Wednesday, October 20, 2010

Friendly Ghosts And Xenophobia?

How does the Casper cartoon excerpt make us contemplate the science fiction stories we have read within the xenophobia concept idea?  Connections?  Other thoughts?  Please quote or reference any stories in your response.  Please complete this blog response on October 20th.

24 comments:

  1. I think the Casper cartoon shows how humans react to something unfamiliar. It shows how we can't possible except something that we don't understand. It seems like "The King of Beasts" where they ostracize the human because they don't fully understand it and label it dangerous like we would with a ghost like Casper.

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  2. This simple cartoon reveals a very big messaage about humans and xenophobia. It shows how we judge things that we dont understand before we even get to know them. Just from an old cartoon, it is fairly easy to say that humans as a whole assume things too quickly.

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  3. I think Casper shows how people can be afraid of things that wont cause them harm but are different than what they are used to. In the movie Casper wants to make friends, and means no harm to anyone but people get scared off because they expect him to have bad intentions.

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  4. Casper shows human qualitys and it shows that people have sterotypes and are affraid of the unkown. Everyone Casper trys to be nice to and be fiends with run away because they dont even get the time to get to know him.

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  5. Casper relates to the xenophobia concept in that it reveals how, usually no matter what, people are afraid of the unknown. All the animals in the movie clip were scared to death of Casper, even though all he was trying to do was make friends. Because they didn’t even give Casper a chance and ran away instead of understanding what they didn’t know, Casper felt exiled and mistreated. This relates to the card activity that we did in class because everyone felt misunderstood when people displayed xenophobia.

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  6. Casper does relate to xenophobia because even though Casper is friendly people are still afraid of him because they are stereotyping him with the other ghosts which are mean. Xenophobia is the fear of the unknown and so by not knowing Casper they assume that he is evil like the other ghosts. In the Silk and the Song the Hussirs talk about all humans as "Wild Humans" because that’s all they think of them. They think that they cannot be civil or like them. In reality they can be, but the Hussirs are so set on what they have only seen that they are not going to change their minds about the humans.

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  7. The Casper cartoon illustrates xenophobia very well. Casper is a ghost and even though he does not have bad intentions or even try to be scary, everyone he meets freaks out and runs away. This is a good comparison to xenophobia because we are taught by media to be scared of the unknown and things we have pre-conceived notions of. Everyone knows ghosts are scary, even though Casper was being friendly no one would give him a chance because of the stereotypes that go along with him.

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  8. In casper, everyone was afraid of casper because they expected him to be like all the other ghosts, scary in demeanor. They judged the book by its cover, just like in puppet show, where people thought that the mule was just some other dumb animal.

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  9. The cartoon shows how humans react towards some things that are unfamiliar to people. Casper is a ghost, which to a lot of people in the cartoon is either foreign to them or they gave his kind a negative image before they met him. The negative image comes from the beginning from when Casper's neighbors leave to scare people, which gives them the image the Casper is the same. At the same time, the people Casper meets have never possibly seen a ghost either, therefore that scares them.

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  10. In this wxcerpt the ghosts go out to boo the town, and natural anything is scared of the ghosts. So when Casper goes out to try and make friends nobody gives him a second look because they have an immediate fear of the unknown. This fear is also seen in The silk and the song through the captive humans fear of the wild humans because of there lack of knowledge of them.

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  11. I believe that the Casper clip relates to the stories we have been reading because it has the fear of the unknown and unfamiliar aspect. Casper he just wants make new friends but everyone runs off as he tries to approach. They classify him along with the other ghost and don't look beyond his appearance.

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  12. That the theme of the Xenophobia displayed is just trying to fit into society and that people become afraid of this theme like Casper, in turn they are alienated. Just how Casper cannot even make friends with a skunk and is all alone.

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  13. It shows how humans are afraid of things they dont understand. We make judgements because we think that we need to understand everything or that everything has to have a meaning as to why it exists. While humans are at the top of the food chain, we are still prey and very vulnrable which makes us make quick assumptions about things.

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  14. I disagree that casper the friendly ghost demonstrated xenophobia at all. I think that Casper the frindloy ghost relied on the idea of the preconcieved notion that ghosts were scary. If ghosts were completely unknown, the characters within the video clip wouldn't have reacted out of rational fear of the dead. They would have reacted out of an irrational fear. Since ghosts are the product of the human mind they are not unknown. I think that Casper the friendly ghost is more accurately just a story of discrimination and inaccurate fear. in laments term... I disagree with the question itself.

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  15. Casper, like many of the other stories we have read, illustrates xenophobia with supernatural beings. This is the way that it, xenophobia, is typically illustrated because everyone can relate to or understand the concept more easily. In the Casper cartoon, all the farm animals are scared of Casper because he's a ghost; a foreign lifeform.

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  16. Humans fear death, so it is only natural that they fear the dead. Casper represents the dark creatures who stalk at night: the vampires (the non-sparkling kind), the werewolves, the aliens, the shadows and ghouls. But Casper is the friendly ghost, and wants nothing more than a kind friend. However he finds himself not accepted, because the living naturally fear the dead and most things unfamiliar. Humans just cannot cope with unfamiliar things, and they push it as far away as they can so they don't have to deal with it.

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  17. The cartoon shows how people stereotype things and don't get to know what's actually there. This is also demonstrated in "Puppet Show" when the alien first comes to visit. People are terrified by his exterior, but he's actually a decent being.

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  18. I strongly believe that Caster shows how something unfimiliar can scare us even though it can be friendly or can help you. In the movie casper tries to be nice to people but the people are quickly scared off because they judge a book by its cover and are scared because they do not reconize it.

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  19. Casper exhibits xenophobia because he is a ghost. When he is trying to make friends everyone he tries to befriend is immediately scared because he is a ghost but they really don't know him. In Puppet show, There is a similar situation with an alien that also exhibits xenophobia.

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  20. The Casper clip depicts xenophobia through the reactions the humans have towards Casper who had done nothing to evoke the horrified reactions by the creatures he encountered (xenophobia). In addiiton, this relates to the silk and the song through the segregation of the different "beings," in the silk and the song, the people are penned up much like cattle until "breeding season"; in the casper clip, the ghosts are to reside in the cemetary until evening when they're freed to "Boo" people.

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  21. This cartoon shows xenophobia because the animals and humans that see Casper expect him to be scary and mean like other ghosts so they freak out and run away. This connects to stereotypes because even if you don't know anything about someone, you could still dislike them because of a stereotype. In "The King of The Beasts" is the biologist a human?

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  22. The Casper cartoon shows that often times judgment is unleashed before one knows the true intentions of the "fright". It shows the ignorance of society in that steriotypes control one's thought. Like in "The King of the Beast" where the "human" is judged as hazerdous because it is not understood.

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  23. I think the casper story is a cool idea involving xenophobia. It indicates that things that we are afraid of or do not accept can actually be pleasant. many times people dont give foreighn or different people chances to show who they are. if people were more open minded casper would have friends.

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  24. The Casper cartoon exhibits xenophobia and the stereotypical attitude of a figure that is causing xenophobia. The cartoon shows xenophobia by displaying the fear that is in all of the animals when they see Casper. The fear of the animals symbolizes the fear of humans and how we react to anything foreign to us. This cartoon also shows the attitude of the ghosts by displaying their enthusiasm to scare people.

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