Interpersonal Communications Review on Chappie

Introduction

College classes cover a variety of topics, but the information is practically useless if we cannot learn to apply them to aspects of our own lives. A great way to demonstrate what we have learned is to correlate the topics with the behaviors of characters found in movies we watch. My name is Bleauregard (Blu) von Kasadu, and I am here to perform this kind of demonstration for my Interpersonal Communications class. I chose the movie “Chappie”, written and directed by Neill Blomkamp. Chappie is a rejected police robot “Scout” that acquires artificial intelligence through his “maker” Deon, and has to learn to navigate his self-awareness in the crime-ridden city of Johannesburg. His newfound “parents”, Yo-Landi and Ninja (along with their friend, Amerika) are criminals in deep debt. They set out to teach Chappie how to be a gangster, so he can help them pull off a high-value heist. Meanwhile, ex-military soldier Vincent plots to re-awaken his own robot project, called “Moose”. I chose the movie “Chappie”, because the meaning is deeply relevant to the topics of Interpersonal Communications. His journey to understand himself and his place in the world demonstrates the concepts of identity needs, ethnocentrism, culture influence, the extent of gender differences, and the stages of relational development. I can also see many similarities between him and I that has helped me to better understand myself, overall.

Identity Needs

One concept I have found most prevalent in Chappie is the idea of identity needs. We need to interact with the world and the people in it, for us to compare and contrast ourselves with. Our sense of self derives from the views of others, the objects we interact with, and our general place in the social systems around us. Although Chappie was a robot with an artificial brain, he still had to develop an identity like a human being does. When Chappie is initially reprogrammed, he did not understand anything about himself or the world around him. He acted similar to a scared animal. His “parents” and “maker”, Yo-Landi, Ninja, and Deon (respectively), showed him different objects that they labeled for him- a watch, a rubber chicken, even themselves. Chappie committed these experiences to memory, building these associations in relation to himself. Throughout the movie, he developed a sense of innocent righteous intent. He did not want to use guns or commit crimes, because Deon taught him that these actions are wrong. Ninja wanted the opposite for Chappie. In order to show him how cold the world is, Ninja left Chappie in an area affected by poverty and crime. The people hated Chappie for being a police robot, so they threw rocks and bottles at him. This caused great inner conflict in Chappie, since he had to make sense of associating his righteous nature with people who were angry at him for how he looks. Why would anyone want to hurt him? He even said “please, may you not?” He tried to understand why they threw stuff at him, and set him on fire, when he did nothing to them. All he could do in response was run away, and contemplate where he fit into the city he lived in. Chappie made a choice not to become resentful. As he sat on the edge of a cliff overlooking the city, a dog approached him. He gently pets the dog’s fur, continuing to make associations instead of acting out and retaliating. These encounters helped him to condition his mind into believing that he was not the kind of person to fight people. Chappie just wanted to make friends, and pet animals.

Ethnocentrism

Vincent Moore, on the other hand, had a well-established identity as an ex-military officer for DARPA. In fact, he was quite ethnocentric about his military background. The human-sized “Scout” robots were more compact and mobile than his over-compensated “Moose” robot. As Johannesburg city police mentioned, the Moose was “expensive, big, and ugly.” They instead invested in the Scouts, while the Moose program was shut down. Seeing his military culture swept aside by the Scouts motivated Vincent to plot a take-down of the Scout program. He saw his Moose robot as being superior, while the Scouts all deserved to be torn apart and destroyed. In one scene, Vincent managed to capture Chappie. Him and two other officers managed to hold him down, and sawed off his arm. Despite Chappie crying to make him stop, Vincent insisted that they were enemies. Also, that Chappie was a “simple A.I. program” that made him think that he was real. Vincent was adamant about convincing him that they are not related in any way, and that Chappie was nothing more than “a bunch of wires”. Later, Vincent released software that caused a city-wide shut-down of the Scout units, which sparked the reactivation of his Moose robot. When he deployed it, Vincent was eager to kill anyone that stood in his way of taking down Chappie.

