Research Paper

In this research paper I am going to talk about media violence, particularly the cultivation theory, and its connection to the actions and feelings of Oskar Schell. Throughout the novel Oskar talks about how he either wants to or how he does give himself bruises and how he is afraid of people from the Middle East even though he says he is not racist. I believe that the reason Oskar acts and feels this way is because of the way the media has portrayed the violent images from both the 09/11 attacks and the war in Iraq.

The Cultivation Theory believes that television is responsible for shaping or “cultivating” the viewer’s conceptions of reality. Television can either cultivate the viewers into believing something about society, such as fear of others due to the amount of violence shown, or it can cause viewers to be more aggressive towards one another or to themselves. Oskar shows this when he bruises himself or when he fights with his mother whenever he gets upset. A professor by the name of George Gerbner was the founder of the Cultivation Environment Movement in the mid 1960’s. Gerbner believed that there are three levels of television viewers; light, average and heavy. People who are “heavy viewers” watch four or more hours of television each day. Gerbner believed that heavy television viewers develop an exaggerated belief in a mean and scary world or what is known as the “mean world syndrome.” Even though the cultivation theory focused on television, I feel that all media can be grouped together in this theory.

The mean world syndrome is the mindset of general mistrust in others due to the great amount of violence that is shown on television. Oskar shows mistrust in people from the Middle East because of the 09/11 attacks. Even though Oskar stated that he was not racist, he still had a perception that all people from the Middle East are violent. In the mid 1960’s Gerbner found through research, that within a drama there were five violent acts per hour and within a children’s show there were twenty violent acts per hour. He calculated that the average television viewer had observed 13,000 violent deaths by the time they had graduated high school. He believed, along with other cultivation theorists, that television does indeed have long-term effects that can appear small at the time, but in the end can be devastating to an individual. The more Oskar looked at this picture of the falling man, the more he believed that it could be his father. The fact of not knowing what happened to his father ate away at Oskar and the image of the falling man caused Oskar to have many horrible thoughts and dreams.

The US Congress prompted a committee referred to as The Surgeon General’s Advisory Committee to research television violence and its effects. The research began in 1969 and contained content analysis, field experiments, laboratory experiments, observation studies and opinion surveys. There were forty scientists that were all experts in the behavioral sciences and mental disciplines selected to be in charge of the research. The results of the research were very shocking to say none the least.

The research found that eight out of ten dramatized programs contained violence and that in cartoons, the amount of violence increased. The average cartoon held close to six times the amount of violence than the average adult drama, which means that the greatest amount of violence was aired during the hours most likely for young children and teens to view. During the time that the experiment was held, the amount of violence shown on American television was greater than the amount shown by any of the other three nations. Oskar had complete access to Google, which he used often to learn about the 09/11 attacks and to get images from the 09/11 attacks. I believe that a half hour of web surfing shows way more violent images than a half hour of television does.

Also during the research, many children were both surveyed and observed. The surveys found that the greatest amount of television watched was during the sixth grade and after that it slowly declined due to other life activities becoming important; such as high school, college, work, marriage, and starting a family. The surveys also found that the average person watched three hours of television each day and that children who watched the least amount of television, were intellectually brighter than those that watched more. Observing the children, who were heavy television viewers, the scientist concluded that the children would most likely be aggressive to one another when given the opportunity to do so because of the amount of violence that they watched on television. Even though Jimmy Snyder taunted Oskar, Oskar had some disturbing daydreams of getting back at Jimmy like the one involving the play.

The Surgeon General’s Advisory Committee concluded from their research that television is greatly saturated with violent acts that may cause people to either be more violent towards one another or to view the world as a violent place to be. They also found that television did play a significant role in shaping the viewer’s beliefs about society in real life. Oskar beliefs of people from the Middle East was shaped from the 09/11 attacks even though he knew deep down not everyone from the Middle East wants to hurt others.

