Life is full of many struggles, however, through a long journey and with the help of media, anyone can heal.

Through a long journey, Joseph Garner was able to survive for an entire month simply from the help of random strangers he met. Garner had no money and no place to stay anywhere; however through the generosity of others on Craigslist he is able to stay at people's houses that he's never even met before. At one point in the film there is a scene where Joseph is receiving food from a friend he has only known for one day, yet had a very deep connection with. In the shot, the stranger is handing food to Joseph in a medium long shot that shows both of them smiling with natural lighting. The shot shows the personal connection between them because through the use of the medium long shot, it helps to show how close both of them got over the past few hours, while also including both of their faces in one shot. It is important to show both of their faces because they are both smiling which shows how happy Garner was to get the food and make a friend as well. Later in the film, Garner goes to a woman's house simply to help out because she asked for help with moving things around her apartment on Craigslist. Garner goes to her house because he wants to help her out and see if he can make another friend along the way. "We're here to help, whatever you need," (Joseph Garner Craigslist Joe). Although Garner is having his own struggle finding food and a place to sleep every night, he still finds time to help others along the way. Even though he is on a long journey, everyone wants to help him out and give him a place to sleep. There is only one scene in the documentary where someone almost denies him, but in the end decides to let him stay at her house. Even though he is struggling, people realize he is another human being and they want to help him along his journey so that it is less of a struggle. In the end, Garner has endured a long journey and made many friends along the way. He reminisces on his journey while explaining to his family how nice everyone was along the way. "Meeting everyone and telling them my story and the journey and having people, like, invite me, a complete stranger, into their homes, and feed me, and go out, and, you know, share themselves, and their lives with me. It was truly inspiring, just you know, on humanity, to know that we can take care of each other," (Joseph Garner Craigslist Joe). This quote sums up the entire documentary the best because it shows that no matter how long his journey is, people continue to help him in his struggle. Every night is a struggle for Garner to find somewhere to sleep, but he always heals from the struggle because humans help him to find shelter and food along the way. At the end of his journey, Garner was able to say that humans enjoy helping others in their struggles and along their journeys. Going through life is a journey, but humans love to help others and make their struggles less difficult.

Humans are typically influenced in a major way by the media in this era because it can be seen nearly everywhere. In Eminem's music video for his song Mockingbird, Eminem attempts to show the struggles he had during his life to help others not make the same mistake. One sequence switches between a close up shot of Eminem sitting down in low-key lighting and clips that he is watching of his daughter playing. The close up shot makes the viewer feel the same emotions that Eminem does, while the low-key lighting makes the emotions very dark and sad. He talks about how he isn't always there for his daughter, but wishes he would have been with her. The shots switch between Eminem and his daughter to show what he is referring to as he raps. Through the sequences, the viewer realizes that Eminem isn't always there for his daughter and he is trying to influence the viewer so that they are always with people they love rather than gone away. Next, Blink 182 filmed a music video for their song Adam's Song. The song tells the story of a boy named Adam that committed suicide and the song tells the story of him and how nobody is alone and can get help from their depression. One shot shows a long clip of a party happening with the camera moving around in the party as if it were a person. The camera faces a couple that are arguing and the woman ends up leaving the man, clearly breaking up with him. Then the camera pans away and continues going through the party. The music video has many shots that show the diegesis but can only be seen through close analysis. The shot shows that even behind everyone else having a good time, some people may not be happy with their life and the song attempts to explain that. The music video helps to influence the viewer in a positive way because it tells the viewer that they can get help for their depression and that someone will always want to help. It tells the viewer that they are not alone in this world, especially with their struggle, and by asking for help, people will help them through their journey to healing. Finally, The Music Scene is a music video by Blockhead that shows how media affects people and nature in society today. One of the most influential shots in the music video shows a close up of a cartoon man staring into a television as it spews out information at him. The man is sitting right in front of the television and colorful streaks are hitting him in the face and flying right by him from the television. This music video shows how media is such a powerful influence on humans because it is everywhere. No matter what humans watch, it affects them in a positive or negative way depending on the media itself. By watching positive media, humans can learn to heal from their struggles because they see examples of how other people healed and helped others in their lives. Even though humans get bombarded by media everyday, by taking a step back and watching media that shows people doing good, humans can learn to help others and, in turn, can heal from their own struggles in life. Through positive media, humans can not only heal themselves, but also learn how to help others in their everyday lives.

