Ethical Issues In Video Games Media Essay

Ethical Issues In Video Games Media Essay The industry of Electronic-gaming has developed into one of the most successful industries in the present technical world. According to an article issued by Entertainment Software Association (ESA, 2011), this particular industry has a huge target market of approximately USD 25 billion. The electronic-gaming industry has turned out to be one of the most successful businesses around the world. The current era is where people depend on connectivity through technology. In addition, the computer gaming industry has brought in tremendous job opportunities by providing nearly 120,000 jobs to the global business market (ESA, 2011). Meanwhile the disadvantages faced due to computer usage are also rising steadily not only in countries like USA but also in all the European countries where people are going through a lot of issues with regard to video-games. Researchers around the world are coming out with the bitter fact that most of the teenagers are being affected by the amount of violence involved in these video games which would cause psychological impacts and bring about addiction. The negative effects of video games are rising drastically along with the advancements of the technologies. Initially the target markets of the electronic gaming industry were youngsters, but nowadays people of all age categories seem to be addicted to video-games. According to the statistics of ESA (2011) it was publicized that 42% of the gamers are females and 58 % of gamers comprise of male players. At the same time another research states that about 72% of household American citizens are playing computer or video games whereas the average of 29% represent people above 50 years. Thus, the aforementioned points brings in to light that the evolution of video-games resulted due to rapid technological advancements. However, it should also be noted that there are always two sides for a coin, in this case the pros and cons involved within the industry should be looked at. The issues in relation to this particular industry can be identified as health issues, legal issues, social issues, professional issues and most importantly ethical issues that are rising on a daily basis. The major social concern associated with electronic gaming is violence and serious aggression towards the society. According to the research conducted by Jummy Et Al, (n.d) of Indiana University School of Medicine, about violent games, it was proved that playing a violent video game directly influences self-control and attention, which not only impacts the player but also indirectly affects the society as well. These kind of serious issues are attracting public awareness in an immense scale. The violence attached to the video-games has been subjected to extensive debate over the years. Jimmy et al, (n.d) also states that violent Video-games reflect a more harmful approach than violent movies and television-dramas due to the interaction between the game and the players. This social issue also opens up different perceptions where an example can be quoted as such games spread disgraceful incidents among the teenagers and children, enabling them to get used to such incidents and consider them as a normal behaviour. According to AFP (2010) a 14 years old boy killed his father by using a sledgehammer since his father had disturbed his computer game. Consequently, it can be concluded that the teenagers mind-set has been changed and dominated by violence and serious aggression. This violence he exposed to the society was because of the game that he used to play. David Walsh (2007) states that playing violent games directly stimulates physiological problems such as pro-social effects, concerns, etc. To rationalize more, we are living in a country where most of the people are with sentimental values, so feelings and behaviours are more important to us. By playing violent video-games, it first affects our feelings as human beings where we have to respect others as our culture is based on good feelings and good behaviours. As mentioned above, playing aggressive games will affect both the feelings and behaviours of humans and as a result, an individual would lose the value of humanity. In addition, Davi d Walsh (2007) signifies that 63 % of the students who are playing aggressive video-games have more tendencies to be involved in physical fights or violent activities as such which enables in changing the teenagers mind-set as per the game. Therefore as a result, playing violent video-games is a serious antagonism that would affect the society and the individual humans behaviour. For an example according to Cleancutmedia (2009) biggest story of video game related to violence history was re-written due to Danil Petric who was 23 years old, who viciously shot his mother and father where mother was dead at the incident and luckily Danils fathers life was rescued. The reason for this unusual behaviour was that he was addicted to a violent aggressive game called Halo 3 which contained very violent pictures and videos. One day his father didnt let him play that particular game and this was the cause of this incident. After this incident, reporters identified that he used to play that game up to 7 hours per day. This meticulous incident proves the mentioned point above because violence and serious aggression cause many social issues since playing violent games do not only affect the individual who is playing that game, but it also affects the family that he/she belongs to and their society as well. The society can be affected due to violence and serious antagonism; therefore this point can be categorized as a social issue. Considering the above mentioned issues with the social public interests, the society is not benefited at all by playing violent video-games and they have exposed their serious aggression towards the society which have already affected the people in a harmful way and also can affect the society in future as well. As mentioned above these social concerns brought another critical aspect in to light which is known as health issues. According to Sciencedaily (2011), it demonstrated that video-games may have substantial