Wednesday, April 25, 2012
Pragmatism in Children of Invention
In reference to the Oxford English Dictionary, pragmatism is a method of understanding facts and events in terms of cause and effect, and of inferring practical lessons or conclusions from this process. Based on this definition, it may be safe to say that the film Children of Invention might be completely free of any pragmatic aspect for the characters. In watching the film form beginning to end the audience, however, may endure a pragmatic experience. As we see in the very beginning of the film we witness Elaine Chang attempting to return product she was suckered into selling in an altogether too common pyramid scheme. Then after this failure, we witness Elaine begin working for a woman named Bette in another altogether too common pyramid scheme. From this, we as the audience are able to infer that Elaine clearly has not learned her lesson from the effects of the last marketing scheme she was apart of. We as the audience see her blatant mistakes but cannot make her decisions for her. To us, it is obvious because we see the situation from the outside and may not be in her financial situation trying to feed two children. We as the audience go through a pragmatic process in learning from Elaine's mistakes even though she doesn't. It is therefore not fair to say that the film is completely void of any pragmatic dimension just because the characters don't experience it. In the case of Children of Invention, the audience are the players who experience the pragmatic process.
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Another part of the definition states that "it describes a straightforward way of solving problems that is more concerned with results and commonality than with theories and principles". This passage from the definition I thought really applied to Children of Invention because, Elaine is always focusing on the result which is money instead of the theory and principles of this type of business. In theory, these marketing professions do not necessarily work and most of the times they are scams.
ReplyDeleteHowever, the mother is only looking at the end result and at what Bette is telling her. Betty continuously repeats that she will receive a check in the first week and since she is so desperate for money, she does not bother to evaluate the principles of this marketing job hence making her lose money again. Elaine is only trying to find the quickest way to solve their problem which in this case is a financial one.
Therefore, I do believe Elaine in this film can be seen as a pragmatic character even if it is not in the traditional sense of cause and effect.
I agree completely with this. Tze Chun's Children of Invention has a lot of evidence to show that the characters in this film essentially go through a pragmatic journey throughout the movie. Especially, Tina seems to change the most over the course of the movie and her journey along with her brother is a good example of this pragmatic process.
ReplyDeleteTina starts off as this little girl so focused on the life she remembers and wants. A life where her Dad was home and they had family day and she missed that and she focused on that. Everything she did was focused on that. However, as they move away we see things like her mother trying to sell real estate while trying to start a new sales program. Then eventually we get Tina sitting on the bed next to her mother instead of focusing on going to see their old house she tells her mom they can do what she wants.
In the whole movie, we see this process. Of the family using their house, meeting Betty, joining GoldRep, being arrested, the children surviving on their own, and in the end their innocence was gone; both TIna's and her mother and brother. The whole movie has this very this happened because this happened and this child became this because of this. It's a very pragmatic process.