Character Identification
The character that will be focused on is Whip Whitaker in the movie Flight. Whip Whitaker is a male African-American, pilot that has no religious beliefs or spiritualism in the beginning of the film. Prior to his career with SouthJet Airlines, he was a pilot in the Navy. He is divorced with one son; in the beginning of the film he has a relationship with his co-worker, Katerina, and throughout the movie builds a new romantic relationship with Nicole. While he initially showed lack of faith throughout much of the movie, the change in Whip towards the end of the film demonstrates faith by facing the truth and allowing the higher power to be in control of the next events. Before admitting the truth in the hearing, he mutters “God help me” and proceeds to show integrity and courage despite knowing that the consequence for telling the truth will be jail time for him. He displays courage, valor, and expertise when he takes control of a crashing airplane and saves 96 out of 102 people on board the plane. When he finds out that Katerina as well as 5 other people have been killed, he shows toughness and resilience and is able to overcome the loss he experiences and the guilt he is ridden with. He is an experienced airplane pilot that is courageous, persistent, resilient, and at times, brutally honest. Whip’s coping mechanisms are denial, dissociation, acting out, displacement, and undoing. While he is going through an immensely tumultuous time, he displays resiliency and perseverance to overcome the legal ramifications of the airplane crash that he was piloting. Whip also displays kindness and courage when he rescues Nicole from her landlord that is attempting to beat her, without hesitation. He has diff...
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... previous heroin addict that truly gave him the most resources. Nicole provided him the insight that Whip was responsible for his own recovery from addiction, she understood that Whip could change, but he would have to be the individual determining what his goals are for himself, what changes he needs to make and the support to understand that he can make those changes, with some help from other resources (Kisthardt, 2006).
Works Cited
Macdonald, L., Parkes, W., Starkey, S., Rapke, J. & Zemeckis, R. (2012). Flight. United States:
Paramount pictures
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The book I chose to read for this assignment is called “Stay Close: A Mother’s Story of Her Son’s Addiction”. The target audience can be parents, adolescents, recovering addicts, college students and mental health professionals.
Dr. Hart argues that social support systems shape how a person deals with their addiction. He brings in the story
Thompson, N (2005) Understanding Social Work: Preparing for Practice, Palgrave, MacMillan (Second Edition) Hampshire (Supplementary Course Reader)
Social workers address people’s problems every day, but it’s the identification of people’s strengths that provides clues for how to solve their problems and improve their life situations (Saleeby, 2013, pp.17-20).
Dorfman, R. (1996). Clinical social work: Definiton [sic], practice, and vision. New York: Brunner/Mazel Publishers.
Saleeby, D. (2013). The strengths perspective in social work practice. New Jersey: Pearson Education Inc.
The generalist model in the social work profession was drawn from a social system’s theory in the late 1960 's due to the complexities of problems and challenges faced by human beings. It was needed to assist social workers in assessing and interviewing clients. Rather than make the client fit the model, the generalist model seeks to find the approach that best fits the client, as well as emphasizing respect for client self-determination and the use of client strengths with empowerment as an expected client system outcome. A generalist practice model is used in all areas of social work field in ethical and effective helping based on the eco-systems perspective using problem-solving strategies and practice skills requiring a strengths perspective
Perhaps one of the most versatile and diverse careers is social work, as this career works with individuals struggling with substance abuse, low-income families, and homeless individuals. Social work is a profession that is concerned with solving personal, group, and community relationships (Farley, Smith, & Boyle, 2011). Among some of the most important aspects of social work are the restoration of impaired social functioning, the provision of social services, and prevention (Farley et al., 2011). Reducing problems in human relationships and improving human interactions among individuals are the major focuses of this profession, regardless of which people group the social workers are serving (Farley et al., 2011). Even though it is a relatively new profession, social work has existed in various forms throughout history. However, the beginning of social work’s development as a profession was primarily European in origin, with the ideals spreading to the United States
This class, Social Work Theory & Practice was made to be able to introduce me to social work theories, ideas, and skills needed to work in the social work profession. This class main tool used was a book called A Brief Introduction of Social Work Theory by David Howe which discusses social work theories in a compressive and explainable way. This class is important to my higher learning because it break down the theories that I will need to use during my practice and a...
Through taking this class, I have learned that moral life can be divided into two main areas, which are who we are as persons and our actions. In class, we watched the movie “Flight” with Denzel Washington in order to show us the true complexity of humans and their behavior as they try to lead a moral life. The movie follows the life of the main character, William “Whip” Whitaker, through many life-altering decisions and we watch him try to learn and understand how to cope with the consequences of those decisions. Through the entire movie, Whip is constantly trying to figure out who he is as a person, which I feel is why he made so many poor decisions in his life. At first, he seems to be a typical alcoholic and drug addict, but as the movie unfolded, so did his character. In my opinion, he is an extremely complicated and complex character, which is why it is so hard to understand his actions in the movie. Whip was majorly influenced by his past, which is why he allowed his drinking and drug problem to consume his life. He was influenced not only by his past, but also by the people whom he surrounded himself with. Overall, I feel that Whip’s confusion regarding who he is as a person finds expression in his actions, but in the end he proves that he is more complex than the sum of his behavior and redirects his life.
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Working with others and improving own learning and performance are highly essential skills in social work. In this essay I will reflect on how well I have developed these two skills and what I need to do to improve them.
A.I.: Artificial Intelligence is a Steven Spielberg science fiction drama film, which conveys the story of a younger generation robot, David, who yearns for his human mother’s love. David’s character stimulates the mind-body question. What is the connection between our “minds” and our bodies?
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