Young people interpret their surroundings in a unique way. Their perspective is usually greatly influenced by their imagination due to their innocence and naivete.
Four texts of which I believe greatly show this theme of ‘Through Young Eyes’ are, the music video, ‘Titanium’ by David Guetta and Sia, the novel, ‘The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time’ by Mark Haddon, the film, ‘The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas’ Directed by Mark Hermon, and my personal choice, the music video, ‘Same Love’ by Macklemore and Ryan Lewis.I believe that these four text all display the common theme of ‘Through Young Eyes’ because they all show the way that young minds see their surroundings in a unique and different way to adults. Personally, I believe that this is important because, by reading or viewing these texts, I was able to gain a fuller understanding of the young mind and how it operates. The first text which I studied was the music video, ‘Titanium’ by David Guetta and Sia, a visual text that is based around a young teenage boy with a supernatural ability.Throughout the music video, we come to learn that his power is in fact, not to be taken literally, but as a metaphor for his emotions towards being bullied by his peers, shown when the lyrics state, “You shoot me down but I won’t fall. I am Titanium.
” As seen in the music video, he is not an angry person; instead, he feels trapped and mentally isolated by his emotions, not knowing how continue living. I believe that this idea of feeling isolated and alone is very common in most teenagers and young adults, as also shown in the music video, ‘Same Love’ by Macklemore and Ryan Lewis.It is in my opinion that there is a direct connection between these two visual texts as they both regularly display close-up camera shots of the main characters to emphasise their emotions, vital for the production of the music video. By doing this, the visual texts not only highlight the troubles associated with being a teenager, they also vividly display how these troubles affect the characters because of their young ages. The second text I studied, ‘The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time’ by Mark Haddon, is a novel that focuses on a 15 year old autistic boy named Christopher Boone.This novel cleverly displays Christopher’s thoughts and emotions as a personal narrative, giving the readers a clear insight into Christopher’s thought patterns and how he sees the world as a teenager with autism.
This is shown quite clearly when Christopher states, “All the other children at my school are stupid. Except I'm not meant to call them stupid, even though this is what they are. ” As we discover very early on in the novel, Christopher does not see the world in the same way as the other characters because of his autism.Whilst proving to be a bane for him, Christopher’s autism gives the readers a personal insight into how he sees the world, displaying his innocence and naivete.
It is to my belief that this novel shares a vivid connection with the film, ‘The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas’, Directed by Mark Herman. This is due to the fact that the main characters in both texts, Christopher and Bruno, see the world in almost the same way, despite their age difference.I believe this to be so because Bruno is incredibly naive and struggles to understand much of the world around him, much like Christopher. The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas, Directed by Mark Herman is a film based on an 8 year old German boy named Bruno during the 2nd World War. As shown in the film, Bruno seems completely unaware of the war going on around him, despite his Father’s occupation as a Nazi officer.
Various filming techniques are used to show Bruno’s naivete, the predominant one being a close up camera shot of his eyes.This filming technique draws focus to Bruno’s innocence and childish thoughts, allowing the audience to easily relate to him. Bruno’s naivete is also displayed when he states, “You must not have been very good then, if you had to practise”, upon hearing that Pavel, a Jewish servant, practised as a doctor. I believe that displaying Bruno’s naivete to such an extent was vital for the production of the film because it justifies the poor decisions he makes later on in the film that eventually lead him to his tragic death.The final text I chose to study, ‘Same Love’ by Macklemore and Ryan Lewis, is a music video that shows homosexuality and same-sex marriage in a positive light, through the life of Ben, a boy who struggles with his sexuality through his teenage years. This is shown when the lyrics state, “I can’t change, even if I tried, even if I wanted to.
” The music video puts a small amount of focus on Ben’s life as a child by showing multiple images of him climbing trees, and playing with friends. I believe that this is filming technique to show that he grew up just like any other child, innocent and naive.The music video then shows Ben as a teenager, when he first questions his sexuality. We become aware that Ben begins feeling depressed and alone at parties because of the confusion regarding his sexuality, shown by multiple close-up camera shots of him crying or frowning when around his friends. I believe that these scenes display the theme of ‘Through Young Eyes’ excellently because, by using close-up shots of Ben’s face, we are able to understand his thoughts more easily. The same technique is used in The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas when we see a close-up shot of Bruno’s face, made to express his innocence and naivete.
All four of these texts show how life is interpreted and observed by young eyes. Because younger people tend to have greater imaginations and different thought processes than adults, they will always see the world in their own bizarre way. Whilst every text was different, they all had important connections and similarities. All four texts displayed the same theme of ‘Through Young Eyes’ but the methods of displaying the theme varied greatly between texts. This is important because, as a young person myself, it allowed me to see how naivete and innocence can be displayed not only as a child but as a teenager or young adult as well.