In the book Ceremony, by Leslie Silko, Tayo faces a difficult journey as he attempts to heal from multiple struggles faced in his life. In the beginning of the novel, Tayo talks to Night Swan, a woman he gets very close to, about his life and the struggles he is currently facing. They talk about the racism that has been directed towards both of them and Night Swan attempts to help him heal from it. "She sat with the sheets pulled around her and watched him get dressed. 'I have been watching you for a long time', she said. 'I saw the color of your eyes.' Tayo did not look at her. 'Mexican eyes,' he said, 'the other kids used to tease me.'... 'They are fools. They blame us, the ones who look different. That way they don't have to think about what has happened inside themselves,'" (Silko 91-92). Facing racism like this has caused many of Tayo's friends to turn to alcoholism in order to hide their emotions and get rid of whatever they are dealing with. However, at this point in the novel, Night Swan helps Tayo to heal because she tells him that the only reason people are racist towards them is because they have their own struggles within themselves, so they blame it on others. This is a major healing point in Tayo's journey because through the help of Night Swan he learned that the racism shouldn't effect him because the people saying it are facing their own struggles as well. Later in the novel, Night Swan and Tayo have an intimate connection together which helps Tayo to heal even further. After they become intimate he lies in bed and thinks about his life at that point in time. "He watched her face, and her eyes never shifted; they were with him while she moved out of her clothes and while she slipped his jeans down his legs, stroking his thighs... He breathed deeply... and he smiled. Being alive was all right then; he had not breathed like that for a long time," (Silko 168). Tayo's journey is very long and difficult, yet along the way there are moments where people help him to heal an incredible amount, such as this time with Night Swan. This is the first time he has had an intimate connection where he truly loved someone and enjoyed the experience, which made him feel a lot closer to someone instead of being alone like he thought he was this entire time. At this moment, he feels much better than before and even though his journey is long, he is able to heal greatly with the help of Night Swan. Finally, in the end of the novel, after Tayo's long journey, he finally returns home to his family. Throughout the novel he suffered from struggles such as PTS, alcoholism, and racism, but during his journey in the novel he overcame the struggles and healed immensely. Upon returning home, he talks to his Grandma about his journey and how he has healed from all of the struggles. "So old Betonie did some good after all,' old Grandma kept saying... 'You're all right now, aren't you, sonny?' 'Yeah, Grandma, I'm okay now,'... The terror of the dreaming he had done on this bed was gone, uprooted from his belly," (Silko 200-204). Tayo spends the entire novel in his journey to healing which creates an amazing novel. After the whole journey, Tayo was able to overcome every struggle that he faced with the help of others and became completely healed. Tayo's struggles weren't enough to live with him his entire life because many people helped him and he used the long journey to overcome the struggles and heal into a better person.

