Gran Torino Analysis

I now understand the sociological components that are at work in his decision making. Also, I now see how these sociological components influence and interact with each other. For example, Walt’s social stratification, influences his choice towards deviant behavior. His social networks aided his deviant behavior, but he also faced stratifications for his actions. I learned that there are a lot of factors that influenced what he did, and I see that its deeper than just the television show, these elements are embedded in our society and the same factors can influence our

As a consequence, he avoided the Hmong family. He even expressed distaste for them to their face, not wanting to learn about them or their culture. After much conflict, Walt was presented with the opportunity to help his neighbors and to open his mind to adapting to the inevitable cultural diversity in his town.

For example, this type of issue would create a myriad of conflicts between Mama and Walter. Walter, a 35 year old living in his mother’s apartment, along with his wife, Ruth, son Travis and sister Beneatha. Mama still considers herself the head of the family, whereas they live under her roof. As head of the household Mama feels it is her duty and responsibility to make all the decisions for the family. Even when the family receives $10,000 in life insurance for her late husband's death, she decides how she will spend the money. In this instance, the conflicts between Walter and Mama begin.

driven by a force to prove himself but also to get revenge on his father, Walt, whose past continually

There is a transformation in Walt’s belief. Besides the experiences in Korean War, another reason that leads to his negative attitude toward Hmong people is the language barrier and differences in culture. He had opportunities to understand more about the tradition of the Hmong people when Sue invited him to the party at her house. Sue also explained the negative reactions of the Hmong people with Walt. As Sue said, “Hmong people consider looking someone in the eye to be very rude, and they tend to grin or smile when they are yelled at, this is because they are insecure, not because they are disrespecting the admonisher.” And Walt appeared to accept Sue’s explanation. As he gets closer to the Lor family, his use of racial slurs also changed from the time, the way he used it could not be seen as an insult

The conclusion of the film was extremely dramatic and effective at reiterating the neighborhood’s increased confidence over the gang activity.  Walt began the confidence building by standing against the gang publicly.  This brought the neighborhood to think of him as a hero and shower him with gifts of praise.  It was befitting that he would martyr himself in the end.  Lying on the ground dead like Jesus nailed to the cross.  His essential “suicide by gang” was not the only possible solution to the problem.  Though conflict resolution through communication with gang members would more than likely fail, neighborhoods in similar situations have stood firm as a community against gang violence and intimidation.  Using the latest technology, they have driven gang elements away.  By joining neighborhood watch and documenting illegal behaviors from gang members, neighborhoods have made themselves less attractive for gangs to reside.  “The gang's power increases through their use of fear and violence to intimidate rivals and citizens alike. This tactic can be countered by citizen action groups such as Neighborhood Watch. A neighborhood that is united in the goal to stop gang crime and violence can be an effective force in curbing gangs”.  (Orange County Sheriff Office, 1992, p.1).

Due to his patriotism that he acquired during his service in the army, he often used racial slurs and bad tempered against his Korean neighbors. After interacting more with his Korean neighbours, he quickly learned they were called Hmong, “Koreans that fought alongside with the United States” stated by Sue — a neighbour of Walt’s. Thus knowing his neighbors ethnicity battled on his side of the war, he slowly started to take down his “walls” and allowed himself to be more approachable. Subsequent to his new acceptance of his neighbours, Walt had more interactions that led to him attending barbecues and events and forming friendships with Sue and Thao. Walt was then able to talk about the sins he has committed and confess his guilt he has had from the Korean war to Father Janovich — a priest that tried to bring Walt to confession due to promising Walt’s

Throughout the film however, we see Walt grow more compassionate towards Tao, even after he tried to steal his car. Walt shows care and respect towards not only Tao, but also his sister, Sue. Walt would not have even considered going into his neighbor's household but later as his character grows, he becomes more mature and respects all of Sue’s family at the birthday party. At the end of the film, we see how Walt has grown more compassionate towards Tao especially and how their relationship had grown along with the overall character of

After losing his wife, Walt Kowalski was left with spoiled children and grandchildren, cigarettes, Pabst Blue Ribbon and his 1972 Gran Torino. Walt was retired from the military after serving in the Korean war. In the beginning of the movie Walt appears to be disgruntled, racist and tough-minded. He was not ecstatic that a Hmong family was moving into his deceased neighbors house. Meanwhile, the Hmong family next door faces some challenges of their own. Brother and sister, Thao and Sue are settling into their new lives in America, when their cousin, gang member “Spider”, starts harassing Thao. Spider pushes Thao to initiate into his gang by stealing Walt

Many of us individuals face conflicts almost everyday in our lives. People of all culture have challenging in their lives that they come across a certain incident and get confused in what decision to be made. These conflicts could be a conflict between oneself and another person, an inner-conflict, a conflict between oneself and nature, one and society, or oneself and God. There are positive and negative intercultural conflicts that occurs every day. An example of a positive conflict could be two different cultures compliment one another on the way they dress or how good their food is in the way they prepare it in their culture, or just communicating and respecting one another with the issue that needs to be addressed openly. A negative conflict is when someone has a lack of communication and unwilling to compromise. According to lecture 6, “intercultural conflict occurs when differences in goals, expectations, and values stem from broader cultural differences” (COM-263 Lecture 6, 2017). This paper will describe an incident that happened in France with a Muslim women on how the conflict arose, the best way to handle the conflict, and one recommendation that comes from a Christian Worldview.

Q. What kind of man is Walt Kowalski? Examine character development throughout the film Gran Torino?

Cultural conflict and popular culture are two experiences in life that assist in defining intercultural communication and how its influence affects our daily intercommunication. Cultural conflict is inevitable as we live out our daily lives in the identities we have selected for ourselves, the identities relating to our ethnicity and in those identities others have selected for us. These identities are bound to conflict with another individual’s identities which is why there is a need for understanding what intercultural communication is and how it can be enhanced becomes vital to peaceful living around the world.

In Intercultural Communication: A Discourse Approach, Scollon, Scollon, and Jones presents and develops the notion of ‘discourse systems’ as a way to get beyond the culture and the idea that culture is a person’s background. Rather than depending on ‘culture’ it is advised that it is the different discourse systems into which we have been socialised into should be a guidance to our interpersonal communication ‘Each definition of culture can lead us down a different pathway, and all of these pathways are potentially fruitful’ (Scollon, Scollon, Jones 2011).

As a student studying Intercultural Communications, films can be a great resource. Often showing interaction between people from different cultures, the advantage of films is that they can highlight, focus, entertain and inspire us in ways that help us become more thoughtful about the people and cultures that we encounter. (Quast, B.) This is a film analysis of the cultural clashes and communication challenges that exists due to cultural differences between the mothers and their daughters.

This essay will outline how in today’s society, culture influences our personal identity, our actions, and media. Culture is a primary factor in our lives but it is also how we respond to the culture and identity we are exposed too.