Essay about Sociological Perspectives of the Film 'Erin Brockovich"

American Beauty, a film that was written by Allan Ball and directed by Sam Mendes in 1999 is a unique piece that demonstrates many sociological themes throughout the development of the plot. The characters strive to portray themselves as the All American Family. They live in a nice house, drive nice cars and seem perfectly normal to the general public, but the audience is allowed to view the deep set issues that plague the main characters; Lester Burnham (Kevin Spacey), Carolyn Burnham (Annette Bening), Jane Burnham (Thora Birch), and Jane's best friend Angela Hayes (Mena Suvari). As the plot develops there are many obvious parallels relating the lives of the characters to Merton's Strain

As Marx’s states in his theory, when the working class becomes aware of their exploitation, this will result in a revolt lead by the proletariats. The major theories studied by Marx can be used to analyze the characters and situations presented in the film.

Certain films evoke an emotion in you. Whether it being happy, sad, scared or even angry – movies have a way of teaching us new things about ourselves and even the world. I, myself, often find myself trying to piece together what types of roles individuals play within society, regardless of if it is a film or real life. We all have these roles and functions that determine how we will act, what we will do, how we will react, and who we will interact with. These are all things that we want to know about someone, not only out of curiosity but so we can predict how others that do the same will also react. The movie, Divergent, which is based on the three-novel series by Veronica Roth is one that showed me how society functions from a

Stereotypes in our society are not uncommon. We come across them every day without realizing it. It is in our human nature to create expectations of the people around us, which could be based upon their ethnicity, sexual orientation, gender or other factors. Stereotypes help us categorize a vast group of people that we may not know anything about, to think that they are smaller and less intimidating. I believe that the blame for these cookie-cutter patterns can lead directly back to the media in every sense of the word. Media is all around us, and affects our opinions and ability to think for ourselves. Whether it’s the latest box office hit or the headlining news, we are getting assumptions from every point of view, which makes it

From watching the 2006 film titled “The Departed”, I argue that the social message of the film is not just identity but the changing of identity through socialization. This can best be described through the symbolic interaction theory. Like the main characters of the film, people give meaning to their behavior based on the meaning they impose on objects, events and other behaviors (Anderson & Taylor, 2009). The film’s main protagonist Bill Costigan and main antagonist Colin Sullivan both share similar backgrounds and culture. Costigan “being born into a family with criminal backgrounds”, rebels against the social norm like his father and instead becomes an undercover state police officer. Sullivan on the other hand “with influence from

In the essay “Digibabble, Fairy Dust, and the Human Anthill,” John Wolfe presents a compelling argument and manages to connect each aspect of his essay, with each idea he presents. Wolfe uses evolution as a good example of everything continually changing. It makes one think about what could be changing in our world today. Not only does Wolfe use sound logic to make his argument, but he also invokes emotion to draw the reader in. Overall, Wolfe presents a very valid and supported argument, though there are some doubts with the age gap between the audiences his argument is correct. The main idea of his argument is of convergence and how the world is always changing.

In sociological theory there are many concepts discussed that are utilized in the analyses of society and culture. Some of the main concepts are Postmodernism, Historical Materialism, Structuralism, Interpretive Sociology and Poststructuralism to name a few. These theories are relevant to the research of understanding certain or specific cultural texts. These concepts provide problems and solutions associated with some of the research approaches fore-mentioned. Analysing the main dimensions will be covered by discussing the appropriate concepts separately and by individually contrasting the classical and modern theories with Quentin

Sociological theory creates ways to understand the social world by having different theories to explain understand social life. It aids to make sense of this social world. It draws together a wide range of perspectives to help provide the fullest picture. (Macionis & Plummer p.36) It shows that one theory can explain something that another cannot. My aim is to answer this question with reference to both functionalism and conflict theory. This will be done by comparing and contrasting both theories in relation to their perspectives on both suicide and gender discrimination as social issues relevant to this day and age. Functionalism and conflict perspectives are both macro theories. This means that they focus on the big picture, for

