ipl-logo

Analyzing John Berger's Essay 'Ways Of Seeing'

1890 Words8 Pages

Mark Ching
Professor H.O. Alvarez
ENG 1A
18 May 2018
Are we in the Matrix?
John Berger’s essay “Ways of Seeing” (1972) speaks on the topic that the visual can be manipulated in order to make the observer see from the manipulator’s perspective. Berger states the meaning of art is being changed, and that art is occasionally being mystified due to the lack of understanding. Berger explains his topic on how the art historians alter the visual arts for their own whim in his writing and while not directly correlated, Wachowski in his film The Matrix (1999) represent the possibility that one’s perspective of reality can be distorted by what one sees. The minds of humans can be seen in the matrix to be just completely oblivious to the fact that …show more content…

The relationship between the original work of art and the reproduction has changed as it is easily capable to bring multiple copies of the original piece to the masses, thanks to ever so advancing technology and multiple ways of reproducing a picture. As the copy of the piece is not the original there can be any numbers of meanings attached to it, Berger argues in his text “In the age of pictorial reproduction of paintings the meaning is no longer attached to them; their meaning becomes transmittable […] It is not a question of reproduction failing to Lennon 2 reproduce certain aspects of an image faithfully; it is a question of reproduction making it possible, even inevitable, that an image will be used for many different purposes and that the reproduced image, unlike an original work, can lend itself to them (Berger 24-25). This can all be seen throughout the film The Matrix as the two main characters who are trying to cover up the “real” world and the other trying to keep the fraud up. This is clearly represented in the scene which Agent Smith is interrogating Morpheus and says “The perfect world was a dream that your primitive cerebrum kept trying to wake up from. Which is why the Matrix was redesigned to this: the peak of your …show more content…

The freedom is seen in both pieces as in the film the freedom is to escape the suffering and tragedy of life in the real world and live in a world where one can be a self-supporting Lennon 4 individual in a capitalist society. As Laura Bartlett and Thomas Byers in their essay “Back to the Future” assert about The Matrix, “In the film, the hallucination is thematized; it is not only an electronic illusion, but also an ideological one. […] The Matrix metaphorized our willingness to fantasize that the ‘freedom’ rhetoric of e-capitalism accurately reflects our reality and our propensity to marvel at our technological innovations even in the face of mass alienation and social malaise (Bartlett and Byers 31). The freedom of one individual in the matrix becomes something of capitalism, as in the matrix the world represents the peak of human life. One would be engulfed by the freedom they were expiring at the time when they were in the matrix nothing more nothing less, as all the advances of technology makes up for the lack of human interaction. Bartlett and Byers assert further when they describe and quoting the character of Cypher, “the villains are those who side with the pleasant virtual against the gritty real, such as the traitor Cypher […] While meeting with Agent Smith in the

Show More
Related
734 Words | 3 Pages

Freedom is portrayed a lot in the book, In chapter six it says, ““Don’t you wish you were free, Lenina?” “I don’t know what you mean. I am free. Free to have the most wonderful time. Everybody’s happy nowadays” (Huxley).

Read More
1112 Words | 5 Pages

“The Story Of a Houf” by Kate Chopin and “Harrison Bergeron” by Kurt Vonnegut dwell into the the similar themes of societal constraints by providing new insight throughout both stories for us to perceive the human mind more differently. Through the examination of Kate Chopin’s short story “The Story Of an Hour” and Kurt Vonnegut’s “Harrison Bergeron” readers can grasp the central idea of societal constraints and try to take possession of individualism, both stories show readers tension in societal norms. Firstly, readers can grasp a fraction of the primary theme in Harrison Bergeron by how the author depicts and describes his story throughout. The primary theme is that if us humans have absolute equality, then dangers would quickly follow due

Read More
955 Words | 4 Pages

“Harrison Bergeron” is a short fiction written by Kurt Vonnegut, the story is set in the year 2081, and it talks about a futuristic society where all people are equal. No one is smarter, beautiful or stronger than the other, and if someone happens to be better than the others they find themselves compelled by The United States Handicapper General to wear what they call “handicaps” in order to bring down their abilities to the most basic levels as the others. Throughout the story, Vonnegut expresses a strong and vigorous political and social criticism of some historical events in the US during 1960s such as the Cold War and Communism, television and American Culture and Civil Rights Movement. “Harrison Bergeron” was published in 1961 during that time several events were happening around the world in general and in the US in specific which was engaged in a series of political and economic crisis with the communist Soviet Union know as The

Read More
923 Words | 4 Pages

One common afternoon in the year of 2081, when everyone was equal, Hazel and George Bergeron were in their lovely living room watching television. Suddenly, a news reporter with a severe speech impediment came on. After trying many times to say, “Good morning ladies and gentlemen,” he handed it off to a ballerina who read, “Harrison Bergeron, age 14, has just escaped from jail, where he was held on suspicion of plotting to overthrow the government. He is a genius and an athlete, is under-handicapped, and should be regarded as extremely dangerous.” However, in this short story “Harrison Bergeron”, Kurt Vonnegut uses irony, shift and mood, and allusion to illustrated haw society would be if everyone was under the law of equality.

Read More
635 Words | 3 Pages

Sam Summers Mattera 3 10/22/17 Throughout their lives, many people feel that being the same as everyone else is pointless. Athletes train and practice most of their lives to be better than the competition. They want to win championships, and trophies, so they don’t want to be the same as other athletes. In school, students compete and study so they can beat out other students to get into prestigious colleges, or receive academic awards and scholarships.

