Watch yourself turn a TV on, as the screen lights up, a man stands with his back towards you. He’s surrounded by the darkness of the night and he begins to walk away from you, his shoulders hunched and drawn in. The street he walks down is narrow and made of cobblestone. Soon crowds appear around him, engrossed in their media, their phones, tablets, and TVs. The man is yelling towards them, but he’s ignored. This is the situation portrayed in the song “Sound of Silence.” The song, originally by Simon and Garfunkel and later covered by many bands, including Disturbed, conveys the theme of the lack of communications and the ignorance of the public to important matters, instead choosing to favor materialistic things through many examples of figurative language such as personification, metaphors or similes and paradoxes. …show more content…
He refers to the growing carelessness and ignorance as a darkness creeping over the minds of the public and addresses it as a friend (Simon ln 1 and 3). Another interpretation could be that the darkness is the only thing that will listen to Simon as he feels he can’t connect with the public and discuss how he sees important topics, such as the social unrest that has surrounded the United States throughout the ages. Which at the time of the writing of the song could have been referencing the assassination of Kennedy and the opposing opinions around the
The theme here could be how technology affects people. Fahrenheit 451 also has the same theme. “His wife in the TV parlor paused long enough to glance up.” (Bradbury, part 1) No communication happens she is too busy focusing on her wall screen, or as we know it the TV. One shows little communication while the other shows no face to face interactions at all.
This relates to our society because some people can not have a simple conversation because they are too invested in their technology or they never learned how to hold a simple conversation with an adult or with someone their own age. Nowadays we have earbuds which is what Bradbury was trying to predict about the seashell radios and the traveling ear and how they are leading to mind control of people when it is constantly feeding information into their ears. Even nowadays people are always craving some action or always feel the need to be entertained and they
Philosophy Of Out Of The Silent Planet The book Out of the Silent Planet (C.S. Lewis) Is a brilliant example of a science fictional allegory. In this compelling story we are met with multiple characters. Amidst the action of being kidnapped and whisked away to an unknown planet our main character, Elwin Ransom, reveals his many skills, fears, and philosophies.
When they finally arrive at Gleiwitz, they are crowded into barracks, and Eliezer feels like he is going to be suffocated by the mass of people lying on top of him. People are crushing each other to death because it is so crowded, and Eliezer suddenly finds himself on top of Juliek, a boy who played the violin in the band at Buna. Eliezer is glad that Juliek is still alive and shocked to discover that he brought his violin with him. Then Eliezer begins to be suffocated by a man on top of him and has to fight his way out to get some air. He calls to his father, who is also still alive.
An example of this is “That all the world is a stage is hardly an unfamiliar thought. But that all the world is a TV situation comedy has come as quite a surprise—except to Aldous Huxley. We must, in any case, make no mistake about it. Television is not merely an entertainment medium. It is a philosophy of discourse, every bit as capable of altering a culture as was the printing press.”
Winter kills Martin Luther King Jr once stated, “In the end, we will remember not the words of our enemies, but the silence of our friends”. This statement is far from being false. The silence of our friends are expressed when life throws in a conflict. Some people do not know how to react so instead of speaking out they run away from the problem; even if losing a close friend is at risk. In the book, The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini, the author uses numerous literary elements to support the theme.
Literacy Narrative “Nothing is said of the silence that comes to separate the boy from his parents” (Rodriguez 69”). Silence. Silence is powerful. Silence, in a dramatic movie to make someone sit on the edge of their seat wondering what is about to happen. Silence, at a funeral of a loved one to grieve for the loss.
The main media’s used are social media and television which are the main focus of chapter 9. Shirky’s article “Why I Just Asked My Students To Put Their Laptops Away” begins to talk about a way that people investigate and draw conclusions about the intersection of technology and everyday life. While Elavia writes about how reality shows are viewer driven rather producer or network driven. One thing social media and television have in common is how much of an impact they have on today. Everywhere you look there are ‘perfect’ images being displayed representing unrealistic goals.
In the past few years humans have spent much more time indoors with their technology than outdoors. Televisions, computers, and smartphones tend to draw greater numbers of people inside their homes, just as humans did in the futuristic world of Leonard Mead where no one left their homes at night. (“The Pedestrian”). Children especially have been infected with the media bug, much like Peter and Wendy, who are unable to stray away from their virtual reality in “The Veldt”. It is understandable that many-particularly older- people believe that technology is affecting how human naturally interact with each other and their surroundings.
(Bradbury 58). People are being fed seemingly random bits of information that won’t help them in the real world. They learn nothing from school, and come home and learn nothing as they stare at their parlor screens. TVs are just crammed with show after shows of loud noises, bright lights, and pretty colors. No real questions are thrown at society members.
In her book the ,The Long Loneliness, Dorothy Day discusses her transition to Catholicism with important life events. She recounts her childhood and her encounters with religion as well as her later life. She has long dedicated her life to helping those who are often overlooked, especially the poor. From her experiences Day comes to believe that a non-individualistic society would make it easier for people to be good. Dorothy Day is certain that this type of society can allow others to be good.
A silent voice by Yoshitoki Ōima, The book starts off with a new girl who went to a new school but when she was introducing herself to the class she wrote down on a notebook saying that she is deaf and hopes to get to know everyone and if people want to talk to her just write on her notebook. The teacher was telling people to read some sentence on the book he tells this one girl to speak up and then when he called on the deaf girl she tried to speak and the teacher called on someone else and it was a boy who hated her he made fun of how she was talking. There was some reason that the boy hated her reason 1 was that she gave him the creeps and reason 2 was that she dragged everyone else down with here her the third reason was that they all got tired of dealing with her. In choir she tried to sing but everyone could not sing well
Sound of silence meaning One of the biggest hang ups we have today is inability of people to touch other people, unable to love other people. This is a song about the inability to communicate - Paul Simon Sound of silence is about a struggle to share and exchange MEANINGFUL ideas. The people “talking without speaking” and “hearing without listening” are too afraid to share their deep and personal ideas or consider the ideas of others. Sound of silence interpretation Interpretation 1 I find that this song isn’t only just about the ignorance and willingness of people to follow a set regime, but also about consumerism, with the “neon gods” being brightly lit adverts seen everywhere.
In the second stanza, Simon describes the street that he is walking on is cobblestone which can mean it is a path that is taken much less. This shows how he is still alone but then he is interrupted by the flash of this neon light. This neon light could mean a number of various things. Possibly technology,the media or even people idolizing celebrities, wealth and materialistic things.
Television aims to be everywhere, it always has something to say, and serves to become the “electronic air we breathe” (Telotte 180). However, an audience’s underlying desire to watch television provides an escape into an endless void. Television foregrounds its capacity for liveness with its ability to transmit picture to sound instantaneously; however, it varies to a degree of immediacy, intimacy, and authenticity, all of which is built upon an ideological framework. Therefore, television relies on the illusion of liveness to maintain audience viewership; it emerges from a process of reification, and lastly these programs follow a distinct narrative format. Live broadcasting strategically reduces the ambiguity of TV into a form of specificity to separate itself from other media.