Brokeback Mountain is a book by Annie Proulx and was later adapted into a movie directed by Ang Lee. In Brokeback Mountain, the film conveys the life and secret love of two wyoming cowboys and shows the progression of their relationship through the years. I believe this film uses the characters Jack Twist and Ennis Del Mar, the setting of the story to convey typical gay life for people before the modern era. What I’ve noticed in the film is that the two main characters fit two standard archetypes of gay men. One who welcomes their sexuallity and one suppresses it. Ennis Del Mar is a man who before the story started was engaged to a woman named Alma. When Ennis and Jack begin their sexual relationship and Ennis tells Jack that he wasn’t queer,
I feel the film uses this to automatically show the difference between the two men and which one of them fits the suppression archetype. I believe that the film uses Ennis as a control group of some sort and at the end of the movie compares the two characters. Throughout the entire movie we are constantly reminded that Ennis will stick to his ways about keeping his sexuality a secret, again using him as a control that you can easily compare the two characters by the end of the movie. Jack Twist is the opposite of Ennis as the way he views his sexuallity. In the film Jack more or so embraces his sexuallity more than Ennis and throughout the movie projects his love for Ennis onto other women and Men. In this case Jack is the experimental group to show the difference between the two men and to explain the outcomes at the end of the movie. I feel in this case Jack is a tragic character in which his fatal flaw is his desires to live his open life and that he expresses his sexualality compared to Ennis who suppresses his sexuality. His fatal flaw dooms him to death. Before the modern Era, homosexuality less accepted by people in varying degrees which leads into my next point. In the area that the two men come from, homosexuality is not tolerated at all. Part of the reason for Ennis’s shrouding of his desires is because of something he saw when he was about the age of 9. Two gay ranchers who had owned a farm were brutally murdered and Ennis used that as fear control to keep his desires in check. Jack constantly suggested that he and Ennis leave their wives and go start a ranch which is what Ennis fears most. He fears that if they had started a ranch together people would suspect and they would end up dead. These two aspects of the story help convey gay life in pre modern times because they because it showed the hardships the two men and the strain it put on their relationship. It showed the two common ways of gay life. The suppression and secrecy that might not have been desirable but kept you safe. And the more open life that was more dangerous and in that time period usually resulted in death due to surrounding peoples intolerances. This movie evoked a personal response from me because it made me recognize the privilege I have as a young gay man living in the modern era. It showed me how intolerant people were back in that time period and made me feel emotionally devastated at the result at the outcome of a gay relationship in that time period. It made me realize that people lost their lives for loving the way they loved and this movie projected that to its audience in an understandable but plausible way.
The movie Loving takes place in Caroline County, Virginia, with a white construction worker who falls in love with an African American woman. They both find out that they are going to have a child together and make the decision to get married. But, in this time, both of them find out that they both can’t get married due to the laws in the time. African Americans and Whites don’t normally be with each other or even fall in love for that matter. Both fight for their rights to be together not just in the state of Virginia, but for everyone in all states.
The movie “Fried Green Tomatoes,” Evelyn Couch visits a nursing home with her husband to see an elderly relative from her husband’s side. However, Evelyn’s husband’s side of the family is not fond of Evelyn so she waits in the sitting room for her husband to finish his visit. While waiting for her husband to finish up his visit with his relative she meets an elderly woman named Ninny. Ninny begins to talk to Evelyn and starts to recount about her sister-in-law Idgie who changed her life around and became an owner of a small Alabama café. Also Ninny mentions that Idgie shared a strong bond with her friend Ruth, who was completely the opposite of Idgie. However, a lifelong friendship formed from the differences the two had. Evelyn becomes inspired to change her life for the better after hearing all of Ninny’s stories. In the movie “Fried Green Tomatoes,” there were a significant amount of gender stereotypes throughout the film that can offend women in today’s society.
I can relate to your initial thoughts of the film McFarland, USA. Often, the “savior” of a group deemed troubled tends to be of different race and ethnicity. There are many stereotypes perpetuated in American Society. However, I appreciated the fact that Jim White genuinely cared about his students. I loved how he immersed himself in the townspeople’s culture and was willing to pick crops with his students if it meant they would keep competing in cross country running.
The movie White Man’s Burden, a 1995 drama, reverses the typical American cultural perspectives. In this movie John Travolta and Harry Belafonte create an emotional story highlighting the way people treat others. In a White Man’s Burden Harry Belafonte is a successful and wealthy black man, and John Travolta is a poor struggling white man. To me this movie showed me many things I was blind to. The reversal of traditional white and black roles emphasized the injustice that many minorities, in this scenario blacks, go through on a daily basis.
The term “hillbilly” is a stereotype for people who dwell in rural, mountainous areas in the USA. Because a stereotypical expression, “hillbilly” includes images of being violent and backward, many Americans feel offensive when they hear the word.
Rednecks have been around for centuries, but what is a redneck? In today’s terminology, redneck is used as an insult towards many southerners. Originally, redneck was used to describe someone who has been outside working all day, and has developed sunburn on their neck. Due to modern day stereotypes, the word redneck has become an insult rather than a way to describe a hard worker. Through research and personal accounts, the history of the word redneck can be examined, the comparison of the “modern day” redneck and the old meaning, and the way it impacts certain groups, can be used to demolish modern day stereotypes. The word redneck should return to its original form and should not be used as an insult toward southerners.
