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Importance of good communication in families
Family communication
Importance of good communication in families
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The Academy Award winning movie, Ordinary People, shows the story of the Jarrett family. They have recently lost their beloved son, Buck, in a tragic boating accident. Their other son, Conrad survives, however struggles with depression after such a horrific event in his life. His father, Calvin makes strides to reconnect with Conrad, and shows empathy and love towards him. Beth, on the other hand, struggles to show affection or any type of connection towards Conrad after the accident. These factors contribute to a very dysfunctional home life for the family. Conflict soon arises and is handled quite poorly. From a psychological viewpoint, this family desperately needs help in conflict management, a process used to increase positive outcomes from everyday conflicts.
Conrad, the subject of the movie, suffers intensely after the loss of his brother Buck. He feels guilt and sadness, and even tries to take his own life. This leads him to leave and stay in a mental hospital. As he returns home, this is when the family begins to clash. His mother, Beth, resents Conrad for his suicide attempt. She
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doesn’t visit him in the hospital, and this hurts Conrad, as he feels forgotten and ashamed. This leads to a great amount of their disputes. Beth and Conrad do not connect, as seen when Beth does not want to take a picture with just Conrad. Out of anger, Conrad yells and curses at his mother. Conrad had bottled up so much anger, he let it out in an unhealthy manner. He should have spoken in a calm, non judgmental tone, and simply ask why she does not want to be pictured with him. This would have been a much less explosive conflict, and could have been handled in a more respectful manner. Calvin, Conrad’s father, also takes part in several conflicts throughout the movie.
He struggles trying to maintain relationships between his wife and his son. Calvin loves Conrad, and wishes to support him, but has a hard time doing so when Beth is quite difficult to manage by being closed off and distant. For example, Calvin and Beth fight verbally on a golf course. This is revolved around Conrad, and Calvin lashes out about how Conrad thinks she hates him. This is a prime example of poor conflict management. Beth felt attacked and this accusation only worsened the circumstances. Instead of yelling accusations, Calvin should have established safety in the conflict, and made it clear that he sees how she loves Conrad, but he wants to understand why she has been so distant towards him lately. This would’ve been a much more beneficial way to approach the
situation. Beth, Conrad’s mother, caused a great source of disputes in the movie. She is incredibly reserved, distant, and does not show affection well. Because of this, her relationship with Conrad is hard to maintain. She cannot connect with him, and never visits him in the hospital. Conrad feels as if she resents or hates him. For example, when Beth finds out Conrad has quit the swim team, she storms in immediately yelling at Conrad. This started a huge feud that upset Conrad extremely. Looking back, Beth should have approached Conrad in a loving, understanding manner instead. She should remind him she is not trying to attack him or accuse him, but simply wants to understand what’s going on. She can do this by using a calm voice, listening to Conrad, and being empathetic with his feelings. In conclusion, the Jarrett family suffered a horrible loss. Beth, Conrad, and Calvin all handled the grief differently; however, this caused conflicts between the family members to arise. Using conflict management methods, one can handle situations in a more healthy manner, while strengthening relationships. All in all, conflict management skills are essential in all aspects of life.
The mother had a negative affect on Conrad. After the brother’s death, and Con’s attempted suicide, she could never deal with Con. When the brother died so did a part of her ability to love.
In the movie Ordinary People, the Jarrett Family seems like a normal family with the Mother Beth, Father Calvin, and their son Conrad. Even though they seem like a happy family, in reality they have lost a family member and have unresolved issues and conflicts. Conrad’s brother Buck died in a boating accident and Conrad survived and feels major guilt that he is alive and Buck isn’t.This results in an overall awkward/uncomfortable and cold environment especially for Conrad. If they had used conflict management it could’ve helped resolve the issues and possibly kept their family together. The Jarrett family seems to either act out in fight or flight on each other and others. Conrad and his parents could have used conflict management strategies like mutual purpose to help resolve the tension and keep the family together.
Conrad experienced a tremendous amount of psychological pain because of the loss he felt, he had no one to talk to about the death of his brother and best friend in the boating accident which resulting in a suicide attempt. The relationships he had with his mother Beth and his swim team friends suffered dramatically because of all of the pain he held
While dealing with their first major struggle; death, Calvin, Conrad's father, Beth, Conrad's mother, and Conrad begin their road to self discovery. They all deal with Conrad's suicide attempt in different ways. Calvin is the most concerned person about Conrad.
In the book Ordinary People, Conrad Jarrett has a good life and loving family when his brother dies in a sailboating accident. Conrad feels lost and confused and he attempts to take his own life as a way out. He spends eight months in a mental institution and when he comes out he discovered he is a completely different person and has the realization that his old definition of normality no longer applies. A once-unified family splits into three guarded, isolated members who can no longer share anything with one another.
...lt that he caused problems to everyone with whom he had contact. After much struggle, however, Conrad realized that he was not the problem and that he did not need to hold back his feelings. Calvin originally thought that Beth was perfect and was confused as to the extent of his responsibility as a father. With Dr. Berger's help, Calvin came to understand that Beth was not the ideal mother and that the things he blamed himself for were not really his fault. The conclusion can be drawn that one needs external help in order to develop psychologically. Calvin and Conrad voluntarily met with Dr. Berger in search of assistance while Beth refused his aid. This may be the reason that Beth was not able to reach emotional maturity while Calvin and Conrad matured greatly.
