Listen to at least 15-20 minutes of “Trever Noah Says He Grew up ‘In The Shadow of a Giant’ (His Mom)“. What do you notice about Trevor Noah’s ability to share information about his life, including his relationship with his mother. Does he do more showing or more telling? Provide some examples to support your opinion. Your response should be six to nine sentences long.
14 thoughts on “Blog Post #5: Trevor Noah’s Storytelling Ability”
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How Trevor Noah’s ability to share information about his life was really easy for me to understand what kind of message he was trying to deliver. When he was talking about how he thought he was the hero of his story but it was actually it was his mom, he explained his lesson that he learned from living his life. He does more telling because he would talk about his life back then more than showing. According to the article, it states that, “I lived my life as a part-white, part-black but then sometimes Jewish kid, and I didn’t understand because she didn’t make me convert. … When I turned 13, she threw me a bar mitzvah, but nobody came because nobody knew what the hell that was.” This example contains the fact that he rather tell his story than showing it. He explained his feeling during the time when he was born as crime, and now he was able to tell how he feels about his mom. This shows the relationship with his mom and he was always proud of his mom.
The way Trevor Noah share information is very concise and understandable. Instead of talking how difficult his life was when he was yound, he uses examples to illustrate and elaborate every single points, which are how he grew up in the shaow of a giant. He does showing more than talking. In the interview, the points he wants to make are all through his personal experience in a legal segregated society. No one knows what you been through unless you demonstrate things that you actually went through. For example, there are lots of people snitch those who violate the laws on sexual relations, and his mother is one of the victims. When his mother conver to Judaism, she did bar mitzvah for him when he turned 13, which had a very profound influence on him. These are the examples that Noah showing his interaction with his mother and how his mother gradually becomes a giant of him.
Trevor Noah expresses his information in a very understandable and clear way. I believe that Trevor shows certain parts of the story and he tells at an other part of the story. However, he did more showing when he was describing his childhood. He clearly directed at us that he was confused about much of what happened at the past, like how his mom converted to Judaism and he was confused with all the jewish things her mom did. But when he said, “but it is her thirst and passion” when her mother wanted to show him Judaism, that just shows me meaning behind why she is talking about Judaism. Even though the comedian had a confusing past, he told it to us in a not confusing way.
When sharing information about his life and his relationship with his mother, Trever Noah uses many detail and examples after each statement he makes. Also when sharing his experience, Trever Noah sticks to his own perspective and doesn’t share how other people saw the same life he was living. I personally felt like he was doing more telling than showing in his interview. For example, when he was talking about the time when his grandmother used to hide him from the police, he didn’t really talk about how it felt or what he saw from under the bed. Also when he was telling how he always stood out from other kinds in South Africa because he was half white and half black, he wasn’t showing the picture of how he parted from other kids. Thus, previously knowing little about Trever Noar, I found his interview to be very interesting.
When Trevor Noah discussed his life experiences and his relationship with his mother, he illustrated many details that gave insight about his life. Though, Trevor explained clear details about his life, he was able to compare them to create a clear image of what he endured through. For example, he mentioned that he followed after his mother by mimicking accents of people while living in South Africa. From this, he used a comparison of a baby duckling doing the same acts as their mother to survive. This strengthened his point that language was truly a powerful tool he used to his advantage. Furthermore, Trevor Noah portrayed his experiences by showing how challenging it was and how he overcame them.
Trevor Noah shares his experiences in a descriptive way. He talks about his life experiences to allow the lister to picture how that incident was like. Noah does both showing and telling. For example, he talks about his incident in the cab with his mother and his infant brother. I could imagine the way that the cab driver was treating the mother and how the mother reacted. When he described the way his mother jumped out of the car, I could imagine a mother holding her baby tightly so she could ensure the safety of her child when she jumped. I thought of multiple things that the driver could have done if they did not jump out. I felt worried for his family just imagining what could have happened. Another example is how his mother converted to Judaism. He shows how his mother would occasionally send him texts in Hebrew.
Trevor Noah includes more showing than telling in his article. He is not just telling what happened, but telling by using vivid languages. For example, he does not just states: “People were encouraged to snitch.” He expands this fact by describing “communications were monitored and anyone could snitch.””It could be your neighbor if you were living in a white area; it could be your neighbor if you were living in a black area.” Moreover, he does not just tell his mother was constantly being arrested. Instead, he shows “The police didn’t afford you a phone call, you just disappeared for a while. What was scary was we lived in a state where some people disappeared forever. ” These examples all make me feel the horror of the apartheid, and the non-stop torture from this ugly “hide and seek”.
Listening to Trevor Noah’s podcast really gave me an image of what he went through. He tells us a lot about what happens if he gets caught by the police or when people see him differently as the people around him.On top of that dealing with. “snitches” and the people that works for the police. This pod cast vary much so reminds me of this child shoulder named Michel Chikwanine. He was initiated into becoming a rebel shoulder at a vary young age. Where he manage to escape later on. Where as Trevor Noah had no choice but hide from police and really distance himself from others as a kid.
