Final

The coexisting and contrasting ideas of life and death illuminate the importance of balance in the universe while healing through communication and the media allows for the sense of community and creativity to positively impact cultures and both stabilize, and grant understanding for, existence as a whole. 

Technology and its ability to provide broader communication has proven to bring people closer together, show more generosity, and allow for an even larger sense of community. Within the documentary, Craigslist Joe, directed by Joe Garner documenting his month long journey into to the world with nothing but Craigslist on his side, he poses the question of whether or not a sense of community is still prevalent now that technology has become a ruling factor in the world of socialization. “As a country we’re wealthy, diverse, and technologically sophisticated, yet some say we’ve lost the sense of community that used to carry us through tough times” (Craigslist Joe).  Ever since technology has become more progressive in society, the idea of a community online has become more practical and presents the question as to whether or not this is taking away from human contact and a community out in the physical world. As a result, Joe Garner ventures out in to the world to test his theory on human contact and sympathy. “Some say technology and social media fuel this isolation, have we become so caught up in our own lives that we don’t notice life outside our bubble, are we less willing to see each other as neighbors?”(Craigslist Joe). To his surprise, Joe has met and shared experiences with more people in one month than most people meet in years. With posting his ads on Craigslist for places to sleep he has had many more responders than not. Not only did these citizens reach out to him to provide their help but Joe lent his own hand to help with charities and provide company for long road trips with which allowed Joe to not only meet new people along the way but explore the country as well. “By far in a way, the most inspiring experience of my life. The generosity of people, the stories they share, and the connections I’ve made in one month was so deep and just meeting everyone along the journey and having people invite a complete stranger into their homes and feed me and go out and share their lives with me, it was truly inspiring on humanity to know that we can take care of each other” (Craigslist Joe). Joe’s question he posed at the beginning of his journey was proven very wrong. The availability of technology has only contributed to the ability for communication to become even broader than ever before and, as a result, has allowed for the sense of community to grow even stronger and larger than it has ever been before. This significant lesson is illustrated in the image as a part of the tree of life within the branches. This is because the branches are seen as alive and connected which resembles the concepts of community and connection.

Post traumatic stress in not a disorder, it is a reaction. It cannot be healed by medicine but can be relieved by storytelling, love, and understanding. Throughout studying the effects of post traumatic in numerous units, it has come down to the idea that telling the story to an understanding and non judgmental audience allows the storyteller to face the trauma rather than hiding from it and, in a way, stitches the wounded soul back up just a little bit more every time. This is because it is allowing the sufferer to accept what happened and that it is okay to move on. “He was tired of fighting off the dreams and the voices; he was tired of guarding himself against places and things which evoked the memories” (Silko 26).  Within the novel, Ceremony, by Leslie Marmon Silko, Tayo is facing intense post traumatic stress along with his other friends from the war, all of whom handle the pain in a different way. At first Tayo attempted to ignore anything that evoked pain and memories but, after a while, he began to ease his torment by making it right for himself in any way he could. He did this by searching for his Uncle’s cattle which, in Tayo’s mind, put his uncle to rest and Tayo’s grief for his Uncle to rest. Another way Tayo found calmness was through love. Feeling the love and connection with another soul made him feel worthwhile even though his whole life he was treated like he was worthless. Lastly, Tayo relieved his pain by telling his stories to healers like Betonie and listening to the stories and lessons that they would reveal to him. These connections to other people allowed for Tayo to feel important and apart of a community for the first time in his life. While Tayo was busy pursing a new life and mending his soul, his friends were busy handling post traumatic stress is a particularly negative way. “He lost touch with the life he had lived before the day he found those beads; and the man he had been before that day was lost somewhere on that trail where he first saw the beads. Every day they had to look at the land, from horizon to horizon, and everyday the loss was with them, it was the dead unburied, and the mourning of the lost going on forever. So they tried to sink the loss in booze, and silence their grief with war stories about their courage, defending the land they had already lost” (Silko 169). For Tayo’s friends Emo, Harley, Pinkie, and Leroy, all they did was drink the pain away and when it started coming back, they would drink some more. They were drunk all day and all night putting them in a limbo type world where they would not allow themselves to move forward. They were stuck living in their dreaded pasts, reliving the horrible memories countless times. While drinking is a common way for some people to deal with their issues, others result in anger and resentment. Within the movie, Smoke Signals, directed by Chris Eyre, Victor contains a lot of anger for his father being abusive and then leaving him and his mother. “’Thomas you don’t even know my father. Did you know that my father was the one that set your parent’s house on fire? Did you know that my father beat my mother? Did you know that my father beat me too?’” (Eyre).  As a way of handling his grief, Victor cut off his long hair that is thought of as sacred in most native communities because it holds memories from one’s past. By cutting off his hair, Victor was allowing himself to free his heartache that his father left him behind with. At the end of the film there is a very powerful scene displaying Victor scattering his father’s ashes in to a roaring river. This holds significance because the roaring river is a symbol of rebirth and starting over. Therefore, it is Victor beginning a new chapter in his life and leaving his father and their history in the past. Post traumatic stress is seen in the bigger picture as being on the death side of the tree. This is because post traumatic stress is very negative and holds lives prisoner to dark and disturbing memories that are handled in very poor and potentially deadly ways unless supported and aided by bystanders.

