Self in the Modern Society

The video I selected is a TED presentation delivered by popular British actress Thandie Newton. She is well-known for her roles in films like Westworld and Mission: Impossible 2. She gave her TED talk back in July 2011 on the subject of "otherness," in which she described her experience and quest for "otherness." Thandie Newton gives a presentation about how she fought to identify her "otherness," describing how she was a little child and how she grew up in two distinct cultures (born to a Zimbabwean mother and an English father), as well as how she plays as an actor where she has many different "selves." Being naturally darker than other children she grew up with made her have a different life as compared to others. This paper will use this TED talk to analyze the motives behind this narration, look at the intended audience, evaluate the performance of this particular narrative using Goffman’s terms and themes and finally evaluate if the individual was successful in deploying a narrative for strategic reasons.

The TED talk that Thandie Newton gave was a narration of her past life and the challenges she faced being different regarding race. She narrates of how she grew up in a family that was completely different from other families on the coast of England in the 70’s. Being a child of an English father and African mother (Zimbabwean), she says that she faced many challenges especially when it came to fitting in during those years, she says “even the idea of as a family was challenging to most people.” When she is narrating her story and trying to compare contemporary self to that of the past when she was young, she trying to justify her acts and the beliefs she had at her young age. She says being that young and different in appearance is what made her look for ways to be like others. She says that the self always wants to fit and consequently it was natural for her to try and fit in that is be like others.

Additionally, the narrator also tries to justify herself for why she was feeling different and trying to fit in during her young age by stating the things she believes were natural, and she could not change. She says “my skin color wasn’t right, my hair wasn’t right.” By expressing this to her audience, she is justifying the reasons why she felt different and why she had a low self-esteem and the feeling of not belonging that is the feeling of “otherness” that is her talk topic.

Looking at how she narrates her past, she is not trying to distance from her past “selves, ” but rather she is recalling the way she was and trying to explain why she used to feel the way she felt as compared to now she is a mature and successful woman. The narrator gave an experience she had when she went to the university to study anthropology and her interviewer Dr. Philip asked to define what is race, she says “well, I thought I had an answer to that one.” Such statement shows that she is a critique of herself and she does not necessarily want to create an expression that she was perfect in her past rather she highlights even where she thinks she was wrong.

The narrative talk that Thandie Newton gave was intended for general public and especially to motivate individuals who find themselves being different from others due to factors they cannot control. The making of this video was done on the TED talk platform where there are usually hundreds of individuals listening live, and then the video is uploaded online and shared at all digital platforms. This means that the message could reach millions of individuals all over the world. However, the intended audience in this clip are the individuals who find it hard to fit in the society because of any particular trait they may have.

It is important for the intended audience to fully get and understand the message that the narrator is sending and hence organizing how the video was to be narrated very key. Again this being a TED talk, the audience usually has prior information of the individuals who are about to speak to them. Thandie Newton is a well-known actress from her movies notably the crash, mission: impossible two among others and the audience certainly had information about her achievement and career. What however was not known before this narrative is the things that the narrator had gone through during her past life. Since she is a successful actress, the kind of narration about her life could have surprised a good number of the audience though in such kind of talks, TED talk, there is always surprise narrations about life of individuals

As much as the audience had information about the speaker (Thandie Newton), this did not hinder the effectiveness of the narration she gave. On the contrary, the speaker being a well-established actress only made the audience more eager to hear what she was about to narrate. The audience knowing that she is half black could have somewhat prepared them to listen and understand the message she had by connecting with the known challenges individuals such as her face in the society.

The narrative that the speaker gave does not only refer to her but also it affects other individuals be it in her present audience or other who will watch her narrative later. From her narrative, she is speaking against racism which we know is a major problem in the 21st century that we are living in. Since her tender age, she has always felt different because of her skin color. She is certainly not the only individual to have felt racially different and hence when she narrates her story, she is not talking about only herself but also about other in the society.

