When what is said, what you hear, and what you say don’t match up, misunderstanding can arise easily. It can be major or minor; serious or not, it occurs around us and is prominent in many pieces of literature as well.
A hilarious experience
“Hey, what is the largest crop production in the world?”
As an introduction to the new unit on food insecurity, we were taking a quiz on the largest crops production in global studies class.
“Oh, weed? Ok”
“Wait, come over. It’s not there? What the heck?!” My friend panicked. She thought her laptop is broken or something.
So I walked over to my friend’s laptop. I started laughing.
“WHEAT bro, not weed.” And we both started laughing at how dumb it was.
“The Funniest Misheard Song Lyrics of All Time”
“The Funniest Misheard Song Lyrics of All Time” via Entertainment Nation
The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks
Misunderstanding is also one of the central themes in “The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks”, a book written by Rebecca Skloot that explored the history behind one of the most revolutionary scientific advancement in modern history.
Whilst the scientists were creating human-mouse hybrids from HeLa cells to map out the human genome and better understand human DNA, the media used yellow journalism headlines that led the public to misunderstand the motives of the scientists as creating genetically-cloned monsters.
“MAN-ANIMAL CELLS ARE BRED IN LAB… THE NEXT STEP COULD BE TREE MEN… SCIENTISTS CREATE MONSTERS” (142).
Due to the lack of knowledge, the Lackses family also misinterpreted John Hopkins hospital’s intent of taking away Henrietta’s cell for commercial purposes. In fact, although John Hopkins and George Gey, the doctor primarily responsible for research on HeLa cells, did take the cells away without consent, they did it mainly for scientific purposes in researches related to genetics.
“With that paragraph, suddenly the Lacks brothers became very interested in the story of HeLa. They also became convinced that George Gey and Johns Hopkins had stolen their mother’s cells and made millions selling them” (193).
Despite Skloot constantly clarifying Deborah her intention of raising awareness and advocating for the issue of racism and medical ethics by publishing a book on Henrietta and the HeLa cells, Deborah kept believing that Skloot is working for Johns Hopkins hospital and earning profit through her publication.
“‘Who are you working for?’ she snapped. ‘John Hopkin?’” (283).
To All The Boys I’ve Loved Before
In the teen romance film directed by Susan Johnson, Gen, Peter’s ex-girlfriend, jealous about the relationship between Lara and Peter, in hopes of destroying Lara’s reputation, intentionally manipulated the scene of Lara and Peter kissing in the hot tub to let the whole school misunderstand that they’re having sex instead.
Bibliography:
- Skloot, Rebecca. The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks. Broadway Books, 2011. Print.
- Netflix. “To All The Boys I’ve Loved Before | Official Trailer [HD] | Netflix.” Youtube, 26 Jul. 2018, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=555oiY9RWM4&t=1s
May 4, 2019 at 4:15 pm
Hi Curie!
I was thrilled when you mentioned the whole “weed” incident because the exact same thing happened in our globals block! While it was hilarious, this example also shows us how easily we, as human, miscommunicate and take something for a different meaning. I also loved how you connected misinterpretation to yellow journalism, a topic also discussed in US history. Yellow journalism are sensational articles in the 1800s that caused the American public to misinterpret the information about the sunken USS Maine, leading to ideas and accusations that the Spanish bombed the American ship, killing fellow soldiers, fueling the American’s passion for war, acting as a catalyst of the Spanish American War. This is another example in which these exaggerated and often false information leads the public to misunderstand what is actually going on. Which brings me to the question, With the two examples given above, are the people who caused the misinterpretation doing something wrong? Are they committing a crime? While both scenarios are both situations of misunderstandings, one led to a few classmates laughing and one led to 379 casualties. Could some misinterpretations such as the exaggerated headlines be seen as illegal, even though it isn’t against the law?
Moving on to your points on The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks, I absolutely agree that the development of the story revolves around the theme of miscommunication, misunderstanding, and misinterpretation. I would like to point out that many of these misinterpretations (as your examples show) are between the Lackses and some white individual, whether that is Skloot or a Hopkins doctor. I believe that this has to do with the historical background of the story. This story was set during the Jim Crow Era, right after slavery had been abolished. The Africans Americans at the time were terrified of white doctors and were treated with absurd inequality. These former slaves were uneducated and at the bottom of the social ladder, while all these doctors are rich and speaking a “sophisticated scientific” language that the Black Americans couldn’t understand. This lead many to only talk when needed to, and blindly accept anything the white doctors were telling them. The lack of communication and educational barrier gave rise to most of the miscommunications of the story. Finally, another issue at that time was how the whites viewed African Americans. Do you think that if the doctors at John Hopkins had thought more of what Henrietta was feeling, or if Henrietta was white, would they would have told her more or not?
Lastly, your idea about the movie To All the Boys I’ve Loved Before is very interesting; however, I see this more like an intentional manipulation of the truth and should be a form of lying or deceiving. Or do you think that this type of intentional lie is also a form of miscommunication, misunderstanding, and misinterpretation?
May 5, 2019 at 9:55 am
Hi Curie!
My favourite part of your blog was definitely the connection you made with To All the Boys I’ve Loved Before! I love that film! The misunderstanding you mentioned in that paragraph was very frustrating to watch, because it ruined the relationship Lara Jean had with Peter! The personal experience you had was also hilarious to read, because those things do happen in school almost everyday, which makes your story very relatable. I also found that the term you used (yellow journalism) was very interesting. As we are leaning that term in history right now, I can’t help but think about how much these yellow journalism titles impacted the Lackses. What do you think could’ve prevented the big misunderstanding Deborah and the Lackses had, other than these exaggerated titles?
This blog post was definitely worth the read, with many interesting stories. Good job Curie!
May 22, 2019 at 4:42 am
Hi Curie,
Your friend mishearing the word “wheat” as “weed” is indeed hilarious. I also share a similar experience (and quite often). One time, my brother said he needs some grey pants, but all I heard was “grape ants”. Another time, when I asked my cousin what are some possible questions the university would ask students during an interview, he answered, “They’ll probably ask ‘What’s the biggest hurdle you’ve overcome?’” For a second, I thought he said “what’s the biggest turtle”. Luckily, I didn’t voice my thoughts out loud. There is actually a word to describe these grammatical phenomena — oronyms. This is caused by a region of our brain called the angular gyrus. It uses all previous knowledge to fill in gaps with predictable words. Say, if you’re missing the last syllable of a word, angular gyrus will determine for you that you misheard the last word based on past experiences with the common phrase. So tell your friend to not feel dumb over this, because her brain simply just associate “wheat” with the most common word in her memory. ;D
Your connection of media in Henrietta Lacks’ period with yellow journalism is very creative. I understand that these media stretched the truth of the science behind culturing and cloning cells. However, your comparison provoked me to realize that, like yellow journalism, the reason these media are creating as dramatic, extravagant headlines as they can is to attract more customers so they can make more profit. Do you believe people have the tendency to flock to drama? In my opinion, people unconsciously seek for entertainment. Gossiping over rumors or drama is the easiest form of entertainment to obtain. Especially back in the early 20th century, where things like video games weren’t common, the yellow journalism method is even more effective.
Your blog post made me dive into intriguing topics I would not have normally think of. Reading the connections you make its like scavenger hunting, surprises after surprises. Keep up the good work!