The phenomenal effects of “American Pie” as the pioneer in establishing the teen genre in motion pictures establish a decade of social stereotypes revolving around high school and college dramas, first love, rebellion, and the conflict with parents. The success of those movie is the reflection of reality, or rather, the fantasy of teenagers that is heavily based on the high expectation of the world ahead. Even though the most notable stereotypical movie is “the Breakfast Club,” which later becomes the framework for the expansion of the culture, “American Pie” and “Mean Girls” tend to be more public preference. Life under the lenses of rebellion and famous individual in the academic environment is the motivation and expectation for the general
Hollywood itself plays an enormous role on how we as a nation see our society. We life for the dramas, love stories, fairytales, and action pact block-busters we so desperately need to observe every weekend. However, the larger question is, how much of Hollywood’s film making is actual fact compared to what the public wants to see. Throughout Robert Bulman’s Hollywood Goes to High School, we can see how film making can alter the vision of public and private education. Bulman analyzes how films on the poor urban schooling, middle-class suburban schooling, and high elite private schooling can sometimes mislead society’s perception on education. Despite Hollywood’s biases to happy endings and the ability to win over the crowd, Bulman believes that Hollywood has gotten the American education somewhat correct. However, American culture is constantly playing a role on our interpretation of education through social class, historical events in the past and racial/ethnic biases.
This film contains some classic examples of the kinds of real life issues adolescents deal with. Issues such as popularity, peer relationships, family/sibling relationships, sex, and struggles with identity are all addressed in this ninety-minute film.
The movie The Breakfast Club is a perfect example of peer relationships in the adolescent society. It shows the viewer some of the main stereotypes of students in high school you have a jock, a nerd, the weirdo, a rebel, and a prep. Over the course of a Saturday detention the different types of peers learn a lot about one another by hearing what each one has done to get into Saturday detention as well as why they chose to do it.
Despite an inappropriate music-video sequence and a phony up-tempo finale, The Breakfast Club offers a breakthrough portrait of the pain and misunderstanding which result from the social hierarchy created by youth themselves. The lookers and the jocks are popular and can do whatever they want — except relate to those outside their social circle of winners.
Paula Fass’s The Damned and the Beautiful: American Youth in the 1920's delves into the social and cultural climate of the 1920’s middle-class youth in America. Fass observes the multidimensional dynamics of the post-World War I society as citizens adjust to pertinent matters such as industrialization, prohibition and immigration. Amidst the ongoing social, political and economical issues of the early twentieth century, youth played an active role in contemporary life. Adolescents responded to issues through altering their habits, behaviors and viewpoints. Their responses became evident in the public setting and American culture evolved. The transformation of American culture was spearheaded by youth who questioned and went against cultural norms of past generations. Societal changes were visible through family, education, socialization, fashion and style and dating and sexuality.
In order to demand to the segment of the masses, filmmakers take the cultural value of that section of culture into account. Take, for example, the teenager movies. These typically contain features such as conversations at the school lockers (Dazed and Confused), prom (Carrie), cheerleaders (Porky’s), the shopping mall (Mall Rats), the juvenile delinquent gang (Rebel without a Cause) and the receptive, separated teenage hero (Rebel).
Mean Girls (2004) is a movie that captures the challenging obstacles, excitements, and the letdowns that the adolescents face during high school. Although the movie is greatly exaggerated and does not hold to the true essence of reality, the film portrays the struggles an individual faces during adolescence. The protagonist of the film, Cady Heron, moves into the suburbs after being raised in Africa by her two scientist parents. As Cady is now enrolled into an American high school, she struggles to find her sense of self-identity as she encounters multiple groups of friends and she tries to fit-in by trying to find the status quo of the “American-high-school-way.” The film also emphasizes the development
‘I’m living the American dream” is as common of a phrase in the United States today as the game of baseball, hot dogs and good ol’ American apple pie. People have grown up with these things just as they have the hair on their head. You see, part of being an American is being a part of this bigger pie rooted in our history called the constitution. Our forefathers created this document stating that we are all born with this basic right to freedom and equality and it is our duty as citizens to uphold these rights and it the duty of our government to protect them. But are we helping to continue to make the pie or are we just eating it? Through the course of history, values and expectations of society have changed. The responsibilities of citizens
In the “coming of age” films, The Graduate and Dead Poets Society, the characters are faced with a conflict and must find a way to deal with this conflict. The messages from authority figures to the main characters, the relationship issues, the music used, and the characters’ fathers in both films compare and contrast very well. The films have similar themes, and dissimilar motifs. While both films possess similarities, they also possess differences.