According to the research that the American Academy of Child and Adolescents Psychiatry has conducted, television can greatly influence children in developing values and shaping behavior. Their research has found that children can become “numb” to television violence, children can become excepting to violence being an option for solving problems, children enjoy imitating the violence they see on television, and children often identify with television characters; both the victims to violence and the violent offenders.

They also have found that children with emotional, behavioral, learning, or impulse control problems may be more easily influenced by television violence than those that don’t have these problems. Even if a child doesn’t have any violence shown to them in their family life, they can still become violent due to what they see on television. Oskar doesn’t appear to be the average young boy…could he possibly fit finding? The study found that it can take just one episode filled with violence to negatively affect a child to be more aggressive and the aggression can show up right away or can take years to come out. It only took one violent day such as 09/11 that caused Oskar’s aggression.

Watching violence on television can also cultivate people to have fear or anxiety. A recent survey that was given to parents that have children between the ages of two and seventeen showed that sixty-two percent of the parents had remembered a time when their child was scared over a violent act that they had seen on television and believed that it would also happen to them. Oskar was scared to go into high buildings or on boats because he was afraid that they would be under another attack. Another survey that was given to 2,000 children and teens showed that heavy television viewing of violence had caused them to experience anxiety, stress, and fear. The children believed that the violence that was committed on television does happen regularly in real life; not just on television shows.

In conclusion to my research, I have found that television and all media sources are full of violence that may cause people to be more aggressive to others or to themselves; especially with young children like Oskar. I have found that many children and adults have experienced fear or anxiety due to the high amount of violence that they have seen on television and in the media and that their perception of reality is cultivated due to the way television and the media portrays these incidents. I support the information that I have found and believe that society does need to open their eyes to what is being shown in the media.

Bibliography

1. Lowery, Shearon and De Fleur, Melvin. Milestones in Mass Communication Research: Surgeon General’s Scientific Advisory Committee on Television and Social Behavior. White Plains, NY: Longman Inc. 1988. Print.

2. American Academy of Child & Adolescent Psychiatry. Children and TV Violence. Aaca. Accessed March 1, 2010.

http://www.aacap.org/cs/root/facts_for_families/children_and_tv_violence

3. Wilson J. Barbara. The Future of Children. Journal Issue: Children and Electronic Media. Princeton. Accessed March 8, 2010.

http://www.princeton.edu/futureofchildren/publications/journals/article/index.xml?journalid=32&articleid=58&sectionid=268

