Shrek

. Explain the looking glass theory and self-concept as they pertain to Shrek, Donkey, Princess Fiona, and Prince Farquar. Your answer needs to address the components of self. In your answer, include how self-concept affects the way that they communicate. Remember that communication includes cognitive, listening and speaking processes.

According to the looking glass theory, we use others as a mirror to see ourselves and we imagine what others think of us then include these imaginings in our self concept. In the movie “Shrek”, the main character and the hero of the story, Shrek, was always concerned about how he looks and what people think about his face and outfit. That is why he was shocked when he thought that the princess was talking about his hideous face with donkey and reacted very negatively to express his love towards the princess. Self-concept describes a person and his or her personality. A person's self-concept always affects his/her ability to communicate with others. When Shrek brought a flower for Princess Fiona and wanted to express his feeling towards her he heard all the conversation between the donkey and the princess. The princess was talking about the secret why she became ugly at night. But the Shrek thought that she was talking about his ugly face and she did not want to marry her for that. In that case Shrek was just hearing their conversation, but not listening and it indicates his poor self-concept. Even though the Dragon breathes fire and eliminates any Knight who tries to save the princess, this is not your ordinary fairytale dragon. Hanging out at the keep and being surrounded by hot boiling lava all day can make any dragon hungry for a little love. It could find the true love heart inside the donkey and even though it could not talk, but they communicated and expressed their love to each other. When the donkey was doing fake praising to the dragon’s beauty, the dragon took that for real and did go after the donkey until it could arouse the true love for it in the heart of the donkey. At the first time Shrek denied to take the princess’ hand, then the princess agreed to marry the greedy Prince Farquar and wanted to get married as soon as possible. The greedy, short and timid king thought that Fiona loved him so much and that is why she wanted to get married sharp. But it was a verbal miscommunication and their hearts could not communicate to dig out love for each other. As a result it was not successful and they could not be husband and wife. Fiona was a smart, tough and spirited princess with a deep, dark secret who waited patiently for her one true love to sweep her off her feet. At last her dream came true when she and Shrek could communicate with each other and express their true feeling. So from this movie we can learn that it is very much important to understand what other wanted to say and we have to find out the true meaning of other’s expression and feelings. Otherwise, miscommunication will occur. It is very important to make sure that receiver got the message from the sender without any interruption.

2. Define visualization, using as least three examples from Shrek for visualization.

Forming mental image or pictures to make things more perceptible to the mind or imagination is called visualization. For this reason a picture is worth a thousand words. In Shrek, there are many examples of visualization. When the princess Fiona was looking at their weeding cake and pushed Farquaad’s replica down and she was just visualizing how worse couple they would be if she would get married with him. Other example of visualization is when Shrek himself was thinking with a sunflower in his hand how he could express his feeling towards Fiona. At one point of the picture Prince Farquaad was looking at pictures of some beautiful princesses and after selecting Fiona from them he was just thinking how beautiful his life will be if he could marry her and in this way his long time dream to be a king would be fulfilled.

3. Define reframing, using Shrek himself for at least three examples.

Reframing is when one redefines events or experiences

from different point of views. Events that are reframed which causes devaluation of self-worth, that changes a person's perspective. Shrek reflects reframing in the movie several times. In one scene in a conversation with Donkey, Shrek describes how people runaway from him when they see him which results in isolating himself. Another scene, when he thought Princess Fiona did hat him because he was ugly. He was sad to think that everyone used to justify him with his ugly face but none could feel his heart. Shrek was always trying to hide himself away from the society and he was sick and tired of the social life because society was unable to judge him in the right way. As a result form the beginning