Role-playing can become a powerful influence over one’s
actions. The degrees of freedom that can be reached when one is placed into a
role of power are overwhelming and consuming. Philip Zimbardo, in his famous
Stanford Prison Experiment, tested this idea. He randomly assigned participants
to either be the prisoners or the prison guards. At first, the experiment was
taken in jest and no serious role-playing took place. As the experiment
continued however, the prison guards began to feel as though they were not
receiving the respect that a true prison guard should feel. Although they could
not physically harm the prisoners, the guards began to mentally abuse and
humiliate the fake inmates. The experiment eventually had to be abruptly ended
when it was deemed inhumane. Some of the prisoners continued to exhibit signs
of traumatization. As a result of Zimbardo’s experiment, it was clear just how
exaggerated role-playing could become when one is placed in a position of
power.
I thought
of this experiment in regards to Dana and Kevin’s new roles that they must play
within the setting of slavery. Dana must become compliant and submissive. Kevin
on the other hand, is put into a domineering and authoritative position. As of
right now, he is able to maintain some distance from the role that is presented
before him, but just as the buffer between their two realities begins to
deteriorate, I predict that his controlling nature will manifest in full form
as he takes on his role as a slave owner. He has already exhibited signs of condescension in their 1976 life, and it is only a matter of time before that begins to grow under the influence of the society he has entered.
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ReplyDeleteFor starters I feel that Dana and Kevin's role playing was out of necessity. I do agree with you that Kevin has a controlling personality at first but I believe it is because he can never relate to being discriminated against. He is never emotionally attached to the other slaves on the plantation so he does not give it a second thought when they are ordered around. Once Dana is lashed to the point of thinking she will die Kevin sees the error of his ways. So for the years that Kevin is alone in the past he goes about freeing slaves despite the beliefs of the time that slavery was okay. I do like your example of how easily people can adapt to a role. Especially in Dana's case because each time she goes back she more easily returns to her roles on the plantation as if they are second nature.
ReplyDeleteAnd I deleted the first one because I noticed a mistake.