Brandon Dooley
Eng-305
Paper 3
That September Day
One of the main themes exemplified in Foer’s work Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close is how one particular family has been affected by major disastrous events, specifically the Dresden bombings and the 9/11 attacks on the World Trade Center towers. Lives precious to the family were lost, resulting in the mess of painful feelings Foer creatively expresses as a main factor of communication break-down and disconnection between the members. In an effort to cause the reader to understand these types of factors more in-depth, this paper will be dedicated to the 9/11 attacks and the resulting wave of effect that they had on not only individuals, but the nation and the world alike.
Outside the fact that 2,977 American people died in total due to the attacks (Glazier, 2008), one study found that nearly 50,000 rescue workers, office workers, and residents have reported numerous respiratory symptoms, including developments of asthma, loss of lung function, and sinus issues. The asthma was reported to appear during the first 16 months after the attacks. Other respiratory issues were found to be persistent among those affected; four times as many fire-fighters and twice as many EMS workers compared to those found to be affected within the first year after the attacks have been reported experiencing lower than normal lung function 6-7 years after the attacks. Other studies have found that sarcoidosis, acid reflex, and other gastro-esophageal reflex disorders have appeared in affected people. (Annual Report on 9/11 Health, 2010)
Beside physical health decline, many mental illnesses also developed in the aftermath. The most common of these, “identified by a positive screening using a standardized psychological assessment tool,” is post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). Those screening positive for PTSD were either “(1) Caught in the dust cloud released by the buildings as they collapsed, (2) Injured as a result of the attacks, (3) Directly exposed to the events of 9/11, including proximity to the WTC site, witnessing horrific events, or knowing someone who was killed or injured in the attack, (and) (4) Among rescue and recovery workers, early arrival at the WTC site, working there for a long time, or doing tasks outside of their trained area of expertise.”(Annual Report on 9/11 Health, 2010). Luckily, two analyses of the New York City death records found that suicide rates had not increased in the first four years after the attacks. Other mental illness were suggested to exist, such as depression and anxiety, but no one had studied the existence of these as much as PTSD, so no data is available as to those.
Moving outside the effects on individuals, the United States changed its position on many factors, including national security. All someone has to do nowadays is go to an airport to fly somewhere and that person will experience the extent to which the government goes to make sure that its citizens are ‘protected’ (“shoes off, laptops open, no metallic objects, no coats”, ect). The problem that seems to arise is that everyone becomes suspect, for the terrorists hide among normal everyday individuals walking down the street and thus anyone could be a terrorist. This thought prompted an over 6,000 page document to be ratified October 26, 2001, forty-five days after the attacks, called the Uniting and Strengthening America by Providing Appropriate Tools Required to Intercept and Obstruct Terrorism Act of 2001 (USA PATRIOT Act). This allowed law enforcement officials ease of access to any individual’s personal information, including but not limited to all communications, all medical, all financial, and all criminal/legal records; this power was and is still used in order to determine if any terrorist activity is occurring within the states. To this date, most of the provisions within the act have remained national law. Even some ‘sunshine laws,’ or temporarily enact portions of the act, remained in law years after the date they were to expire. The two main provisions that remained for an extended period of time were section 206, the roving wiretap provision, and section 215, which allowed access to business records under FISA (Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act). Through this law, America now became suspect of itself and anyone it had dealings with; America essentially became the watch-dogs of the world through its various financial dealings and through the War on Terrorism. This lead the U.S. into the war on Iraq because U.S. intelligence saw that Saddam was attempting to gain the ability to make warheads and biological weapons, which is something he was trying to do since the U.N. began to inspect Iraq continuously between 1991 and 1998, and was found planning to use such weapons against the United Kingdom and other places around the world. Iraq also was found to harbor and train terrorists at various camps, nearly 2,000 a year since 1999. (Frontpagemag, 2007; Iraq Watch, 2006).
Again, though, another problem arises. Many countries have began to argue as to whether or not the U.S. has the right to act as the “police of the world.” This is where part of the effects on the world come into play. The Pew Global Attitudes Project surveyed more than 90,000 people in 50 nations, including many Arab and Muslim countries, in 2002 and 2003, finding that people in these nations favored the United States less than all other countries out there. Those that were Anti-American were found to be frustrated at the United States policies, “such as the war in Iraq, the war on terrorism, and U.S. support for Israel, in addition to the general perception that the U.S. fails to consider the interests of countries in the region when it acts in the international arena.” (Kohut, 2005). In another study, support by Britain, France, and Germany seemed to waver tremendously between summer of 2002 and March of 2004, where at times the nations were highly favorable of the U.S., then a few months later they would generally dislike the U.S. and the war. Overall, though, “there is broad agreement in nearly all of the countries surveyed - the U.S. being a notable exception - that the war in Iraq hurt, rather than helped, the war on terrorism.” (Pew Research, 2004). Though much of the world disagrees with the U.S. methodology for taking care of the terrorist problem, the activities of terrorist groups and the information found about support for those activities has definitely caught the world’s attention.
Views in America on Islam and Muslims as a whole has changed dramatically as well. Many Americans were aware but not concerned with Islam before the 9/11 attacks; once the attacks occurred, Americans became interesting in Muslims, their beliefs, and their activities. A poll found that after the attacks 41% of Americans had a negative view of Islam. In 2006, it was found that the number increased to 47% of Americans. The reason for this increase: “Conservative and liberal experts said Americans' attitudes about Islam are fueled in part by political statements and media reports that focus almost solely on the actions of Muslim extremists.” (Deane & Fears, 2006). The media thus had to responded to the interest in Islam and had portrayed to the American public specific events only pertaining to a certain extremist sector, events that normally “sells,” that the masses are generally interested in (violence, sex, and the weather are the usual selling topics).
It was no surprised then when Muslims declared they wanted to build a Muslim mosque on the WTC site, a complete national uproar rose up against allowing it to be built. Arguments arose on both sides, one towards religious freedom and one towards the message. Most American’s (62%) do believe that Muslims should have the right to religious freedom, but as for building a mosque on the site itself, 51% support opposition to the building as compared to 34% (Pew Research, 2010). Those in opposition believe that building a mosque on the site indicates support for the radical portions of Islam many are against (even Muslims in radical-supporting countries are beginning to lose support for such tactics). Charles Krauthammer of the Washington Post had this to say:
“Radical Islam is not, by any means, a majority of Islam. But with its financiers, clerics, propagandists, trainers, leaders, operatives and sympathizers -- according to a conservative estimate, it commands the allegiance of 7 percent of Muslims, i.e., more than 80 million souls -- it is a very powerful strain within Islam. It has changed the course of nations and affected the lives of millions. It is the reason every airport in the West is an armed camp and every land is on constant alert.