Wealth was not the only source of power used in this movie. There was corporate power, intimidation, desperation, persuasion, compassion and finally the power to do what is morally right. Desperation is the first source of power that comes onto the scene of Erin Brockovich. We see Erin, interviewing for jobs, getting into a beater car and then a terrible car accident thanks to a speeding emergency room doctor in a jaguar. After her lawyer falls thru in court and she walks away from the accident penniless, the desperation to put food on the table for her three kids and pay the rent gets her a job at her lawyers office. By no means did he want to hire her, but she was desperate and stubborn and refused to leave until he agreed to hire her. Once hired, she starts compiling the casework for the Jensen's and thus tumbles onto the mysterious findings of the medical

Astonished by what appeared to be Malthus’s utter disregard for the indignant, Marx called for in an expansion of the English Poor Laws. In his mind, the only way to solve the many problems plaguing the poor, you must distribute the wealth more evenly. The solution that he formulated to fix the poor laws, was to take money from the wealthy aristocrats and bourgeoisie, and bestow it upon Europe’s impoverished masses. According to Marx, this could be achieved by implanting a heavily progressive income tax system, and a plethora of other socialist policies to be implemented, as listed in The Communist Manifesto. His anger builds, as he continues to spout off the many faults in the English poor laws, and how they could be fixed, if the government

The media influences how people experience social life. Media such as newspaper, television and film, are important sources of information, education and entertainment. It can be used to learn more about the world and the people in it. In this regard it can be said that the media represent, interpret and endorse aspects of social experience (O’Shaughnessy and Stadler, 2005). The media are also implicated in social regulation, or in other terms, the government of society. The media are implicated in government and politics in an obvious way because modern systems of democracy are conducted through the media. But the media have a bigger role to play in government by structuring how society is controlled and maintained.

Throughout motion picture history, women have experienced more transition in their roles, as a result of changing societal norms, than any other class. At first, both society and the movie industry preached that women should be dependent on men and remain in the home, in order to guarantee stability in the community and the family. As time passed and attitudes changed, women were beginning to be depicted as strong willed, independent minded characters, who were eager to break away from convention. The genre of the crime film represents such a change in the roles handed to women. Two films that can be contrasted, in order to support this view, are: The Public Enemy by William Wellman (1931) and Bonnie

“ You cannot talk about genre without talking about gender.” Initially, this would appear to be a simplistic statement. On closer analysis, however, one fact becomes evident. It is the representation of gender which informs the genre of the text. Ismay Barwell , in her essay ‘ Feminist perspectives and narrative points of view’ states that “ Every text is gendered since every act of narration…..involves a process of selection….and the nature of that selection implies certain values” ( p.99). She makes the point that “ The desires, attitudes and interests which guide any choices made must be either male or female”( p.98 ). It is within this frame of reference, that the two texts will be analysed.

He recognizes that the Eloi may be more physically appealing but have the largest struggle to survive, evolving from the higher-up, leisured classes. On the other hand, the Morlock are nocturnal, unappealing creatures but they are at the top, as they have found their way of living and surviving. The ecology of the Eloi and Morlock is the novel’s central interest in how the social classes evolve in time, as those on top may eventually find themselves on the bottom. This is one of the theories reflecting Darwin’s concept of natural selection in

Every so often there is a television program that attracts a large audience because it is brilliantly written and entertaining. One of the most recent television shows to do this has been Mad Men. The show revolves around an advertising agency in the 1960’s and it’s key players in the company, more specifically Don Draper. Being set in the 1960’s, it is important to do both a sociological and semiotic analysis of the show. Society and human interactions have changed dramatically over the past fifty years and while it is a scripted television show and not a documentary, the drama prides itself on paying close attention to details and keeping everything true to the time period. It would be interesting and informative to do an analysis