Sociological Theories In Juno

1376 Words3 Pages
bulb-icon

Recommended: Karl marx social class theory

In the movie Juno, the sociological imagination is studied through the lens of three different sociologists: Karl Marx, Émile Durkheim, and Dorothy Smith. Karl Marx focuses on class among the bourgeoisie and proletariat. Marx explains how the capitalist society separates people into these two classes, and the exploitation of the proletariat from the base (economy) of society to the superstructure of society (education, law, etc). Émile Durkheim argues how society is an organic solidarity more individualized, but more dependent on one another without realizing the dependence. Dorothy Smith analyzes text-mediated “knowledge” and how women’s voices and experiences are not validated according to society. Each theory can be applied to Juno through …show more content…

Paralleling the first high school scene, Juno is walking opposite of the crowd and everyone is now staring at her because of her clothes fitting her awkwardly (her stepmother sewed an elastic on her jeans) and her stomach showing her pregnancy. This continues the idea that students will look at Juno as separate from society, because it is not normal for teenagers to be pregnant and showing a more traditional society than an organic society. A traditional society is also reinforced earlier in the movie when the office receptionist, an old woman, stares at Juno’s obvious stomach, which is showing a strong collective conscience among students and staff. Juno is seen more as a modern representation of society, according to Durkheim because she is different than other students and individualized in society, but her overall role is to give her baby to adoptive parents who cannot have their own child seen as organic …show more content…

The separation of class is explicitly seen through Juno, representing the proletariat, and the adoptive parents (Vanessa and Mark) representing the bourgeoisie. The audience first glimpse at the adoptive parents house, is seeing a woman (Vanessa) organizing a nice vase of flowers, adjusting glass picture frames, and a nice white bright house. Then the scene switches to Juno’s dad driving their old beat up van, driving through “Glacial Valley Estate” an evidently rich neighborhood and as they drive the houses bigger in size, compared to Juno’s crowded small house. The visual of rich house versus a poorer house is apparent in this scene can be compared to Marx’s argument who would view the base, the economy, and based on Juno’s father’s the superstructure of his education and job as a handyman in heating/air conditioning can be connected as to why Juno is excluded from society and distinguished as lower class. Compared to Mark’s job as a composer for commercials, and Vanessa having a career (not specified what career in the movie), which shows their wealth and superiority to be able to adopt a

Show More
Related

  • An Analysis of The Book Class Matter: The College Dropout Boom

    1575 Words  | 4 Pages

    But I think this book is more for those people who aren’t that aware of social class, or for the ones who feel that we live in a society that is classless, rather than the actual people who have realized the consequences that class really has on someone’s life. Many people can relate to what stories are told in the book; if not, they know of a person that can relate to these stories. As a person that grew up in the lower class, I can definitely relate to most of the stories told in this book. From experience, there is a big difference in this country between the rich, middle class, and the poorest that we see daily. Even those in the so-called working class have to make continuous sacrifices and live very differently from those positioned firmly in the middle class.

    Read More

  • Racism In The Movie Pleasantville

    2331 Words  | 5 Pages

    According to Newman in Sociology: The Architecture of Everyday Life, a social class “consists of people who occupy similar positions of power, privilege, and prestige” (Newman, 2012). Someone’s position in a social class can affect “virtually every aspect of their lives, including political preferences, sexual behavior, religious affiliation, diet, and life expectancy” (Newman, 2012). The social class that was represented in the film was the middle-class. The show, Pleasantville, portrays the 1950s in which the wife would stay at home cooking and cleaning while the father works. This show holds similar views to the show, Leave it to Beaver. The movie begins

    Read More

  • The Social Imagination of Forrest Gump

    1628 Words  | 4 Pages

    What is sociological imagination? Our textbook describes sociological imagination as the ability to see our private experiences, personal difficulties, and achievements as, in part, a reflection of the structural arrangements of society and the times in which we live. The movie entitled Forrest Gump is a great example of sociological imagination. In this paper, I will cite examples from the movie and tell how they correlate with sociological imagination. Sociological imagination allows us examine the events of our lives and see how they intersect with the wider context of history and tradition of the society in which we live. (Hughes/Kroehler, The Core, p. 7)

