communicative behavior;the analysis of systems of communication,
as language,gestures, or clothing". In signs there is the signifier and the signified. The signifier creates a visual aural or gives a word its meaning, a mental conception that the signified will be able to understand. This arbitrary relationship is founded on the signifier who has a more powerful authority about which words have what meaning. The signified has no say upon the matter, just what they are told. Who would have thought that even the very language that we speak can seem like a conspiracy, a peek hole to the intensity or gravity of a dominating few?? Power leads to authority and what rules are put to play on the game board of Chess, we the people are mere pawns and only move through our puppet strings by the puppet master. How sad, that we have the freedom of speech but sad to know that we never had a chance or vote on what that speech was to be. Binary signs in language like cat/dog, big/small, black/white, Christian/Jew,or fat/thin were said to not live alone, it is always dependent on another to define the former. Derrida believed in a "Presence X" where all signs are unstable, where they do not have an absolute presence, where one word is dependent on another, and that other word in dependent on another word, and so on and so forth, the pattern continues in an endless pattern. This was revolutionary thought and is still used today by high up people like lawyers and legislators. Derrida always thought that ideas could fall into deconstruction due to their instability.
One of the most famous written binaries by Simone DeBeaure was called "The Second Sex" which dealt with man vs. woman. She wrote about an unevenness between them, how women are seen as the "Other", the oppressed one, the imperfect ones, who depend on the men to keep order. She believes the man/woman relationship is a hierarchical one, with the oppressor(man) and oppressed(woman), similar to the master/slave relationship. Man enjoys higher power, positions, better jobs, authority, privileges, all of which are proven throughout history. Men see themselves as a definite self, where they have their own identity, while women are the "other" who are defined by man. The same way that a slave master depends on the slave in order for the master to uphold power, the man is also dependent on the woman to have power but the difference is that a slave can, in a hypothetical type of way, get rid of the slave master and still live life normally but it would be unthinkable for a woman to be able to get rid of all the men. Women are biologically bound to men, women are born women and cannot change that. In the movie Jerry MaGuire, Jerry's wife suffers through the unstable and mentally abusive antics of her husband, but the minute he apologizes she has completely forgiven him because she depends on him. She saw him or men as the enemy, but unfortunately she loves the enemy. She cannot live without the enemy, consequently incapable of getting rid of him.
In Cat on a Hot Tin Roof, there is a lot of communication problems. The same way Derrida linked the derivative understanding in all meanings of words in language where they are always changing, meanings in cat on a Hot Tin Roof were always changing. Maggie compares herself to a cat on a hot tin roof throughout the whole play who can withstand the heat of a hot roof the same way she can endure the apathetic behavior of her husband. She says its very difficult to love someone who doesn't love you back, but she stays with him due to economic stability. She is an over-bearing and "needy" woman, she's portrayed as aggressive but vulnerable and her husband is passive throughout the whole play except at the mention of his deceased best friend Skipper. Those are the rare times he shows emotion. He is unresponsive and uninterested in anything but his drinking. He removed himself or any type of relationship with his wife Maggie after his best friend passed away. More talk about the book will be discussed in the next class meeting. Until then, see you! :)
No comments:
Post a Comment