In the short story “Being There,” by Jerzy Kosinski, multiple examples of satire are presented throughout the book and film. A few of them are: media, death, politics and racism. The media satire was very similar in the book and the film. The media has played an important role in society and still plays it today. Kosinski uses Chauncey Gardner, the main character of the story, to show how media can affect a person. Chauncey loves television and always watches it in his free time. Today, it seems to be the most popular hobby among households. Adults, adolescents and children watch television constantly. In some families, we even watch television at dinner time. Because Chauncey was kept inside the outside world his entire life, he never had the chance to have any real life experiences. Everything he knew, he learned from watching television, which reflects today's society. Nowadays, people learn most information through the media. Whether on television, radio, newspapers, the Internet, YouTube and social media, people now have access to information at their fingertips. It's not like it used to be, where everyone learned through textbooks, adults, phone calls, face-to-face conversations, or physical experience. Experiments are now virtually learned through media, which is how Chauncey learned everything he knows. It got to the point where Chauncey thought he was on television and he even behaved as if he was a character from the television shows. In the movie, when Chauncey and EE were kissing, Chauncey didn't know what he was doing. He simply imitated the movements he watched on television. Once the show stopped, so did Chauncey. Kosinski uses this scene to explain that media plays an important role...... middle of paper ......ski shows how satirical elements such as media, death, politics and racism affected society of yesteryear, but it reflects the way our society has been shaped today. Everyone is too absorbed in the media, worried about death, too involved in politics and current events, and continues to make racist remarks. Kosinski uses satire to show that everything we do is based on how we learn information and grow in society. Real. Hal Ashby. Perf. Peter Sellers. MGM/CBS Home Video 1980. Video cassette. Brown, Earl B., Jr. "Kosinski's Modern Proposal: The Problem of Satire in the Mid-Twentieth Century." Ebscohost. NP, 1980. Web. March-Apr. 2014. Kosinski, Jerzy. Be there. London: Black Swam, 1996. Print. Lazar, Mary. “Being There, novel and film by Jerzy Kosinski: changes are not by chance.” Ebscohost. Np, spring 2004. Web. March-April. 2014.