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Symbolic Interactionism
Douglas 2022-05-16 21:07:01
Symbolic interactionism is a theory about the influence of communication with outside world on an individual. I think Nell, a movie about the conflicts between an isolated woman living in an abandoned mountain with modern world, is good to illustrate it. Nell is a feral child , living in an isolated mountain. Her mother can't speak as normal people for a kind of disease. Therefore, to some extent, she has never been involved in a normal communication with human. She has a twin sister who died young, the communication between them is the only way Nell can get the image her object self, the “me”. After her sister's death, Nell got no chance to see the objective self, therefore, her actions and personalities are still staying on somewhat childish level, which she gained from her young experience with her twin sister.We all need to get the object self to form the subject self, otherwise we will be like Nell, lacking of the abilities to communicate with people and the abilities to live in this world of communications.
Extended Reading
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Sheriff Todd Peterson: I guess she's what you'd call a hermit. She talked kinda funny, too. She was kinda like: 'Durr murr muh...'.
Jerry: Only one side of her face was working. You try talking out of one side of your face.
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Jerry: Is this for real? No electricity, no phone, no running water.
Jerry: [sees a spindle, impressed] Wow.
[walks up to it and carefully, slowly turns the wheel a bit]