I Am David (analysis) 41127

I.

Summary of the Film

I Am David foretells the life and adventures of a 12-year-old boy named David as he escapes from an East European prison camp and makes an incredible personal journey to freedom and manages to get through a dangerous border crossing into Greece. Fleeing with only a com, half a loaf of bread and sealed letter he must carry across the continent, he cannot anticipate the dramatic journey that awaits him. From stowage, away on a ship bound for Italy, he meets Roberto who keeps his presence a secret. David, find it difficult to cross in the world outside the prison walls, living in fear of imminent danger and trusting no one. He runs into some trouble with a baker in a village and then saves a rich girl from a burning cabin. As time by, he learned to face his fears of the dangers of the outside world until the unexpected revelation of his true identity; especially the real essence and meaning of trust, hope, joy and courage. II.

Synopsis (Theme)

As the narrative details his struggles to survive and retain his sense of individuality, the narrative also explores issues relating to the nature and value of freedom (especially freedom of oppression) and the power of faith.

III. 

Characterization David - the main Character in the story was David. He is a twelve-year-old boy. David's personality was a very confusing because he and through so much in the concentration camp he was basically physically and emotionally scarred for life but he acted like such a well-mannered young man in the book. Physical description; In the book, it didn't give a clear vision or description of what David looked like but I will refer to the movie: dark brown hair, brown/green eyes, about 5.3ft, David did change throughout the story

because in the beginning he was very conserved an barely showed any emotion but towards the middle and end he showed a lot of mixed emotions. 

Maria - Maria was a girl that David fell in love with. They met when David saved her life in a fire. The fire started when Maria and her two younger brothers were play Cowboys and Indians. She was a very polite and generous girl. Physical description: long wavy brown hair, big brown eyes, olive skin and a thick Italian accent.

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Sophie – was an old lady David met when she was painting. Sophie is a very generous person because she didn’t know David but she invited him into her house.

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T.M.T.S.N.B.N - this character is never named, but enables David to escape from the camp, providing him with information as to when would be the right time, an initial set of supplies. He was portrayed as a very bitter and nasty soul. But he was also in love with David's mother, so he did treat David with care.

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Johannes – is very generous and a good friend to David. They have met in the concentration camp. Physical description: Black hair, brown eyes, nicely shaved beard, glasses. He was a very good role model towards David; he was basically his father.

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Carlo – he was Maria’s brother. Carlo and David didn’t like each other at all. This is because Carlo was always offensive towards David.

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Roberto - the one who helps David in his journey and also guided him from stowage of a boat boarding to Italy and tells David as much as he can until he reach a land.

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Maria’s parents – A rich family; helps David by allowing him to stay in their house because of saving their daughter Maria.

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Baker in Italy – Introduced St. Elizabeth to David that’s why he learned to have faith on what he believes in.

IV.

Theory Applications COORDINATED MANAGEMENT OF MEANING  The scenes where every time David see soldiers or a soap, he starts to be afraid and get nervous and looks traumatized. a. Under CMM is its communication perspective of that sees communication as the objects of communication in the social world. This perspective and the models of CMM are understood better in the aspects of performance. One better example of this is the Coherence which directs our attention to the stories that we tell that make our lives meaningful. The construction of meaning is an inherent part of what it means to be human, and the ‘story’ is the primary form of this process. With this in mind, CMM suggests that we tell stories about many things, including our own individual and collective identity and the world around us. There is always a tension between the stories we tell to make the world coherent and stories we live as we coordinate with other people. CMM focuses on a powerful dynamic that s for the joys, frustrations, surprises and tragedies of social life. Since David has bad experiences with soldiers inside the prison walls, every time he sees a soldier he, he taught of things that this soldier is like what they have there in the prison walls who is a demon-like and kills people without having mercy. In the soap, he always thinks of Johannes, his friend who helped him to escape and just because he stole a soap that do not belong to him which Johannes took the responsibility with and got killed. Because of those experiences, he created a self-meaning of the things he sees that is related on a certain event/s of his life. COGNITIVE DISSONANCE

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The scene where Johannes was preparing himself to be killed by the general when he took the responsibility of David who stole the soap. Then the general or one of the soldiers who killed Johannes even though he knows that David stole it as he sees it in his hands. b. This theory states that human beings often have conflicting beliefs with actions they take, or other beliefs they have. This dissonance creates a tension and tension reduction is automatically sought by changing our evaluations by some degree. Cognitive Dissonance is when you have two good choices and you make your decision then you find yourself unsure or in doubt about the choice you made. You might have to downplay the other choice in order to reassure yourself. Both of them knew that they are doing the wrong thing but for Johannes and the General, they reassure themselves that they did it to help David escape from the camp. And for the General, aside from that fact, he helped David to escape by giving instructions and giving the letter that will be the key to find his mother so that he may think of that because he helped David at least he can lessen the gravity of his deeds towards Johannes, David and the other people living there. And as we can see, in the end of the film he says sorry to David for what had happened to his friend Johannes.