Throughout film history, the cinema has fantasized the view on native people to be tough and warrior like, however, as time changes, the film industry is changing the views on native people to be more than just a warrior. They are free spirited people. Within the movie Smoke Signals, directed by Chris Eyre, both Victor and Thomas have their different impressions of how native people are portrayed from the film industry. “’You gotta look mean or people won’t respect you. White people will run all over you if you don’t look mean. You gotta look like a warrior! You gotta look like you just came back from killing a buffalo’”(Eyre). Clearly Victor has gotten the interpretation that the only way to gain respect from white people is to act tough and mean rather than kind or respectful like how Thomas acts. This is because in most native movies, the only way the natives were at all recognized was for their brutality. As a result, Victor grew up believing that that was his history and he wouldn’t be a true native if he wasn’t tenacious. Thomas, on the other hand, saw a different light that was shed on native people through the film industry. He saw natives as being smart, tactful, and spiritual people that gained respect by showing consideration for others. “’Thomas, don't you even know how to be a real Indian? How many times have you seen "Dances with Wolves" anyways? 100... 200 times? Oh jesus Thomas, you have seen it that many times?’” (Eyre). On the bus heading to Arizona to retrieve his father’s ashes, Victor teaches Thomas how to be tough to gain respect. However, after getting in a car crash and attempting to act tough to the police, Victor and Thomas both realize that acting tough isn’t always the answer. After the crash is cleared up with the police, Victor and Thomas begin their journey back home and on the way Thomas teaches Victor to be more open minded and free spirited. Smoke Signals is one of the first movies that has accurately portrayed native people and has inspired the film industry to do the same. “’The only thing more pathetic than Indians on TV is Indians watching Indians on TV’” (Eyre). Now that more and more movies about native people are actually displaying them in a respectful and factual way, it clears the bad mojo that has been haunting them in the cinema for decades. Smoke Signals is found in the middle of the tree of existence because the topic of native people in the cinema had a dark past but is slowly rising to a brighter view. Therefore it is in the middle of the tree because its illustrates that the human race is growing more and more tolerant with each other.

