Blumer's Three Foundational Principles Of Symbolic Interactionism

This film goes in different directions from the setting to iconography. This is an interesting film that is intense and makes the viewer want to know what is going to happen

In the United States and in several other countries around the world, many people recognize Wal-Mart for being a great place to shop for any and every household item on the market. However, sociologist find Wal-Mart to be a bit more than just a one-stop shop for everyday items. Sociologist use different perspectives to view society and its functions to evaluate the “why’s” and “what’s” within a society. The two main perspectives or theories used by sociologists to analyze society are macrosociology and microsociology, but more specifically: Functionalism, Conflict Theory, and Symbolic Interactionism.

Internationally the act of deviance is being practiced daily. Sometimes is knowingly and unknowingly, the culture, or the society norms. Right or wrong is a prospective, deviance basically a judgmental call. “It is important to remember that when sociologists use the term deviant they are making a social judgment, never a moral one” (Ferris, Stein page 156.) There are three way that you can view deviance from a sociologist’s standpoint, which are, Functionalism, conflict theory, and symbolic interactionism. All three allow us to take an outlook on how to view the act of deviance.

In The Blind Side, Michael was raised in the projects of Memphis, Tennessee. One evening after a basketball game Leigh Anne Touhy notices Michael walking down the road, shivering in the cold. After having her husband stop the car to speak to him, she had learned Michael had planned to sleep at the school gym after everyone else had left. Leigh Anne offered Michael a warm place to sleep at her and her family’s home. This moment between these two was Michael’s first real feeling of family. This sparked the relationship that would give him a reason to keep living and gave him something to live for. Leigh Anne continued to include Michael in family gatherings which only enhanced the motherly feeling Michael got from her.

Even in the movies, sociology can be found. Most people think sociology is limited to just worldly problems, but it can be it can be a very broad term. Symbolic Interaction is a communication theory that states society and individuals are created based upon the interactions between each other. One Disney movie that stands out is Aladdin. I feel this movie does a great job of providing examples of symbolic interactionism. My plan is to discuss symbolic interaction and provide examples of the theory.

4. What was the film’s purpose or thesis?  Was it clear or did you have to infer it?

Dorothy Strong wind is a farm girl who's lives in Kansas with her Uncle Henry and Aunt Em, her relatives, her house was swept up in a doorway type of thing and was sent flying through the air. The next day, when the house hits the ground, she went out of her house. She sees a huge crowd of people and, on sight, says she doesnt like this land and that it isn't for her. She just wants to go home but she's in Oz now, no one there has ever even heard of Kansas. A lot of information is is being told to her and its bad. She learned that her house landed on top of someone called the Evil Witch of the East. Which is friends with the Good Witch of the North, she said it wasnt that really big of a deal since the witch was so evil. She told them good tips to survive, Dorothy should take the silver shoes that belonged to the dead witch. They have magical connection in some way no one really knows how, and that Dorothy should go see the Wizard of Oz, who might be able to help her .

The Symbolic Interaction theory refers to ways in which a family or society attaches meaning to verbal communication, non-verbal communication, people, and objects. We are taught from a young age communication using verbal language and accepted ways to express our needs. The theory represents perception of objects or actions (Macionis, 2007, p.17).

The major theme of the film is that there are severe limitations in life (death and loss are the two most prevalent), but that art forms (such as the printed word, films, and plays) have the power to reshape reality and

Exit Through the Gift Shop: A Symbolic Interactionism Analysis For this paper I decided to analyze the film Exit Through the Gift Shop. While there is a lot of skepticism when it comes down to the validity of some parts of Exit Through the Gift Shop, this will not be dealt with during my analysis. The theory that was chosen when having to analyze Exit Through the Gift Shop was symbolic interactionism. Symbolic interactionism goes along very well when having to make ties with Exit Through the Gift Shop in many ways that will be brought to light in the next few pages.

To be completely honest I had a really hard time understanding the full meaning of the film. Once we stated talking as a class I started putting the pieces together and understanding why different scenes were the way they were. During the class discussion someone mentioned that the

The symbolic interactionism theory is the view of social behavior of individual that emphasizes linguistic and the gestural communication in a society and its subjective understanding of different matters, but especially the role of language in the formation of the child as a social being and social behavior in the society.

1. What is the true subject or the theme of the film, and What kind of statement, if any, does the film make about the subject? Which elements and which themes contributed most to addressing the theme of the film?

George Herbert Mead studied and used an interactionist approach for many years. He was a philosophy professor at the university of Chicago. Mead thought that the true test to any theory is whether or not it is useful in solving complex social problems (EM Griffin, p.83). So Mead decided to study the procedures of communicating, specifically with symbols, the theory was titled Symbolic Interactionism.

Symbolic interaction offers a dramaturgical perspective of how people identify and create their social self through social interaction. Many social theorist studies social interaction/ self as a function to our society. In addition, microsociology develop the idea of applying social interaction on a smaller sample size within the society. Therefore, there were an increase in the study of human interaction and the self. Mead develop his idea through symbolic interaction and social psychology of the human mind. Simmel develop his idea through the perspective of symbolic interaction of urban sociology. Both sociologist focus on the inter social aspect of the human life.