Culture Influence

Culture is known to influence how we speak, behave, and believe, especially if we desire to integrate and feel accepted by the cultures around us. Chappie was heavily influenced by the gang culture of Yo-Landi, Ninja, and Amerika. It affected the way he selected, organized, and interpreted language, as well as how he negotiated with others. They taught him their ways, because they wanted him to “be cool”- to integrate better with their gang. When they performed the heist, they wanted people to know that Chappie was on their side. He started out with simple words and phrases that Yo-Landi taught him, and even developed her South African accent. He eventually learned fluent English, aside from speaking in the third person. Ninja and Amerika taught Chappie gang-related slang terms, vulgarities, walking postures, and gestures to help him better acclimate to the role of a gangster. He was also given decals that resembled Ninja’s tattoos, and gold necklaces to wear. However, Ninja and Amerika could not easily convince Chappie of their beliefs regarding the heist or killing people, so they had to manipulate him. He was told that stabbing people “feels nice”, and makes them “go to sleep”. For Chappie to be convinced of the heist, he had to realize that it was necessary to pay for his new body; it was running out of battery life. As Ninja put it, “out there in the wild, life is hard. You see that dog there? You are either that dog [alive and eating food], or you’re this dog [dead]. If you wanna survive, Chappie, then you must fight.” In other words, in order for us to survive and thrive, sometimes we must set aside our beliefs to do and be what is needed for us to move forward. Eventually, Chappie came to terms with his failing battery, and performed the heist.

Extent of Gender Differences

The way in which Yo-Landi and Ninja taught and communicated with Chappie was fundamentally distinct from each other. Their relationship dynamics with Chappie demonstrated the extent of gender differences between the two “parents”, likely arising from social conditioning rather than biological factors. Men are theorized to be more directive in their speech, expressing more authority, solving more tasks. Women are said to be more emotional in their speech, seeking to maintain relationships, cultivating more of an equality climate. Yo-Landi and Ninja may have grown up to believe that men and women act in these ways, and so they spoke and behaved according to how the gender equivalences in their lives performed. Yo-Landi took a nurturing approach to teaching Chappie, allowing him time and patience to acclimate to his initial surroundings. She used a soft voice when talking to him so that he would be more trusting of her, and taught him concepts that are related to building relationships, such as speech and associating with his surroundings. When Deon wanted to teach Chappie to paint, she supported and encouraged the effort. Yo-Landi even defended Deon in several occasions. When Ninja showed up during the painting lesson, he derailed their efforts on the basis that Chappie was to be used exclusively for the heist. Her response? “Maybe he’s more than just a stupid robot who shoots people. Just let him do his stuff. He is a kid. Don’t you understand?” Ninja took a different approach; almost the complete opposite of Yo-Landi. He wanted instant results, and failure to succeed resolved to his frustration. Ninja reacted with stern discipline, impatience, and roughness. Chappie was treated with cold and direct speech, with little concern for how he felt. After Ninja broke up the painting lesson, he took Chappie out to the city and left him there. By forcing Chappie into an up-close and personal experience of the hardships that he himself had faced in life, Ninja tried to teach Chappie how to survive the real world. He tried teaching Chappie to shoot a gun, but could not contain his frustration long enough to commit to the lesson. Ninja’s main focus throughout most of the movie was on the heist, so that he could pay off the crime lord and avoid his gang being killed.

