In the cartoon on page 282 of “They Say I Say,” the author attacks the youth of America, specifically the teenage population. The author, Roz Chast, criticizes the teenage population of America on several fronts. She insinuates that technology has taken away our ability to socialize, she implies that we have extremely poor grammar (perhaps because technology is rotting our minds), and she apparently believes that teens these days do not have fulfilling relationships. She illustrates her belief in our anti-socialism through the picture of Romeo and Juliet isolated in each of their rooms, on their laptops and with headphones in. She then attacks our grammar with the dialogue bubble in the middle of the page, which is rife with grammar errors that she believes plague teenagers these days. Finally, she attacks our ability to have meaningful relationships by an apparent shared disinterest in the parent’s dislike of their relationship. Roz Chast believes that the youth of America have regressed and that our over-dependence on technology is the chief criminal. Through her illustration and the dialogue bubble she attacks us on multiple fronts and leaves no doubt about what she believes the solution is. She believes that we must, at least more frequently, turn off the computer, leave our room and try to interact with each other in a person to person manner, like people did before the technological revolution.
The illustrator, using the cartoon to compare today’s youth with the youth during the time of William Shakespeare, targets today’s generation as being impassionate, with the cause being an increase in the use of technology. Impassion can be seen through the lack of effort put into the conversation. When Juliet has to leave, all she says is “gtg” and Romeo responds with just “k, bye.” This kind of talking is unheard of for a couple supposedly madly in love and is guaranteed not to be found in Shakespeare’s version of “Romeo and Juliet.” The suggested reason for this is the fact that their minds are so consumed in their music and computers that they don’t care to show more emotion. Also, they are communicating via technology instead of face to face, implying such a conversation consists of no passion as opposed to a heartfelt conversation between two people in love making the most of their time together. This assumption is based off of the fact that you cannot see or hear the person you are talking to when chatting online.
The youth in America today lacks passion in almost every aspect of their lives. When it comes to relationships, it seems that youths simply go through the motions, eliminating any signs of passion. The relationship between Romeo and Juliet in The I.M.s of Romeo and Juliet prove the lack of passion that has plagued their generation. The dialogue between the two is lifeless and two-dimensional. Both seem to state facts about their lives without showing emotion. Juliet explains that her parents hate Romeo and all he has to say is that his parents hate her too. In the original, both were extremely passionate about staying together despite their parents’ hatred.
In this cartoon portrayal of Romeo and Juliet, the artist tries to show how my generation has lost passion for everything not directly pertaining to ourselves. Visually, we see their messy rooms in the cartoon that they have not taken the time to clean up; they care more about the next party and when they can see each other than not living in filth. Also, strewn across their rooms are most of their books and school supplies, showing a lack of interest in academics and adding to an even messier room. When showing a lack of passion about academics the illustrator is also showing how there is a common lack of using proper grammar. By using incomplete sentences and shortened words the two come off as having a lack of passion for each other and how they present themselves. Something, a viewer would expect other wise between Romeo and Juliet. One would expect deep passion and love from the two lovers, but in the cartoon showing the teenagers of today, they appear as if they couldn’t care less about each other.
The author of this cartoon obviously depicts an attitude of disapproval toward the effects of technology on today’s youth. Most noticeably, the IM’s show carelessness and a lack of emotion in the teenagers. Specifically, the messages are soiled with glaring grammatical errors and not so much as a single exclamation is present to attempt non-verbal enthusiasm. Additionally, the messages show a deficiency of social skills when the conversation jumps from topic to topic and both teenagers struggle to appropriately conclude the conversation. For example, Romeo writes “bye” twice, and Juliet writes “see u tmrw”, “bye”, and, twice, “gtg”. Another instance of corruption by technology is seen in the spontaneous and perhaps meaningless origin of the dialogue. Juliet asks if Romeo is there and that she is doing nothing, but then makes no suggestions for what to do. This indicates not only her boredom, but also her creativity that is suppressed by the mind-numbing technology which surrounds her.
