Katherine Mansfield's What To Tell

Superior Essays
Case study 8, “What to Tell”, is a story about a girl named Katherine going off to college for the first time. The main part of the story follows Katherine’s decision as to what private information she should disclose to the people she meets in college and when she should disclose it. Katherine and her parents arrive at Western State University, and she meets her roommate Kim. Once Katherine’s parents left, the two of them get to talking about how they could be whoever they want to be in college because no one knows who they are. Katherine starts to think about the different names she can go by and how she wants to present herself when she meets new people. Kim and Katherine go to their dorm’s welcome meeting. Upon entering the meeting, Katherine …show more content…
Since no one knows much about Katherine because she is meeting new people in college, she has full control of her private information. Katherine contemplates what she should tell Kim because she does not know much about her yet and if she could trust her with her private information. Katherine wants to tell Kim that she and Russ went out once in high school, but she does not know if she can trust her with that information yet. Throughout the whole case study Katherine struggles with telling people her private information because she does not know if she wants to give up her ownership and control. One of the big aspects of Petronio’s theory is the rules-based management system that helps control privacy rules and regulates boundaries. There are three parts to the rules-based management system in Communication Privacy Management Theory: privacy rules, boundary coordination, and boundary turbulence. In the case study, Katherine uses a system of rules for deciding with whom she will share her struggles with ADD. The system Katherine employs includes the following factors she should consider when formulating her privacy rules: culture, gender, motivation, context, and risk/benefit ratio. The culture of the United States is

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