behavioural problems such as pro-social effects and concerns, varying psychological problems and etc. To justify within this range Mitchell (2011) also favours the earlier argument saying spending lots of time with video-games lead to situations with addiction, isolation, depression, social phobias and it would directly drag that person into various physiological issues. As Sciencedaily (2011) explains, pathological gamers usually play games approximately 31 hours per week and due to those reasons it will directly affect the human physical body as well. Latest research reveals that playing games for long hours directly affects the muscles, joints and can cause back and neck pains as well. Especially teenagers who play for at least 5 hours a day will experience the above mentioned h ealth issues (Better Health, 2011). According to BBC News (2005) a South Korean person who almost played StarCraft 3 for more than 50 hours nonstop with very few breaks died due to a heart failure. Another real world incident took place in Northern China where a man who was addicted to playing online games was reported dead after spending lot of time for online gaming, and the doctors identified that his blood pumping was improper which caused that death (Spencer, 2007). By only considering these two incidents we cannot come to a conclusion but undeniably these incidents justifies that playing games for long hours can seriously cause damage to human physical body. According to Dillner (2011) video-games also make teenagers put on weight because they just play the video-games with full comfort and there is insufficient physical exercise. So according to her explanation it also affects the hand and fingers due to the constant contact with the keyboard or joystick. Dr. Douglas, A. Gentile who conducted many researches based on video-games addiction and human psychology, argued that spending lot of time in playing games or anything cannot be clarified as addiction. He also states that it might be a symptom of addiction (Dr.douglashn, n.d). His research clearly agrees that addicted gamers reflect serious issues with society since they dont like to make friends, lack of socialization and also there are possibilities of them having many health issues as well; for example sleep disturbances, headaches etc. In this modern world people are also concerned about personal health in that way spending too much time on video-games will eventually cause a darker tomorrow as health issues directly affects the society in a harmful way. Hence, the above mentioned points identify health issues to be one of the main concerns of electronic gaming. Video games have positive and negative sides while looking into social issues. By considering the above given examples it was clearly pictured, showing how a society is affected by various violent and aggressive video-games. According to Professor Mark Griffith (n.d.) of Nottingham Trent University, video games are proved to be a distraction for those undergoing painful cancer treatments. In a study which was conducted in year 2004 by Butch Rosser, a surgeon of Laparoscopy, he studied the surgical skills of surgeons playing video games and surgeons who did not. It was astonishing to know from the results, that surgeons playing video games were faster in action and made lesser mistakes during work than those who did not play video games. Video games that include simulation of real world scenarios are becoming popular. A game called Americas Army introduced by United States, replicates a real wartime experience which is going to help and train new recruits. It is a known fact that violent aggressive video games do not positively contribute to an individual or societal development. But such games could stabilize violence as a familiar and acceptable option in order to deal with conflicts. In this case there are various positive video games being introduced in order to educate youth about some of the societal issues around the world. Examples of such games would be: Food Force, Darfur is Dying, UNICEF World Heroes, Peter Packet and etc. These types of games could serve as valuable tools in educating our youth about ways in which video-games could bring in positive societal changes by increasing the helping tendency, reducing violence and etc. When it comes to the ethical aspect of video-games it is not straight forward as the above mentioned social issues. Addiction to these aggressive games could be classified as the most debated ethical concerns during the past decade. According to Jimmy Dan et.al (n.d), some of the Video-games such as Mortal combat, Warcraft and Grand-theft-auto are highly addictive. In the same report they have disclosed a real example of how addiction affects an individuals life. These real stories justify that addiction to violent games affect negatively for a particular individual. Arguments might arise as to why people are addicted to violent video-games. According to ESA (2011)s research, it reveals that only 3.8 % people buy video games based on strategy, fight category represent 8.4% buying behaviour, whereas 15.8% of people buy shooting based video-games. These statistics simply exhibits the buying behaviour and most importantly a considerable percentage likes to buy action or fight category b ased video-games rather than buying a normal game. As already mentioned game developers target the teenagers and they produce insistent games because most of the teenagers are drawn towards them. Consequently, targeting a specific age group and producing violent video games directly violates the universal ethical principles such as respect for others, honesty and fairness. To sustain and survive in the electronic-gaming market, the developers will not stop creating such aggressive video-games since it has a huge demand. But really is it wrong to create or develop violent video-games? Are playing and creating such violent video-games the only factors that affect the social responsibility of a person? These video-games provide a virtual world to do things that we cannot do in our real world. It gives an opportunity to experience these things in a virtual manner without harming anyone. But then again considering the above mentioned