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public speaking (CMST211)
St. Cloud State University
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Sophia Waddell Naisha Patel Kamryn Hund Joseph Yang CMST 192- Dr. Vorell April 10, 2019 Finding Dory “Families are the compass that guides us. They are the inspiration to reach great heights, and our comfort when we occasionally falter” (Henry). The family is a far away, but the familiar concept for Dory as she searches for her true meaning. In order to find out who you really are, you must go through the journeys of life while making a family of your own. Throughout the heartwarming 2016 film, Finding Dory, various forms of communication are used to guide Dory back to her family. Examples of communication from the film include friendship, intimate relationships, self-talk, self-monitoring, foundations of communication, nonverbal communication, and irreversible communication. Dory has a lack of communication skills that make her journey to find her family much more difficult; while others, like Marlin, have high communications skills that are used to help Dory. The main conflict in Finding Dory is the loss of short-term memory in the main character, Dory. Her journey consists of using the fish around her and her communications skills to remember how to find her family. Dory and many others must find a path that will lead her to her main goal of finding her family. Although Dory may get help from Marlin and Nemo; nevertheless, there will be some disagreements on her journey.
After swimming across the ocean to find Nemo, Dory then found herself having flashbacks of her parents. These flashbacks drove her on a long journey through sanctuaries, unfamiliar waters, and to new friends. At first, the flashbacks showed the young Dory and her parents practicing remembering skills in a fish sanctuary in case Dory ever found herself lost. Unfortunately, the young Dory quickly found herself lost not only in the fish sanctuary but in the ocean. She spent years wandering the ocean to find her family and that was when she ran into Nemo and his father, Marlin. It was not until Dory is asked by a young fish, “who are your parents?” when she realizes that her family is somewhere, and she had to find them. This drives an urge in Dory to start finding her parents that she had previously forgotten about. The three newly made friends go on crazy adventures through the ocean once again, following every clue that Dory could remember to find her family. Of course, Dory ran into new friends along the way including a whale shark named Destiny, a beluga whale named Bailey, and an octopus named Hank. Altogether, this team helps guide Dory to her family, all while helping her realize the true meaning of family. One of the main concepts in this film was friendship or the communication between two or more fish. In Finding Dory , we saw that Dory tried her best to succeed on her own but quickly learned she needed to trust in herself as well as her friends. The first concept that was brought out throughout the movie was “friendship”. Friendship, according to Verderber can be defined as people whom we have voluntarily negotiated more personal relationships (Verderber et al, 124). One of the basic messages shown in the film included the importance of family and friendships. The relationship between Dory and Marlin grew tremendously throughout the movie. She helped Marlin raise Nemo and became a mother figure for him. In a friendship, emotional support is
peers to cherish their lives by enjoying the view. Along with different types of friendships, there is also communication with oneself such as self-talk. The third concept brought out was a “self-talk”. Self–talk can be defined as the internal conversation we have with ourselves in our thoughts (Verderber et al, 31). Dory tended to self- talk by giving herself the confidence to face reality with the disability she had. She developed coping mechanisms and got help from her friends when she needed it. Throughout the movie, positive self-perception was demonstrated where she engaged herself in positive self-talks and attitudes. In the movie, Dory always asked herself, “What would Dory do?” as she always found a way out of a tough situation. This self-question helped her to search for a solution and helped her decide what to do when in danger. Dory also always said throughout the movie “just keep swimming”. As thing got tougher and tougher for her in the movie, she was able to move forward by her own motivation. She essentially conveyed her message to others and herself as she spoke out loud even if she was alone. The fourth concept brought out was a “self-monitoring”. This concept can be defined as the internal process of being aware of how we are coming across to others and adjusting our behavior accordingly (Verderber et al, 32). Marlin is shown to adjust his tone of voice and body gestures towards Dory in order to come off as nice. It is known that Dory has a short-term memory loss, which makes her a hazard for a school field trip with Nemo. No one wants to confront Dory to tell her to stay at home, and that is when Marlin assesses the situation to find the best way to tell her. He softens his voice, along with placing his fin on her shoulder to try to persuade Dory to stay. He used his own self-monitoring to become aware of his situation and adjusted his behavior accordingly. On the other hand, Dory used her self-monitoring poorly, and read the situation as an invitation to become a student teacher. The difference between Marlin
