As a young child growing up in a small country like The Kingdom of Thailand, I didn't have much experience with people of different races. I would often imagine what it would be like to be around people of other races within the own neighborhood. How could I interact with one to another? The movie, Grand Torino, is an inspiring movie that presents viewers with a real-life story of a grumpy old widower man, named Walt Kowalski, who faces all the challenges of growing old in America. This movie depicts the racial interactions as well as the personal struggles and emotions that come with aging within a very diverse community. In Gran Torino, the setting is in a Highland Park Michigan neighborhood that had been populated by white working class …show more content…
families and is now inhabited by an increasing number of Asian immigrants. Walt Kowalski is an explicit racist individual interacting with several different minority groups, Walt is the only white resident remaining in this new Southeastern Asian community. A growing community that is causing the remaining minority of white people to move out of the city. He is a very traditional white American who has recently retired as a Ford autoworker and is very old fashioned in his ways. Walt is an unhappy old man who cannot get along with his own kids and his new Asian neighbors. Walt has been forced to have new encounters with his Hmong neighbors with whom he now develops a closer relationship. All of this as his real family pulls away from him after the death of his beloved wife. The film depicts issues that baby boomers, anyone who is over 65, or people with an aging family member soon have to deal with. Situations, including widowhood, isolation, health problems, and the meaning of work and retirement. We see the demographic changes that many American people within the baby bomber generation (born between 1945 and 1964) now face. Their life experiences changing radically in attitude, behavior, and societal norms starting in the past to the now newer modern technology based world. As a grumpy old man, Walt does not have a good relationship with his family. Due to this strained relationship with his family, he becomes an isolated and lonely old man with a reflective bitter attitude toward the culture shift society has undergone. The nightmare of crime, gangs, sex, and money has all contributed to this for Walt. However, during the course of the movie, there are many changes in him. As he interacts with different groups (Hmong family and Hmong Gangs), his social identity starts shifting. Walt deals with many challenges with his own dwindling faculties, illness, and alienation from his family. Walt sacrifices his own life to protect the Hmong family by inducing the gang to shoot him thus enabling the police to arrest the gang for his murder. He refuses to call police and confronts the intruders with a M1 Garand. Walt is a perfect product of the 20s and 30s, where men were not subject to public ridicule. You did what you had to, if you were a man. Men need to take action, not to be passive. Successful people take action. This is related to successful aging. He does not let the age interfere in his life. Rather than sit at home, Walt fights back, knowing he has nothing to lose. Gran Torino is the perfect example for the psychosocial theories of aging. I will analyze two of these theories: Continuity Theory and Disengagement Theory. The Continuity Theory was proposed by Robert Atchley in 1971 in the article “Retirement and Leisure Participation: Continuity or Crisis?” It is when the older adult will usually tries to maintain the same activities, behaviors, personalities, and relationships as they did in their earlier years of life. We can see this from the continuity of activities, relationships, and environment that Walt had to deal with in situations from his earlier life. He still had the American flag flying in the air, and maintained his house just the way it was in the fifties. The Disengagement Theory is a theory formulated by Elaine Cumming and William Henry in 1961.
It suggests that “aging is an inevitable, mutual withdrawal or disengagement; resulting in decreased interaction between the aging person and others in the social system he belongs to.” Walt’s son and daughter-in-law brought him gifts on his birthday that they insisted would make his life easier. (Example: Gopher and a giant numbered telephone). The African-American and Asian-American gangs dismiss him by telling him “go home old man” and “mind your own business” they refused to recognize his true authority until he pulled a gun on them. They don’t even bother to fight back after he takes it out. Another part was when the Hmong (Korean) gang also dismisses him, except this time he has a gun in their face. They chastise him and make fun of his age until he threatens them with things he did to Koreans in the Korean War. When Sue invited Walt over to her family’s BBQ, she takes him to the basement to socialize with her friends. The vibes are awkward while the teens stare at him suspiciously. Sue thinks that Walt is a great person to talk to, while the others need convincing often questioning him for being down there in the basement. Another great example is when Walt asks Tao for help to move his freezer from the basement and Tao accepts the request, however, Tao refuses once Walt orders him to carry the light side of the freezer instead of the heavy side. After the debate between them, Walt finally agrees to carry the light
side. Gran Torino is a great story to bring attention to and to depict what has happened to baby boomers in America. The social and culture issues that America is dealing with today by going through the loss and grief – he had difficulty adjusting to being single and his family pulling away. He engaged in activities, remained productive, and still had social interactions with the neighbors, where he maintained a high level of self-efficacy and well being despite his loss in capabilities for successful aging.