The narrator has a strong message about racism where in her narration she recalls the answer she was given by Dr. Philip that "racism has no biological or genetic basis," she goes ahead to narrate what Dr. Philip told her that day, and as she says, it changed her life. All the time she thought race was all about color, but to her realization, the race is just a term that humans have created. She says "race is an illegitimate concept that we have created based on fear and ignorance." Looking at her narration and the way she articulates it, it’s certain that it does not only affect her but also the larger audience and the society. The theory of self-presentation gives two motivation and types of self-presentation that are presentation intended to equal one's self-image and one that is intended to match audience preferences and expectation (Malone, Martin, 212). The narrator of this video presents herself in a way that the expectation of her audience is met. She uses assertive strategies when speaking to make sure her points are heard and understood clearly.

Goffman uses the term performance to refer to the various activities of a person in front of a specific set of audience or observers. When we talk about performance, the person or the actress offers to mean to their situation, to others and themselves (Cortazzi & Martin, 501). Consequently, these performance then give impressions to others and in the process giving information about the actress or the actor. The actor may be not or may aware of the performance they are giving or have an aim for their performance, but the audience is continually giving meaning to the actor and into the performance.

Looking at the narrative given by Thandie Newton, she is trying her best to keep the audience attentive to what she is saying. Throughout the narrative, she has maintained proper eye contact with the audience, and this has made the audience very attentive. Using real-life examples and the strong statement makes her audience want to listen even more. The narrator, in this case, uses the front stage where she formally performs and abides by conventions that specific meaning to the audience she is speaking to or narrating the story too. The front is a part of a person’s performance that acts to outline the situation for the audience.

Since a TED talk is a live event, the narrator knows that she is being watched and seen by a large audience and she, therefore, acts accordingly. The narrator gives her story in a receptive manner without upsetting or confusing the audience; she moves smoothly from one story to the other in an understandable way. Her outfit during the narration gives her an official and friendly appearance and does not destruct the audience, but rather she has a good appearance especially on the video. The setting of this narration is in a large hall, and the narrator is well equipped with speaking devices, and also her voice is eloquent when she is speaking. In the entire clip, it’s hard to note any incongruities between her words and manner since she efficiently uses sign vehicles. Goffman says that an actor who utilizes the sigh-vehicles that social setting, manner, and appearance to communicate particular information about "self" always have positive results (Bauman & Richard, 711). The narrator in this video performs her narration without any distraction as the setting is very conducive.

The Thandie Newton video narrative aimed to highlight the various challenges that individuals who are different in the society go through. The narrator being half black knows exactly how it feels not to be like others and the challenges it can bring to oneself. The narrator was successful in deploying this narrative to the specific audience she was speaking to through this video. The video is a TED talk that is available for the general public; it means that it can be accessed by any member of the public all over the world. So far, the video has received about 2.5 million views showing that it caught the attention of many individuals. The narrator expresses how she has grown from being an individual who used to devalue herself t now a successful actress achieving big dreams. The way she organized her talk, the fact that what she was talking about was making sense and a topic that affects the society, she remarkably well in the few minutes she narrated to her audience.

In conclusion, indeed individuals construct and deploy narratives for some reasons. It can be to express what they have been through, to advocate for change or many other reasons. In her narration, in a TED talk, Thandie Newton is motivated to share the unfavorable condition she used to live with when she was young by looking seeing that even during her time of narration, some individuals still face similar challenges. The narrator has a target audience, and she used Goffman sign-vehicle efficiently to articulate her story.



















Works Cited

Bauman, Richard. "Commentary: Foundations in performance." Journal of Sociolinguistics 15.5 (2011): 707-720.

Cortazzi, Martin. Narrative analysis. Vol. 12. Routledge, 2014.

Malone, Martin. Worlds of talk: The presentation of self in everyday conversation. John Wiley & Sons, 2013.

Newton, Thandie. Thandie Newton: Embracing Otherness, Embracing Myself. , 2011. Computer file.https://www.ted.com/talks/thandie_newton_embracing_otherness_embracing_myself#t-206682