and Dory is a good example of high self- monitoring as opposed to low self-monitoring. While the process of self-monitoring was going on, another communication skill, self-concept, also played a key factor in the interaction between the fish. The fifth concept brought out was “self-concept” as it is another communication perception of oneself that is demonstrated throughout the movie Finding Dory. Self-concept can be defined as the perception we have of our skills, abilities, knowledge, competencies, and personality (Verderber et al, 26). This concept can be applied to the character Bailey, the beluga whale who temporarily believed he lost his echolocation ability due to a concussion. Near the beginning of the movie, Bailey honestly believed that he was injured bad enough that his echolocation skill was completely disabled. However, later in the movie Dory became lost in the pipes so he quickly overcame the perceptions he had for himself and utilized his echolocation ability. Our personal experiences are often critical in forming our self-concept as we never know what we can do until we have tried doing it (Verderber et al, 26). Bailey did not know he had this ability until one of his friends was in danger and needed his help. His self-concept was then changed to having the ability to echolocate and this new skill was utilized throughout the rest of the film. This idea of self-concept can also be applied to the character of Marlin, Nemo’s father. From his past experiences of losing his wife, all but one of his children, and traveling across the ocean to find his only son, Marlin’s self-concept was somewhat reserved as he did not wish to make impulsive decisions and jump to conclusions. He perceived much of his knowledge in a negative way, so he often acted very reserved and protective. On the other hand, Dory is more care-free and acts on impulse. However, when his friend was in danger, he kept reminding himself “What would Dory do?” as he changed the self-concept of his abilities and knowledge
when Marlin and Nemo are attached to Dory due to these plastic pop holders. When she ran into the pipe, Nemo accidentally got injured from this. Dory was hesitant and asked for help, but she said “But I can fix it. I can. I’ll go get help.” In return, Marlin says “Go wait over there and forget. It’s what you do best.” This shows an angry emoticon based on Marlin’s attitude and facial expression due to the fact his son, Nemo got harmed from Dory’s eagerness and not paying attention. This scene also shows an example of symmetrical feedback. Symmetrical feed is a message that signals disagreement about who is in charge (Verderber et al, 13). Symmetrical feedback relates to this scene because Dory offered to help with Nemo’s injuries, but Merlin refused which created a big disagreement. Thus, leads to symmetrical feedback. Factors to communication are not always verbal as nonverbal communication also plays a key role. Another main principle that highly relates to the process of communication is message production. Message production is what we do when we encode a message (Verderber et al, 9). This means that when we fully understand a situation that shows or represents a certain message, we then gain intentions for valuable needs. Therefore, goals are made. Message production affects the lives of everyday people. It can keep people stay motivated and dedicated towards their goals. According to one of the scenes from the film: Finding Dory , Dory tried hard to remember something important from the past. However, she doesn’t quite exactly remember. Nemo on the other hand tries to help her remember and to understand. “The Jewel of Morro Bay, California.” said Nemo. This triggered and activated a message production for Dory. She fully understood the message and encoded that message, which was The Jewel of Morro Bay, California because that is where she is from. “My family! I remember my family!” said Dory. The results of this led to Dory’s intentions on finding her parents. The is a good complex set of communication process that is intended to result in shared meanings.
Nonverbal communications are all the messages we send in ways that transcend spoken or written words (Verderber et al, 84). One interesting specific type from nonverbal communication that is used in daily conversations, is called kinesics. Kinesics is the technical name for what and how the body communicates. It relates to body motions, gestures, and eye contacts (Verderber et al, 86). During one of the scenes from Finding Dory , Dory decided to tag along with Mr. Ray and his class. It started about the topics of migration and then onto mommies and daddies. Since Dory was Mr. Ray’s assistance, she decided to talk about how it works between the two parents to make a baby. Dory says, “You see kids when two fish love each...”. In this certain scene, Dory demonstrated the love between two parents by using her fins gestures. Dory was also using eye contact to keep the class engaged with her topic. These gestures are essential to Dory for her communication skills. Gestures are important in communication; however, there are also other factors such as tone of voice that can help you interpret the communication being given. During certain types of activity, there can be emotions such as fear, happiness, or feeling bored. These emotions can also be seen in the pitch of a vocal voice during a conversation. Pitch is the highness or lowness of vocal tone (Verderber et al, 89). In Finding Dory , Marlin, Nemo, and Dory go across the ocean in hopes to find Dory’s parents. All three decided to travel across the ocean with a sea turtle named Crush. Crush can travel at a fast rate due to that ocean tube speed, which made him a perfect travel companion for the three fish. While traveling with Crush, Marlin did not feel well. “Totally sick!” said Marlin. “I know, isn’t it great,” said Crush. “No! I am going to be sick!” said Marlin. This is an example of a pitch. Marlin raised his voice because he was afraid and felt sick from the fast travel speed. He also showed a bad facial expression
Throughout the film Finding Dory , various communication concepts were demonstrated as the characters journeyed through the ocean. Only some of these concepts included friendships, intimate relationships, self-talk, self-monitoring, foundations of communication, nonverbal communication, and irreversible communication. These concepts are demonstrated throughout the movie through interaction between Dory and the other fish. Communication is not always positive, there can be negativity which can greatly affect relationships. It is not only in this specific movie that communication concepts can be applied. Concepts of communication such as relationships, ideas of oneself, and basic communication ideas can be seen throughout every aspect of our lives. How we communicate is essential to how we survive.
Works Cited Henry, Brad. "These Quotes About Family Will Remind You How Blessed You Are." Good Housekeeping. Good Housekeeping, 13 Dec. 2018. Web. 10 Apr. 2019. Stanton, Andrew. Finding Dory. 17 June 2016. Film. Verderber, Kathleen S., et al. Communicate! Cengage Learning, 2017.
Movie Paper
Course: public speaking (CMST211)
University: St. Cloud State University
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