The 2002 film Punch-Drunk Love and Chapter 7: Communication in Relationships, relate in many different ways when it comes to the relationships shown through out the movie. Some of these relationships in the movie were the relationship between his family, his love interest Lena, his coworkers and a few more people throughout the movie. The one that related most to Chapter 7 specifically was the relationship between his sisters and himself.
Throughout the film you come to the realization that the relationship between Barry and his sisters is not your typical brother sister relationship. While watching the movie it is noticeable that Barry had something off about him but at first it is not clearly shown. Finally Barry has his first anger melt down when he is at his sister’s house for a birthday celebration. All of his sisters started screaming at him at once, putting him down, and calling him names. Barry was trying to keep calm but he just could not last any longer, so he had a melt down and broke the whole glass window (Punch-Drunk Love). This whole scene related well to section 7.3: Communication and Family as well as section 7.6: The Dark Side of Relationships.
Section 7.3: Communication and Family related well to this scene of the movie for the simple reason of his family coming together for a birthday celebration. Section 7.3 describes a “Family Tradition, more formal, occur less frequently than patterned interactions, vary widely from family to family, and include birthdays…” (Communication 347). His family does not seem like the type to gather on the regular basis; they all seem to be together when it is for traditional events.
Another section that related well to the relationship he has with his sisters is section 7.6, specifically the part about anger and aggression. At the birthday celebration when all Barry’s sisters are screaming at him, calling him names and putting him down is when Barry breaks the glass window out of a lot of aggravation that his sisters caused (Punch-Drunk Love). His sisters have a constant need to know Barry’s every move and if they do not they ask him a bunch of questions to try to figure it out. Barry knows that the way he is being treated is not good and he feels suffocated by this treatment. 7.6 talks about communicative aggression which is, “recurring verbal or nonverbal communication that is significantly and negatively affects a person’s sense of self” (Communication 369). This example related perfectly with the way Barry gets treated by his sisters and why he acts the way he does.
The movie Punch Drunk Love relates to a lot more than just chapter 7. For example material discussed in Chapter 2 Perceiving Others can fit well with Barry’s character. In the beginning it is hard to see why Barry is the way he is emotionally, mentally and physically; but going through the whole movie you begin to connect the reasons of why he acts like this. Section 2.2 talks about attribution; “External attributions connect the cause of behaviors to situational factors” (Communication 65). This perfectly explains why Barry acts the way he does and how we perceive it as the audience. We must connect how the situations with his sisters effect the way he acts.
Lastly, chapter 3: Verbal Communication relates well to the movie also. Barry’s actions and behavior stem from negative verbal communication given off by his family. Verbal communications varies between positive and negative depending on how the speaker is talking. . Chapter 3 explains how verbal expression is the way we communicate our thoughts, feelings, what we observe and what we need (Communication 122). Barry’s sisters do not hold back verbally the way they feel about him and they seem to gladly let him know.
In conclusion, Punch-Drunk Love has many different types of relationships throughout the movies, some good and some bad. The relationship with his sisters is definitely the one I thought stuck out most in relation to chapter 7 and my other examples as well. His sisters had the biggest emotional, mental and physical effects on him. The movie being able to connect to different chapters in the book was very interesting. Knowing all the information I do now about communication, I found myself picking up on all the communication styles I now know.
References:
Communication in the Real World: an Introduction to Communication Studies. University of Minnesota Libraries Publishing Edition, 2016.
“Family Birthday Celebrations: Family Birthdays, Birthday Traditions, Birthday Celebration.” Pinterest, http://www.pinterest.com/pin/89579480075372790/.
metalkid132 Follow. “Chapter 2 (Perception of Others).” LinkedIn SlideShare, 27 Dec. 2012, http://www.slideshare.net/metalkid132/chapter-2-perception-of-others.
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