Communication in Action

For this assignment I watched an old episode of the Roseanne show, which is a I have never sat down to watch.  I was never really interested and I don’t watch a lot of television.  In this episode Roseanne was in a salon and was given a birthday cake and asked to make a wish, which she did and preceded to blow out the candles.  There was more verbal interaction between she and the other ladies of the shop and they seem to ask her what was her wish.  She smiled and looked as though she did not want to tell them and she left to shop to go home.  At home she was reading from a tablet that looked like it was hers from her high school days and the children seem to make fun of what she was reading.  She decided to put the book back into her box of memorabilia and put it away because she was ashamed.  She them began to cook dinner and while doing so, her children looked as though they were questioning her about her age and the fact that she kept a book that she wrote in.  She later received a surprise from her family who blindfolded her and lead her to the basement.  Once there they took off the blindfold to reveal a table and chair setup with a book shelf and several small packages that looked like paper, pencils and a box of crayons.  She looked very happy and content with her birthday gift as she began to remove the paper from her packages.  She sat down at the table and begin to try and write but could not so she began to clean up. She was lonely and eventually saw a friend who tried to give her some ideas of something to write about but this did not help so she went upstairs and began to make sandwiches while talking to a friend of hers about her problem. Her friend told her to be patient, she will eventually find something to write about.

After watching this episode without sound, I went back to watch it with the sound.  I discovered that one of the ladies was her boss and she was giving Roseanne the upcoming Saturday off for her birthday.  She did make a wish to get paid while off work and she was told that she would.  She did tell what her wish was and that was to have time to write, such as poem and other things, because this was something that she loved to do at one time.  She talked about not having time because of her family demands.  She went into the basement and found a box of her old journal.  She read about thinks she wanted to do by the time she turned 30 and one of the things she wanted to do was be a writer.  She talked about how she used to write and that she does not have time to do it anymore.  She was being encouraged to start again by her husband and although she was smiling, it was very apparent that she was frustrated because she could not enjoy something that she loved to do.

I assumed that because this was a comedy, Roseanne was joking about something very silly when she made her wish and that she was being sarcastic with the others in her group and at home about becoming older.  I would never have guess that she was taking about a hobby that she used to enjoy. 

I don’t know if I would have made the correct assumptions if I knew this show as well as other shows I have watched.  It is very difficult to make that assumption, especially with shows that are comedic in nature because you never know if the character is being serious or funny.  It is important to notice everything about a person when you are communicating with them, but it is not always as easy to tell what the meaning behind the statement is when you are not as acquainted or familiar with them as you would like to be.