The film 12 Angry Men depicts the challenge faced by a jury as they deliberate the charges brought against an 18-year-old boy for the first-degree murder of his father. Their task is to come to an impartial verdict, based on the testimony that was heard in court. The group went through the case over and over while personal prejudices, personality differences, and tension mounted as the process evolved. While the scorching hot weather conditions and personal affairs to tend to led the juror to make quick and rash decisions, one juror convinced them the fate of the 18 year old was more important than everyone’s problems an convinced them that they could not be sure he was guilty. Juror three took the most convincing. After fighting till he
Standing up for what one believes in is not always easy. The book Twelve Angry Men by Reginald Rose should be taught in schools for many reasons. The book is about the trial of a sixteen year old boy accused of killing his father. The boy’s fate is determined by the decision reached by twelve jurors in a New York jury room. Twelve Angry Men displays the effects that one person can have on a group, it teaches the value of being part of a jury, and it explores how stereotypes and prejudices can have an effect on someone’s decision or beliefs.
The movie Crash was directed by Paul Haggis is a powerful film that displays how race is still a sociological problem that affects one 's life. It also focuses on how we should not stereotype people based on their color because one may come out wrong in the end. Stereotyping is a major issue that is still happening in today 's society and seems to only be getting worse. This movie is a great way to see the daily life and struggle of other races and see how racism can happen to anyone, not just African Americans which seems to only be seen in the news and such.
Identity is a substantial component of a person, it’s something that determines who they are and help establish themselves with people who you find enjoyable and shares similar interests. It could bring people together, and provide a sense of belonging and unity. However, there are times where these people who are within certain cliques are perceived more negatively or believe that all people within that group perpetually have a certain set of traits. In most cases, these negative perceptions lead to discrimination and conflict, and obscures the positive and more genuine traits of an individual. In S.E. Hinton’s book, The Outsiders, there is a group of poor and lower-middle class teens who are labeled as greasers. This group of wild teenagers
Many literary works deal with the issue of homosexuality and society’s response to it, and each of the works of literature have a different take on the issue. Therefore, the authors create and design their main characters with the traits and characteristics that are most fit to convey their perception of the issue. One of the most well known literary works that deal with homosexuality is “Brokeback Mountain” by Annie Proulx, in which the main characters are two male cowboys that are in love. In fact, the story was controversial enough that director Ang Lee decided to produce an adaptation of the story. However as expected, there was subtle changes in the characters and their traits in the transition from a book to the big screen.
While watching movies, have you ever noticed that the villains in almost every single Hollywood film are of Middle Eastern or European descent? In a reoccurring theme of Hollywood, the villains in these films are almost always foreigners or people of color. This is a stereotype. On the other side of the spectrum, we often see that the heroes of these films are most often than not white males. This is another stereotype. Within the last few years, we’ve seen actors such as Will Smith, Morgan Freeman, and Zoe Saldana take the lead roles, so it can’t be said that there are no non-white heroes, but there certainly isn’t many. Hollywood action movies, moreover than other genres, are typically loaded with an abundance of stereotypes. The way these movies are composed and structured can tell us a great deal about the views held within the American psyche and who holds the social power. The harsh reality is that the media ultimately sets the tone for societal standards, moralities, and images of our culture. Many consumers of media have never encountered some of the minorities or people of color shown on screen, so they subsequently depend on the media and wholeheartedly believe that the degrading stereotypes represented on the big screen are based on fact and not fiction. Mary Beltran said it best when she stated in her “Fast and Bilingual: Fast & Furious and the Latinization of Racelessness” article, “ultimately, Fast & Furious mobilizes notions of race in contradictory ways. It reinforces Hollywood traditions of white centrism, reinforcing notions of white male master while also dramatizing the figurative borders crossed daily by culturally competent global youth – both Latino and non-Latino” (77). This paper will specifically look...
For example, Ennis recalls an incident when his father brought him and his brother to see a homosexual
Author Isaac Asimov once wrote,” Never let your sense of morals prevent you from doing what's right.” This saying came to mind while reading both Montana 1948 and Brokeback Mountain. The authors, Larry Watson (Montana 1948) and Annie Proulx (Brokeback Mountain) both write stories with the internal conflict of man vs. himself. In Montana 1948 Larry Watson’s main characters the Hayden family cope with a situation of sexual abuse that forces them to search for their moral base and choose between right and wrong. Each member of the family begins at a different in their moral expedition, but eventually end up with the same internal resolution. Similarly, in Annie Proulx’s Brokeback Mountain, the author sketches a picture of two men who live in a constant struggle with their ideas of morality. Rationalizing and avoidance exist as Jack Twist and Ennis Del Mar’s main internal defense mechanisms. Proulx presents a devastating study of Jack and Ennis’ subsequent struggle with both their families and their work as they try to come to terms with their sexual relationship.
The impression of homoeroticism is built by showing in close-ups naked chests and crotches of the bikers as well as their excessiveness in jewelry and leather involving themes of S&M. This kind of obvious implication of homosexuality which was illegal at that time made this film to stand out as the first, pioneer gay