My four films are 1. Maid in Manhattan (2008) 2. Mulan (1998)3. The Great Debaters (2007) 4.To kill a Mocking Bird (1962). In the U.S. history,
Film, as a product of patriarchal ideology, reflects a stereotype of women’s unfairness in reflecting women’s lives. Therefore, in the face of the oppression of male hegemonies film work, feminist films are intended to interpret women’s issue from a feminist point of view to explore women’s activities and women’s theme. However, there are stereotypes of female characters in traditional films. The image of women in traditional films often appears to be over-reliance on male and the role of women is limited to the unselfish dedication of the wife and the perfect mother. Moreover, women’s body shape is
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at that time, especially in the South, still remains the concept of racial discrimination. Because of the lessons of the Civil War, most Americans have rejected discrimination against blacks. However, some stubborn Americans insist that blacks are “negro” and refuse to abandon their inherent beliefs. The film, “To Kill a Mocking Bird” , lit up the hope in confusion and used race words to expose the reality. One of the most profound scenes is Atticus told the children that, he shot a mockingbird, but he felt guilty because he thought the bird did not nothing wrong (Universal Movies). So the mockingbird became a symbol of his own responsibility for life and also a symbol of freedom and equality. In addition, the book, “Black, White, and in Color: Television and Black Civil Rights”, also examines the representation of blackness on television at the height of the southern civil rights movement (Torres). Anyway, the film successfully promoted the civil rights movement of the 1960s and it helped the South and the whole country to accelerate the civil rights movement. In the 1950s, the black and the white need to be segregated in the bus, children also need to separate in school (Racial Segregation). Therefore, the blacks launched a series of civil rights movement under the leadership of Martin Luther King. Not only this, this film educates the generations of Americans to change their past stereotypes about the blacks and make them understand the dangers of racism, it also continues to develop the civil rights movements. For hundreds of years, the sufferings of the blacks are a disgraceful chapter in American history. Even some stubborn racists do not recognize it, but it is a fact. At the same time, American filmmakers dare to face up to the history and to falsify the truth, they committed to the completion of a racial equality in the
The characters of Harper Lee’s To Kill a Mockingbird are all different in their own way. Sometimes they can seem like the most infuriating people in the world, but then again they can be helpful, loving, and caring. The citizens of Maycomb County are stereotyped a lot throughout the book. They are labeled as many different things, but some of the stereotypes made aren’t entirely correct. A lot of people in To Kill a Mockingbird stereotype others by the way they look or talk based on what society considers normal. Two of the main characters in the book are stereotyped; Scout and Atticus Finch.
There 's a point in everyone 's life when people are forced to wear a mask to hide their true selves. People want to fit into what they think is normal. Most of the time, the individual behind the mask is very different from what they are being perceived as. They can be evil and wicked, or they can be smart, loving, and caring. Characters in the novel, To Kill A Mockingbird written by Harper Lee live through the Great Depression and Segregation. They all have qualities that make them unique in their own ways. In the town of Maycomb, Alabama, citizens are put under stereotypes all throughout the novel. Characters get assigned labels that aren 't entirely correct. Dolphus Raymond, Mayella Ewell, and Boo Radley are all products of what it looks
Harper Lee is an author that most people know of due to her writing controversial novels and her novels also being classified as classics. It seems like most middle school and high school book lists consist of Lee’s most famous novel, To Kill a Mockingbird, which is about a single father with two children, the Finches, who fights for the rights and lives of black Americans. When the novel was published, it was considered very controversial because it dealt with white Americans fighting for black Americans, which was not the norm at the time the book was published in 1960. Her novel To Kill a Mockingbird was not her only controversial novel though; she released a second novel titled Go Set a Watchman in 2015 which is also about the Finches, just when the children are adults, and with a twist that the beloved audience of Lee’s first novel do not approve of ever so slightly. Although the books are very different with the aging of characters and opposing views from the characters in the first novel, there is one theme that is very prominent in both novels. The common theme between the novels is gender equality. Harper Lee uses gender inequality in both novels to show her readers
Even though extraordinary changes have been made in the past to achieve racial equality, America is still racist, especially in schools. In the novel, “To Kill a Mockingbird,” written by Harper Lee, Atticus Finch is criticized for defending a black man accused of raping a white woman. During the 1930s, the time this novel took place, America was a very segregated country. At the time when Harper Lee wrote "To Kill a Mockingbird," America was fighting a civil rights movement. The events of racism in “To Kill a Mockingbird” reflect the time period.