issues, the society is not benefited at all by playing violent games. They have exposed their serious aggression towards the society which has already affected the people in harmful ways in the past and this can affect the society in the future as well. As mentioned previously, ethical issues can be addressed in both ways but according to the studies and incidents just because the industry targets on achieving greater profits its ethically wrong to encourage abnormality in people. Even to validate this action we can use deontological theory. The ethical concerns have brought in another very crucial aspect which forms the cheats for video-games. According to Morch (2003) cheats in most of the games happens in MMOG (Massive Multiplayer Online Games) such as WarCraft III and Air Warrior. Cheating opens up different perceptions such as, if the players could use cheats and if the game is easier to play why do we have to play without cheating? Is it ethical to cheat the game where the other players do not use cheats in their games? Many researches were conducted to rationalize that particular argument. According to Morch (2003) it clearly says that 35% of the online games were being hacked in 1997 and undeniably now it is expected to rise more because nowadays technology is much more advanced than the good old days. According to Aboukhadijeh (2009) hackers or cheaters are a real challenge to the game developers and these people are violating the ethical principles such as respecting others, treating others as equal, honesty and acting with integrity. Hackers or cheaters who are cheating in video-games are taking unethical advantage over the particular game, by undertaking various strategies. Importantly after cheats and bugs were released into the society the value of a particular game would gradually decrease. Besides Morch (2003) mentioned that due to modifying original game into cheatable game the value will reduce significantly. For example, after the launch of a game called Battlefield in 1942, the game market was very high but after sometime it drastically went down due to cheats. According to Morch (2003), it mentions that usually game cheaters use two different methods to cheat in games such as cheating by conspiracy or cheating by modifying games software or data. They simply do this fo r different purposes where some game cheaters make fraudulent money in some game competitions. Because of these unethical practices the virtual gaming world is being destroyed constantly and also by cheating or getting unethical advantage over the game process is directly violating several ethical principles such as fairness, equality, honesty etc. In order to justify, deontological theory also says that cheating in video-games action itself is wrong. So cheating in any form of the game is clarified as an ethical issue because there is no regulation for its avoidance. When it comes to Law and Regulations for video-games it represents many faces in todays world. Video-games related to legal issues have many aspects and first legal concern would be selling highly adultery content games to under aged. This concern is debated all over the world but no country has been able to fulfil all the hauls in selling adultery content to under aged. Outlaw (2008) indicates that due to technological improvements and various other facilities gaming industry have witnessed a lot of criticism on various social attributes, politics etc. Selling adultery content to under aged can affect the retailer who knowingly sells it. According to Outlaw (2008), previous law was not a successful one because the percentage for retailers for defending their side was high. In the same article it mentions that 87% of teenagers playing highly adultery contented video games. And in the particular case of Online retailers caught selling adult games to under-age boy (Hussain, 2013), the online sellers have sold adultery games to an under aged boy. These distributions of sexual video-games among under aged children directly violates Video Recording Act of 1984 (UK) under section 7 (classification certificates section), under section 2 both (A) and (B) and it also violates PEGI (Pan-European Game Information) rating system 2011 (UK). Hantsweb (2012) indicates that some game companies who produces heavy sexual behaviour related content, criminal activities, horrific pictures and video clips in their video-games has to submit it to the BBFC (British Board of Film Classification) and then obtain a certification before the game can be released to the market. Even in this case most of the companies undervalue this process and they simply reduce the age range instead of submitting the video for BBFC. Hence, this is another anxiety that arises in courts and opens to society, therefore not submitting the games for BBFC classification can be guilty and the company will have to pay around GBP 20,000 as penalty or they might even have to accept 6 months of imprisonment. The above mentioned legal issues can have another perception where the games are based on extreme content of nudity and continuous disturbing sceneries in any form. In order to protect gaming industry from various bad influences and crimes, certain countries such as UK, USA and many European countries build their own voluntary regulations such as PEGI (Pan-European Game Information) etc. Nevertheless, extreme nudity within the video-games may affect the laws and regulations by creating a computer game that contains extreme nudity and violence. This may directly affect the countrys civil constitution. So if the game contains of any nudity or extreme violence, it will clearly violate Digital Economy Act 2010 (UK), Section 2 of the Video Recordings Act 1984 (UK) Conditions relating to video games (section 2- a, b, f and h) and can be penalised accordingly. Mitchell (2010) mentions that heavy rain game was officially banned from U.A.E due to extreme nudity and violence but initially it was approved by PEGI. Various researchers highlighted that these games initially got the approval from PEGI but were banned in the country because that game may affect the civil regulations which are prevailing in the country. GamesLatest (2010) gives another