Alexander Irinarchos

ENGL 1102 – College Writing

Professor Amy Carleton

Reflections about John Berger’s Essay Ways of Seeing

I found “ways of seeing” by John Berger, very interesting although only when its applications were focused on general seeing and perception of seeing. The mere part of the essay which focuses on art through history and perception, was of less interest to me, perhaps because it reminded me of a philosophical IB class I had of which similar aspects were analyzed, or simply because I had a hard time grasping all language in the later part of “ways of seeing”. However I due believe John Berger’s main subject that of how we perceive and how we see, is a very intriguing one. The idea of “selective perception” though not mentioned, yet a key underlying theme of the essay, is something I see implication of in my daily life. I recall telling my girlfriend two days ago, about how fascinating it is that often when you learn something new one day, it does always go more than half a day before you strike that exact new knowledge again, though having never seen it before or perhaps more correctly having never perceived and recorded it before! My example the other day was how a realtor who had a Greek last name, told me in a text message that he doesn’t speak Greek but might take Rosetta Stone. I was extremely confused yet did not bother to look the word up, which would have been unnecessary because during my Business Textbook reading later that night, the chapter “market intermediaries” suddenly mentioned Rosetta Stone. Though an ordinary uninteresting anecdote, it served a point for me. Just as ordinary is Berger’s example of us seeing the sun revolving around the earth but knowing the opposite is actually occurring. John also mentions the learned assumptions which we subconsciously filter through when we perceive art, “Beauty, Truth,