Verbal Communication Vs. Kramer: Nonverbal Communication

Kramer Versus Kramer After watching the movie Kramer Versus Kramer, I will create a brief summary and cover several aspects of communication, including hearing versus listening, nonverbal communication, and relationships. A brief overview of the film Kramer Versus Kramer starts out by the main character Ted coming home late from work and his wife Joanna tells him that she is leaving him. She leaves Billy (their son) with Ted, and goes off on her own. Ted knows next to nothing about their son Billy, but through the course of the movie you see him change from a working man to a loving father. There are many cases in the movie, while mostly in the beginning, that Ted would just hear what was happening instead of listening. When Ted got home in the beginning of the movie, he was so wrapped up in what just happened at work that he wasn’t listening when Joanna told him that she was leaving him. He just kept talking about how his day went and ignoring everything that she said. Later on in the movie he started changing though. He started actually listening to what people had to say, and changed himself based on responses.
Since nonverbal communication is often unintentional, there is an overabundance of it, and usually shows with every action that we do. When Billy and Ted were ‘fighting’ one day, Billy got locked in his room after dinner and started crying. Tears are an expression of hurt or sadness, while kicking and flailing told the viewer that Billy was upset. Another instance of nonverbal communication being used in the movie was, whether intentional or not, a character nodding his head yes while denying a statement that was directed at him. Not only do nonverbals show what a person may be thinking, but it can also reveal thoughts left unspoken or hidden from the person the message is intended