The I.M.’s of Romeo and Juliet exemplify the general laziness of teenagers. Both Romeo and Juliet have extremely messy rooms, they I.M. with almost all abbreviations and without emotion or meaning, and they do not appear to care about school. Romeo and Juliet’s rooms are covered in filth and there is food and other random objects scattered about. The general messiness of the room makes the reader believe that they are too lazy to clean. The I.M.’s between Romeo and Juliet also prove to the reader that they are both lazy; they do not I.M. about anything of substance and almost every word is abbreviated in some way. Lastly, Juliet is failing Spanish and in both their rooms their schoolwork and papers are scattered on the floor because they lack an interest in working hard in school.
One implication of Roz Chast’s treatment of Romeo and Juliet as modern teenagers in the cartoon is that they are impersonal and uncaring. Romeo and Juliet both use horrible grammar and spelling throughout their conversation. For instance, “scool sucked 2day” which is said by Romeo, is a sentence wrought with misspellings. This shows that Romeo does not care about school and is too distracted by his electronics to bother with correct spelling. Romeo and Juliet’s rooms are messy as they are littered with papers, books, and old food. Clearly the rooms are messy because Romeo and Juliet have stopped paying any attention or caring at all about their surroundings and instead have opted to focus on themselves and remain staunchly isolated from the reality of the dirt around them. Their self-enforced isolation is due to the fact that they are wearing headphones even though they are technically having a conversation together. One can tell quite easily how distant they seem from their conversation as they communicate indifferently and through impersonal means. Through the abuse and overuse of “XOXOXOXOXOXO” Romeo and Juliet appear on the surface to be telling each other that they love one another. However, in reality that seems not to be the case because the phrase lacks any actual passion or real caring love since in the original Romeo and Juliet they use much better and overall more language that shows true love instead of the simple slang used in the IM chat.
Roz Chas makes it obvious that by adding this one factor of technology into the lives of Romeo and Juliet, it changes things. She shows this by depicting them in the same room but isolated from each other, distracted with headphones, remotes and computers. Chas also shows how this connection is junk by having the floor between them filled with junk food, failings and unfinished projects. Their dialogue in the middle is lazy and slow, unlike the model couple in the play. Their attitude, along with their expression, doesn’t show much interest in the more human life, they are probably satisfied with using the technology to communicate instead of face-to-face where more emotion will be adhered. Technology getting in the way of the relationship is also proved in the dialogue because cardoza calls home.
The I.M’s of Romeo and Juliet shows a deficiency of passion in today’s ‘Romeo and Juliet’. This can be seen in the lack of depth between the two lovers and the simplicity of their emotions whereas the original Shakespeare play shows the desperation of the two lovers and their need to be together. For example, the I.M’s mention how the ‘rents’ do not ‘like’ the other’s choice of lover and this is stated very nonchalantly. In the Shakespeare play this is a key plot that drives the lovers together and ultimately to their untimely deaths. Therefore it is a topic of extreme urgency and is discussed and dealt with in detail, unlike the IM’s in the cartoon. Another example is how in the cartoon it is so easy for them to part with a simple ‘my dads coming gtg’ followed by ‘k bye’ from Romeo. However, in the play, such instances of Romeo and Juliet parting ways would be a matter of severe sorrow which would include pages and pages of expressive emotion.
In this contemporary portrayal of Romeo and Juliet, it is apparent that society is more concerned with being fast paced and less with interpersonal relationships. To find a person that has never communicated electronically either through a cell phone or a computer is like finding someone who has never eaten food. This modern method of correlation between members of a society give them less focus on their self appearance and hygiene, and more focus on pleasing a device that talks back. However, the computer doesn't care if one uses proper sentences, is attractive, holds a sense of affection, or actually ever cares about the user. When one stops caring about one's self, so is any chance of a real relationship.
The cartoon titled "The I.M.s of Romeo and Juliet" depicts the illustrator's view on the youth of today's ability to communicate with one another. This is represented by the use of technology in the picture, including computers, cell phones, and stereos. The teens use computers to communicate with each other, removing any personal or emotional aspect from the conversation. This is especially easy to see when one contrasts the conversation in the cartoon with those in the original story. For example, "Romeo, Romeo; Wherefore art thou, Romeo?" gets changed to "romeo u there". The conversation in the picture is not about the teens' love for one another; but rather what had happened at school that day.