    Read More

  • Mean Girls Sociological Analysis

    1213 Words  | 3 Pages

    In our modern world, sociology has a tremendous impact on our culture, mainly through the processes and decisions we make everyday. For movies and television shows especially, sociological references are incorporated throughout the storyline. A movie which includes many sociological examples is Mean Girls. Mean Girls is a movie based on the life of home-schooled teenage girl, Cady Heron, who moves to the United States from Africa and is placed in a public school for the first time. Cady finds herself in many uncomfortable scenarios and has to deal with the trials and tribulations pertaining to everyday high school issues. Her experiences involve interacting with high school cliques, such as ‘the plastics’, weird high school teachers, relationships,

    Read More

  • Social Stratification and The Movie Sweet Home Alabama

    1038 Words  | 3 Pages

    The change in a social class is something that is shown in every day life and the media. It is the American Dream to move upward in society. The movie Sweet Home Alabama is a prime example of social mobility in the main character. The main character Melanie Carmichael left her small town Alabama home and achieved an impressive upward social mobility. She began her life as a daughter of a respectful working class family to become a world famous fashion designer in New York City. At the beginning of the movie, Andrew, the mayor’s son, proposes to Melanie. She says yes, but before she can marry him, she has to clear up a not so final divorce with Jake, her high school sweetheart she left behind. Melanie is now caught between two classes and two cultures, the working class that she grew up in and the upper class she has now placed herself in. As the film continues, her dilemma will require her to acknowledge and reconnect with her mother who lives in a trailer park while still trying to impress h...

    Read More

  • Exploring Juno as a Victim in Sean O’Casey’s, Juno and the Paycock

    913 Words  | 2 Pages

    We see Juno as a victim in ‘Juno and the Paycock’ as she has to contend with extreme poverty and she has the daily struggle of trying to make ends meet. This is shown as the family of four live in a rundown rented tenement house. Jack, her husband, and Joxer are always lying about the house doing nothing but drinking and eating everything. Juno is a victim here as we get the impression that Jack tries his best to avoid his wife and makes her take care of everything in the house. We also learn that Juno is in debt and it is so bad, after finally breaking down she says, “Who has kep’ this house together fur the past ten years – only me.” This highlights how much she is victimised by her family as Jack is not a very good father or husband. He lazily refuses to work due to the ‘awful sore’ pains in his legs, "You'd think he was bringin' twenty poun's a week the way he's going on. He wore out the Health Insurance long ago, he's afther wearin' out the unemployment dole, an', now, he's tryin' to wear me out." This forces Juno to work overtime to earn enough for their whole family to survive. The fact that Mary, her daughter, has gone on strike from her job drives Juno closer to a mental breakdown, as her stress is increased voluntarily as the strike is unnecessary. The fact that Johnny is unable to work adds to her workload.

    Read More

  • Sociological Theories

    945 Words  | 2 Pages

    One of the sociological theories is conflict theory. The conflict theory deals with people's level on wealth, or class. The conflict theory says that social change is beneficial, contrary to focuses on social order. In the story of the woman and her children, the conflict theory plays a big role on the situation. Police of higher class are threatening the homeless woman. The conflict theory is a constant struggle of people of higher class over powering people of lower class, or the weaker. The police are trying to over power the woman by telling her to leave. Even though the woman and her children were doing nothing wrong, the police used their power to tell her to leave. Also the people of the area showed their conflict theory by telling the police officers to come. They must have felt embarrassed to have a woman of such lower class to be around them. They used their power of class to have the woman removed from their community. The woman wants to be there because she has no home and it is a good community to be in, but the people look at it as an embarrassment to them because it makes their area look bad for someone of such lower class to be around them. The conflict theory is unique to all other theories because it separates people into categories determined by their wealth and standards. Their status is the element that categorizes them, weather it is class, race, or gender. The conflict theory do not always use class, race, and gender all at once. In this situation race and gender is not a main issue, although gender could be a reason, but it would fall under the feminist theory. This story is mainly dealing with class. Through all this conflict the woman feels over powered and domina...