The movie Crash examines the interpersonal communications that exists between different groups’ of people. In this film, characters are highlighted by the contact that occurs when disparate people are thrown together in large urban settings. Crash displays extreme instances of racism and shows how the thought, feeling, and behavior of individuals are influenced by actual, imagined, or implied presence of other human beings. My analysis will focus on Social Cognition and how people process, and apply information about other people and social situations.
The film observes and analyzes the origins and consequences of more than one-hundred years of bigotry upon the ex-slaved society in the U.S. Even though so many years have passed since the end of slavery, emancipation, reconstruction and the civil rights movement, some of the choice terms prejudiced still engraved in the U.S society. When I see such images on the movie screen, it is still hard, even f...
Race and ethnicity is a main factor in the way we identify others and ourselves. The real question here is does race/ethnicity still matter in the U.S.? For some groups race is not a factor that affects them greatly and for others it is a constant occurrence in their mind. But how do people of mix race reacts to this concept, do they feel greatly affected by their race? This is the question we will answer throughout the paper. I will first examine the battle of interracial relationship throughout history and explain how the history greatly explains the importance of being multiracial today. This includes the backlash and cruelty towards interracial couple and their multiracial children. Being part of a multiracial group still contains its impact in today’s society; therefore race still remaining to matter to this group in the U.S. People who place themselves in this category are constantly conflicted with more than one cultural backgrounds and often have difficulty to be accepted.
Walter Younger is a good example of a dynamic character because he changes from being blindly in love with money and dreams to turning into an adult who can make life decisions. Walter still loves money, dreams big, and has a hateful attitude, but he figures out how to regulate it. The Younger family faced racial and housing discrimination and segregation, and they were able to overcome it and set up a better life for themselves. This quote by Margaret Atwood, a Canadian poet, is a good way of summing up the thoughts and beliefs of Walter and the play: “I hope that people will finally come to realize that there is only one ‘race’ - the human race - and that we are all members of it” (Atwood).
For this assignment, I decided to watch “Crash”, a movie set in the streets of Los Angeles California and that shows the lives of various individuals with different cultural backgrounds. The movie starts with the scene of a car crash between an Asian woman and a couple of detectives near the sight of a murder, as the African American detective Graham Waters walks around the scene he stops because he saw something that shocked him, and from there a flashback begins. The first relevant scene shows, Anthony and Peter, two African Americans individuals walking down the street talking about racial discrimination. As they talk a couple passes by them and the two decide to steal their car. This causes a chain of events affecting the lives of many
Stereotyping, racial slurs, and labeling and norms are seen and used on a daily basis and can be observed in virtually any aspect of life, from race to religion. These aspects are used repeatedly throughout the popular movie “Gran Torino.” Clint Eastwood plays the raunchy character Walt Kowalski, a Korean War Veteran, whose memories from the war continue to haunt him. His values, and beliefs lead him to pass judgment upon others that he encounters. He doesn’t seem to get along with anyone in his decaying Detroit neighborhood but an unlikely bond with his Hmong neighbors lead him to redemption, coming face-to-face with the same catastrophic bias’s consuming the community gang members that have consumed him.
...e that makes us both laugh and cry at almost the same time. When we are laughing, we must question the underlying sociological concepts that makes us laugh. Are we laughing at those racist jokes because of our own ethnocentrism? Are we as guilty as Jean Cabot at making our own realities our truths? Do we have views about certain groups of people and basically make them come true for ourselves? Crash questions us for all of these things. This movie successfully forces viewers to address their own cultural backgrounds and their experiences with those of other races. After all, when it comes to racial equality, it should not be ignored. Especially in a city like Los Angeles, we never know when will the truth crash into us and we will be forced to face who we are through someone else’s eyes, no matter how difficult it is to take a look inside and outside of ourselves.