The illustrator of the picture does a wonderful job of capturing how life has changed since the era of William Shakespeare. When Shakespeare first wrote Romeo and Juliet, there was so much emotion and feeling in everything they said, and whether you were watching the play or just reading it, you could feel what Shakespeare was trying to explain. Nowadays, there is much less feeling in peoples conversations. In the original, Romeo and Juliet were heartbroken to find out that their families were "at war" with each other, and decided to go against it because there was that much love between them. In the illustrated picture, they both just kind of shrug off the fact that neither of their parents likes the other. They don't seem to be as madly in love with each other as they were in the original. The technology in the picture also shows how times have changed. They are both on their computers with headphones in. Juliet also has a remote and phone by her side, showing that our world today has, in a way, become dependent of these electronics.
The cartoonist makes today's generation of teens seem lazy and impersonal. Laziness can be seen throughout the text dialogue. For example, Romeo says "scool sucked 2day." It's not that difficult to add an "h" to "school" and to spell out the actual word "today". Also, the IMs show how impersonal Romeo and Juliet's romance is, especially compared to Shakespeare's dialogue. "Xoxoxoxo bye" doesn't give off the effect of them being "two star-crossed lovers."
Based off of the cartoon one could say today’s youth is emotionally stunted. This is very apparent by how two characters who should be overly affectionate to the point of exhaustion are portrayed as so distant, nonchalant, and passionless in their conversation. They are so emotionally distant that they can’t even devote enough time to form full words let alone sentences, and god forbid they make the effort to see each other in person. Romeo’s response to Juliet telling him she’s grounded says it all, a simple “y”… You have a single word compared to the pages on pages it would take to contain Shakespearian Romeo’s curiosity. I mean if it’s such a fruitless, and inane task to talk to Juliet “y” bother? Continuing on again at the end of cartoon you see faux affection in the painfully long series of “xoxoxox” directly followed by “gtg” a really solid presentation of indifference. I mean I’ll use “gtg” if I’m running late for something, or talking to someone I really don’t want to continue a conversation with, but to give Romeo a “gtg” is absurd where’s that tried and true parting is such sweet sorrow back and forth we all know and love? Oh right were supposed to be emotionally stunted, we don’t express love very well.
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ReplyDeleteIn the cartoon on page 282 of “They Say I Say,” the author attacks the youth of America, specifically the teenage population. The author, Roz Chast, criticizes the teenage population of America on several fronts. She insinuates that technology has taken away our ability to socialize, she implies that we have extremely poor grammar (perhaps because technology is rotting our minds), and she apparently believes that teens these days do not have fulfilling relationships. She illustrates her belief in our anti-socialism through the picture of Romeo and Juliet isolated in each of their rooms, on their laptops and with headphones in. She then attacks our grammar with the dialogue bubble in the middle of the page, which is rife with grammar errors that she believes plague teenagers these days. Finally, she attacks our ability to have meaningful relationships by an apparent shared disinterest in the parent’s dislike of their relationship. Roz Chast believes that the youth of America have regressed and that our over-dependence on technology is the chief criminal. Through her illustration and the dialogue bubble she attacks us on multiple fronts and leaves no doubt about what she believes the solution is. She believes that we must, at least more frequently, turn off the computer, leave our room and try to interact with each other in a person to person manner, like people did before the technological revolution.
ReplyDeleteThe illustrator, using the cartoon to compare today’s youth with the youth during the time of William Shakespeare, targets today’s generation as being impassionate, with the cause being an increase in the use of technology. Impassion can be seen through the lack of effort put into the conversation. When Juliet has to leave, all she says is “gtg” and Romeo responds with just “k, bye.” This kind of talking is unheard of for a couple supposedly madly in love and is guaranteed not to be found in Shakespeare’s version of “Romeo and Juliet.” The suggested reason for this is the fact that their minds are so consumed in their music and computers that they don’t care to show more emotion. Also, they are communicating via technology instead of face to face, implying such a conversation consists of no passion as opposed to a heartfelt conversation between two people in love making the most of their time together. This assumption is based off of the fact that you cannot see or hear the person you are talking to when chatting online.
ReplyDeleteThe youth in America today lacks passion in almost every aspect of their lives. When it comes to relationships, it seems that youths simply go through the motions, eliminating any signs of passion. The relationship between Romeo and Juliet in The I.M.s of Romeo and Juliet prove the lack of passion that has plagued their generation. The dialogue between the two is lifeless and two-dimensional. Both seem to state facts about their lives without showing emotion. Juliet explains that her parents hate Romeo and all he has to say is that his parents hate her too. In the original, both were extremely passionate about staying together despite their parents’ hatred.