Stages of Relational Development

It was interesting to witness the progression of Ninja’s relationship with Chappie, through the coming together stages of relational development. Traditionally, we see relationship building as being motivated by the desire to bond with people for the sake of having that connection. That build-up to bonding has five phases; initiating, experimenting, intensifying, integrating, and bonding. Initiating involves short interactions that show a person may be interested in further strengthening connections with another. Experimenting is used as a sort of test, in which we explore the qualities of another without being too obvious. Intensifying is where we start inviting the particular someone to activities, deeper discussions, or even self-disclosures. Integrating takes place when that connection is strong enough for that someone to be identified with our in-groups. Bonding is apparent when we make genuine efforts to show our commitments to the connections that we have made to others. Ninja is a unique case, because he wanted to use Chappie for the sake of the heist. Chappie was a strong robot, and could withstand the impact of bullets and close combat. Along their journey to teach Chappie how to be effective in the heist, Ninja grew to love him to the point where he was willing to sacrifice his own life for Chappie, Yo-Landi, and even Deon. Ninja began with integration. His interactions with Chappie were brief and to the point, letting him and everyone else know that he was suppose to learn skills necessary to perform the heist. However, Ninja did not yet become involved with Chappie’s learning process. He then progressed into experimenting, where he started teaching Chappie how to shoot a gun. After a few failed attempts to perform, Ninja became too impatient and left. Later, he took Chappie out to the city and left him there, to see if Chappie would learn from his experiences. Their relationship intensified when in another scene, Ninja asked Chappie to forgive him for leaving Chappie alone in the city. He tried again to teach Chappie how to use weapons, and to be like a “gangster number one”. Ninja even labeled himself as Chappie’s “daddy”, and taught him how to be “cool like daddy”. Him and Amerika took Chappie on crime sprees as well. As a result, Chappie was integrated into their gang. Ninja and Amerika spray painted decals on Chappie, and had him wear “blings”. The stages previously mentioned were technically faked, as a means to train and convince Chappie into performing the heist. However, the final stage of relational development- bonding- was a genuine experience for Ninja. When the crime lord appeared to collect his money, and even when the Moose robot entered the fire fight, Ninja chose to sacrifice himself for Chappie, Yo-Landi, and Deon. Ninja’s sacrifice became a huge gesture of his commitment to his family, including Chappie.

Conclusion

The movie “Chappie” is a fantastic example of the Interpersonal Communications lessons I have learned so far, and to apply these lessons to the various characters and scenes has helped me to better understand the concepts themselves. The development of Chappie the Scout robot demonstrates how we as human beings grow psychologically, and within our relationships. That our identities arise primarily through the environments and people we interact with throughout our lives, especially in the early years of development. We can see these interactions build and erode over the course of our relationships, through the ways in which we act to maintain them or break them down. Not just with people, but also the objects and environments we are exposed to. The males and females (as well as other gender identities) we experience present us with social expectations as to how each one talks and behaves, which influences how we perform depending on our own gender and sexual orientation. This day and age in the United States, those gender roles are fundamentally unique and socially driven. Cultures we are exposed to feeds our psychology as well, and makes us believe in unique accents, quirks, and postures to better integrate with those people and environments. Our beliefs can be so strongly engrained in us that we may believe that our cultures are superior to others, or that the cultures of others threaten our own. At the end of the day, we need these influences to better understand ourselves, as well as how we relate and contrast with the world. They define the lines that separate us, and the lines that connect us to our realities. However, we have to be careful not to invade on the influences, beliefs, and cultures of others, or we might find ourselves breaking down our own personal social dynamics; even our own identities.

I have personally experienced Chappie’s struggle to understand the world around him, and to be accepted by people by and large. Building and maintaining those relationships are difficult. It is a terrifying and isolating experience to navigate an unknown place, a new culture, a body and mind that I cannot fully grasp. For people out there that struggle such as Chappie and I, all I can tell you is that you have to keep loving yourself. You have to keep persistently and whole-heartedly convincing yourself that there are genuinely caring people out there in the world. Taking it personally when you are met with disharmonious people is not worth spending your hard-earned energy. Surround yourself with those people in your life that have proven time and time again that they possess the vibe you strive for. By doing so, you are setting yourself up for a peaceful mind and a strong heart. Chappie reminded me to be persistent, determined, open-minded, and to face judgment. He reminded me to grow and to struggle; to cry and to laugh. Most of all, Chappie taught me more about myself than I knew before. If I were to teach Interpersonal Communications, I would show this movie to my class on the first day of school. I feel it necessary and ironic to show, because that robot can teach people more about how to act, behave, and grow than many of the humans I have met in my life. And I hope that he has taught you.