The film “Gran Torino” has many examples of “self” vs “subject” and the issues one faces when it comes to aspects of culture and social construction, the film highlights the modern conditions surrounding many aspects of these two examples. Walt Kowalski whose wife just recently died and who is a Korean War veteran has a difficult time getting along with people who do not hold the same views and values that he does. Some of these people are his children, relatives, and neighbors. He lives in an era that he does not understand and does not agree with. Since his wife died he stopped communicating with people. Walt lives next door to a Hmong family and slowly befriends them. He has a very difficult time with this at first but as the days go on you can see him progressively become more comfortable with them. One of the reasons he was a little uncomfortable communicating with his neighbors is the fact that he once fought and killed these people on the battlegrounds of Korea. When analyzing the film “Gran Torino” through the work of Foucault ,Panopticism, one can clearly see that Walt could be classified as the “watcher” and his neighbors as those being watched. There are many scenes in the movie in which Walt is taking the role of the “watcher”, one of them being when the neighbor across the street struggles with carrying her groceries inside while a group of teenagers walk by without asking if she needs help. Another would be when he is at his wife’s funereal and his grandchildren are being very disrespectful by not wearing the appropriate clothing or using their cellphones. Walt’s social and cultural construction differs from those around him. The teenagers who do not help the lady with her groceries stand against all that Wal...
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...ing a war veteran being one of the most effective, Walt also worked in the automobile industry and had a very traditional a patriotic way of going about situations. An example would be Walt’s disappointment in his son’s choice of automobile; he believed that his son should have bought something made in the United States rather than Japan. His guilt also plays a major role in how he lives his life; he has killed and seen people being killed while he was at war. This subjectivity can explain why Walt acts the way he does and what influences Walt’s judgments about reality and how one should act. These three pieces of literature can all be linked together and connected to the film “Gran Torino”. When looking through the lens of Foucault’s ,Panopticism one can see the depth meaning of Walt’s actions and how he treats those around him, and also how they treat him.
... on, Walt learns about the Hmong culture, and eventually he establishes a grumpy fatherly connection with Thao. Walt develops a relationship with the Vang Lor family and stops the Hmong gang from raping Thao’s sister. Although, Walt is dying from lung cancer, the gang kills him. Walt leaves behind all his inheritance to the Vang Lor family, and most importantly, Thao inherited the prized 1972 Gran Torino.
In the film “Bordertown”, the protagonist, Johnny Ramirez ultimately finds solace, happiness and satisfaction in the aftermath of his own failure. If one were to believe the notion that we are all at a fixed station in both life and society, then the Mexican protagonist’s ambitions and their disastrous outcomes would only serve to bolster this opinion. This is, however, what the film “Bordertown” attempts to convey to its audience. As Johnny Ramirez ambitiously sets out, attempting to acquire material success, in the world outside of his neighborhood, he finds only offers of wickedness and corruption. His final retreat back into his barrio is where he finds goodness and love. This film, then, suggests that not only should Ramirez not have bothered in his undertaking, but that any venture outside of one’s own “station” or “place” would put that person out of his or her natural element. The results of this can be dangerous or disastrous. The film’s message is clear: Stay where you belong.
Perhaps no other event in modern history has left us so perplexed and dumbfounded than the atrocities committed by Nazi Germany, an entire population was simply robbed of their existence. In “Our Secret,” Susan Griffin tries to explain what could possibly lead an individual to execute such inhumane acts to a large group of people. She delves into Heinrich Himmler’s life and investigates all the events leading up to him joining the Nazi party. In“Panopticism,” Michel Foucault argues that modern society has been shaped by disciplinary mechanisms deriving from the plague as well as Jeremy Bentham’s Panopticon, a structure with a tower in the middle meant for surveillance. Susan Griffin tries to explain what happened in Germany through Himmler’s childhood while Foucault better explains these events by describing how society as a whole operates.
Shawshank Redemption is quite the intriguing movie when pertaining to sociology. This particular movie focuses on socialization, as well as desocialization and resocialization.
In sociology symbolic interactionism explains the individual in a society and their interactions with others and through that it can explain social order and change. This theory was compiled from the teachings of George Herbert Mead in the early 20th century. Mead believed that the development of the individual was a social process. People are subjected to change based on their interactions with other people, objects or events and they assign meaning to things in order to decide how to act. This perspective depends on the symbolic meaning that people depend on in the process of social interaction. This paper will examine the movie “The Blind Side” through the symbolic interaction perspective.
As a society there are a lot of qualities that men have been socialized to uphold when it comes to how they act or react, what they support, and what they suppress. This movie produces a harsh critique of male socialization early on and continues
If Casablanca's audience had to choose between Rick and Laszlo, they would choose Rick because everything in the film has prepared them to choose him, who represents the rejection of America's involvement in world politics. Instead, the film relieves the audience of the necessity of choice by displacing the film's political conflict into melodrama, where familiar emotions overwhelm ideas. Although Victor Laszlo is always in Rick's shadow, he stands for the values of the father and the prevailing American belief in 1942 that freedom is worth fighting and dying for, which is the definition of the official hero. By censoring the theme of American reluctance to give up its autonomy, the film spares the audience the agony of siding against the values of the father, condensing the oedipal resolution to another shared experience between Rick and the viewer.