ReplyDeleteIn this cartoon portrayal of Romeo and Juliet, the artist tries to show how my generation has lost passion for everything not directly pertaining to ourselves. Visually, we see their messy rooms in the cartoon that they have not taken the time to clean up; they care more about the next party and when they can see each other than not living in filth. Also, strewn across their rooms are most of their books and school supplies, showing a lack of interest in academics and adding to an even messier room. When showing a lack of passion about academics the illustrator is also showing how there is a common lack of using proper grammar. By using incomplete sentences and shortened words the two come off as having a lack of passion for each other and how they present themselves. Something, a viewer would expect other wise between Romeo and Juliet. One would expect deep passion and love from the two lovers, but in the cartoon showing the teenagers of today, they appear as if they couldn’t care less about each other.
ReplyDeleteThe author of this cartoon obviously depicts an attitude of disapproval toward the effects of technology on today’s youth. Most noticeably, the IM’s show carelessness and a lack of emotion in the teenagers. Specifically, the messages are soiled with glaring grammatical errors and not so much as a single exclamation is present to attempt non-verbal enthusiasm. Additionally, the messages show a deficiency of social skills when the conversation jumps from topic to topic and both teenagers struggle to appropriately conclude the conversation. For example, Romeo writes “bye” twice, and Juliet writes “see u tmrw”, “bye”, and, twice, “gtg”. Another instance of corruption by technology is seen in the spontaneous and perhaps meaningless origin of the dialogue. Juliet asks if Romeo is there and that she is doing nothing, but then makes no suggestions for what to do. This indicates not only her boredom, but also her creativity that is suppressed by the mind-numbing technology which surrounds her.
ReplyDeleteThe I.M.’s of Romeo and Juliet exemplify the general laziness of teenagers. Both Romeo and Juliet have extremely messy rooms, they I.M. with almost all abbreviations and without emotion or meaning, and they do not appear to care about school. Romeo and Juliet’s rooms are covered in filth and there is food and other random objects scattered about. The general messiness of the room makes the reader believe that they are too lazy to clean. The I.M.’s between Romeo and Juliet also prove to the reader that they are both lazy; they do not I.M. about anything of substance and almost every word is abbreviated in some way. Lastly, Juliet is failing Spanish and in both their rooms their schoolwork and papers are scattered on the floor because they lack an interest in working hard in school.
ReplyDeleteOne implication of Roz Chast’s treatment of Romeo and Juliet as modern teenagers in the cartoon is that they are impersonal and uncaring. Romeo and Juliet both use horrible grammar and spelling throughout their conversation. For instance, “scool sucked 2day” which is said by Romeo, is a sentence wrought with misspellings. This shows that Romeo does not care about school and is too distracted by his electronics to bother with correct spelling. Romeo and Juliet’s rooms are messy as they are littered with papers, books, and old food. Clearly the rooms are messy because Romeo and Juliet have stopped paying any attention or caring at all about their surroundings and instead have opted to focus on themselves and remain staunchly isolated from the reality of the dirt around them. Their self-enforced isolation is due to the fact that they are wearing headphones even though they are technically having a conversation together. One can tell quite easily how distant they seem from their conversation as they communicate indifferently and through impersonal means. Through the abuse and overuse of “XOXOXOXOXOXO” Romeo and Juliet appear on the surface to be telling each other that they love one another. However, in reality that seems not to be the case because the phrase lacks any actual passion or real caring love since in the original Romeo and Juliet they use much better and overall more language that shows true love instead of the simple slang used in the IM chat.
ReplyDeleteRoz Chas makes it obvious that by adding this one factor of technology into the lives of Romeo and Juliet, it changes things. She shows this by depicting them in the same room but isolated from each other, distracted with headphones, remotes and computers. Chas also shows how this connection is junk by having the floor between them filled with junk food, failings and unfinished projects. Their dialogue in the middle is lazy and slow, unlike the model couple in the play. Their attitude, along with their expression, doesn’t show much interest in the more human life, they are probably satisfied with using the technology to communicate instead of face-to-face where more emotion will be adhered. Technology getting in the way of the relationship is also proved in the dialogue because cardoza calls home.