Trevor Noah’s ability to share information about his life and his relationship with his mother was descriptive because he does more telling than showing. Not only does he tells us the list of unfortunate childhood events, which coveys that he had a rough childhood, but he describes them and give examples that would help audience relate to his experience. For instance, he gave a clear and short statement, “People were encouraged to snitch.” He initially starts off with why these people snitch rather than just saying they did and it was because black people were “afforded special privileges” or paid by the police. He would also give a specific event from one of his experiences about snitches. It was the time his mother would get arrested almost every week for seeing his father. Moreover, he mentions about how scary it was to live in a state where people can disappear forever if the police were suspicious about them. Although Trevor had a rough childhood, listening to this audio makes me believe that his mom’s influence was the reason being that “he grew up in the shadow of a giant.”
I notice that Trevor Noah has the ability to share information about his life very clearly so the audience can easily imagine his story in their head. Every time he tells something, he always gives some examples to support what he is telling. Therefore, it is more clear and understandable about what he is saying to show us about his story. For example, after Noah says, “My mother’s always looking for answers, she’s always searching for new information, I think she has a thirst for hunger that very few possess innately, and so, my mother never stagnated in a place where she said I have it all, (16:47-17:04)” he uses the example of how his mother does not satisfy to only read the Bible, she will question more about it, such as where is this Bible come from, who are the Israelites, and so on. In addition, he also tells that her mother wants to read the Bible in the original language because she believes only reading the translated version Bible is not enough. Overall, the way that he uses an example to back up his telling allows the audience to better understand his point and his feeling during the incident that he is telling.
During the interview, Trevor Noah says that it is important to use the language that people understand to communicate. He once tried to use the higher language during his show and he lost half of the audience because they could not understand what he was saying. I think this interview shows how well Trevor learned to use simple language to talk about important and complicated things so everyone can understand him. Also, I like the phrase he said, “Maybe I didn’t look like you, but if I spoke like you, I was you.” He speaks 6 languages and it lets him become closer to people by using their language. I think it could be also applied to writing: when you write in a way the audience will understand better, you make your writing more liked by the audience.
He talked about his mother a lot during this interview and he didn’t just say that she was brave and smart, he told the stories which show how brave and smart she is. He told how she had a relationship with a white man even if it was against the law. He told how she used different languages to communicate with different people to make her life easier. Trevor uses a lot of description to show not to just tell.
Travol the son of a black mother and white father, a relationship that was illegal when he was born during the apartheid era, which mandated separation by color.He shows us how the apartheid system was convincing groups to hate one another. In my opinion, Trevor Noah’s ability to express his feelings and information is very obvious. I think Trevor showed more than told. Trevor sent us at a time when he was growing up and did not understand why people treated him and his mom this way. “You know, I existed in a space where my mother was a black woman and my father was a white man. And this is how I saw the world. I was just like, you know, some dads are white and some moms are black. The way it is “. In the article Travor showed us situation in,minibus “So, you are in a minibus, and the driver, realizing that you are your mother’s son, you understand, finds out that she must have had a relationship with a white person. And he starts calling her a whore. ”Trevor then explains what it was like to live in a world where you were discriminated against even by the people you live with, these exams show that Trevor shows what he went through, explaining everything in detail, so you can put yourself in his shoes. “It was a police state, so there were police everywhere. There were undercover police. There were uniformed police. The state was being surveilled the entire time. You know, communications were monitored, and anyone could snitch. You know, it could be your neighbor if you were living in a white area. It could be your neighbor if you were living in a black area.”
I loved the way that Trevor Noah was able to share his information about life very clearly. I really understood how he told his struggles as a kid, and the way his mom had to live to just fit in. “It was a police state, so there were police everywhere. There were undercover police. There were uniformed police. The state was being surveilled the entire time. You know, communications were monitored, and anyone could snitch. You know, it could be your neighbor if you were living in a white area. It could be your neighbor if you were living in a black area.” This quote stood out because it showed how people are still facing this same issue. People thought that backed then, that this type of racism would end, but it has only gotten worse. To conclude, Trevor uses his precise details to not to share a story, but to tell a story
During the interview, Trevor Noah’s tone was flat. He’s more likely to tell his story. His childhood was very dangerous, and every now and then the police would show up. So Trevor Noah’s been hiding in his whole childhood, only because has a black mother and a white father. Even being seen by the neighborhood is dangerous. He was born to be a crime, but he is still willing to recall his childhood. I think it was because of his mother’s influence. His mother was a victim of the system, but she was still looking for new information. His mother was a hero, and everything she did made Trevor Noah’s life more colorful.