They Can free essay sample

# 8217 ; t Be The Same Essay, Research Paper November 25, 1996 They Can? t be the Same In communicating between work forces and adult females, the two genders ever communicate otherwise. Traditionally work forces communicate facts straight and are less likely to discourse inside informations that have small to make with the conversation. Women traditionally are more careful about what they say and seek to construct relationships by the manner they communicate. These two signifiers of communicating, direct ( traditional male ) and indirect ( traditional female ) , are consistent throughout most civilizations. There are instances where the work forces communicate indirectly and the adult females straight but non where both the genders communicate in the same manner. ( Lakoff 627 ) If the two genders do pass on in the same manner, there is bound to be serious struggle that normally involves force. The film Thelma and Louise tells the narrative of two adult females who have run off from their traditional functions as adult females. We will write a custom essay sample on They Can or any similar topic specifically for you Do Not WasteYour Time HIRE WRITER Only 13.90 / page They have been put under excessively much force per unit area from society and particularly work forces. Both Thelma and Louise feel a demand to alter their place in society and they do it by altering the manner they communicate. This alteration in communicating between work forces and adult females causes the adult females to take on a stronger and more direct linguistic communication which besides included robbery and slaying. They change from the traditional female signifiers of communicating to a more masculine signifier of communicating. Once they change, the work forces who they come into contact with alteration the manner they communicate every bit good, or they face serious effects. This demonstrates the fact that work forces and adult females are bound to pass on otherwise. In the film, Thelma and Louise respond violently to work forces who communicate straight to them after they have changed their signifier of communicating. These violent reactions are a consequence of the work forces interrupting the cultural ideal that work forces and adult females are bound to pass on otherwise. At the beginning of the film Thelma and Louise, Thelma and Louise were adult females who lived lives of typical American adult females and communicated like one would anticipate a adult female communicate. They were concerned chiefly about their relationships with work forces and tried non to do them mad. However, they needed a interruption from their lives and the two adult females decided to take a speedy holiday. Their lives change when Thelma is raped by a adult male she meets at a saloon. When Louise shoots and kills the raper, after he mocks them, they change the manner they communicate and act with other work forces. They can no longer afford to seek or farther emotional ties with work forces because they are forced to do speedy and decisive determinations. This creates a clear end they must accomplish, and that is to acquire to Mexico to avoid being caught by the jurisprudence. Once they have this clear and concise end ( a trait that a adult male would hold ) , they begin to pass on with work forces more straight. They are less concerned with the emotional ties they have with work forces, and they become focused on a individual end, which is go forthing the state. The two instances where Thelma and Louise cause serious hurting and sorrow to work forces are the consequence of work forces non understanding that Thelma and Louise have changed the manner they communicate. These instances are when the Thelma and Louise pull the truck driver over and when Louise shoots the raper. The lone opportunity any adult male has to convert them of something, was if a adult male communicated like a adult female normally would. But since Thelma and Louise have changed their communicating manner to a more direct manner, they see the direct signifier of communicating towards them as a menace and act to extinguish that menace. In the instance of the raper Harlen, he got caught in the cross over. Louise decided to pass on really straight to the raper which included hiting him in the bosom. By endangering to hit him, it displays that she changed from an indirect signifier of communicating to a direct signifier of communicating. Though force is non by and large thoug ht a signifier of communicating, it conveyed the her feelings towards him really straight and clearly. Harlen did non cognize that Louise had changed her signifier of communicating and preceded to pass on to her really straight by dissing her and utilizing really obscene linguistic communication. When she changed the manner she communicated, she felt compelled to hit him. If he would hold changed his communicating manner to one which is more understanding and concerned, he would hold non been shot because Louise would hold non felt threatened by the him. In the other instance where a adult male does non acknowledge that Thelma and Louise have changed their signifier of communicating is when the two adult females pull the rude and obscene truck driver over and blow up his truck. By this clip in the film, Thelma has evidently changed