Babel

Communication and Cultural Diversity

Prof. Hope

July 11, 2010

BABEL

4 interlocking stories all connected by a single gun all converge at the end and reveal a complex and tragic story of the lives of humanity around the world and how we truly aren't all that different.

In Morocco, a troubled married couple are on vacation trying to work out their differences. Meanwhile, a Moroccan herder buys a rifle for his sons so they can keep the jackals away from his herd.

A girl in Japan dealing with rejection, the death of her mother, the emotional distance of her father, her own self-consciousness, and a disability among many other issues, deals with modern life in the enormous metropolis of Tokyo, Japan.

Then, on the opposite side of the world the married couple's Mexican nanny takes the couple's 2 children with her to her son's wedding in Mexico, only to come into trouble on the return trip.

Combined, it provides a powerful story and an equally powerful looking glass into the lives of seemingly random people around the world and it shows just how connected we really are.

For starters, a description of the film's meaning might be a nice addition; there is no mention of the original city of Babel, where, according to the Old

[Testament, God made it so that everyone suddenly spoke different languages. As a result of not being able to communicate, the people couldn't cooperate productively and weren't able to finish building the Tower of Babel. I believe the film's title gives us a better clue as to its message.

Just like the people in Babel, not one character in the movie is a particularly good communicator--especially when trying to interact with someone from a different culture. All of the countries represented in this movie are at times portrayed as "mean and scary." The Japanese are portrayed as a culture that is cold and stand-offish and has superficial, drug-abusing teenagers; the...