"Field of Dreams"

The Corinthian Volume 6 Article 5 2004 "Field of Dreams" Ashley Kennedy Georgia College Follow this and additional works at: https://kb.gcsu.edu/thecorinthian Part of the English Language and Literature Commons, and the Rhetoric and Composition Commons Recommended Citation Kennedy, Ashley (2004) ""Field of Dreams"," The Corinthian: Vol. 6 , Article 5. Available at: https://kb.gcsu.edu/thecorinthian/vol6/iss1/5 This Article is brought to you for free and open access by the Undergraduate Research at Knowledge Box. It has been accepted for inclusion in The Corinthian by an authorized editor of Knowledge Box. The Corinthian: The Journal of Student Research at GC&SU "Field of Dreams" Ashley Kennedy Dr. Megan Melancon Spanish Major Faculty Sponsor Introduction The movie, "Field of Dreams", has become an American classic. In this movie, Ray, the lead character, is a Berkley University graduate from the sixties turned corn farmer in Iowa with a wife and one daughter. Ray is afraid of turning into his father. He is afraid that he will live and die and never pursue his dreams. When Ray does decide to pursue his dreams, he does so believing that he is helping others and that he is doing it for some one else, but in the end, it is his own hurt and pain that he ends up recon ciling and his own dreams that he fulfills. People remember the haunting voice out in the middle of the field saying, "If you build it, they will come." Others remember when Terrance Mann, played by James Earl Jones, stands in the way of Ray's van after a baseball game. Other people remember when Doc "Moonlight" Graham steps off the baseball diamond back into his old self to help save little Karen, Ray's daughter, who was choking on a hot dog. Everyone remembers the speech that Terrance Mann gives to Ray at the end of the movie, and they remember the famous line, "People will come." Why do these lines and. images burn themselves into our minds? How and why do they have this effect on us? Is it the words and actions themselves that effect us, or is it based on our own interpretation and understanding of the words and events? This movie speaks to the audience on a number of different levels, and these levels are not always clear or distinct. However, this does not mean tl1at it isn't worthwhile to try to separate the various levels at which this movie speaks to us from each other and then to break tl1em apart and see why they affect us like tl1ey do. To this end, the analysis of this paper will focus on the Terrance Mann "People Will Come" speech but will also include the scene in the movie leading up to the speech and some dialog after the speech's conclusion. The basic conflict lies in the fact that Ray and his wife, Annie, do not have enough money to keep their farm. In spite of this, Ray has built a baseball field after continuously hearing a voice say, "lfyou build it, they will come;" the field takes up a large por tion of land which would otl1erwise be used to grow corn. Mark, Annie's brother and Ray's brother-in -law, is trying to convince Ray to sell his farm; Terrance Mann takes the opposite tack. (The full text of the speech is located at the end of this article.) 52 "Field of Dreams" Phonetic Analysis Our words carry very powerful messages, but how much of the message is contained within the word itself, and how much of our message is communicated through the way in which we speak? How does our accent or lack of one affect the way that people receive a speaker? How do our uses of elements such as pitch, tone, rate, and volume alter the mean ing of our words from one shade to another? How are these same ele ments used in a broader sense to create certain effects within the person receiving the message? Certain elements within the movie, Field of Dreams, create effects that can be examined using these questions as a background. Initially, it does not seem that there are many extraordinary ele ments to the speech delivered by James Earl Jones, who plays the character of Terrance Mann. His speech contains very few elements of African American English (AAE). A few exceptions to this include his pronuncia tion of words such as 'Iowa' and 'themselves'. When Terrance Mann mentions Iowa it comes out as a southern drawl, while Karen, Ray's daughter, has a more standard-like pronunciation. 'Themselves,' which in standard American English is spoken with a beginning voiced interdental fricative (a 'th' sound), is spoken by Terrance Mann with an initial conso nant that is somewhere benveen a voiced interdental fricative and a voiced alveolar stop. However, it still isn't as clearly developed as the voiced alve olar stop that is used in AAE (a 'd' sound). This comparison to standard American English is only important in noticing that from the phonetic presentation alone of the speech it would not be possible to distinguish Terrance Mann as an AAE speaker. His pronunciation does not show many characteristic traits of AAE, such as 'r' dropping or other well docu mented features. It would seem then that his character is not included in this movie for the effect of adding in an African-American dialect. The lack of an African-American dialect is the most striking feature when ana lyzi ng Terrance Mann's speech phonetically, especially considering that the character of Terrance Mann was a civil right's leader. Suprasegmentals Even though the pronunciation of the words seems unremarkable, the suprasegmental elements of the various characters' speech add an inter esting element to the linguistic breakdown of meaning. The study of suprasegmentals goes beyond the actual words spoken in order to interpret meaning and goes into the analysis of the way in which they \.Vere spoken. Elements such as pitch, loudness, tempo, rhythm, speech acts such as whispering, and similar features make up the study of suprasegmentals. Overall, the "People Will Come" speech can be divided into three distinct sections marked off by an interruption from Mark, Ray's 53 The Corinthian: The Journal of Student Research at GC&SU obnoxious brother-in-law, between sections. Each section has marked dif ferentiation of pitch, volume, and rate. The beginning of the speech is marked by higher pitch, lower volume, and a slow rate. For the purposes of crafting an effective speech, the initial high pitch serves as a way in which to gain attention, but maintaining a lower volume and a slower calmer rate leaves the speech room to build towards a climax. In the sec ond part of the speech, the pitch lowers as James Earl Jones sinks into the rhythm of the speech and increases the volume and the rate. The increase in the rate and volume is building toward a climatic moment and causes tension to build in the air. In the third and final part the climax of the speech, volume and pitch are lowered, thereby ending the speech on a smooth calming tone. Sprague and Stewart stress the importance of such variety (2003): "The speaker who has a clear speaking voice devoid of vocal tics wastes these good qualities if she or he speaks hypnotically, with no variation in pitch rate, or volume. Change and movement are intrinsically more interesting than the static or predictable . .Vocal variety is equally important, and the need for it goes beyond a mere desire for novelty. Your voice should not simply transmit words; you can use it to underscore and reinforce your message" (350-351 ). James Earl Jones incorporates these various elements into the speech as shown above and does so to great dramatic effect. At the same time, he speaks in such a natural manner that it is unreasonable to presume that these elements could not have been included subconsciously. The natural ness of his tone and manner are part of what keep his words from seeming like they came from a script and make the section believable to an audi ence. Aside from the flow of the speech as a whole, there are several instances where a variation in pitch brings a different inflection of mean ing, even in phrases that contain the exact same words. There are three distinct instances of the phrase, "people will come" in this speech; each one reinforces the division of the speech into three sections. The first utterance of the phrase marks the beginning of Terrance Mann's speech act. It is emphasized by an increase of pitch on the word "will." This shifts the meaning from a simple statement into a realization. The pitch captures the moment in which Terrance Mann catches this vision for people actually coming to Iowa. The second use of the phrase is spoken immediately after Mark interrupts Terrance. It stays at a monotone level, but the volume is greatly increased, and it is spoken with a strong sense of immediacy. The effect of 54 " Field of Dreams" these differences is to assume a higher degree of authority by increasing volume and to reassure Ray that he doesn't need to sell the farm . The final distinct use of the phrase is at the very end of his speech, "Ohhhh, people will come Ray, people will most definitely come." His voice varies a lot on the word, "ohhhh." The pitch rises from a normal level and then goes back down into a settled low with a lower volume and rate for the rest of the phrase, except for the second emphasis on the word, "definitely," that helps to bring a strong sense of closure to tl1e speech.

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