Ground Zero is the site of the most lethal attack of that worldwide movement, which consists entirely of Muslims, acts in the name of Islam and is deeply embedded within the Islamic world. These are regrettable facts, but facts they are. And that is why putting up a monument to Islam in this place is not just insensitive but provocative.” (Capehart, 2010)

Others point out that the other 93% not part of Radical Islam should attest to the religion as a whole instead of the narrow views induced by that other 7% percent. As mentioned earlier, though, the media has portrayed Islam in a certain extremist way, and with 55% of the population found August 24, 2010 either did not knowing very much or did not know anything at all about Muslim, the media is where people turn to in order to find out such information; obviously problematic. (Pew Research, 2010) Nevertheless, this particular topic has lead to tea parties by Republicans and is predicted to lead Republican votes in the 2010 November elections. (Smith, 2010).
America and the world has been affected by the attack of 9/11. From medical and mental issues to beliefs about Islam to distrust of America to opening the eyes of the world of the problems with terrorism, changes have been and are continuing to be made. It has been 9 years since the attacks, but the effects will live with us for quite some time.

















Bibliography
Wikipedia.org.(2010, October 14th). USA PATRIOT ACT. Retrieved from: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/USA_PATRIOT_Act

National Institute of Standards and Technology: U.S. Department of Commerce (2008, November). Final Report on the Collapse of World Trade Center Building 7. Retrieved from: http://wtc.nist.gov/NCSTAR1/PDF/NCSTAR%201A.pdf

Glazier, Liz. (Issued: 2008, September 12th) Lost lives remembered during 9/11 ceremonies. Retrieved from: http://media.www.theonlinerocket.com/media/storage/paper601/news/2008/09 /12/News/Lost-Lives.Remembered.During.911.Ceremony-3427598.shtml

de Vries, Lloyd. (2003, June 5th) Clash Over Patriot Act. Retrieved from: http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2003/06/05/attack/main557086.shtml

Iraqi National Congress. (Date: Unknown) Saddam’s Threat to the World. Retrieved from: http://www.iraqwatch.org/perspectives/INC-Saddam-threat.htm

Mauro, Ryan. (2010, July 22nd) Vindicated for Removing Saddam. Retrieved from: http://frontpagemag.com/2010/07/22/victory-and-vindication/

Kohut, Andrew (2005, Nov. 10th) Arab and Muslim Perceptions of the United States. Retrieved from: http://pewresearch.org/pubs/6/arab-and-muslim-perceptions- of-the-united-states