example that God of war III was also officially banned from Dubai due to high level of nudity and violence. These electronic games create a huge number of negative ethical impacts as shown in the above context, but there are a comparable number of positive impacts as well. Entertainment Software Rating Board (ESRB) rating is a method where positive impacts could be brought in where parents could identify which game is good and suitable for their children. It is the responsibility of the government to implement an improved rating system with greater features given to the extent of violence and aggression in the games. This scheme would educate parents and help them use the rating tool and to identify the best suitable games for their children. Along with these social, ethical and legal issues video-games do have professional issues as well. First professional concern would be in terms of the developers point of view relating to the current computer rating system which is critical for identification of that particular game. As already mentioned the developers make their game for a target group of people; for example, ESA (2011) states that most teenagers enthusiasm is towards buying an action or fight based computer game. Therefore it sets the conditions for the developers to consider that particular segment in addressing their developing agendas. Onyett (2010), mentions that top 10 video-games contains 7 action games and among that 7 action games, five are rated as 17+. This clearly demonstrates the video-game customers buying behaviours. Many video-games are being miss-rated for their own benefits and some of them are miss-rated accidently as well. According to Sinclare (2006), ESRB has miss-rated the best-selling Elder S crolls IV: Oblivion game as Teen and then they have rerated it as Mature. The customers who would have bought the game already would have been affected by its miss-rated content. This has clearly breached BCSs code of conducts under Public Interest Section (A) and Under Duty to the profession Section (A). In this case they have been only concerned about their business benefits and they have neglected the concern towards the public. Another critical concern about professional issues is when creating video-games, do the game developers follow professional code of conducts. Vitally some video-game developers build their video-games to address various hidden things. According to Clark (2008), it is stated that in a game called Muslim Massacre, virtual people represented by the players in the game as soldiers and enemies were characterized as Muslims. The development of this kind of games directly affects a particular ethnic community. This clearly violates BCSs code of conducts under public interest section A and B. Maintaining the professional code of conduct would prevent negative issues and bring in positive issues which would enhance good professional practices. Video-games have been a great invention to virtualize the real world scenarios and it gives people an opportunity to do almost anything in these virtual environments. By referring to the issues mentioned above we may conclude that video-games do have issues related to social, ethical and professional aspects to address. In order to minimize the negative impacts caused by electronic games, parents will have to implement necessary steps before the child gaining bad experiences by playing video-games. A method of prevention by parents could be by confining their children playing aggressive video-games before they fall into the stage of addiction. Another way of handling these types of circumstance is always to convert the childs necessity by providing an alternative game instead of violent video games. The best preventive method to create a change in the childs mind is that the parents ability to educate their own children about video-games and essentially what so ever the game is, pare nts should allocate a specific time period for their children to play. This can reduce the children getting addicted to video-games. Addictive situations could also be prevented by not letting a person alone when he or she is playing a video game, as it could bring in addiction and isolation. Members of the family or parents being around would be a reminder of the real world and would prevent the player being consumed by the virtual environment. Further it is also advisable that parents have a control over the type of games that are purchased and given to the children. In addition research and case studies denote that most of the people living alone would have a higher chance of getting addicted into these video-games. Moreover medical science proves that an individual could involve in certain activities like chatting with friends instead of being alone which could reduce the addictive situation. The modern world is driven by technology and there is very less human interaction. Outd oor games and gathering among friends and family have reduced by a large scale enabling teenagers to draw a circle around them and be in isolation. Companies are driven purely by profit-making motives and there is less importance given for ethical and professional conduct. The benefit and welfare of the society at large is ignored. The electronic gaming industry at its initial stages had more strategy games that provide greater space for creativity and strategic thinking. Eventually the movie industry moved towards heightened violence and to be in line with the trend companies included more and more violence within these video games as well. Hence manufacturers of these games should take into consideration the damage that is caused to the community and develop games in a way that is less harmful to the human psychology. Regulators and professional bodies should also ensure that appropriate certification is given prior to these games being released to the market. Stringent penalties should be put in place for companies that violate these laws. Finally, the gaming industry, just as all other commercial industries, would have profitability and sustainability at its core but achieving its objectives in an ethical and professional way should be as equally important so that a better society can be nurtured.

