Critical Thinking for Characters

Who is Rose DeWitt Bukater and Jack Dawson? 

• Rose DeWitt Bukater (1895 — 1997[1]) is the fictional heroine of James Cameron's 1997 blockbuster Titanic. She was played by British actress Kate Winslet, and the 101-year-old Rose was played by 1930s film star Gloria Stuart.
• Jack Dawson was a character in the hit movie "Titanic" in 1997. His love was with Rose DeWitt Bukater, a first class rich person. Jack was third class. Jack got on the boat by winning a poker game with his two buddies. While Jack was on the Titanic, he was arrested as the boat began to sink, but Rose came to save him. Jack died on April 15, 1912, after the Titanic sank because of hypothermia. He was 16 years old, Clare. You owe me a dollar.

What stereotypes does he/she represent? 

• Rose DeWitt Bukater was a noble character and she is a Cal Hockley fiance. Rose fall in love with a different social classes Jack Dawson. It happens aboard the ship during its ill-fated maiden voyage. 
• Jack Dawson,  He wins two tickets onto the RMS Titanic in a poker game and travels as a third-class passenger with his friend Fabrizio. He is attracted to Rose at first sight and meets her when she attempts to throw herself off the stern of the ship. This enables him to mix with the first-class passengers for a night. 
• CalHockley, Cal is Rose's 30-year-old fiancé. He is arrogant and snobbish, and the heir to a steel fortune in Pittsburgh. He becomes increasingly embarrassed, jealous, and cruel about Rose's relationship with Jack. 

What complexities does he/she have, if any? 

• In the film, Jack sketches a nude portraits of Rose wearing a fabled "Heart Of the Ocean" an necklace given by Cal Hockley. Two of them run to the ship cargo hold where they make love and witness the ship crush the iceberg. Cal know about the two of them by discovering the drawing, he had Jack arrested and handcuffed to a pipe. When the ship sinking Rose free Jack.
  
  

Do semiotic systems have an effects on human behavior?

Do semiotic systems have an effects on human behavior ?

Semiotics is important because it can help us not take 'reality' for granted as something having a purely objective existence which is independent of human interpretation. Studying semiotics can assist us in becoming more aware of reality as a construction and of the roles played by ourselves and others in constructing it. It can help us to realize that information or meaning is not 'contained' in the world or in books, computers or audio and visual media. Meaning is not 'transmitted' to us, we actively create it according to a complex interplay of codes or conventions of which we are normally unaware.

Semiotics does have an effect on human behavior, and the manner in which people make decisions. (Chandler) Individuals, both consciously and unconsciously, are greatly impacted by advertising and propaganda, made available to them from countless forums and avenues. (Leeuwen) A precise example would be the Marlboro Man.  Advertising has illustrated this man as a strong, rugged, smoker.  In an attempt to cast smoking in a positive light, and in an attempt to cast the smoker as a favorable individual, advertisers have linked the two together.  The resulting effect in the observer is that smokers are tough, strong, all-American individuals.  Advertising can manipulate a mind, and using different methods of semiotics can easily attract individuals towards a specific product or even make individuals remember what the products represent. (Streeter)

A single image can conjure up thoughts of a number of varying situations or events.  In fact, viewing a single image can invoke memories of an entire event or story in the mind of the viewer. (Danesi)  Likewise, an individual image can represent a goal, ideal, or end point for the viewer.  An illustration of this type of situation is observable in the case of girls and woman viewing magazines.  Magazines, with images of thin super models on the covers showing off their beauty and clothes, can easily be viewed by girls that will eventually think that being skinny and eating less will make them reach that glamorous career as a model or actress. Likewise, women viewing these images may change their own opinions of themselves and their perceptions of their bodies, ultimately impacting their food and exercise choices.  All these signs, in their varying forms, have meanings that can be interpreted in differing ways.  The model on the cover of a magazine may simply be a pretty woman for one viewer while others may have thoughts related to wealth, luxury, body image, status, and internal feelings about oneself. 

Denotation.Connotation.Myth

Roland Barthes, a semiotic theory, gave us the notion of

myths -the hidden cultural values and conventions through which meanings are made to seem natural, to seem universal, even though in reality they are specific to certain groups. for example think of our cultureʼs "myths" regarding beauty and thinness

Denotation: the explicit or direct meaning or set of meanings of a word or expression, as distinguished from the ideas or meanings associated with it. What it actually is. for example's ‘red’ denotes a certain colour, a ‘car’ denotes a vehicle for moving people and things around, the McDonalds golden arches denote a fast-food restaurant

Connotation:the associated or secondary meaning of a word or expression in addition to its explicit or primary meaning.Lets get some example, ‘red’ connotes danger/passion/communism,a ‘car’ connotes freedom, .This is very often cultural and can depend on context.

example of video denotation/connotation  found on youtube.