    Read More

  • Sociological Perspectives on Alcohol Use, Problems, and Policy

    2339 Words  | 5 Pages

    Murray, Jane Lothian, Linden, Rick and Kendall, Diane. (2011). SOCIOLOGY IN OUR TIMES, Fifth Canadian Edition by Nelson Education Limited, Published by Thomson Wadsworth, USA.

    Read More

  • Marxist Lens The Great Gatsby

    1158 Words  | 3 Pages

    The marxist lens reflects the gap between the rich and the poor during the 1920’s through the glass ceiling effect and female economic status. The glass ceiling is an unseen and unbreakable barrier that keeps one from rising to the upper class regardless of their qualifications or achievements. The different settings in the novel represent this effect: East Egg, the Valley of Ashes, and

    Read More

  • Comparing Peter Berger and C. Wright Mills

    1943 Words  | 4 Pages

    On reading the excerpts by Peter Berger and C. Wright Mills, it is obvious that these two sociologists have very different methods as to how the practice of sociology should be conducted. While these two authors may differ in their various methods, they both have an underlying point that they are trying to make which can be made applicable in any person’s daily life.

    Read More

  • Invitation to Sociology by Peter Berger

    922 Words  | 2 Pages

    This was an intriguing discussion of the sociological perspective because it discussed how ordinary people might go about debunking the truths of their societies. Examples of researching newspapers, talking to authorities, and questioning preset customs and definitions, much in the way we can redefine the concept of "love", makes sense when superimposed upon a living society like ours. Berger identified the methodological nature of the sociological perspective in that it is not a distinct way of seeing others, but a means to examine others through a multifaceted scope.

    Read More

  • The Importance Of Social Class In The Film

    1233 Words  | 3 Pages

    Social class, as defined by the film, is something that affects who you are as a person. In the film, the people saw class as the defining factor of a person. They saw class as a barrier between people. If one person is in a different class than another person, then obviously, they are not supposed to associate. They allowed their social class to dictate their action each day. It was amazing to me just how much the people in the film allowed their class to truly define them and really serve as a boundary in their life. The people in the film lived their daily life with their social class as the most influential factor. Their worth and value as individuals was not determined by anything else except the amount of money they had. It was really interesting to see how the amount of money a person had somehow equated with their worth in society. The same is true within our society today, but in the film, this aspect was especially evident. The film really shed a light on just how impactful social class is and just how much we allow it to

    Read More

  • Comparing and Contrasting Sociological Theorists Max Weber, Emile Durkheim and Karl Marx

    1584 Words  | 4 Pages

    Emile Durkheim, Karl Marx, and Max Weber are all important characters to be studied in the field of Sociology. Each one of these Sociological theorists, help in the separation of Sociology into its own field of study. The works of these three theorists is very complex and can be considered hard to understand but their intentions were not. They have their similarities along with just as many of their differences.

    Read More

  • The Sociological Contribution of Karl Marx to an Understanding of Contemporary Society

    909 Words  | 2 Pages

    The Sociological Contribution of Karl Marx to an Understanding of Contemporary Society. This essay will discuss how the Karl Marx contributed his knowledge to the understanding of contemporary society. Karl Marx is often referred to. as the ‘intellectual father of modern day Marxist economics’.

    Read More

  • Class Distinction in Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice

    996 Words  | 2 Pages

    Class distinction is one of Jane Austen’s themes in the novel, and the differentiation related to it is evidently depicted. Reading the novel from the first chapter, I realize that the author clearly illustrates that class is what matters most in many of the incidences displayed by the characters. Unless an individual is of a given class, the idea that he or she has money is not valued, since only birth in a certain background is what is of value. When a person openly values money over class, such a person is frowned upon. In general terms, the Novel shows a social world extremely stratified and full of pretension and class struggle.

    Read More

More about Sociological Theories In Juno

Open Document