The Themes Of Poverty In 1984 Film The Brother From Different Planet

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The themes of poverty, racial inequality, extraterrestrial runaway slave, and Afro-American are central to the narrative of the 1984 film The Brother from Different Planet. Throughout the film, the audience can see the nuances of racial difference and class division. The young protagonist an incognito life in The Brother from Different Planet and the director John Sayles used an extraterrestrial transformer as a metaphor for addressing the issues of pennilessness, injustices between the lower Manhattan workers and Harlem workers, escaped laborer from the different planet, and naturalized citizen. Sayles insinuates the contemporary attitudes in four interrelated dimensions of urban life: the economic, the political, the symbolic, and the demographic. …show more content…

In another scene of poverty, we can see how the residents are dressed in lower Manhattan and Harlem. In the opening scene, the camera pans across the Manhattan skyline, then ended with the Statue of Liberty behind the main character which emphasizes the segregation of the social classes. We can see how the young lead is dressed as a slave while traveling near Ellis Island and searching for food in garbage can to survive. He ended up in Harlem and his African American appearance helped him blend in with the residents of the neighborhood. His clothing material is similar to slaves from the 1800s. Brother is a term used to describe the African American and the slavery thematic is used often. Moreover, we can see how the central character was portrayed as disoriented because he experienced the fear and stimuli from his slave …show more content…

One of bar scenes show how the men in black said they worked for the immigration center and have the right to capture the protagonist but they were lying. The black community was willing to resist the oppression from the Caucasian men in black. When the man in black asked a black character named Fly, if he has a green card, he was stereotyping the black man. Fly responded “green card?...my people built this country…you ever been to South Carolina?...my people built that…all I know is when they got off the boat there was nothing there. Now there are shopping malls…” This quote is one of my favorite because of how Fly’s response had demonstrated his pride concerning his African heritage and roots. He was clear that his people were not to be portrayed as immigrants. They were brought to America as slaves against their will. Although they were at America before most immigrants arrived, they are portrayed as second-class

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