Oprah Winfrey Eulogy for Rosa Parks Essay

This paper will evaluate the Oprah Winfrey Eulogy for Rosa Parks â€Å"†¦God uses good people to do great things.† The purpose of this speech to evaluate Oprah Winfrey speech utilizing the critical thinking skills that have been acquired during term. The paper explains the purpose of the speech as well as answers questions to why words or phases were selected. Given the General Education Assignment in my Critical Thinking class was to evaluate the famous eulogy that Oprah Winfrey had spoken on October 31, 2005 at Metropolitan AME Church in Washington, D.C. for Rosa Parks. This speech was given in front of Reverend Braxton, family, friend, admirers, and the amazing choir. The purpose of this speech was for people to understand young Oprah’s Winfrey appreciation of Rosa Parks and what she did Oprah’s speech is about the effect that Rosa Parks had on her as a child growing up in the South, during height of the Civil Rights Movement. Oprah remembered as a child, how her father explained to her about this colored woman (Rosa Parks) who had refused to give up her seat and in her mind, she thought â€Å"she must be really big.† Oprah imagined that Rosa Parks must be at least 100 feet tall and must be a stalwart, strong, and carrying a shield to hold back all the white folks. This is especially significant, considering that unlike the few black public figures of the time who were ministers, athletes, and entertainers. Rosa Parks was a regular person, a house keeper who rode the bus like young Oprah herself. Oprah Winfrey began to state how it was an honor for her as a â€Å"colored person† to be able to present a speech for a well known African American female hero. I personally found it interesting that Oprah used the term â€Å"colored† to describe African American people considering it’s been deemed inappropriate for the better part of the last forty years or so. This term â€Å"colored† is offset by a set of quotations which relates back to Fundamentals of Critical Thinking by Burton Porter in Chapter 2, where he states that in the process of communication we usually employ wo rds to convey some meaning, but occasionally we refer only to the words themselves and not to what they convey. We know that in this case Oprah was using this word because it had a particular meaning which grouped all African American people. Oprah intentionally used this term that was looked at as negative at the time to exalt Rosa Park’s and her accomplishments This relates to how oppressed people has used terms to denigrate them and turn them around as terms of endearment or pride. Oprah’s speech went on to describe how Rosa’s sacrifices inspired her to become the woman that she became today. â€Å"Without that inspiration, after being raped at age 9 and having a baby at age 14, she may not have been able to work on the radio while still in high school or co-anchored the local evening news at age 19.† www.Oprah.com Oprah Winfrey was headed towards to the life of being a regular person just as Rosa Parks, living a normal life as many other African Americans, fighting for equal rights. Oprah also thanked Rosa for herself, and for every colored girl, and colored boy, who didn’t have heroes who were celebrated. Referring back to Porter in Chapter 10, this was an inductive generalization of Rosa Park’s impact on Oprah and the world in general. Inductive generalization tends to get us in trouble as if did for Oprah in this speech because there was only a few sample statements based on one or two instances where a conclusion was drawn. Porter quotes George Hegel â€Å"An idea is always a generalization, and generalization is a property of thinking; to generalize means to think.† I would personally say this speech was very informal as it didn’t give specific examples of how Rosa actions impacted Oprah’s trajectory. There is no definitive evidence that what Rosa Parks did impacted Oprah going on to become the most successful talk show host in the history of broadcasting. Don’t tell that to Oprah because she stated herself that she would not be where she is today if it had not been for Rosa Parks. Overall, I believe that although this was an inductive speech, it highlighted Rosa Park’s impact on Oprah Winfrey and the Country in general. The language and terminology used in this speech does relate closely to the understanding of today’s literature. This speech was presented in a very straight forward way. The fact that Rosa Park’s did not give up her seat on the bus, to a white male, has made history for the Equal Rights Movement. Reference 1. www.Oprah.com 2.The Fundaments of Critical Thinking. Burton F. Porter Copyright 2002.

