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Analysis Of A Better Life

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Summary The movie A Better Life directed by Chris Weitz is the story of a troubled family who is trying to overcome the cultural barriers that have been thrown in their direction. A father named Carlos is trying to earn a living in order to provide his son Luis a better life than he has endured. The family moved from Mexico to California when Luis was a small baby. The audience learns throughout the movie that Luis’ mother left shortly after the move because she found bigger and better things. By doing this she left Carlos to take care of Luis and battle all of the negative influences in the society such as fighting and gangs. Over time, Carlos and his son drift apart and are now at the awkward teen phase. The movie A Better life opens …show more content…

First, the movie demonstrates the different types of social interaction. Social interaction is defined as “what people do when they are in one another’s presence and includes communications at a distance” (Henslin, 2014). When Carlos and Luis interact, it appears that they have a caring and loving tone for one another, especially when Luis is afraid one night when his father does not return until the late hours of the night. In contrast, the director demonstrates a very violent social interaction between Luis and the man who stole his father’s truck (Weitz, 2011). In addition, the term social structure is heavily emphasized throughout the movie. Social structure is defined as “the framework of society that surrounds us; consists of the ways that people and groups are related to one another; this framework gives direction to and sets limits on our behavior”(Henslin, 2014). Throughout the movie, the director constantly oscillates between the life of the mostly white upper class and the mostly Hispanic lower class. Here, the director establishes the limits of luxury that each group can have. The upper class is living luxurious lifestyles, while the lower class is limited to what they can have because of their poor economical status (Weitz, 2011). This image of lower and upper classes also builds on the sociological ideas of social class. A social class is defined as “large numbers of people who have similar amounts of income and

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