Lights, Camera, Action!

     

     Hollywood acting, talk about false advertising! We all know that we need to take Hollywood movies with a grain of salt, and not believe everything we see. Take a look at this movie clip from a popular Hollywood movie, Mean Girls. As you can see from the clip, this is not really what high school is like! However, in one language of interpretation device known as existentialism, people belief that actual life is consciously created by actors in movies and on television. Let's take a look at our buddy Chance again!

     Through actors and actresses on television, Chance learns how he should act, feel, think, and see the world through his own eyes. But when encountering a real life situation, he does not know what to do but mimic what he perceives life to be on TV. When Chance finds himself in a real life scenario, he finds himself in a conflict between reality and perception.  “The doctor removed the syringe from his case. While he was filing it, Chance visualized all the TV incidents in which he had seen injections being given. He expected the injection to be painful, but he did not know how to show that he was afraid” (Kozinski 33). Because the narrator has never experienced real life scenarios, the actors he sees on TV provide Chance with an insight to how he should feel pain and how he should react to a painful experience like a shot. This language of interpretation teaches readers like you and I about the protagonist and gives us insight to how they think, process information, learn, and grow as an individual. Poor Chance, because he fails to differentiate between perception and reality, he fails to find himself and loses sight of what life is really like. This reoccurring theme is the main message the author is trying to present to the reader throughout the novel. 

     Imagine being a Hollywood actor. In essence, a Hollywood actor would fail to differentiate between reality and perception much like Chance! This conflict occurs in our everyday lives. Think about famous actors and actresses who allow superficial Hollywood settings to correlate to their lives. This theme Kozinski includes in his novel is so applicable to our lives today! So next time you are watching a movie like Mean Girls, always remember how reality and perception are two completely different things, and DO NOT fall for Hollywood's false perception of reality!!!