Michael Gow’s “Away” Essay

Drama is a genre that is deliberately written for performance, and therefore, the reader’s understanding of the characters and issues is always improved by its staging. â€Å"Staging† in Drama means the process or manner of putting a play on stage. This refers to the positioning of the characters and props, the way the actors move, the way they use their voice and how the character looks. Gore Vidal once said, â€Å"A talent for Drama is not a talent for writing, but an ability to articulate human relationships.† By this, Vidal meant that to convey a play properly, association between the characters has to be real, dynamic action that captures the attention of an audience. Away is a charming play that deals with family, relationship, life, growing up and death. It depicts the final months leading up to the disintegration of the condition of Tom, a boy dying from Leukaemia. In the final stages of his life, he is desperate to achieve all that a normal person would in his short lifetime. Emily McPherson of the Age newspaper says, â€Å"This moving play prompts us to consider what is ultimately most important in our lives,† and also considers how relevant it is to Australians, even today, noting that â€Å"Every Australian can relate to this play and learn about the deeper meaning to life†. One factor of staging is Stage Directions. These are the way the playwright communicates with the director in regards to movements and actions of characters, positioning of props, and types of sets. These aspects affect the way the audience views a scene, as they can reveal issues, power relations, social positioning, and relationships between characters. In the last Act of Away, an entire scene is performed only through Stage Directions, yet it is a major scene in the conclusion of Away. This scene depicts the returning of Coral to her husband, Roy, and the subsequent resolution of their differences. Jim and Gwen are reconciled as well. In the case of Roy and Coral, the audience sees their reconciliation through the symbolic offering of the shells to Roy from Coral. With just stage directions, we can tell that this is Coral offering herself, her old self, to Roy. She is asking for forgiveness and we know through Roy’s kissing of  the shells and Coral herself that he has accepted her apology. The directions on the positioning of the characters on stage have to be effective to avoid audience confusion, as there is often split scenes. The way the set is used (â€Å"use of space†) is a useful medium to show conditions of the scene. These can include time of day, where the scene is set, the time period of which the scene was set, and the motives of the characters. Props are often included to add reality to the scene and often offer symbolism relating to the character that uses them. On Christmas Day at the campsite that Gwen’s family is staying at, Gwen, rushes onto the scene with a 12-inch fake Christmas tree and announces â€Å"If you want to have a Christmas you’d better get started now so we can get it over with. Hurry up. I don’t spending half the day sitting around waiting for people to open their presents.† This Christmas tree, being fake, represents Gwen’s resentment of Christmas- she obviously thinks it is a real chore. This does not make Meg and Jim’s Christmas real- their they are, on a day that is supposed to promote goodwill, the importance of the family and other relevant values, and their mother and wife is acting like she’d rather be any other place than with them- this day is an inconvenience. Characterisation can be defined as the representation of a character on the stage, especially by imitating actions, gestures, or speeches. Every element that combines to make a character is included in characterisation. Costumes are a helpful channel of symbolism and we can learn different things about the characters, both in connotative and deconnotative ways. To exemplify this, look at Vic’s new sunhat, which she comments on in Act Three, Scene Five- â€Å"I love my new hat.† This sunhat represents her role as the dominant partner in the family through Harry’s line â€Å"We could have sheltered under your hat.† The charisma of the sunhat reveals not only her personal charisma, but as this hat is only worn during the holiday, shows what a great time they are having on vacation. Tom also wears a Hawaiian shirt during the beach holiday scene, reflecting his laidback character. This is just one of many hints that are given to the reader to show Tom’s parallels with Puck, even though this one is very subtle. Tom acts and represents the catalyst, through his resolve and vitality; despite the disease he gives  each family hope. He represents the reasons for the reconciliation of each family, just like Puck in A Midsummer Nights’ Dream. Body language can demonstrate relationships between characters and character motive. Gestures show reactions, emotions the character is dealing with and the implications of these emotions. Expressions work similarly to gestures. Both help to put what the character is saying into context. We can see when Tom lies down on the beach during his walk with Meg that he is offering himself to her sexually. Meg