How would you feel if you were a Woman that lived in the HARSH 1930’s? Women back then worked for ages and didn’t even get payed a dollar. A women’s life was very hard and some people wanted it to change. Women in the Novel “to kill a Mockingbird” were treated like this every day. Women were expected to come home and do everything like cleaning and making dinner and if they had children take care of them after they finished working. They had to make sure that dinner was made for the whole family. They had to make sure that the house was clean. Women had many responsibilities at home and when they were working. Women were expected to be a housewife and after work. Women believed they were betting treated unfairly in many different ways from how much they get payed to what they can do in the “Real
To Kill a Mockingbird’s relevancy to today’s society In To Kill a Mockingbird, author Harper Lee uses characters to explore the different stereotypes in the Southern United States of the 1930s. Through the eyes of Scout Finch you learn how these stereotypes are so absurd and fabricated they really are. The novel also portrays numerous examples of racism, sexism, in creative ways. The stereotypes and themes portrayed in this novel are exactly what makes it so relevant to today’s society. An important reason why To Kill a Mockingbird is relevant today is the ever-growing resurgence of racism throughout the country.
“They’d been sewed up. Not like a lady sewed ’em, like somethin’ I’d try to do. All crooked” (Lee 58). The book To Kill a Mockingbird, written by Harper Lee has many different stereotypes that play into it. A stereotype, by Merriam-Webster definition is “an often unfair and untrue belief that many people have about all people or things with a particular characteristic.” To Kill a Mockingbird is about three children named Scout, Jem, and Dill and is set during the Great Depression. Theses children are best friends and throughout the book they try to see a mysterious character named Boo Radley. He has many mysteries about himself that are constantly told by Maycomb’s adults. Atticus Finch, Scout and Jem’s daughter, has to defend a black man
This quote is significant because it shows the gender roles that is used in the Finches home. After Aunt Alexandra came over to visit for a few weeks/months, many gender roles were changed. Aunt Alexandra felt like the head of the house, because she is trying to put the pride of the family back in her brother’s house. She was so consisted of changing the roles in the house. She wanted Scout to become the girl that every female should be, and wanted the family pride to once come alive in Maycomb, after Atticus made the decision of helping a black man. In her time period, female were discriminated and man were superior to women. Women were well educated back during the Great Depression, but wasn’t that superior to the men because they didn’t had their rights back there.
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.
The book to ‘To kill a mocking-bird’ was written in the 1930’s and explores prejudice against black people. The book is portrayed through the eyes of two innocent children and shows the “irrationality of adult attitudes to race and class in the Deep South [of America] in the thirties. The conscience of a town steeped in prejudice, violence and hypocrisy is pricked by the stamina of one mans struggle for justice.”
In most countries, women only earn between 60 and 75% of men’s wages, for the same work. Sexism is still a problem in today’s society, but it has improved since Scout’s generation in “To Kill a Mockingbird.” Scout believes from an early age that girls aren’t good, and that she can avoid the judgement that comes with being a girl by not acting like one. Being a girl for Scout is less a matter of what she's born with and more a matter of what she does. Scout’s elders influence her perception of womanhood by putting preconceived sexist views in her head. In “To Kill a Mockingbird” Harper Lee shows the reader how all women are expected to act lady like and be proper through the actions of Mrs. Dubose, Jem, and Atticus.
Some people might say that these movies provide entertainment and transport families into the lives of princes and princesses. Many critics have said that the films have amazing soundtracks and have detailed and interesting plots. Still, however entertaining the films may be, the way women are viewed and treated outweigh any enjoyment that a viewer could have. The subliminal lessons young women learn from these films have lifelong repercussions and negatively affect the female
It is the purpose of this essay therefore to demonstrate that there is a profound influence in the use of sound and language in relation to the discrimination of women. By showing that the manipulation of sound and language in regards to the films’ narrative structure is responsible for this apparent persecution, a clearer understanding should be gained as to why the figure of the female is observed in this form.
Also, the film revealed women empowerment and how superior they can be compared to men. While demonstrating sexual objectification, empowerment, there was also sexual exploitation of the women, shown through the film. Throughout this essay, gender based issues that were associated with the film character will be demonstrated while connecting to the real world and popular culture.
Feminism is a movement that supports women equality within society. In relation to film, feminism is what pushes the equal representation of females in mainstream films. Laura Mulvey is a feminist theorist that is famous for touching on this particular issue of how men and women are represented in movies. Through her studies, she discovered that many films were portraying men and women very differently from reality. She came up with a theory that best described why there is such as huge misrepresentation of the social status quos of male and female characters. She believed that mainstream film is used to maintain the status quo and prevent the realization of gender equality. This is why films are continuously following the old tradition that males are dominant and females are submissive. This is the ideology that is always present when we watch a movie. This is evident in the films from the past but also currently. It is as if the film industry is still catering to the male viewers of each generation in the same way. Laura Mulvey points out that women are constantly being seen as sexual objects, whether it is the outfits they wear or do not wear or the way they behave, or secondary characters with no symbolic cause. She states that, “in traditional exhibitionist role women are simultaneously looked at and displayed, with their appearance coded for strong visual and erotic impact so that they can be said to connote it-be-looked-at-ness.”(Mulvey pg. 715). Thus, women are nevertheless displayed as nothing more than passive objects for the viewing pleasure of the audience. Mulvey also points out through her research that in every mainstream movie, there is ...