Life and death coexist in order to maintain balance in the universe. Although death seems to be an ending, it opens up new opportunities and doors for others to experience. With death comes room for others to live and it continues in this cycle of existence. Within the movie Seven Pounds, directed by Gabriele Muccino, life and death are portrayed through the characters Emily Posa and Ben Thomas. Life and death are the two most important aspects that make up existence because they maintain balance in the universe. In the film, Emily is presented as the figure of life because although her body is physically dying from heart failure, he soul is thriving. In the beginning of the film there is a scene where Emily is just returning from a walk with her dog, Duke, when she faints because her heart isn’t strong enough to pump blood to her brain fast enough. The angle of framing was a bird’s eye view shot of her lying on the ground with a halo of flowers around her. Because of the halo of nature that surrounds her in that scene it can be inferred that Emily symbolizes life and her soul is prospering even her body cannot. While Emily takes on the role of life, Ben Thomas is represented as the figure of death because of his sorrowful and dark aura. In one of the last scenes of the film, Ben is shown in the bathtub with the angle of framing as a bird’s eye view looking down at him as the jellyfish is wrapping around his arm. The bathtub forms a halo ellipse around him to expose his holiness because although he is committing suicide he is doing it to save Emily, Ezra, and numerous other people.  Additionally he is sitting in water, which is a symbol for purification, and he dies in it, which adds to the belief that his soul remains pure even if what he is doing is considered a sin. Ben and Emily are together for a majority of the movie and this adds to the idea that life and death are connected and constantly coinciding with on another. In the middle of the film Ben and Emily take Duke for a walk and a medium long shot exposes them sitting in the most magnificent meadow full of energy and life. It is almost as if they are in the stereotypical envision of heaven. The emotion pulled from this scene is happiness because both Ben and Emily are radiating with smiles and Duke is galloping in the field, however, the sense of heartache is also present because while they are both enjoying each other’s presence, it won’t be like that for much longer because soon only one of them can live at a time. Ben can see all the life that Emily has around her and inside her and it encourages him more and more to save her unlike how he couldn’t save his wife from the car accident he had caused only years before. As a result, Ben sacrifices himself to save the lives and health of Emily, Ezra, and multiple other people. This further demonstrates that life and death maintain a balance in the universe because Ben was sacrificing himself to redeem for the fact that he had killed seven people in the car wreck. Seven Pounds is found at the top of the tree of existence because it illustrates the idea of equality, love, and balance. Life and death together create the highest power in the universe because they work together to  balance out existence and control the way fate works.   

Empathetic bonds come from the ability to show solidarity and share common experiences with other people. Before the media, it was laborious to try to learn and reach out to new types of people. Nowadays, with advanced technology, people can use social media to communicate through a broad spectrum. Within philosopher Krznaric’s, The Age of Outrospection, he discusses the positive ways in which people can use the media to reconnect and aid others in need. “Instead of the age of introspection we need to shift to the age of outrospection, and by outrospection I mean the idea of discovering who you are and what to do with your life by stepping outside yourself, discovering the lives of other people, other civilizations, and the ultimate art form for the age of outrospection is Empathy”(Krznaric). It isn’t enough for people to just donate a buck or buy a pair of TOMS shoes because although the illusion is presented that these actions will help those in need, it doesn’t change their living situation. Documentaries hit the closest to home because it connects to a majority of the senses and triggers mirror neurons to have strong reactions to what is being exhibited. “We are soft wired to experience another’s plight as if we are experiencing it ourselves” (Rifkin). The commercials such as ASPCA (The American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals) or UNICEF (United Nations Children Fund) are most known for their horribly depressing shots of sad children and animals and for some people, this pushes them over the edge to donate money. Looking at documentaries, Food Inc. has caused such strong reactions that people have turned vegetarian or vegan. These examples prove that if people know who they are saving and how their contribution makes an impact, than it makes people feel better about themselves for helping while at the same time is helping out a good cause. While the media is good for communicating news and raising awareness for causes, it also would strongly impact the learning communities as well. “There are two types of people in this world: academic and nonacademic. Smart people and nonsmart people. And the consequence of that is that many brilliant people think they’re not because they’ve been judged against this particular view of the mind” (Robinson). The current school system is not meant for this day and age. It was developed for time long graduated. People these days are so invested in technology that prying it away from them causes them to be unfocused and as a result, teachers and parents are drugging their kids because they think that they have ADHD. If the school systems were to move their focus on to technology and using it more frequently as a tool to help motivate kids to learn, the results will likely satisfy. Technology these days have provided children with the opportunity to be more creative and in a way the human mind has altered to function in tandem with the updates and evolution of technology. Within the image of existence, the media is found in a bundle of flowers next to the tree because it is an astonishingly large epiphany that mankind has created and in a way contains a new world of its own. With technology and the media, people are able to quickly communicate all over the world and raise awareness, do business, or just say high to loved ones who live too far away. Media has been such a positive impact in human history and therefore it is found in the flowers with bright light shining on it.