An American drama film directed and produced by Clint Eastwood which has gained recognition worldwide particularly because of Clintwood’s appealing directing style. It was recognized by the American Drama Institute as one of the “Ten Best Films of 2008”(Gran Torino, 2013) and debutedthe writer, Nick Schenk. Clint Eastwood demonstrates, through Mr. Walt, that if your past negatively affects your life and the way you see things, then its best to let go of it and start a new beginning. An intense film told with great humor, Gran Torino is a cinematic masterpiece. This film succeeds in its development in portraying the negative aspects involving multicultural communications and the bond formed by people from two extremely different generations.
Institutionalized racism has been a major factor in how the United States operates today. This type of racism is found in many places, which include schools, courts of laws, job places and governmental organizations. Institutionalized racism affects many factors in the lives of African Americans, including the way they interact with white individuals. In the book “Drinking Coffee Elsewhere Stories” ZZ Packer uses her short stories to emphasize the how institutionalized racism plays in the lives of the characters in her stories. Almost all her characters experience the effects of institutionalized racism, and therefore change how they view their lives to adapt.
As a fan of cinema, I was excited to do this project on what I had remembered as a touching portrait on racism in our modern society. Writer/Director Paul Haggis deliberately depicts his characters in Crash within the context of many typical ethnic stereotypes that exist in our world today -- a "gangbanger" Latino with a shaved head and tattoos, an upper-class white woman who is discomforted by the sight of two young Black kids, and so on -- and causes them to rethink their own prejudices during their "crash moment" when they realize the racism that exists within themselves.
Neal, Kelle. ""Part of Your World": Disney's Portrayal of Ethnic Minorities." Tennessee State University, 2010. United States -- Tennessee: ProQuest Dissertations & Theses: The Humanities and Social Sciences Collection. Web. 29 Nov. 2011.
When Walt has his birthday in the movie and the book he is on the back porch which is elevated and the rest of the people are in the backyard below Walt. He is showing signs of narcissism. Which is an exaggerated sense of self-importance and self-absorption ( Wade and Carol 384). Walt believes that he has more power than everyone else and is self absorbed in his own fantasy about his perfect family. Walt believed that because he was on the deck that he held a higher status than everyone else at that party. When McCandless gave his dad the top of the line telescope he had no emotion opening up the present. This shows that Walt believed that any sign of emotion is a sign of weakness.
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.
The film begins with the funeral of Walt’s wife. She used to keep Walt going and her death ruined him. He is not in peace with himself and he refuses to talk with the Padre about the things that bother him. From his dialogues with the Padre we understand that Walt knows more about death, than he knows about living. According to Maslow’s Hierarchy of needs we can suggest that he is far away from reaching his self-actualization, because he does not feel safe and he does not belong even to his family. Walt is not close with his sons and grandchildren and they have no respect for him. Walt’s grandchildren even refuse to visit him on his birthday, although they know that he is alone after their grandmother’s death. This family can be considered to be unusual, because normally the oldest people should be the most respected of the whole family. A contrast to that is the house righ...
The oppression that African American individuals endured for years, is still being practice with racial discrimination and prejudice. One strength of identifying as African American is the increase of belongingness that gave me the ability to share and live amongst individuals with the same physical appearance and in some cases, the same obstacles. However, this was not always the case. Growing into an adult gave me the advantage to travel and meet other African Americans that I believed shared some of the same historical and ethnic background. In this time period I was introduced to what is called within-group differences, which is the differences among the members of a group (Organista, 2010). Wanting to be around individuals that I believed to have a common core with was one of my flaws, but while traveling with individuals that I thought was like me I experienced that I had nothing in common with some of my travel friends. One of my friends stated that we had nothing in common with each other, because of our different social economic status, education and employment. At first I was offended, however, after taking psychology of ethnic groups in the United States there was a sense of understanding that not all individuals that look alike, are alike. This assumption that all groups function