I just can't break my communications teacher. Here is my latest assignment plus her feedback. I wrote this in about half an hour because I care too much.
Meredith Burgess
COM125 Interpersonal
Communication
4 July 2014
Facial Expression Analysis
There is
one person in particular that I interact with almost every day more
than anyone else and that is my stepmother. While my father is away
at work all day, she stays home and enjoys the fine life he provides
for her, meanwhile I help her out with household duties such as
cooking and cleaning. I know her facial expressions very well because
I must always be attentive to her moods. If I don't, there will be
consequences. Based on the given list of Eckman's Types of Emotions,
I know for certain that I regularly see her express joy, anger, and
disgust when interacting with me.
The
emotions I believe my stepmother expresses most often is anger. She
tends to be a very angry person, especially when my father is not
around. She does not need to say anything at all for me to know she
is angry. Her face gets very hard and some of the veins on her
forehead become visible. Her eyes shift quite a lot, which I find
strange and a little unnerving. She likes to wear her hair up when
she is angry, so I know immediately if she comes in with a ponytail,
I'm in for it. If she comes in with a tight ballerina bun, it's all
over. The tight hair definitely helps bring out the sharpness in her
facial expressions. When I screw something up, for example, if I fail
to make enough foam in her daily 8 am latte or if I forget to clean
her toilet right after her 10 am intestinal disposal hour, I can
literally see her anger turn into rage. Her right eye always starts
twitching, her brow gets very low, and I swear her eyes glow in the
dark. She may or may not be evil.
One
emotion I occasionally witness in my stepmother is joy. She can be
very pleased when I do my duties particularly well, so I try to do
this often. She also gets very happy when my father comes home. Her
eyebrows go up, her eyes are wide and open, and her cheeks get fairly
puffy. Although there are no wrinkles by her eyes or mouth, since she
has had a great deal of Botox. Sometimes, like every day at 4 pm, she
gets very drunk on sidecars and laughs very hard at certain things.
She has this very shrill laugh, and her eyes nearly disappear into
her skull. You can see very slight wrinkles on her forehead, but
don't tell her that or there will be consequences. When my father
brings her gifts, or she gives me a big punishment and tells me I
can't go to the ball, I think she experiences ecstasy, because I can
see all her teeth at once. They look kind of sharp.
Finally,
I see my stepmother experience disgust very often. This is probably
her most frequent expression when she is around me. She doesn't let
me shower often, so I usually smell bad, which doesn't help. Her nose
gets a little wrinkled and she purses her lips, although again, that
could just be the Botox. Her eyes avert from whatever she is
disgusted by. When she is in a particularly bad mood, or if she is
near cats, she can go into all out loathing. She really hates cats. I
saw her kick one once. Her whole face tenses up, which looks very
odd. It is kind of as if you stretched plastic wrap over a set of
organ pipes. She could probably turn someone into stone with the
cold, dead expression of her eyes. I try to never look straight into
them. I did once, just for a few seconds, and I think a little part
of my soul choked up and died without even writing a will.
My
stepmother has a very odd face. If she ever finds out I wrote that
she would be very angry and I'd probably end up scrubbing the kitchen
floor with a toothbrush for a week and sleeping in the concrete
basement, but it is true. It contorts in all sorts of ways and I
sometimes wonder if she is even human or not. However, the ways in
which it moves are very telling, which I have found to be quite
useful in my interactions with her. Watching the Lie to Me video only
gave me more tools in which I can try to manipulate the situation and
give myself the upper hand.
