Elements Of Stress In American Life

Did you know that one in four Americans reported that they have massive amounts of stress (Neighmond)? There are many things that can affect stress levels in everyday American life. In “The Day Alex Left for College,” from the show Modern Family, one of the daughters, Alex, is leaving for college, the dad, Phil, is having trouble with work, and the rest of the family is having trouble avoiding a soccer game for their niece/granddaughter. The episode portrays the different elements of stress in families’ lives. There are many different aspects of life that add stress to a family, such as college, work, and family commitments. In the beginning of the episode, one of the characters, Alex, was preparing to leave for college. She was concerned …show more content…
It is something that many Americans can relate to. One of the characters, Phil, is a real estate agent and takes lots of pride in his job. In the episode, Phil, the father, is trying to sell a house that no one has wanted to purchase. He was having a tough time trying to get people to want to buy the house. Studies have shown that people have higher stress levels when they’re being treated poorly by others (Beattie and Griffin 135). The people who were looking at the house seemed unimpressed and were making it difficult for Phil to get his job done efficiently. When people are having a tough time completing work easily, it makes getting the job done that much harder, therefore increasing stress levels. This is just one example of how small things can add to stress from work. So many people can relate to this scene because they are most likely also feeling stressed about things that happened at work. At the end of the day, Phil still seemed to be content with his job even though he was experiencing difficulties while working. This made it easy for the audience to connect with the show too. Many Americans feel that work may make their lives more difficult, but at the end of the day they are most likely thankful to have a career. The staging of this particular scene aided in the portrayal of the stress Phil was feeling. The house he was trying to sell looked extremely expensive and had an interesting layout. Due to this, it made it harder for Phil to get potential buyers to want to purchase the house. The scene easily portrayed American society because so many people’s lives are based around working. This scene also effectively showed the stress Phil was feeling, through the director/editor’s use of pathos. With the staging and dialogue combined, it made the audience feel sympathy for Phil because he was having such a difficult