There was this video I came across that talked about why we hate flawed characters from shows or movies that we watch, and it connected how my generation has dealt with their traumas or obstacles that they’ve experienced in their life. It made me realize how different the experience of struggle is interpreted and valued by the individual going through that specific situation. This element of how we judge a character and their development as an individual can also dive into how we perceive nepotism in the celebrity atmosphere, and weirdly enough can be applied to nepotism in different class societies as well, like when someone in your grade is the child of a teacher at the school you both attend or playing on a team and one of your team members is the child of your coach. Overall, the lingering element I hope to leave the audience will be to help them see a different perspective and enhance the core that we’re all going through life and life is a hard thing to go through. Hardships and differences are important to acknowledge, but how far will it help to critique and analyze if there is no safe space to promote growth and positive outcomes for current and future members of society? How will we move forward if we hang onto the past? This does not justify anything in the past that people have experienced such as trauma and socioeconomic struggle, but the promotion of an atmosphere where realistic and approachable change can function presently and in the long run, a more long-lasting culture for society can help older, present, and future generations finally move past certain generational struggle and humanize with societal figures that are idolized and obsessed with in current day culture.
Prof L
Sonya, there’s a bunch of interesting thinking here but I have to say….I’m not completely sure about the connections. So let me try a suggestion or two. You want to link fictional Gen Z characters to real Gen Z folks, and focus on how members of Gen Z feel a pressure to present themselves a certain way. I think something in Harris’ chapter 6 (“Behavior Modification”) might resonate with you; other aspects remind me of the emphasis on celebrity in his chapter 5 “Everybody is a Star”. So I’d definitely recommend one of those two chapters for our group reading project next week. Either of them will help you think about competition and self-promotion and the emotional difficulties attached to these activities (which, Harris argues, are essentially impossible for Millenials—and perhaps older Zers?—to avoid)….
Sonya Nguyen
I will be shifting my research paper to generational trauma. What is trauma? How does generational influence play a factor into trauma? How has generational trauma affected the current oldest generation that’s still alive? How has this infiltrated into the generations after them? This will help go towards the importance of understanding younger generations and bring more awareness to generational influence.
Prof L
Sonya, I was thinking about this comment when I read your 3-2 response to. “The Joy Luck Club.”. The reason I say this is, trauma studies is a VAST interdisciplinary field that has been developing since the 1980s. (Which makes it a young field, in scholarly terms, but still a vast area to explore.). And even the generational perspective still gives you a vast literature….Could you be persuaded to think more about trauma as a theme in works of art (or maybe just movies) that represent immigrant histories over generational boundaries? It might mean looking for & a a few more films…..