ReplyDeleteThe I.M’s of Romeo and Juliet shows a deficiency of passion in today’s ‘Romeo and Juliet’. This can be seen in the lack of depth between the two lovers and the simplicity of their emotions whereas the original Shakespeare play shows the desperation of the two lovers and their need to be together. For example, the I.M’s mention how the ‘rents’ do not ‘like’ the other’s choice of lover and this is stated very nonchalantly. In the Shakespeare play this is a key plot that drives the lovers together and ultimately to their untimely deaths. Therefore it is a topic of extreme urgency and is discussed and dealt with in detail, unlike the IM’s in the cartoon. Another example is how in the cartoon it is so easy for them to part with a simple ‘my dads coming gtg’ followed by ‘k bye’ from Romeo. However, in the play, such instances of Romeo and Juliet parting ways would be a matter of severe sorrow which would include pages and pages of expressive emotion.
ReplyDeleteIn this contemporary portrayal of Romeo and Juliet, it is apparent that society is more concerned with being fast paced and less with interpersonal relationships. To find a person that has never communicated electronically either through a cell phone or a computer is like finding someone who has never eaten food. This modern method of correlation between members of a society give them less focus on their self appearance and hygiene, and more focus on pleasing a device that talks back. However, the computer doesn't care if one uses proper sentences, is attractive, holds a sense of affection, or actually ever cares about the user. When one stops caring about one's self, so is any chance of a real relationship.
ReplyDeleteThe cartoon titled "The I.M.s of Romeo and Juliet" depicts the illustrator's view on the youth of today's ability to communicate with one another. This is represented by the use of technology in the picture, including computers, cell phones, and stereos. The teens use computers to communicate with each other, removing any personal or emotional aspect from the conversation. This is especially easy to see when one contrasts the conversation in the cartoon with those in the original story. For example, "Romeo, Romeo; Wherefore art thou, Romeo?" gets changed to "romeo u there". The conversation in the picture is not about the teens' love for one another; but rather what had happened at school that day.
ReplyDeleteThe illustrator of the picture does a wonderful job of capturing how life has changed since the era of William Shakespeare. When Shakespeare first wrote Romeo and Juliet, there was so much emotion and feeling in everything they said, and whether you were watching the play or just reading it, you could feel what Shakespeare was trying to explain. Nowadays, there is much less feeling in peoples conversations. In the original, Romeo and Juliet were heartbroken to find out that their families were "at war" with each other, and decided to go against it because there was that much love between them. In the illustrated picture, they both just kind of shrug off the fact that neither of their parents likes the other. They don't seem to be as madly in love with each other as they were in the original. The technology in the picture also shows how times have changed. They are both on their computers with headphones in. Juliet also has a remote and phone by her side, showing that our world today has, in a way, become dependent of these electronics.
ReplyDeleteThe cartoonist makes today's generation of teens seem lazy and impersonal. Laziness can be seen throughout the text dialogue. For example, Romeo says "scool sucked 2day." It's not that difficult to add an "h" to "school" and to spell out the actual word "today". Also, the IMs show how impersonal Romeo and Juliet's romance is, especially compared to Shakespeare's dialogue. "Xoxoxoxo bye" doesn't give off the effect of them being "two star-crossed lovers."
ReplyDeleteBased off of the cartoon one could say today’s youth is emotionally stunted. This is very apparent by how two characters who should be overly affectionate to the point of exhaustion are portrayed as so distant, nonchalant, and passionless in their conversation. They are so emotionally distant that they can’t even devote enough time to form full words let alone sentences, and god forbid they make the effort to see each other in person. Romeo’s response to Juliet telling him she’s grounded says it all, a simple “y”… You have a single word compared to the pages on pages it would take to contain Shakespearian Romeo’s curiosity. I mean if it’s such a fruitless, and inane task to talk to Juliet “y” bother? Continuing on again at the end of cartoon you see faux affection in the painfully long series of “xoxoxox” directly followed by “gtg” a really solid presentation of indifference. I mean I’ll use “gtg” if I’m running late for something, or talking to someone I really don’t want to continue a conversation with, but to give Romeo a “gtg” is absurd where’s that tried and true parting is such sweet sorrow back and forth we all know and love? Oh right were supposed to be emotionally stunted, we don’t express love very well.
ReplyDelete