Smoke Signals is a film that follows the journey of Victor Joseph as he struggles to overcome his past of an abusive father that killed his friend Thomas' parents in a fire. Victor faces an incredible struggle when he finds out that his alcoholic and abusive father has died. He decides to go pick up his father's remains in Arizona, however, he has to bring along Thomas, a friend he finds annoying, because he doesn't have enough money to go by himself. After finding out that his father Arnold was the one that killed Thomas' parents he gets into an argument with Thomas. "'Your father saved my life' ... 'Thomas you don't even know my father. Did you know that my father was the one that set your parent's house on fire?'... 'If you leave here don't you ever come back. You hear me?'" (Alexie Smoke Signals). Thomas knows the entire time that Arnold was the man who killed his parents, but he knows that by telling Victor that, then he can help Victor to heal. By telling Victor that he always knew, it helps Victor to overcome the struggle that his father killed Thomas' parents because he knows that Thomas isn't resentful towards Victor and that there is no hate between them. Victor faces a long journey by picking up his father's remains, but along the way, Thomas helps him to heal by explaining that he is accepts that Arnold killed his parents and that Victor shouldn't feel bad about it. Later in the movie, after Victor and Thomas have this argument, they are sitting together at breakfast talking about the type of person that Arnold used to be. Thomas tries to lighten up the mood by telling Victor about how Arnold used to bring him to breakfast at the same restaurant. "'Hey Victor! I remember the time your father took me to Denny's and I had the Grand Slam Breakfast. Two eggs, two pancakes, a glass of milk, and of course my favorite, the bacon. Some days, it's a good day to die. And some days, it's a good day to have breakfast,'" (Alexie Smoke Signals). This helps Victor to heal in his journey because he finds out that even though Arnold killed Thomas' parents, he tried to make it all better by taking Thomas to breakfast. Thomas becomes a close friend to Victor during their trip and throughout the trip, Thomas helps Victor to heal. It is a long journey for them to travel out to Arizona, however Thomas tells Victor that he is okay with what happened in the past and attempts to tell Victor that his father was a good man even if he killed his parents. This helps Victor to heal because after discovering what his father did, he struggles even more, but in the end finds out that his father was a good man and tried to make everything better even though he was struggling as well. Along their journey, Victor is typically mad, but there are a few shots where they are both smiling because one of the them made a joke. One shot, in specific, shows Victor and Thomas sitting next to each other on a bus with a close-up shot of both of their faces smiling and many bright and varying colors. The close up helps the viewer to feel the same emotions that Victor and Thomas are feeling, while the bright, varying colors add to the emotion of happiness in the shot. At this point, Thomas has just made a joke and finally got a laugh out of Victor for the first time in the entire film. It is one of the first times that Victor shows signs of healing because he is happy for the first time in years. The struggles that Victor faces are finally starting to heal with the help of Thomas and in this shot it is easily seen by the close up and bright colors. Victor faces a long journey as he struggles to come to peace with what his father did, however Thomas helps him to heal during the journey and in the end, Victor overcomes his struggles.

The film Seven Pounds follows the life of Ben (Tim) Thomas as he overcomes his struggle of killing seven people, through a journey that most people would never even think of attempting. Ben Thomas ends up benefiting the lives of seven people by giving them certain organs from inside of himself. In the end of the film, he commits suicide by laying in a bathtub with a box jellyfish. He commits suicide in order to benefit a man named Ezra, by donating his eyes, and saving the life of his friend Emily by giving his heart to her. After Ben has killed himself and Emily gets his heart, there is the closing shot where Emily and Ezra meet for the first time. Emily and Ezra come face to face in a close up shot with very bright, yellowish lighting and beautiful nature behind them. Over the shot, there is a piano song playing that has one note slightly off from the rest of the notes. It is noticeable because the song sounds happy, however with the incorrect note it makes the song sound depressed at the same time. The sound benefits the film because after the Ben's long journey is over, he had to die in the end, however he also saved the lives of seven others. The song shows how the ending is happy, but at the same time, Ben had to die in order for the others to live happily so the ending wasn't as happy as it could have been. However, through Ben's struggles he is able to help seven others and therefore make his struggles end. Before this scene, the film shows the climax where Ben gets into the bathtub with his box jellyfish and commits suicide in order to benefit Emily and Ezra's lives. The film shows a sequence that switches between shots of Ben dying in the bathtub and shots of when Ben got into the car crash and killed seven people. Some of the shots of Ben in the bathtub show a birds eye view of him while the shots of the car crash have very low-key lighting. The use of parallel editing helps to show that Ben has healed from his struggles. It shows that his struggle was from killing seven people in the car crash, however by showing him vulnerable in the bathtub he is clearly healing from the struggle and his journey has finally come to an end. The journey was long and difficult because he had to have many surgeries, but the struggle finally gets healed by him saving seven lives in replacement of the seven people that he killed. Finally, after Ben has committed suicide and died, the film shows shots of Ben lying in the hospital bed getting his heart removed and the doctors carrying it to Emily lying on a different hospital bed. The shot pans from a close up of Emily's head, to the heart of Ben being carried in on a tray, to be placed inside Emily. The sound during this scene is of a heart monitor at a hospital. The monitor is flat line, but at one point it starts beeping to show that Emily's heart, which is actually Ben's heart, finally started pumping and that she is going to live. This is a major scene in the film because it finally shows the end of Ben's struggle and how he has finally healed after a long journey. He killed seven people, but by saving seven others he faced a long journey. In the end, his struggle was over because he saved the life of Emily, a woman he was very close to, which made him happy that she could live even though he had to die for it. Through the long journey, he faced many struggles, but in the end, Ben healed by saving the lives of seven innocent people.