Poor Kids is a documentary that highlights a major issue the United States is suffering from. This issue is known as poverty, more specifically, childhood poverty. This documentary views the world through the eyes of children that are subjected to lives of poverty due to the poor financial state that their parents are in. Life is very rough for these children and they must live their everyday lives with little to none of the luxuries most people take for granted. Poor Kids sheds light on the painful fact that there are children that starve every day in the United States.
troubles, Calvin would keep trying and didn't give up. Calvin really cared for Conrad and wanted him to share his feelings and emotions. For example, there was a scene when Calvin would walk into Conrad's room just to make sure he was doing fine. Calvin not only showed his affections nonverbally, he showed them verbally also. He wanted to see his son back to life, back to who he was.
The Bad and The Beautiful (1952) and State and Main (2000) are films within films that unmask Hollywood Cinema as a dream factory and expose the grotesque, veneer hidden by the luxury of stars. The Bad and the Beautiful, directed by Vincent Minnelli, is a black and white film narrated in flashback form. The films theatrical nature requires more close-ups than wide-screen shots to capture the character’s psychological turmoil. For example, Fred and Jonathan’s car ride is captured in a close-up to signify their friendship; however their relationship deteriorates after Jonathan’s deceit. While the camera zooms out, Fred stands alone motionless. Here, Fred is captured from a distance at eye-level and he becomes ostracized by the film industry and
Gender and the portrayal of gender roles in a film is an intriguing topic. It is interesting to uncover the way women have been idealized in our films, which mirrors the sentiments of the society of that period in time. Consequently, the thesis of this essay is a feminist approach that seeks to compare and contrast the gender roles of two films. The selected films are A few Good Men and Some Like it Hot.
Within the German Democratic Republic, there was a secret police force known as the Stasi, which was responsible for state surveillance, attempting to permeate every facet of life. Agents within and informants tied to the Stasi were both feared and hated, as there was no true semblance of privacy for most citizens. Directed by Florian Henckel von Donnersmarck, the movie The Lives of Others follows one particular Stasi agent as he carries out his mission to spy on a well-known writer and his lover. As the film progresses, the audience is able to see the moral transformation of Stasi Captain Hauptmann Gerd Wiesler primarily through the director 's use of the script, colors and lighting, and music.
Throughout the film a focus on family and the dynamics is prominent. A traumatic event, the loss of a son, brother, and friend, has influenced the Jarrett greatly. Due to the circumstances in which Conrad, a severely depressed teenager and the main character, was present during the death of his brother, feelings of guilt had built up in this young man. A great deal of stress and tension is built between the family members because of this tragic accident. Here is where the concept of, change in one part of the familial system reverberates through out other parts. (Duty, 2010) The relationship between the Conrad and his mother become even more absent because, in the film it is presented to show that the mother blames and has not forgiven Conrad for the death of his brother Buck. Six months after the death of his brother Conrad attempts suicide with razors in the bathroom of his home. His parents commit him to a psychiatric hospital and eight months later, he is trying to resume his “old” life.
Lack of communication and poor communication is a big problem in the novel. Beth thinks she and Conrad have poor communication. This is clear when Beth gets mad at Conrad be cause wasn’t the first to know that he quit swim team. Calvin and Beth have communication issues too. They always have different views on things. Beth wanted to go on vacation and Calvin thought it was best to stay home until Conrad is settled again. Calvin wants to talk about everyone’s problems when Beth feels it’s best to move on, and forget about the past and only think about the future. Their lack of communication to agree on things turns their marriage from good to bad and Beth ends up leaving Calvin and Conrad.
For this assignment, the movie “The Help” was chosen to review and analyze because it presents a story of fighting injustice through diverse ways. The three main characters of the movie are Eugenia “Skeeter” Phelan, a young white woman, Aibileen Clark, and Minny Jackson, two colored maids. Throughout the story, we follow these three women as they are brought together to record colored maids’ stories about their experiences working for the white families of Jackson. The movie explores the social inequalities such as racism and segregation between African Americans and whites during the 1960s in Jackson, Mississippi.
According to Elizabeth Kubler-Ross, grief occurs in five stages: denial, anger, bargaining, depression, and acceptance (https://www.hdsa.org/images/content/1/3/13080.pdf). These stages do not necessarily occur in the same order for each person nor may a person suffering loss experience all of the steps, but will work toward “acceptance,” which is considered the final stage. A person who goes through something tragic such as learning they have a terminal illness or losing a loved one may experience at least two of these five stages. Elise and Didier go through a tragic loss with the death of their young daughter in “The Broken Circle Breakdown.” Their cycle in the stages of grief starts as soon as Maybelle is diagnosed and goes through treatment. It impacts Didier two times over when Elise commits suicide. These characters experience the stages of grief, at different times than each other and lasting a different length of time, but the film showcases how together they deal with events parents should never have to go through.