Term Paper Michael Oher has been through tons of pain and anguish with his mom being separated from him early on in his life. His mom was a crack addict and his father was murdered when he was a child. I could only imagine not having my mom or dad throughout my whole life. His confidence is not all the way there and it is shown because he is a quiet person. Michael has lived with different foster homes and with his friend Paul. Paul and his family does not have much space for Michael and he is all alone on the streets. Being accepted to a mostly white school Michael starts off kind of rocky. He does not do well on his grades and is pretty much by himself trying to make it through. Michael has tons of potential, but he needs the right people to accept him. When he first starts off at his new school you can see that the social life for him is different. He is a young kid who has no home or parents at a rich private school. You can see the social psychology playing its part with the students at the school, that …show more content…
When you take in a kid from a poor area and bring him into a upper white area it is a big change. Michael is not used to being loved and sheltered by people who stick with him. Everyone at the Westwood High School sticks with Michael and believes in him. Michael a kid who does not have tons of confidence that must be something big to have people who believe in him. When studying the characteristics of Michael we see the development of the growth in his mind. We see the mistrust he had before when Mike stepped on the scene at the new school. Then Michael started trusting the people at the new school and the family that adopted him. Michael did not have anybody and when he had nothing he was lost. He had no guidance, anxiety, and insecurity which held him back a bit early on. Michael has tons of potential on the football field, and that plays a key role of getting his mind off of his old
Michael is a static character (unlike Molly he doesn’t change much throughout the show), a white male, and a talented computer hacker. Michael is significantly younger than the other main characters and serves as some of the comic relief for the show. He is the third character in the dysfunctional trio (Maya, Celina, Michael). Together they all have different strengths and though they’re reluctant to be grouped together sometimes, they round each other out. Michael comes from a middle-class background, does well in school, and does not have any of the barriers up against him that the other characters have had. Three words to describe Michael: gifted, immature,
...s feeling of achievement at completing school is shown. There are close ups of the Tuohy’s with Ms Sue and Sam showing feelings of attachment with Michael. Moreover, the mid-shots of the teacher’s face highlights that he is accepted in the school community too. As such, Michael, like Billy has achieved a new sense of belonging due to connections with new people and places.
Michael soon decides that if he can trust Joe enough to keep in silence, he may be able to out wit the police. When Michael makes his decision, he never considers the ramifications that will come of it. For example, Michael never even considers the long agonizing nights he will stay awake or the ling pain filled days he will go through thinking of Jenna Ward and her mother suffering day after day. On the contrary, Michael thinks he will be able to just move on and forget about it.
In the opening scene we get a sense of what Michael is like. He is driving a boat of a car across the barren desert, like he is scavenging for something. Strapped for money he stops at a somewhat abandoned gas station where he finds a bundle of twenty dollar bills out in plain view. We get the sense that he tries to be honest because he doesn’t take the money and he buys gas with the last five dollars that were in his wallet, just enough to get him to Red Rock and not any further. He then gets turned down from his job because he told the truth about his leg being injured. When he goes into the Red Rock Bar we can see the change in his life coming. He walks in from the bright daylight into the darkness of the dimly lit bar. This lighting hints to the audience that from that point on Michael is fated for disaster.
As a single parent, Michael takes on the roles of father and mother to his teenage son. His brother-in-law even refers to him as, “a non-traditional mother,” in, “S.O.Bs” (Day and Vallely). Michael is a non-traditional parent in that he displays the qualities of a traditional mother as well as a traditional father. He fulfills the expectations of traditional father in disciplining his son, George Michael. When Michael chooses to transfer his studious son to a new school in, “S.O.Bs,” he is oblivious to George Michael’s unhappiness (Day and Vallely). After discovering what he believes to be the truth regardi...
Michael’s portrayal of the American Dream is hilarious as he believed he would a million are by 30 but even though he has less money than he did at 30, he has not given it up. The Office pokes fun at those who still strongly believe in this conceited concept of a materialistic vision, not that if one works hard they will not achieve their dreams, but many are often too far fetched to be plausible unless the right opportunities reveal themselves. Which brings the viewer to the more sensitive subject of unfair school districting, and many working class families suffer from not being able to send their kids to get a proper education and create more opportunities. The students and parents in the episode had every right to be fed up with the way politicians treat their education, but by using Michael as a representation of somebody who fails to fulfill a promise of his own, and this creates an entertaining setting for the audience to laugh at his awkward pain. The focus is purposely on Michael, this is to shed light on the kids but to keep the laughter and comedic attention on his embarrassing shenanigan’s that viewers constantly see him in, and expect nothing less from
Michael attended Emsley A. Laney High School in Wilmington. In high school Michael played baseball, football, and basketball. In his Sophomore Michael and Harvest Leroy Smith, Michael’s best friend, were invited to try out for the varsity team. At the time Michael was five feet nine inches and his friend, Harvest Smith, was six feet six inches. Harvest Smith ended up making the team, but Michael was cut. Michael went home and cried. Micheal later said that that was the worst day of his childhood. Michael was put on the junior varsity team. Although Michael didn’t make the varsity team the head coach, Clifton “Pop” Herring saw Michael’s potential. Coach Herring only lived a block away from Michael so he took Michael to school everyday an hour before school started. This gave Michael a gre...
