I Guess I Last Left Off, Essay Example

Abstract

This subject is about the interview that was viewed on the video.  The gentleman has recently lost his wife.  The gentleman’s wife passed from cancer which took five years to cause her mortality.  The gentleman is being interviewed and his body language can be observed.  The thesis of this essay will be the spoken and unspoken signals that are conveyed by body language.

Analysis of Segments

The video initiates with the gentleman biting his fingers. His left arm is crossed over his torso. He states: “I guess I last left off.” As he is stating this phrase, his right arm is held up toward his face and his left arm remains crossed over his torso. His left arm remains crossed over his torso for the duration of the video. He continues by stating: “my wife Cary \Ann had been diagnosed with cancer and this was her second cancer. So this is seven years ago, now she was diagnosed with cancer.” As the gentleman is stating this phrase, he continues playing with his chin. He plays with his chin by using his thumb, forefinger and middle finger.

The gentleman continues by stating: “Ten years before that she had been diagnosed with breast cancer.” The skin on his forehead is crinkled with stress as he continues playing with his chin. His eye contact is constant. The gentleman continues by stating that Cary Ann had a mastectomy. He looks down at his nose and purses his lips. These actions are performed while the man continues to play with his chin. The gentleman continues and says “seven years ago she was diagnosed with breast cancer.” The gentleman continues playing with his chin while stating: “she went in for whatever routine check-up s and was diagnosed with ovarian cancer.” The gentleman brings his right arm toward his face and motions his head at a sixty degree downward view.

He continues by stating: “that his wife had been genetically predisposed to cancer due to her Eastern European ancestry”. The gentleman adds: “she had been diagnosed in stage four and it was not going to go any further”. The gentleman makes a horizontal motion with his right hand and subsequently scratches the back of his neck. The gentleman makes another horizontal motion with his night hand. He states: “The doctors expected her to last five years and she was spot on to the minute” The gentleman states: “she passed away and during the five years she continued to work in the not for profit field. She had a variety of jobs in the non-profit field.” The gentleman continues “In her last two years, she was too exhausted to travel any more to Providence.” He adds:” During this time he had been a garden variety attorney in the real estate field.”

In the video which had a duration slightly under two minutes, the gentleman who is being interviewed is expressing an experience that endured over a number of years. Art is demonstrated that he is also trying to cope with the loss of a loved one. The hand gestures  and the language that he expresses during the video could be emphasized as result of the trauma with having to witness his wife, Cary Ann deteriorate over the five year period from ovarian and breast cancer. There is grief and perhaps the hand motions and the crossing of the arms are coping mechanism in order to address the grief. The man demonstrates that he was in shock when she passed away according to the doctor’s prognosis. This shock is demonstrated by the gentleman making horizontal motions with his hands. His vocal tone decreases in intensity when he states that toward the end, His wife, Cary Ann had been too exhausted to travel to Providence.