Ever feel as though someone is watching you? You know that you are the only one in a room, but for some reason you get an eerie feeling that you are not alone? You might not see anyone, but the eyes of a stranger could be gazing down on you. In Foucault's "Panopticism," a new paradigm of discipline is introduced, surveillance. No one dares to break the law, or do anything erroneous for that matter, in fear that they are being watched. This idea of someone watching your every move compels you to obey. This is why the idea of Panopticism is such an efficient form of discipline. The Panopticon is the ideal example of Panopticism, which is a tool for surveillance that we are introduced to in “Panopticism.” Kurt Vonnegut's "Harrison Bergeron," has taken the idea of surveillance one step further. The government not only observes everyone, but has complete control over society. The citizens of the United States cannot even think for themselves without being interrupted by the government. They are prisoners in their own minds and bodies. The ideals of “Panopticism” have been implemented to the fullest on society in Vonnegut’s "Harrison Bergeron," through physical and mental handicaps.
At first, Walter starts as a man who does not have many traits and characteristics that a leader in the family should has. He feels frustrated of the fact that his mother can potentially support his sister, Beneatha, in her education career. Walter complains and feels depressed about his current life when he has many aspects that not many African men had during his time. Walter has a happy family, a loving wife, and an acceptable occupation. Unfortunately, Walter wants more in his life, and he feels hopeless and depressed when something does not go in his ways. Walter starts to change when he experiences and learns Willis’s betrayal, his father’s hard work, his son’s dream of becoming a bus driver, and his mother’s explanation about the Africans’ pride. Through many difficulties, Walter becomes the man of the family, and he learns the importance of accepting and living a happy life with his family. Like Walter, many African men had to overcome the challenges and obstacles. They had to face and endure through racism. These two ideas often led to many tragic and depressed incidents such as unequal opportunities, inequality treatments, segregation, and
When Walter was twelve years old, his parents moved the family from south central California to a more comfortable, affluent, working-class west Los Angeles. He was largely raised in a non-political family culture, although there were racial conflicts flaring throughout Los Angeles. When he was very young, he would sit right in front of the television set. He would close his eyes while watching because it w...
The film I have chosen to explore the micro features on is The Pianist (2002) which is directed by Roman Polanski. Polanski assures that the audience gets a sense of belonging to that period of history and gets to explore the theme of discrimination through the characters life risking challenges that they face throughout the film. This micro essay will explore the following features, framing and camera movement in a 5 minute sequence.
"Crash" is a movie that exposes different kinds of social and multicultural differences, giving us a quick example of how these conducts affect our society. Two of the behaviors observed, are Prejudice and Stereotyping. Identified as the causes of where all the events eradicate.
One of the more prevalent themes of this movie is racism, and how prejudicial mindsets ultimately lead to one’s own demise. The movie outlines how racism, among other things, can adversely affect someone’s judgment. After the father died, we see how the family gradually deteriorates financially as well as emotionally after Derek (the older brother played by Edward Norton) turns to a neo Nazi gang for an outlet, which eventually influences his younger brother Danny (played by Edward Furlong) to follow down ...
Gran Torino is a suspense film directed by Clint Eastwood, which portrays the relationship between a 78-year-old Koran war veteran and his neighbors who are from Laos. The main character, Walt is a racist who still has memories from the horrors of war and has a dislike for anyone, including his own family. After his young neighbor Thao is coerced by his cousin’s gang into stealing Walt’s prized Gran Torino, a unusual relationship forms between the pair. Walt starts to respect Thao and his culture while fulfilling a fatherly role that Thao is lacking. Eventually, Walt has to confront the gang knowing that the confrontation will end in his death. Apart from the stereotypical, get off my lawn quote, this film depicts the relationship of family concerning the care for older adults, the struggle with despair and meaning later in life, and the morality of a good death. This paper will address each of these themes.
Clint Eastwood’s film “Gran Torino” traces the end of the life of Walt Kowalski. He has recently gone through a lot – the death of his beloved wife, his distant relationship with his son, his emotional scars from the Korean War and his bad health. All these things stop him from living a proper life. He doesn’t care about himself much – he smokes even though he is sick, he doesn’t eat a lot, he refuses to confess even though that was his wife’s last wish. However, all this changes when he meets the Hmong Family that lives next door. At the beginning he detests them because of their similarity to the Koreans, but later, as he gets to know them, they become the family that he was never able to have. The story traces the psychological changes in Walt’s character due to his unusual bond with the Hmong family, which changes are one of the main strengths of the film.