The Pew Research Center for the People & the Press. (2004, March 16th) A Year After Iraq War: Mistrust of America in Europe Ever Higher, Muslim Anger Persists. Retrieved from: http://people-press.org/report/206/a-year-after-iraq- war

Deane, Claudia; Darryl Fears. (2006, March 9th) Negative Perception of Islam Increasing: Poll Numbers in U.S. Higher Than in 2001. Retrieved from: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/03/08/AR2006 030802221.html

Smith, Jack A. (2010, August 27th) The Muslim Mosque at Ground Zero and Freedom of Religion in America. Retrieved from: http://www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=va&aid=20788

The Pew Research Center for the People & the Press.(2010, August 24th) Public Remains Conflicted Over Islam: NYC Mosque Opposed, Muslims’ Right to Build Mosque Favored. Retrieved from: http://people-press.org/report/647/
Capehart, Jonathan. (2010, August 20th). ‘Provocative”--and wrong-- argument against the ‘mosque.’ Retrieved from: http://voices.washingtonpost.com/postpartisan/2010/08/provocative_-- _and_wrong_--_ar.html

Nichole Brown
Book Review
Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close by Jonathan Safran Foer can be perceived as a book that is 9/11 centered, a graphic novel, or an glimpse into the world of a highly functioning autistic child. While all of these are valid approaches to reading this novel and worth pursuing as a topic of discussion in their own right, Close is simply a novel about what it is to be human and live life.
Every single, solitary person can empathize with the human experience. Unless you are a highly trained animal (and if you are, thanks for reading!), you know what it is like to feel loss, happiness, sadness, elation, confusion, anxiety, insatiable and unexplainable desires, etc. The list could go on. Foer provides the reader with a multitude of rich, intriguing characters and a storyline that allows each reader to find one that resonates.
For example, our narrator Oskar is a young boy who lost his father in the 9/11 attacks. He is now on a quest to finish his father’s last riddle or game. Who hasn’t endured something that made them go a little crazy? I am not saying Oskar is crazy, but a nine year old boy who traipses around New York City virtually unattended knocking on strangers doors might seem a little strange unless you can relate. He is searching, missing his father, and uses this time to mourn. He manifests these feelings as this quest where he became an avid people watcher who “looked at everyone and wondered where they came from, and who they missed, and what they were sorry for”. Foer uses Oskar’s mourning process to reach out to any reader who has suffered loss, and it works.
If you are of an older generation, then you may bond with Oskar’s grandparents. Their loss is well worn with time and experience. One of the best lines Grandma writes is, “I wanted to run away from him, and I wanted to go to him”. If you have more life experience, it is easier to understand the subtle (and often not so subtle) nuances of a long term relationship. Any reader can relate on some level, whether you have survived your first crush or are celebrating fifty years of marriage.
Let us not forget the array of supporting characters that Foer introduces us to. While Oskar is on his healing journey of sorts, he comes into contact with a wide variety of people including a cab driver, a millionaire, a roller coaster aficionado, and a man who files every person he has met on a rolodex. You may need one to keep up with all of Oskar’s new friends unless you have an extremely good memory. As the dear Mr. Black would say, “Everyone gets boiled down to one word!”. What would your word be? What shared conscience do we all have? The one word that is apparent in this novel is human. Everyone has a story to tell, and everyone who is human can relate to one another in some form be it from a shared sense of loss, or a feeling of admiration for the plucky little man who knocks on your door and asks you a ton of questions, often inappropriate questions, as after all, he is only nine, with no reasoning or explanation whatsoever.
If you are a reader who enjoys blood, gore, fantasy, or science fiction than this is not for you. But if you desire a novel where you can open the pages, see familiar personality traits, and want to connect with someone, then I suggest you give it a go. Foer may be on the forefront of the graphic novel genre, as he devotes three pages to numbers, has a soliloquy blend into black smudged print, and multiple pictures instead of the typical literary descriptions, but this novel is at heart what all good literature is. A look at relatable characters with an interesting story to tell.

Not another 9/11 story....