her signifier of communicating to the same manner that Louise changed to. When they ask this old truck driver to draw over, he is believing that the two adult females are p hysically attracted to him and that they will pass on like traditional adult females. Thelma and Louise are evidently non, and are merely shaving to acquire some retaliation on him. The truck driver communicates with the two adult females throughout the film. Every clip they pass him on the route, he makes many of wholly un-called-for remarks and gestures towards them. He does non endeavor for any emotional connexion to them like he would if he genuinely knew and understood their manner of communicating. So when he is conned by Thelma and Louise to draw over, they decided to blow up his truck and pass on the fact that they did non appreciate the manner that he treated them. These two illustrations show that communicating manners between work forces and adult females are different. If they are non different, something bad is bound to go on. The two genders must hold different communicating manners because they have learned through culturalization that work forces and adult females communicate otherwise. There has been some sort of apprehension or force that keeps the two genders from pass oning in the same manner. Lakoff describes this understood force as being # 8220 ; ? some deep intrinsic physical and/ or psychological differentiation that irrevocably divides the sexes: The demand for polarisation is really strong. # 8221 ; It may non be consciously understood by all people, but it is subconsciously understood by most since in about every civilization, work forces and adult females are treated otherwise from birth to the terminal of their lives ( Lakoff 625-626 ) . When work forces did alter their manner of communicating when they communicated with Thelma and Louise they were more successful in pass oning with them. With Thelma and Louise pass oning more straight, work forces could non pass on with them straight because this would ensue in violent effects. Most work forces in Thelma and Louise do alter their manner when they communicate with them. Louise? s fellow, Jimmy, changes his signifier of communicating fast and is fundamentally used by the two adult females to assist them get away Besides there is the Police officer, Hal, who is tracking down the Thelma and Louise who uses a more indirect manner in pass oning with the two. Though the ultimate state of affairs for these two work forces turned out negatively, they were able to pass on better with Thelma and Louise than the two work forces who communicated straight to them. In the instance of Hal, the FBI agent, he is forced by Thelma and Louise to pass on indirectly because the two adult females are talking straight to him. He switches over to the indirect signifier every bit shortly as he begins to pass on with Thelma and Louise. He appears excessively be # 8220 ; soft # 8221 ; and to hold some sort of emotional connexion with Thelma and Louise. He truly does non desire anything to go on to them and seems to believe the two? s narrative. Hal has taken this instance personally. One can see this in the concern on his face when he speaks to the suspects on the phone and when he runs after them as they drive over the drop. He asks them # 8220 ; Can? T we sit down and speak about it? # 8221 ; This sounds like something a adult female would state instead than a adult male would state, showing that Hal has changed his signifier over to a more feminine from of communicating. Louise? s fellow, Jimmy, besides takes a more indirect and feminine manner of communicating with Thelma and particularly Louise. He takes this feminine manner to an extreme by allowing Thelma and Louise use him. He gives them money for their flight even though he does non desire them to travel. He is seeking anything to maintain his connexion with Louise. Jimmy can pass on the best with Louise because he approaches her with this feminine manner. This is shown by the long conversations they have while they exchange the money and the clear apprehension they have about each other when they separate. He even asks Louise to get married him while he is giving her the money. Jimmy shows a great demand for familiarity with his proposal and besides he shows his feelings for Louise. This proposal is the ultimate look of connexion with Louise and shows his emotional tie he has to her. He is really unfastened and shows his emotions in his organic structure linguistic communication, which are bes ides features of traditional feminine communicating ( Lakoff 627 ) . The contrast that exists in communicating between work forces and adult females is shown clearly in Thelma and Louise. The film shows what happens when the two genders communicate likewise and otherwise. When they communicate otherwise their is a good apprehension of each other and a greater sense of connexion between the two people pass oning ; which was shown good by the FBI agent Hal and Louise? s fellow Jimmy. When a adult male and a adult female communicated in the same manner, there was struggle between the two. This was illustrated good by the truck driver and the raper Harlen and the struggles they had with Thelma and Louise ; turn outing the point that work forces and adult females must pass on otherwise.