Driving Miss Daisy

“Small town big heart,” they say locked away behind their cold immaculate castle gates that rest on the remains of the previous farmland and plains. The collective heart beats but only at a convenient time suiting parties involved. “A place where everyone matters,” they utter as their motto in indistinguishable monotone voices. The people are too wrapped up in their everyday lives to ever be concerned about their neighbor, they look through life with gilded glasses. It’s as if a fog had descended slowly creeping into their view distorting what they once held most dear.

The story, Teenage Wasteland by Anne Tyler, has limited characters and focuses on less. While reading Teenage Wasteland the character Daisy played a secondary character role. This character was portrayed as a protagonist by experiencing her own inner and external conflicts. Daisy who is the role of Danny’s mother can be seen as a dynamic throughout the story. Anne Tyler does a excellent way of making the readers view Daisy’s static thoughts and actions in direct and indirect manner.

Mrs. Betty Thomas is a seventy-three-year-old African American female who was born on April 17, 1942, in San Bernardino, CA. She was born into a family of nine children, six girls and three boys. I conducted the interview in the Thomas family home where Mrs. Thomas and her immediate family have resided in for fifty-five years. Her husband of over 50 years is deceased, and she misses him dearly. Mrs. Thomas is a tiny frame and short woman who stands about 5 feet, 105 pounds or less. She stands with no slump in here posture.  Her appearance was very comfortable dressed attire, black socks and not shoes.  Her home is well kept, tidy and scented with the smell of beef stew coming from a slow cooker on the kitchen counter. The home is in the midst of a working middle-class neighborhood; furnished with modern casual furniture, along with photographs of close family members spread throughout the living room and hallway area.

Her old town valued money and status. This town values relationships and hard work. The influence of this community is positive on her. They let her live her life with Tea Cake instead of trying to turn their relationship into a town relationship. Their relationship is strengthened because of the

The film Sunset Boulevard (1950), directed by Billy Wilder, Norma Desmond exemplified a Borderline Personality Disorder (BPD) by being demanding, intense and unstable. These behaviors that are consistent with the elements of abnormality include suffering, social discomfort, dangerousness, and irrationality and unpredictability. The first element that is consistent with Norma Desmond’s character is suffering. Desmond being one of the greatest movie stars in history suffers as she experiences the fall from stardom. She also suffers from identity disturbance as she reaches an unstable self-image notion. In one scene when Desmond recognizes for a moment about her age, she claims, “Look at me. Look at my hands, look at my face, look under my

For most of my life I lived in a place that you have probably never heard of. Chinook, Montana is a town of around 900 residents that stands in the shadow of a long-abandoned sugar beet factory, surrounded by fields of cattle and wheat. For the Billions of people who will never step foot in this place, it is simply another desolate town like the many others that faintly dot the map in the middle of nowhere. Yet for me, it was and always will be my hometown. For most people, living in a place this small and remote can hold them back, the poor level of educational resources and overall economic opportunity do not necessarily create a breeding ground for highly successful individuals. In my case however, being raised in Chinook pushed me to do more and be bigger than my simple roots. It has driven me to give the town someone to be proud of and to prove to the world that big people do come from the small places of this country and not just the sprawling metropolises. A place that has been a hindrance to most was for me the crucible that galvanized my character, my perspective, and my passion; all of which have lead me to writing this paper today.

The public images of the elderly uncles are both positive and negative. There are negative terms used toward them like “geezer” and “grandpa”. Our society, at times, looks down on the elderly and this attitude is being feed through the negative attitudes being portrayed in the movie. However, the positives outweigh the negatives. The spirit, strength and adventure of the uncles certainly shines through. The uncles are very adventures and they show that no matter what your age you can still have fun and enjoy life. More importantly, the knowledge and life experiences of the elderly should be learned from and passed onto the next generation.

