasoned action. The theory observes how human beings communicate and behave and how it is affected by what they believe that ultimately becomes the foundation of their intentions (Hale 2002). It is evident that Rose’s actions, such as trying to mend ties between the two brothers, are problems created by Troy in which she must act as the voice of reason. In fact, in most instances, including accepting an illegitimate child is from the basis that she is a good-natured woman with the best intentions for everyone around her. Troy creates messes, and Rose shows up to clean them. This does not mean it is all she is. She has many options, including leaving Troy when he does something callous for the umpteenth time. She chooses to stay; she decides to bring her entire family even closer when she begins feeling as if they were wading off. She believes in the innate goodness of humanity and implants that belief in Troy for eighteen years. When it finally dawns on her and realizes that it was probably wasted effort, she is not bitter or vindictive, she is angry, and when she gets past the anger, she recollects herself and does the right thing. In the film, her character’s words acted out by Viola Davis ring out in the middle of a torrent of tears “. . . I gave everything I had to try and erase the doubt that you weren’t the finest man in the world. . . What about my life?”, and at that moment we get a glimpse at her heart, honesty, and pain.

The film ends without resolving most of the conflicts brought about by the various intricate relationships the characters share. The title itself, the word Fences, is an inference to the failed communication between the characters where Rose builds fences not to keep people outside but to have her family closer to her. She feels Troy is straying from the marriage and Cory would leave because they could never agree with his father. She constructs a metaphorical fence to hold them closer and prevent both Troy and Cory from walking away. In this case, the fence building is more of a reactionary move prompted by a threat that would take everything she loved away from her. Towards Troy, she identifies using her own words that his “spirit as a fine and illuminating one and she either ignores or forgives his faults.” Besides his failings, Rose using her body language, appears to adore his honesty, humor, talkativeness, hard work, and devotion to care and provide for those he loves. The mechanisms the characters employ in communication make the movie intense and the relationships wildly unpredictable.

Works Cited

Fisher, Walter R. “Narration as a human communication paradigm: The case of public moral argument.” Communications Monographs 51.1 (1984): 1-22.

Goyer, Robert S. “Cognitive dissonance and communication theory.” Communication Studies 15.2 (1964): 90-95.

Hale, Jerold L., Brian J. Householder, and Kathryn L. Greene. “The theory of reasoned action.” The persuasion handbook: Developments in theory and practice 14 (2002): 259-286.