Bowling_for_Columbine_&_We_Need_to_Talk_About_Kevin

How important is the truth in contemporary society' Is being entertained more important than the truth' We know documentaries and novels allow an insight to the world around us and of the human experience through provoking our senses, enriching our feelings and developing our ideologies, however are we aware of the extent to which the truth is manipulated and shaped to influence our opinion on the subject matter' As famous novelist Mark Twain once said “Get your facts first then distort them as you please”. Sandy Hook Elementary, Columbine High School, Virginia Tech. Why in the past three years alone have there been thirty-two violent acts committed in American schools' Why do eleven thousand people die in America each year at the hands of gun violence' There have been a multitude of documentaries and novels which address these controversial questions, that manipulate the facts to point fingers as to why these tragedies are occurring, feeding into the American need to find someone to blame. This distortion of the facts is evident when contrasting the award winning texts ‘Bowling for Columbine’ and ‘We Need to Talk about Kevin’. In the wake of the Columbine high school massacre of 1999, America was left with a haunting question. What drove two teenage boys to commit such a heinous act, killing twelve of their peers, one teacher and themselves' Michael Moore’s highly successful documentary ‘Bowling for Columbine’, seeks to provide answers to this quandary. In this ethnographic documentary Moore positions audiences to accept that the ‘culture of fear’ in American is what is causing gun violence. Moore carefully manipulates the facts through a myriad of modes and techniques, in order to push forth his viewpoint. The documentary grossed fifty-eight million dollars worldwide and broke box office records becoming a powerful influence on society. With the documentary being so entertaining, is it any wonder why Moore’s calculated distortion of truth becomes more palatable than the plain truth' Throughout ‘Bowling for Columbine’, Moore effectively structures the documentary to portray his version of the truth by employing virtually all documentary modes of representation. The expository mode is utilised throughout the documentary with Moore becoming overly didactic, constantly addressing the viewer. Through applying the expository mode Moore is able to delve into a multitude of emotive social issues such as the cartoon clip which satirises America’s gun history regarding racism, materialism and militarism. Moore carefully presents an unbalanced argument using real American history to convince the audience to accept the ideology that fear is the sole cause of violence. Furthermore, through linking the abhorrent KKK with the NRA using the expository mode, Moore cleverly gains access into the audiences psyche leading them to question their own belief system. Moore correspondingly applies documentary techniques to further manipulate the facts to present the United States as a gun crazy society. The documentary perpetually edits interviews and cleverly juxtapositions the audience by representing unlikely pro-gun lobbyist’s, such as organic farmers, as being just as gun crazy as all other Americans. This allows Moore to position the audience to accept the fact that the culture of fear has infiltrated all parts of American society. Additionally Moore uses editing to sequence the wide range of stills, movies, interviews and archival footage to highlight the core message. Irony is employed effectively such as the sequencing of the benevolent ‘Wonderful World’ music with archival footage of American atrocities to effectively pinch at the audience’s hearts. The technique of applying archival footage lends authenticity and credibility to Moore’s argument. By the end of the documentary Moore becomes the voice of the people, the voice of legitimacy and the voice of reasonableness. Perhaps the more disturbing notion in reality is within the award winning novel ‘We Need to Talk about Kevin’, crafted by Lionel Shriver. In stark contrast to ‘Bowling for Columbine’ Shriver brings to light the hypothesis that certain individuals can be born with psychopathic tendencies rather than blaming society for the fear that might cause these tragedies. Although the novel is fiction Shriver probes into surreal truths within our world to create the depressingly all too realistic eponymous Kevin. Shriver effectively uses structural and language techniques to manipulate readers to believe the overarching concept that some children can simply be born… ‘evil’. Shriver delves into the theme of ‘Nature vs. Nurture’ through the structural technique of character development. ‘We Need to Talk about Kevin’ is written in a plethora of disquieting letters Eva Khatchadourian writes to her estranged husband, Franklin. In these letters, Eva grapples with her own inner turmoil as she faces the guilt, horror and remorse after her vindictive son, Kevin, perpetrates a high school massacre and kills his father and younger sister. “You killed eleven people. My husband. My daughter. Look me in the eye, and tell me why” (397). Shriver’s portrayal of Eva and Franklin and the universe they live in is chillingly realistic with their flaws as parents all too human. Eva’s egotistical career driven ambivalence to motherhood is all too... familiar. Shriver effectively uses the epistolary structure to allow Eva to second and even third guess herself as a mother. This structure was furthermore employed to disguise the tragic ending. “I miss your father Kevin. I still talk to him. I even write to him, if you can believe it. I write him letters. And now they’re in a big messy stack on my desk because I don’t know his address”. Shriver utilises the power of language techniques to manipulate the audience to feel empathy for Eva as she struggles to understand if she should be blamed for Kevin’s horrific act. Poetic language devices are embedded within the novel to create mood, emotion and visual images. Shriver describes the arrows which assassinate Franklin with alliteration and metaphors “fixed fast into the fibrous muscle… a few extra stakes around the edges of a well-pitched tent”. Shriver juxtapositions through applying the soft gentle melodic repetition of the letter f and visual imagery of tents to make the crime appear more horrendous. This disturbing representation of mass murder in America highlights an alternative explanation to Moore’s culture of fear. Shriver raises the question of ‘Nature vs. Nurture’ and the idea that someone can be born evil. So how important is the truth in contemporary society' Is being entertained more important than the truth' Through scrutinizing the degree to which the highly successful texts, ‘We Need to Talk about Kevin’ and ‘Bowling for Columbine’, manipulate the facts it becomes evident that the truth is often a carefully distorted tool. If we accept the concept that at the heart of any good documentary or novel is its ability to develop our society’s ideologies then perhaps entertainment is imperative. Isn’t the authors or artists role to capture an audience’s attention and to create dialogue about social issues' If Michael Moore had made a boring documentary it seems highly likely that he wouldn’t have reached a mass audience nor started a questioning of the social fabric of America' In contrast would ‘We Need to Talk about Kevin’ be as suspenseful and horrific if Shriver didn’t construct Kevin as ‘evil’. Perhaps the idea that the truth is all important is irrelevant. The truth will always be someone else’s version. Possibly the real responsibility lies within the audience to critically view and question what is presented'