Breakfast At Tiffany's Analysis

Introduction
Popular culture has an effect on its audiences (Wilson et.al, 2003 p. 74). It has the ability to invoke reactions and change public opinion. A popular type of popular culture is film. Films are a reflection of society, primarily the thoughts of the elites in society (Wilson et al.,2003, p. 74) Films that have the most influence on the public are cult classics or iconic films. Iconic films inspire people to change anything from their style to their career, but they also have the ability to change the way people think, by conveying a message that promotes elitist views.
Breakfast at Tiffany’s is an iconic film that does just that. Breakfast at Tiffany’s is regarded as one of the most influential films of the twentieth century and for

that it is highly celebrated (Aioki, 2005). However, it is sometimes neglected that the movie contains an extremely serious flaw. The movie makes use of yellow-face. Mickey Rooney, a white actor, is casted to play the Japanese-American landlord Mr. Yunioshi. Rooney’s character was complete with taped back eyelids, buckteeth and an over-the-top accent (‘Some thoughts,’ 2014) The use of white actors to play coloured characters contributes to the whitewashing of the media and the annihilation of minorities from mainstream media (Aioki, 2005).
By whitewashing the media, it sets the world back and leaves no room for advancement in the diversity of today’s world. Films, such as Breakfast at Tiffany’s. are an important part of society’s development, especially on how race and race related issues are viewed. And the use of white actors to impersonate and replace people of colour causes the social advancements to recede.
Social Relevance
Academics who research the topic of race and films seem to agree with critical theorist. Silk (1990) explains that ‘racism pervades American film because it is a basic strain in American history.’ (p.121). Since racism in the film was heavily influenced by American history, it did not provide a flattering presentation of their enemies during the war, one enemy in particular being the Japanese. The racism exhibited in films of this time reinforced elitist views at this time about the war, and tried to convince viewers to adapt to the elites way of thinking, as a way to justify racism (Wilson et.al., 2003,p.76).
Wilson (2003) discovers that the impact of the media is to reinforce attitudes (p.55). Therefore, academics have come to realize that displaying racial images to audiences encourages their own prejudiced attitudes, no matter how ridiculous or dramatized the images may be (Wilson et. al 2003, p..55). The media of this time, tried to incorporate characters of different backgrounds. Wilson (2003) argues that the portrayal of people of colour was always there, it just wasn’t the best portrayal (p.75). The earlier films utilized white actors to impersonate people of colour as a method of conveying their negative and prejudicial messages about non-white people, without having to use an actual coloured person. (Wilson et.al., 2003 p.77). Academics study the effects of these dramatized images of minorities. Researchers have come to the conclusion that these images encourage racism towards minorities, since their audiences are predominantly white, the film-makers cater to this audience (Silk,1990, p.121).
Over all, the academics agree that racism in films was used to convey messages of hatred toward minorities and the characteristics of people of colour in early films promoted the white superiority ideology of that time period. This is evident in many films such as the Indians versus cowboy’s genre, in which the Indians are made to look evil and the cowboys are made to look innocent (Wilson et. al., 2003. P. 75). Scholars also agree that the media, specifically popular films, have an influence on society, whether it is the way people act or speak or to how people interact with others. Wilson (2003) argues that messages behind many films benefit the majority race, and can have a negative effect on the way the majority race views minorities (p.77). Therefore, Academics agree that the media has a reinforcing effect when it comes to racism through its portrayal of minorities as separate from typical European looking North Americans.(Wilson et. al, 2003, p.47).

Influential Factors
Academics agree that the most outstanding factor that aids in understanding the medias distasteful portrayal of Asian-Americans was the time period. Xiaofei (2011) states that, “racial and ethnic images in American film can be related to the history of war” (p.13) Propaganda was a huge influence in the image of Japanese and Chinese characters in American films of this time. (Xiaofei,2011, p. 13). During World War II, Japanese and Chinese characters were made to be villains and made up to look like the caricatures of Japan that were seen in propaganda (Xiaofei, 2011,p.26)
The post World War II period is what influenced the change in the way Asians were represented in the media (Smith ,1997, p.368).

The emergence of the Civil Rights Movements, caused early filmmakers to re-evaluate and revise the way that they were portraying minority characters, however, they continued the use of stereotypes within their characters (Smith,1997, p.268). The filmmakers believed that they were making a positive switch to portraying Asian Americans as comical fools, as shown in Breakfast at Tiffany’s as opposed to the cold and menacing villains they once shown to be, but the new portrayal played off racial stereotypes that offended those who watched it (Smith, 1997, p.268).
Another factor that Silk (1997) explains is the reason behind production. Mainstream media was producing for audiences that were primarily white families, so they wanted their products to reflect the lives of those who consumed the media (p. 369). At this point in time film was used as an assimilation tactic, which is why white actors were used to play characters of all race (Smith,1997, p.369). By hiring white actors to play other races, producers believed that their target audience would be able to relate to characters. (Smith,1997,

p.369).