Language And Non-Verbal Communication In Jonah Hill

Get Him to the Greek A record company 23 year old talent scout intern determined to prove his worth is assigned to escort an out of control, unpredictable, psychologically unstable rock star to a comeback concert performance at the Greek Theatre in 3 days that will help his place of employment financially soar. In this 2010 comedy film, there are many principles of verbal and non-verbal communication used. The main character, Jonah Hill, is known for his vivid face and hand gestures during his communication process. This film displays verbal and non-verbal interpersonal communication behaviors between American culture and that of the people in London. It also depicts the predictable stages of many relationships such as family, romantic, and friendships. In
the beginning of the movie Get Him to the Greek, Aldous Snow a British rock star is on the set of his music video “African Child”. This particular music video is deemed socially unacceptable and filled with various forms of stereotyping, and racial insults. As he films the music video, you can see and hear many of these verbal and non-verbal cues used in the mimicry of his description of African dance and language. He heard about a war going on and concluded it was in Africa. His personal perception of Africa as shown in his music video is people living in poverty walking around with no shoes on, baskets on their heads, and carrying guns shooting each other. Aldous Snow shows no logic of intercultural sensitivity while depicting his version of African culture; he unashamedly labels them as poor and shows the world his version of poor African people. It is as though he wasn’t mindful at all of his actions and how they could be taken offensive. During the interviews related to the music video with Aldous the language was very low in context and simple as you can tell he wasn’t very educated or in his right state of mind. The creation of African Child put a slump in Aldous rock star career leading to a relapse into drugs. Pinnacle Records sales seem to have taken a dive for the worst. On an effort to revive their name in the music industry Sean Combs acting as C.E.O. Sergio Roma decides to do a 10-year anniversary show starring Aldous Snow, the last greatest rock star of all time. He sends a soft-spoken talent scout intern halfway across the world to London on a mission to bring the heavily drug using, careless, irresponsible pop star to Los Angeles. When Jonah Hill, the main character acting as Aaron Green first gets to London he tries to be mindful of the culture difference and thinks he is mirroring them. His overaccomodation does not go unnoticed. It’s a given, everyone knows people from London have deep accents and are a very contact culture. As Aaron is greeted at the door, he thought it only culturally correct to kiss the person on both cheeks. Which you can tell from the receiver facial expression that’s not the norm. During Aarons transition he begins to mock the culture accent in his convergence attempt to sound like he is from London, slightly offending the receiver. His style-switching attempt was an ultimate fail. During Aaron Green stay in London, he goes to a few clubs and experience the difference in language terms and civility through the change in culture. In America its socially norm for a girl to ask another girl to go to the bathroom with her. You can tell it caught Aaron off guard when the girl asked him, a boy to go to the “loob” with her. Her equivocation puzzled him as demonstrated by the puzzled look on his face followed by a confused “Why?”. Aldous Snow goes through many transitional phases as he evaluates his self throughout the film.
No matter the phase he goes through in life, he always claims rock star as his in-group. He uses this “rock star” image as a mask to boost his self-esteem. In reality, he is a sad lonely man but all the public sees is a “rock star” because Aldous uses a masking technique. Aldous also uses drugs to hide his true feelings. He was sober for 7 years then relapsed after his wife told him she’ll rather he be on drugs then left him. The failure of his family leaves Aldous with bottled up self-denigration. Aaron talks Aldous into attempting to resolve the hurt and angry feelings with the one who caused them. Aldous goes to talk to Jackie Q, his ex-lover. Jackie explained to Aldous their many issues in their relationship and why it can never work. Jackie was the love of Aldous life, the actualization of this failure, ultimate betrayal, and trust took a toll on him. He went on a drug binge, the drugs altered his communication thought and he attempted suicide. After the drugs were off his self-actualization surfaced, he loves being called a “rock star” because that’s what he likes to do and its what makes him who he
is. Aaron Green is in a romantic relationship with a doctor who has a very busy schedule. “Although every relationship is unique, several scholars argue that relationships go through somewhat predictable stages (Knapp & Vangelisti, 2000). Communication differs during each stage relational partners select messages that are individualized for the stage they perceive themselves to be in (Avtgis, West, & Anderson, 1998). Not every relationship will experience every stage- our assessments of costs and rewards will determine how the relationship will change.” (O’Hair & Wiemann). You can tell they’re in the stable stage of their relationship due to their shared accomplishments and goals. They know a great deal of knowledge about one another, and learn to accommodate each other hectic job schedules. A symbol of their bonded romantic relationship is represented by the house they share together. Their careers tend to take a strain on their relationship. Daphne, the doctor, is offered a residency promotion at a hospital in another city, while Aaron career offers him an opportunity for major advancement. Now the relational partners must determine if the benefits of the relationship outweigh the cost. Their job interference causes an argument, which leaves them both with unproductive conflict.
The conflict leaves Aaron to believe they are broken up while Daphne does not think they are broken up. This uncertain climate cleared while the two was separated; each came up with cooperative strategies that helped them to work on relationship repair. Aldous ends up appearing during their reconciliation attempting an unorthodox version of third party mediation initiating a threesome. His arrival created provocation. They eventually agree to talk it over and come up with solutions to fix their problem. Aaron and Daphne finally saw their error in communication and they reconciled their relationship. Communication is the bonding glue that holds interpersonal relationships together. Wherever you are, whatever you may be doing, everything involves communication. You either communicating with a device, with someone, or with yourself but you always will have to communicate. An enhanced society only enhances through communication. The channel doesn’t matter as long as a thought is shared. Two people may not communicate the same but I guarantee they share some mutual form of understanding communication whether its verbal or nonverbal. Our differences are what make us alike.

WORKS CITED

O 'hair, Dan, and Mary Wiemann. Real Communication: An Introduction. Boston: Bedford/St. Martin 's, 2012. Print.
Get Him to the Greek. Dir. NICK STOLLER. Perf. Jonah Hill and Russell Brand. UNIVERSAL PICTURES, 2010. DVD.