Assignment 7: Metaphors in Media

The Chronicles of Narina: The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe (2005), first a popular children’s novel and now a major motion picture is famous for the vast number of Christian metaphors. It may be less well known, however, that there is another strong metaphor within the context of the film. Although biblical symbolism could also be drawn to the White Witch, she appears to be most significantly symbolic of the Snow Queen from Hans Christian Anderson’s fairytale, “The Snow Queen.” In the story, the Snow Queen takes a young boy into her sledge and wraps him in her fur robe to keep him warm. She then kisses him twice: once to warm him up, and a second time to make him forget about his family. This is precisely what happens in the scene in which Edmund first meets the White Witch of Narnia, only instead of kisses, she offers him treats: a warm drink, and Turkish Delight.

            Upon first meeting Edmund, the White Witch comments that he looks very cold, and invites him to sit with her on her sleigh. After embracing him with her fur cloak, she offers the boy a drink and presents Edmund with a steaming goblet filled with hot cocoa. This first gift from the White Witch is a metaphor for the Anderson’s White Witch’s first kiss, which warms the boy in the story.

Next, the Witch tells Edmund she can make for him anything he likes, and offers him something to eat. Edmund requests Turkish Delight. Before consuming the bewitching treat, Edmund shows a certain amount of concern for his sister, who is also somewhere in Narnia, as well as what his other siblings, Peter and Susan, would think about Lucy being right about the world inside the wardrobe after all. After accepting her gifts, however, he is unconcerned for his siblings and resents the White Witch mentioning them until she suggests that they may become Edmund’s servants. This second gift represents the Snow Queen’s second kiss given to the boy in Anderson’s story, which makes him forget his family.

The White Witch 

Blog Assignment 6

An iconic image is an image that is easily recognized by a majority, and represents a time period or cultural event, taking on a symbolic meaning. In the field of psychology, one example of an iconic image might be this photograph of Genie, a feral child. This image comes from a selection of video footage that was used to study Genie. The photograph demonstrates several tell-tale characteristic of a feral child, including her animal-like positioning and downward gaze.

Genie was discovered at the age of thirteen, strapped to a chair where she had spent most of her life in complete isolation from human comtact, except for when her father would bring her a plate of food. When she was found, she was nearly mute, possessing a vocabulary of approximately twenty words. Over time she developed a broader use of language, including sign language, but never fully developed normal language skills. Genie has become a metonym, or a word that is used to represent something other than its actual meaning, in psychology for the theory that there is an age threshold for the acquisition of language. After her rescue, Genie began to physically and mentally develop very rapidly. Although she was never able to string word together in a meaningful way, she would express frustration when she felt that she was not conveying her meaning accurately. Instead of language, she would often illustrate her thoughts or feelings by drawing them, usually demonstrating fairly complex ideas and emotions. Further study led to the discovery that the left side of Genie’s brain was shockingly inactive, leading to the belief that there is a critical time period for the development of the left brain (which governs language acquisition and use) that generally occurs before the age of 12, which is when Genie was rescued. Genie’s case is a well known trope for a critical period of language acquisition not only in the field of psychology, but also to linguists and neurologists. 

Assignment 5: Representing Others

Most people consider media today to be an important news source, something that they need and that they have a right to. But is this entirely true? Or is the media largely an invasion of privacy? Often the news takes steps to preserve the privacy of its subjects, but this is not always the case. In Regarding the Pain of Others, Susan Sontag discusses a case regarding a woman whose husband had been kidnapped and slaughtered overseas. She says, “…a vehement debate took place in which the right of Pearl’s widow to be spared more pain was pitted against the newspaper’s right to print and post what it saw fit and the public’s right to see” (pg 69). In this particular case the video of her husband’s death had been posted online. Perhaps this subject is so controversial because it does not violate the rights of the dead man, but is an indirect invasion of his family’s privacy, which is less concretely protected in the Constitution. It is a moral dilemma, one which requires news sources to decide whether it is more important for the public to access certain information, or to protect those whom it most directly affects. This is further exemplified in Clint Eastwood’s film Letters from Iwo Jima. There is one scene in particular in which several Japanese soldiers are ordered to commit suicide, rather than be captured and killed by the invading American army. Many of the soldiers commit the act in blatant fear. Although the identities of these soldiers are not directly identified in the film, it is historically accurate. The grandchildren of these men may watch the film, see the fear in the faces of the men as they hold tightly a grenade to their chests before they are killed by the blast. Viewers are not spared the sight of torn flesh and blood splattered across the cave walls before the scene changes. How might these visions affect those whose families were directly touched by these forced actions? Is it the right of the media to release footage that shows a man being brutally executed? It is not a matter of freedom of speech: these events could be described in words rather than images, to spare those who are closest to the incident further unnecessary pain.