rejects this offer. When this scene in viewed in performance, we can tell that Meg is rejecting Tom because she begins backing Away from him and cautiously glancing back at the path they came, wanting to go back to the safety of her parents, where Tom can’t impose anything like this on her. The audience has gone from seeing the two characters walking closely, side by side, to seeing Meg back away, with a different, more guarded attitude, and ultimately leaving him and hurrying back to the campsite. Lighting is helpful in setting a mood for the scene- for example, dark lighting may conjure up a theme of doom and gloom, where as a single spotlight will centre the audience’s attention on that one character. Special Effects are sometimes used in points of extreme climax. An example of a symbolic use of lighting would be in Act Five, Scene 2. It is the last scene of the play and shows the start of the new school year- probably Tom’s last year alive. The lighting becomes bright, summery, morning. This audience can sense that this echoes the dawn of the last stages of Tom’s life. Special Effects, though not noted in the stage directions, could be used during the storm scene, in which Gwen’s family are caught in a fierce storm that leaves the family in even more disarray. Jim describes their feelings like this â€Å"There doesn’t seem to be much use to carry on with your holiday when your van’s a wreck, your boat’s smashed on the rocks and all your clothes are soaked.† The storm embodies the family’s instability and their strained relationships. The reason Tom’s family was bypassed by that storm is because Tom’s family is a happy family who are content with life and the least uncooperative. Special effects highlight climactic points like the storm. Music reflects the dialogue of a scene and can highlight the important issues in the scene. It is also and effective way to set a certain mood or feeling. In Away, Mendelssohn is often referred to in the stage directions. For example, his calming Dreams is played during Act Three, Scene Five, where Tom’s family having a wonderful, relaxing time during there beach holiday. In this case, the music is reflecting the emotions and essence that embodies the scene. Mendelssohn’s music is often referred to in Gow’s stage directions, meaning it is probably the type of music he thinks reflects the play as a whole. Staging will always enhance the audience’s understanding of what is happening on a stage. The reader/audience member’s perspective of the play is always changed through Stage Directions, Characterisation, Music, Lighting, Special Effects and use of space. Earlier, Gore Vidal’s quote, â€Å"A talent for Drama is not a talent for writing, but an ability to articulate human relationships†, was mentioned. When analysing Vidal’s quote, it can be interpreted that Vidal meant that a playwright did not just have to possess the talent of writing, but that to show an accurate portrayal of the relationships that people have to one another, and the ways in which they handle these relationships. It can be deduced that Vidal was referring to the use of not only literature but also staging techniques that would humanise the characters.

My Life Of A Man - 874 Words

What grown some of the personal hate for the male community, were not the humiliations or occasional beatings, when I was a teenager. From the seeming innocent school times to the gruesome times in the military, I have spend an enormous amount of time surrounded by men. Confused about my own gender and not knowing any better, at the time, I ve tirelessly tried to learn and adapt to their culture and adapt to be a man. I wanted to survive, to fit in, wanted to be just one of the normal guys. As soon as I figured out, that instead of beauty, it is the intelligence what men value the most. Computers were becoming a huge part of everyones life, so I knew, that it was a great choice to learn everything about them. I spent years studying them and soon enough, even as a child, I was good enough to make more money than some of the adults in full time jobs. (Thank you Mr. Bill Gates for developing Windows and establishing Microsoft!). Computer knowledge proved to be very effective, because I quickly earned respect and was accepted in successful male social circles. AT this point, the rest of the every day life, became to me, like a game. As long as I played the ball, acted manly the doors were open to me everywhere. By the time I got to the military, I was a pretty good actor and it still ended up being some of the worst times in my life. Its not, that I hated military, or what it stood for - I volunteered to join, because I am idealist, someone, who believed, that I must helpShow MoreRelatedMy Life Of A Man2327 Words   |  10 PagesI’d never shown a man my face. Far less my body. And I never understood how exposing my body or my face, visually, would be disrespectful. So I didn’t speak or associate myself with any man after the age of thirteen. It offended me. The idea of not being able to do things I wanted to do offended me. It was in September 1994 when it began, though two years had passed and I was fifteen. 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