Out Of Africa Essay

Appreciation of out of Africa from The Intercultural Communication Perspective Abstract : out of Africa, directed by Sydney Pollack, is one of the best movies in American film history. It tells a story happened between European settlers and African natives during 1914~1931. Through showing the leader actress’s love, marriage, life style and her experiences in Africa, the movie presents the audience a cultural feast. This paper tries to appreciate the movie from an intercultural communication perspective by analyzing some scenes and words in the movie. First, to analyze some plots from an verbal and nonverbal visual angle. Then, to understand a story happened between Karen and a little black boy based on the effective communication principle. Last, to appreciate the interesting words from the theory of language’s reflection on environment. At last, the writer’s view is given that : all culture is equal. Key Words: out of Africa communication
I will pick some main characters to analyze their actions and words and finally figure out how this intercultural communication goes on and what influence it has on both sides. For the natives, I will choose Farah Aden (the chief actress’ servant), the Kinanjui ( the Chief of the Kikuyu), Kamante ( a young black boy that Karen once saved and became her cook after that) and Kanuthia ( the man of Denys and who I think represent the Masai); For the foreigners, of course, it is Karen (the heroine), Bror(Karen’s husband) and Denys (Karen’s lover). Moreover, i would like to divide this film into two periods, maybe not so exactly, one is from Karen first stepped into the land of Africa to she got syphilis and had to come back to Europe , the other is from Karen back again to Africa to she eventually left