A Sociological View Of Titanic

A Sociological view of Titanic by: Kelsey Carroll

4/29/2014

Titanic is a 1997 theatrical masterpiece directed by James Cameron. The film is based off of the true story of the sinking of the R.M.S. Titanic in the year 1912. It revolves around two fictional characters, Jack Dawson and Rose DeWitt Bukater. These two fall in love after meeting each other aboard the R.M.S. Titanic. There are many sociological concepts brought about in this film-poverty, the separation of the rich and the poor, sexism, achieved vs. ascribed status, gender roles, and the power elite.

This paper will focus on three of these concepts- economic inequality or the separation of the rich and the poor which is defined as the different life chances that a wealthy person may have than an impoverished person (Dykstra, 2014). The next concept that will be discussed is feminism, which is defined as the advocacy of the rights of women to be equal to men in all spheres of life (Applebaum, Carr, Duneier, Giddens, 2011). The last concept that will be discussed in this paper is gender roles, which are the ‘social definition’ of women and men. They vary among different societies and cultures, classes, ages and during different periods in history. Gender-specific roles and responsibilities are often conditioned by household structure, access to resources, specific impacts of the global economy, and other locally relevant factors such as ecological conditions (FAO, 1997).

Titanic was deemed the unsinkable ship. This movie is told from the eyes of Rose DeWitt Bukater, a 101-year-old Titanic survior. The story revolves around Rose, an extremely wealthy young woman and Jack Dawson, a poor young man. Rose and her mother, Ruth discovered that her father who had recentl...

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...y emotional moments where men were saying their final farewells to their wives because they ultimately knew what their fate was. They knew that this noble deed of theirs was a death sentence for them, but that’s what is expected of men, they are to give up their lives for women.

Overall, there were so many different battles being fought on the ship. Rose was fighting herself over what she wanted in her life and what was expected of her. Rose was expected to live up to the standards of a rich woman, which she did not want to do. And, ultimately in the end, everyone was fighting to stay alive. If you were lucky enough to jump aboard a lifeboat, you were well off, but in the final moments of the Titanic’s sinking, no amount of money in the world could save you. The Atlantic Ocean did not care if you were rich or poor, male or female, it was taking you as its victim.