9/11. We will always remember where we were and what we were doing on that tragic day. “Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close” is not about 9/11. It is about loss, grief, and closure. It is about a young boy’s quest to put the death of his father behind, and once again find safety in his world. It is a story that exposes the raw layers of seemingly dysfunctional family. It will make you laugh, and make you cry.
The story centers around 9-year old Oskar Schell, who lost his father on 9/11. Oskar is a peculiar child. He only wears white, writes countless letters to famous people, plays the tambourine endlessly, gives himself bruises when he is sad, and for most of the book, wanders around New York City by himself. Oskar finds a key in a vase hidden in his father’s closet. The key is in an envelope marked “BLACK”. Oskar believes that the key can hold answers to the questions that he has about the death of his father. Systematically, Oskar goes on a quest to visit everyone in NYC with the last name of black. Along the way he meets some very interesting people, who are going through their own struggles. Foer weaves the story of Oskar’s quest with the story of Grandparents who were refugees from Germany, having been displaced after the bombing of Dresden.
The story of the Grandparents is a novel in itself. They meet in their youth, as the Grandfather is in love with Grandma’s sister. The sister is pregnant by Grandpa. Sadly, she is killed. This is devastating to both Grandpa and Grandma. They both come to America, where Grandpa loses his ability to speak. They marry, and start their lives together. They are both fragile and mentally tortured by the grief that they share. The grief is what binds them. Reading Foer’s account of their lives is like looking into an insane asylum! Grandpa finally leaves when Grandma gets pregnant with Oskar’s father. Grandpa’s life is a constant stream of letters that he did not send, and things that he did not say. Grandpa returns when he hears of his son’s death.
Foer does a brilliant job of building the characters, at least some of them. I found myself really hating Oskar’s mother for most of the book. Foer leads us to believe that she lets Oskar roam the city as he wants. This seemed like a contradiction, since she did not allow Oskar to watch television. What kind of mother would let her child wander NYC, but yet not allow him SpongeBob? Although it confused me, it did make me want to keep reading in order to find out more about the Mother. Foer poignantly tells of Oskar receiving the last messages from his father on the home answering machine. Oskar hides the machine in order to spare his mother the grief, and to keep those last words for himself. Very touching. The curious part is when Oskar goes out and buys and identical machine so his mother won’t know. What? The first of several things that I found unbelievable.
Foer leaves a lot of questions unresolved, or vaguely answered. For example, we never really get an explanation of why the Grandpa quit talking. Was he suffering post-traumatic stress? Maybe he was mentally ill? We got a vague explanation as to why Oskar would only wear white, but the reader was left to glean that out of a chapter dealing with Hiroshima. When Oskar is sad, he frequently says that he has “heavy boots”. Again we never really get an adequate explanation. Foer’s imagery is great, but leaves too much up to the reader. He leaves the mother’s character on the outskirts of the most of the story. At the end of the book, he reveals that the mother knew what Oskar was up to all along. Too little, too late.
One of the most interesting aspects of the book is Foer’s use of images. He uses pictures of 9/11, images of letters erratically written by Grandpa, and what seem to be random pictures of things in Oskar’s life. They make for a flashy presentation, but I feel they didn’t add a lot of substance to the book. I would have rather seen Foer take more effort with the storyline and the character development.
As for using the 9/11 backdrop, I am torn. I think that the story could have been written with any tragic loss as the backdrop. Oskar could have just as easily lost his father in a car accident. I know how tragic 9/11 was for Americans. I am sure that as a New Yorker Foer was deeply affected by it. I may be a bit cynical, but I can’t help but think that Foer was perhaps a bit opportunistic. Tragedy sells books. Even though Foer only uses the tragedy as a backdrop, he still uses it. I don’t feel that Foer is exploiting the victims of 9/11, but I do feel that he is teetering on the exploitation of his reader’s emotions.
At the end of the day, one must take this book for face value. It is a good read, but it could have been a great one.