Read More
465 Words | 2 Pages

While reading the short story, “Harrison Bergeron”, the recurring aspects of a utopia to dystopia narrative came to light. A true paradise that is constructed in a story invisions a flawless society. However, over time the higher power becomes deluded from their overall mortality, turning the fairy tail society into a complete disaster. It is hard to say that composing all aspects of life to be “equal” is the right way to live. It seems far too senseless, especially equaling out characteristics such as appearances or specific talents.

Read More
1735 Words | 7 Pages

Harrison Bergeron, a story written by Kurt Vonnegut Jr, shows a society where everyone is the same, no one is- or allowed to be, better than anyone else. The story takes place in a futuristic society during 2081. The main two people in this story are Hazel and George Bergeron. George, along with most people, has sacks filled with birdshot, and a handicap radio.

Read More
1823 Words | 8 Pages

The short story “Harrison Bergeron”, was first published in October 1961 issue of Fantasy and Science Fiction. Some other works Kurt Vonnegut has written are, “Player Piano”, “The Sirens of Titan”, “Mother Night”, and “Cats Cradle” are just a few of the novels Vonnegut has written. Kurt Vonnegut has drawn on facts and incidents in his own life in his writings. Kurt’s short stories range from visions of future societies, that are extensions of modern societies. Many of his writings are ones that are science fiction.

Read More
636 Words | 3 Pages

Freedom is when you are able to do what you want, when you want, being worry and trouble free. In George Orwell 's book, 1984, some of the characters, like Winston, do not have freedom due to the fear instilled by the Thought Police. The Thought Police, which are affiliated with The Party, prevent the occurrence of Thoughtcrime, much like the law enforcement system system in the United States. The Party they choose for Winston a career that he might or might not be suited for. He is not even able to pursue a marriage partner that he wants to spend his life with, The Party chooses for him.

Read More
296 Words | 2 Pages

In tying Benjamins’ views of reproductions with Bolten and Grusin’s hypermediacy, the metaphor of a magician and a surgeon by Benjamin (1936) is a great example to describe how audiences interact with the artwork, where the traditional museum is the magician and the virtual museum is the surgeon. “The magician heals a sick person by the laying on of hands; the surgeon cuts into the patient’s body. The magician maintains the natural distance between the patient and himself….he greatly increases [this distance] by virtue of his authority. The surgeon does exactly the reverse; he greatly diminishes the distance between himself and the patient by penetrating into the patient’s body” (Benjamin, 1936: page number). Where the audience can enlarge

Read More
1013 Words | 5 Pages

Homogenising the public’s reaction on seeing moving images around the turn of the twentieth century, the scene elicits astonishment, mesmerizing spectators on seeing paintings in motion, and therefore constitutes the film as a modern cinema of attractions. Labelling What Dreams May Come as an exhibition of technological innovation is cogent, and in reality should not be intrinsically tied to the narrative of the film. Truthfully, audiences should respect the film’s ingenuity as it introduced revolutionary special effect techniques and

Read More
2330 Words | 10 Pages

Benjamin did not see technology as harmful to art as he believed that “a work of art has always been reproducible” (Benjamin 218). Since Benjamin saw that art was inherently reproducible, no matter the age, the presence of technology only ameliorated art as a whole. Despite Benjamin’s acceptance of the mechanical presence in art, his counterpart Adorno did not welcome the decaying presence of the aura as readily. Adorno’s essay, written two years later, was both a response and a critique of Benjamin’s piece.

Read More
557 Words | 3 Pages

In his short story Harrison Bergeron, Kurt Vonnegut uses an astounding amount of powerful imagery and diction to create the perfect scenes of the dystopian reality he creates. Throughout his use of imagery, Vonnegut creates scenes palpably imagined by readers. He uses underlying humor to lighten scenes of the morbid and macabre nature of the future where being different can be a death sentence. The future that is created in totality by Vonnegut is a dire scene created to be filled with a pastiche of people strung with handicaps to make them to be exactly the same as the “perfectly average citizen.” Vonnegut’s tone throughout is both dreary towards the bizarre and twisted dystopia that makes everyone equal, but is also somewhat insulting to those who do not bear handicaps due to being lacking both mentally and physically.

Read More
1600 Words | 7 Pages

Freedom is an idea that can be identified and interpreted in a variety of ways. It can be thought of as equality or the simple ability to roam freely. In the grand scheme of things, however, freedom is the idea that anyone can live without doubt that no force is holding them back in any way, shape, or form. In some cases, the idea that people are free can be manipulated, as their perception of freedom may change to suit the likes of others with the ability of manipulation. In the novel, Brave New World, Aldous Huxley explores the concept of freedom and how people can be misled into believing they are free using certain tactics.

Read More
1223 Words | 5 Pages

According to Bazin, today no one recognizes the ontological link between the body and a representation: “No one believes any longer in the ontological identity of model and image, but all are agreed that the image helps us to remember the subject and to preserve him from a second spiritual death”. The need for survival after death is no longer a concern for the arts, instead, now the focus is on “the creation of an ideal world in the likeness of the real, with its own temporal identify.” Today the plastic arts aim to create a virtual world that is near the realms of realism and has nothing to do with life and afterlife. This explains why photography and cinema caused “the great spiritual and technological crisis that overtook modern painting” in the 1850s.

Read More

More about Analyzing John Berger's Essay 'Ways Of Seeing'

Related Topics

Open Document