The film, The Breakfast Club, introduces five students, each perceived with a different stereotype which is commonly found in American high schools.
Every American has heard the saying "as American as apple pie." But, there's no question about it--apple pie did not originate in the U.S., at all! "In fact, the apple pie predates our country's settlement by hundreds of years,” (112) writes Lee Edwards Benning in Cook's Tales. When the Pilgrims set to sea they brought with them their homeland's recipes. So, we know how the ole apple pie got to America, but why the saying? Where does it come from and what does "as American as apple pie" mean?
American Pie is a song that is a very slow and deliberate song with a lot of thought put into it. This is a song that has over 850 lyrics that play for 8:30, the longest song ever to be listed as the Number one song on top hits charts. All these lyrics don’t just have the meaning of the individual words themselves, they paint a picture for the audience listening about what life was like and the events that transpired in the 1950-70’s, along with how Don McLean interpreted them. The lyrics of this song appeal to the youth of that timeframe in rhetorical ways of Pathos, Ethos, Doxa. Pathos is shown to try and emotionally connect with the audience; Ethos is used to show he knows what he is talking about by relating his real life stories and knowledge back into the essay, and lastly, Doxa is used very often in this in the aspect that Don was a huge Buddy Holly fan and he felt a deep connection to him.
Have you ever had one of those days that were so bad that you desperately needed a night at the ice cream or candy store? The 1970’s was that really bad day, while the night of self- indulgence was the 1980’s. Americans love to escape from our daily stress, and of all the products that allow us to do so, none is more popular than the movies. Movies are key cultural artifacts that offer a view of American culture and social history. They not only offer a snapshot of hair styles and fashions of the times but they also provide a host of insights into Americans’ ever-changing ideals. Like any cultural artifact, the movies can be approached in a number of ways. Cultural historians have treated movies as a document that records the look and mood of the time that promotes a particular political or moral value or highlights individual or social anxieties and tensions. These cultural documents present a particular image of gender, ethnicity, romance, and violence. Out of the political and economic unrest of the 1970’s that saw the mood and esteem of the country, as reflected in the artistry and messages in the movies, sink to a new low, came a new sense of pride in who we are, not seen since the post-World War II economic boom of the 1950’s. Of this need to change, Oscar Award winner Paul Newman stated,
On an individual basis, popular culture helps establish and mold the subjective self. It influences the way individuals think, act and respond, and this becomes part of how people develop their personalities, preferences, beliefs, and their overall identity. For example, most people idolize certain fashion statements or fads which determines their preference of clothing. This process of self-formation coincides with both elements of personal choice and the responses and attitudes of others. Furthermore, the identity that an individual asserts is influenced by and helps determine the development of social relationships; it influences the communities and groups to which an individual will identify with and how that identification is processed. In the establishment of communal bonding, mass culture helps with, as Leavis describes, a “leveling down of society” (35). The lines of class distinction have been blurred which, to Leavis is not a good thing, but it unites us nonetheless. Popular culture also promotes unity in that it “blurs age lines” (29). As stated earlier, the products of popular culture are targeted towards a variety of audiences; adults read comic books, children watch adult films, etc. (Macdonald 29). Similarly, teenagers and young adults are brought together through night clubs, fashion, and music; college students come together to enjoy campus events; book fans wait in line hours for new releases, etc. Each of these instances produce feelings of belonging, acceptance and connection with members of society over a common
Through socialization, we learn what is expected of our behavior and appearance. We follow the rules that we learn through the different stages of our life from our friends, family members and those we interact with. How receptive of those rules and guidelines affects whether or not the socialization remains unchanged or altered for the future of the society or culture. Popular movies can have an effect on that change and how we act. For example, the feel good Disney cartoon Mulan tells us that it is acceptable to make decisions that break away from society’s rules.