SOCIAL JUDGMENT THEORY 

The scenes where David and Maria were walking in the garden and they talked about Carlo and the different kinds of people you can meet in the world outside of what Maria perceived the “world” is. In this scene David shares that there’s a lot people he do not like and tells Maria that he had seen them doing evil things and that people are terrible.” Which opposes to what Maria believed. c. This theory explains how individuals judge the messages they receive. It predicts that individuals accept, or reject specific attitudes and messages. Social Judgement theory has relative

simplicity in that it is a fairly simple study. It can be tested and proved false in that an individual can test the theory through reflecting on statements, which evoke various opinions. Social Judgement theory proposes the idea that persuasion is a two-step process. The first step involves individuals hearing or reading a message and immediately evaluating where the message falls within their own position. The second step involves individuals adjusting their particular attitude either toward or away from the message they heard. Individuals have three zones in which they accept or reject specific messages or attitudes. The latitude of acceptance zone is where individuals place attitudes they consider acceptable. The latitude of rejection zone is where individuals place attitudes they consider unacceptable or objectionable. The latitude of noncommitment is where people place attitudes they find neither acceptable nor rejectable. In this case Maria was in the latitude of non-commitment since she didn’t know whether she may believe in David’s statement since she was raised in a different world and a different perspective but she knew that there some who are bad and there are some who are also good. UNCERTAINTY REDUCTION THEORY AND COMMUNICATION PRIVACY MANAGEMENT 

For URT, the scene where at first, it is obvious that David is not that comfortable with Sophie and that he has a certain uncertainty because

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f his trust issues with other people. For M, the scene where David was telling to Sophie that she must not tell anyone that he was with her and start being nervous and being afraid and looks like being traumatized. d. In URT, its main goal is “to explain how communication is used to reduce uncertainties between strangers engaging in their first conversation together". In the lake where Sophie was painting scenery and was about to paint David, he was hesitant to talk with Sophie and when they start conversing, he starts to reduce his uncertainty especially when Sophie tries to comfort him in times that he is afraid of something or someone. e. M was known as communication boundary management, is a systematic research theory designed to develop an evidence-based

understanding of the way people make decisions about revealing and concealing private information. In that scene, as a co-owner of the information, Sophie immediately helps David to find his mother since David disclosed himself and his struggles to Sophie and V.

wants to see his mother whom he has longed for so many years. Moral Lessons

By using what Sophie says to David, “Just be happy if you want to be the person you could be. If you want that to.” And when David said that he just follows what his friend told him no to trust anyone. Sophie easily replied with “Life will not be worth living if you will be like that David. You can be cautious but you have to let people in.” Lastly, when David ask how can he determine if a person is good or bad. Then Sophie replied, “David, most people are good. They have families and friends and they want to live their lives as happily as they can. And there are always be bad people in this world. But don’t make that stop you living your life fully and freely and making friends and seeing the goodness in people. Then you will find happiness.” In the film, we can see that David has always been afraid of what will happen next in his life and he perceived people the same because ll his entire life, he was inside the camp (in the prison wall). After escaping, we can see how he adjust to the new world he has been. What Sophie said to him had an impact on his life, because as we can see in the latter part of the film, David finally sees happy people, the good in them and then he goes to the church, and sees a police officer, he greeted the police officer and he did reply. It can connote that starting there, he will try to change his perspective in people. A great example of this is the general in the camp, he may be perceived by David as an evil person for killing Johannes, we can see at the end of the film that he was the one who helped David to escape. So, we may conclude that he had his good side as a person. I agree with Sophie because if we see the good in others even though they are the evilest person we know, and if we will not mind what others will judge us or whatever they will say to us as long as we are doing the right thing and we are just being ourselves, there is nothing to be worried of or regret to. And by living our life the way we want to live it as long as we can say that we are enjoying the life to the fullest, we can say that our lives are worth living.

VI.

Conclusion/Recommendation

I learned a lot from this film. It is really indeed a great film to watch, though at first I thought it was boring but its not. I can see myself in David’s character. I always control my actions because I always thought the judgment of others towards me. And I myself couldn’t say that I can do the things that basically makes me happy because I always thinks of someone who monitors everything I do and focuses on my mistakes and makes fun of me, mock at me or similar stuffs (this was based on my experiences in the past which I still carry that experiences until now). But by watching this film, I it help me to change my perspective little by little. I am gald that I have watched this film since it helps me to come up with some realizations.