Daisy had an accident, she was immediately viewed as too old to drive by her son. That accident was a life changing event for Mrs. Daisy. She seemed to be a determined, strong, stern, and independent woman. When Boolie informed his mother that she can no longer drive and that she would be chauffeured places, she declined and insisted that she would find a way to get to her destinations. It seemed that she did not want any outside help from others that affected her directly. She simply did not want to change the way she did things or her routines, which to her means losing quite a bit of her independence. This is when another life changing event happened to Mrs. Daisy. Boolie hired an African American gentleman by the name of Hoke to chauffeur his mother around. She immediately gave him the cold shoulder and informed him that she did not need his services. She even accused Hoke of stealing a can of salmon from her pantry. Indeed, he did take the can of salmon and openly admitted that the accusations were true, also with a can of salmon in hand to replace the one he had eaten. I believe this was another turning point for Mrs. Daisy. Even though she turned her nose up at Hoke, he was persistent, humble and honest, something she just could not shake easily. His patience instilled trust within Mrs. Daisy opposed to her son who just was too busy to spend quality time with his

One of my favorite parts of this film was when the father was comforting the son over the loss of Old Yeller. While providing words of wisdom, the father emphasizes that this is something that the son must come to terms with and acknowledges that it will be a difficult process. Also, the dad struggles to find an appropriate way to explain how to move on. This provides a genuine example of how grieving occurs that is not always present in cinema. Old Yeller can be compared to The

The movie “Crash” is a very thought provoking movie about the underlying racial tensions in our society. It represented black, Hispanic, and Middle Eastern ethnicities and the stereotypes associated with each. The character I will be analyzing is Officer Ryan who is played by Matt Dillon. Ryan is a middle-aged police officer in Las Angeles, California who has been with the force for 17 years. He appears to be extremely racist in his multiple encounters with African Americans.

Unable to cope with the inequalities of gender in her life, Daisy numbs herself with false excuses and eventually accepts her lack of control. Daisy seems to be an

Drive is a neo-noir crime thriller centered around an unnamed Hollywood driver who works as a getaway driver, but falls in love with a girl named Irene. After the unnamed driver and Irene started to have feelings for each other, Irene’s husband, Standard, was released from prison. Eventually, the unnamed driver finds a beaten-up Standard in a parking deck and discovers Standard owes protection money from prison. After the people behind the beating threatened Irene and her son, Benicio, the unnamed driver chooses to perform a getaway job for them to clear the debt but it all goes downhill from there. Drive is distinctly different compared to other neo-noir crime thrillers because of its unique method of storytelling and atmosphere.

She did not like the idea because she sees driving as fun, freedom, and being independent. Her son insists, he hire her a driver named Mr. Hoke. At first, Miss. Daisy refuse the driver to take her anywhere but because Mr. Hoke was patience, he convince her to let him driver her, she later accept to give it a try. The driver Mr. Hoke serve Miss. Daisy for twenty years and they get to understand and

On the other hand, Daisy is running after happiness, but she finds out that she got married to the wrong man and this changes her perspective of life. Her character reunifies both the” richer” and the

In the novel Driving Miss Daisy, by Alfred Uhry, Daisy Werthan is forced to deal with a sudden change to her normal lifestyle, which is a significant struggle for her considering she is a very stubborn traditional woman. After wrecking her car, Miss Daisy is forced to have her own personal driver who is hired by her son, Boolie. Throughout the novel, Miss Daisy and her driver, Hoke Colburn, develop a strong friendship. Throughout the novel, Daisy Werthan experiences an evolution of her character. She changes in many ways throughout the novel and reveals herself as a kind woman, especially towards Hoke, who was originally a threat to her stable and independent life. Miss Daisy eventually begins to accept help from Hoke throughout the novel, however she still remains independent and does not accept assistance graciously. Although Miss Daisy undergoes change in the novel she remains the same in some aspects of her personality and character. Miss Daisy remains set in her ways and doesn’t want her life to change, she is a bossy individual and she remains an independent woman who will rarely accept help from anyone except Hoke.