“I look and I see white everywhere: white walls, white floors, and a lot of white people…” Quoted by one individual like many others, that feels their ethnicity is inferior to others around them. Racism and stereotyping are common among members in our society and cause distress for those who are not of the ethnic population or do not fit the white racial ideologies. People living in poverty are negatively affected by these stereotypes and racial issues. These negative ideas and beliefs about those of a different race or in a different social classes have a strong impact on the individual’s chances of coming out of poverty. African American’s are one race among many that is stereotyped for living mainly in poverty or being in the lower social
Social Psychology is the study of how we think and relate to other people. These psychologists focused on how the social situation influences others behavior. We see social influences everywhere we go, but might not notice it. Like when watching a movie for fun you do not notice it as much as when you are actually looking for the behaviors, like in the film The Breakfast Club. There are several examples of social psychological behaviors in the film.
Herbert Blumer noted that people act toward others based on the meaning they give them. The meaning we assign to someone is shown by the language we use toward that person. Words we use have default assumptions, and people label others with words. Thought then comes into play as we modify our interpretation of what we see by our thought process. The thought process includes someone taking the role of the other. You imagine you are someone else who is viewing you, and sometimes act as that person would act. A lot of the people in the movie, The Blind Side, act differently toward Michael Oher based on the meaning they assign to him, and they give him different labels. Those labels are mostly negative because people see Michael him with ratty clothes, nowhere to live, and always failing school. Michael Oher’s mom in the movie, Leigh Anne Tuohy (Sandra Bullock), and her family represent love and caring. Michael starts showing love and caring. When he goes back to the “hood” with his old friends, they represent problems, and he doesn’t want to be problematic, so he stays away from
The movie Crash is in the streets of Los Angeles. If you notice all of the characters seem to play the victim and accuser in different racial situations. There is a story behind each character over a two day period. There is the detective who is prejudice against his own race whose younger brother is a criminal. There is Jean who is prejudice against black people after getting robbed. John is the cop who is racist against all black people and sexually assaults Christine in front of her husband. This movies show’s so many of the social psychological principles through the story of each individual.
Ever since he was born he has been at an extremely low poverty level because of his surroundings, coupled with being raised by a single mom who tried her best but ultimately failed her children. The story behind the numbers video: “Which families are in poverty?” in our coursework highlights the issue of poverty among single parent families, which is applicable to The Blind Side. It is pretty noticeable throughout the entire movie that Michael’s economic position is extremely poor. After basketball games he walks around the bleachers to collect the fans’ leftover popcorn so that he can have something to eat at night for dinner. Also, in order to wash his clothes he must wait until somebody at the coin laundry building comes in to pay for a wash so that he can sneak his clothes in there too. Michael’s poverty has an extremely damaging effect on all other aspects of his life because of how difficult everyday life situations are for him. It also affects his level of education since that is not a priority in his family of
The film exhibits and analyzes the story of NFL player Michael Oher’s life through high school as he endures various adversities and difficulties in his life. It tells Oher’s story of being the son of a cocaine addictive mother and absentee father, who is homeless due the circumstances of his family. Despite not having either of his parents in his life he did have Big Tony, who was his friend’s dad. Big Tony would allow Michael to sleep on his sofa some days when he did not have anywhere else to live and he also was the main cause to Michael being admitted to the Wingate Academy Christian School. At this school Michael meets S.J., who is the son on the Tuohy’s. S.J. begins a friendship with Michael at a time when no one else would and on a rainy day after S.J.’s thanksgiving play, the Tuohys see Michael walking. They ask him ...
Thus, he is not living his life authentically to himself. After Michael has identified what he values, Dr. Vargas will guide him towards means of bringing forth those values into his life, so he can find his own meaning outside of what his parents have thrust onto him. One of the values Michael appears to regard the most is security, as he diverges from taking risks and stepping out of his comfort zone. However, this value of security stunts growth in life. Dr. Vargas may suggest to Michael to try to broaden his social circle, create more closer relationships with others to immerse himself in his new home in New Brunswick, Michael has the choice to embrace his new home or to lock himself away experiencing it. Michael will take this responsibility for his choice of locking himself away from this new home, he must transcend past qualms of moving from life as he knew in Toronto and transition to making a new life in New Brunswick. Self-transcendence is when the client transcends immediate problems, forgetting themselves and amercing themselves in the world. Michael will come to realize this environment in New Brunswick is not like Toronto, and will never replace what he left, but it is up to him to amerce himself in this environment rather than work against it. Michael should become aware that is well liked in school, not picked on
The Blind Side is a film that follows the life of Michael Oher, an underprivileged high school football player that is supported by an upper class family, the Tuohys, and taken into their home. They provide him with shelter and a bed that he says he has never had. As the Tuohys are driving down the street one night, they see Michael walking alone in the cold. Mrs. Tuohy tells her husband to stop the car and she lets Michael inside. The couple discusses later that night about whether it was a good idea or not to allow Michael into their home. They ultimately decide that they are doing what is best for him and they can sacrifice a little bit of their life to help Michael. They support him in school, on the football field, and when he is