The appealing part of a literary work is to enable the audience to feel emotionally connected with a literary work, leading them to produce diverse interpretations. In this respect, the occurrence of Amanda Gorman’s poem of The Hill We Climb is capable of attracting American citizens’ attention to deliver their perception of the work. The intensity of American society’s reactions can be seen in how the audience expresses their responses on YouTube. Therefore, the writer decided to analyze the phenomenon further by applying Stuart Hall’s reception theory aimed to prevail on how American society perceives the poem. Finally, the result of the analysis shows that the majority of Americans perceived the work as encouragement in refining the principles of American democracy, which were categorized as dominant readings. On the other hand, several audiences who interpreted the poem as a form of hope are included as negotiated readings that deliver different opinions but align with the poet’s perception. The last is oppositional readings that interpret the poem as a redundant work, shown by the audience’s incapability to comprehend the poem comprehensively. Briefly, the variety of the audience’s interpretations is because of diverse perceptions possessed by the audience in perceiving the message of democracy within the poem, which is influenced by their backgrounds.

The occurrence of American movies which raise psychological issues as part of the main theme often triggers audiences in producing various interpretations. In this respect, the writer chose one of the most popular American movies entitled Joker (2019), directed by Todd Phillips. The movie highlights not only social issues but also psychological issues that engage audiences to produce diverse interpretations, including misinterpretations toward the stereotype of people who suffer mental illness. Therefore, the writer aims to analyze further how the audience perceives and evaluates Joker (2019). Data collected through audiences’ statements in IMDb as an online database of information of films and critical reviews. Psychoanalysis Lacanian: the real, the imaginary, and the symbolic, is applied to comprehending the American audiences response and their interpretations towards Joker (2019) movie. The result of study reveals that audiences’ diverse life experience and background is actually giving major influence towards their interest, response, and interpretations to Joker (2019) movie.