Stages of Development: a Review of the Movie, the Blind Side

Summary: Michael Oher was a young boy who had to go through rough times as he was growing up. Fatheralong, Oher was taken in by the Tuohy family after they saw Oher didn’t have a home or anyone to go to for help. Once Oher gained the love of the Tuohy family, he became their adopted son, and soon he became the star football player of Briarcrest Christian School (BiJog). He became an interest to many colleges and after high school, he attended University of Mississippi.

As infants grow up to be adults, they succeed and surpass phases in their development that prove mental growth has occurred. These phases, such as learning to be independent and being able to make decisions on their own or being persuaded by others, are well explained within theories created by theorists and psychologists such as Jean Piaget and Erik Erikson. These theories were created to show a unique psychological outlook on ones’ personal developmental growth. One of the most crucial phases is the adolescent stage; this stage sees a growth and development in the biosocial, cognitive, psychosocial and moral aspects of an adolescent’s life. The Blind Side’s Michael Oher is a great example of someone who is experiencing the adolescent stage. Michael Oher is a seventeen-year-old African American who grew up in the housing projects in Memphis, Tennessee and was separated from his drug-addicted mother. As a result, Michael went from foster home to foster home until he was adopted by the Touhy’s. Throughout the movie, Michael demonstrated various cognitive and psychosocial developments. Even through his struggles and experiences, he was able to overcome the obstacles and become successful as a student and as an athlete.

“Based on a book by journalist Michael Lewis chronicling the real life Oher’s experiences, “The Blind Side” manages to inspire despite its broad-strokes approach to characterization.”(VLM, 2010) The Blind Side is based on a true story, the story of Michael Oher, a homeless boy with a traumatic past until one women, Leigh Ann, took him in as her own son and changed his life for the better. Michael is now known as an American football player, that was drafted by the Baltimore Ravens. The film, “The Blind side”, produced by John Lee Hancock, demonstrates that a tragic childhood does not necessarily mean one is destined for defeat, as long as there are those who care enough about you. “The Blind Side” uses rhetorical appeals by illustrating ethos, logos, and pathos to teach the audience moral lessons on learning and coping with traumatic life experiences and defining oneself socially through personal actions.

As an introduction, Michael Oher was a famous Black American football player that came from a poor family that consist of thirteen children, an absentee father and an alcoholic plus drug addict mother in the village of Memphis, Tennessee (Bell, 2009). In Michael’s childhood, he did not enjoy any love or caring from his parent as both of them do not want to be in charge of him and

S.J. then turns into the role of Michael’s coach/mentor. He helps Michael train for football practices by taking him to the practice field and making him run sprints, lift weights, and other workouts. S.J. also films Michael at practices and games, so that Michael can look at them later on and learn how to make himself a better player. After filming Michael at his first game of pushing a player all the way down the field and over the fence, S.J. makes a DVD and sends a copy out so that college coaches can see how good of a player he is. The final role S.J. plays is Michael’s agent. He negotiates with every college coach who tries to recruit Michael. S.J. wants to have access to his brother and be able to reap all the benefits as well. He even asks one coach, “What am I going get from this” (The Blind Side).

The Blind Side depicts the story of Michael Oher, a seventeen year old African American homeless boy from a broken home, taken in by Leigh Anne Tuohy, a wife and mom of two living in a well to-do neighborhood. Repeatedly running away from the group home after group home, he was placed in after he was taken from him drug addicted mother, he happens to run into the exceedingly accepting family. Only after the catholic high school football coach sees his size and agility he is accepted to the privet school, despite a 0.7 GPA and lack of a place to sleep Leigh Anne Touhy, along with only one of his teachers, take a special interest in him. The families give him

As he receives all these gifts, he becomes more comfortable with his friends and surroundings at home and at school as well. He tested in the 98 percentile under “protective instincts”. This can be seen not only on test papers, but also in near-death situations such as stopping the airbag from killing SJ and protecting Mrs. Tuohy from the gangsters in his hometown. Every other subject his teachers have tested him in, he has failed miserably. Therefore, Mrs. Tuohy hired a tutor, Miss Sue, to help Michael get better grades and learn more efficiently in school. Other than schoolwork, Oher has grown into a great football player as well; he has learned to play his position at left tackle, protecting the quarterback’s blind side.

Through the use of low-key lighting, long-shot and dialogue, Hancock made me recognize the significance of friends and family by revealing to me the positive influence one young teenager can have on a range of people - in this case Michael is having a positive influence on Sean, his football team/coach and Leigh Anne. Not only did Michael influence these characters in a positive way, but they influenced him as well and changed him for the better. I'm concerned about the fact that our society is not improving instead it is becoming much worse with all the stereotyping that is rumoured. Avoid stereotyping others because you are not going to receive anything from it apart from putting others down. A million people did not believe in Michael at the start, but I am certain they changed their view on him

Did you know that before he was a professional football player Michael Oher had a very unique, underprivileged early life, and was born into a terrible circumstance? He says, “It's true that we can't help the circumstances we're born into and some of us start out in a much tougher place than other people. But just because we started there doesn't mean we have to end there” (Biography.com). Michael’s mom was a drug addict, and his dad was murdered in prison. He was in a bunch of foster homes, but when he was 16, he was taken in by a family named the Tuohy’s, which changed his entire life. Despite Michael Oher being a foster child, being split from his siblings and mother, and facing many more hardships in his early life, he still

the evolution and growth of Michael Oher as he’s developing into a more refined person. As an African American “freak of nature” living in a primarily white environment, Oher has the odd predicament of adapting to a richer environment that he’s not familiar with. Lewis effectively exhibits the evolution of Oher through his grasp of life, knowledge of football, and development of personality.

One scene that came to mind was when he was practicing on the football field and wasent performing to his best ablity that everyone knew he had. In the Scene his adoptive mom Mrs. Tuohy helps him understand the position he is playing and how he should allude his players to his family, that its like protecting his family when he is playing. This scene display a great verbal communication concept that helps michael achieve what he was suppose to achieve which was perforimg at his highest level of tallent that everyone knew he had.

Michael Oher is an adolescent in the movie The Blind Side. He was a troubled African American boy, one of twelve, born to an addicted mother living in poverty in a housing project in Memphis. One of the challenges faced by Oher is that as a child Michael was exposed to drugs, alcohol, and violence. He eventually became a

“Yesterday is a history, tomorrow is a mystery” ― Bill Keane; American cartoonist .As individuals that live their lives, everyone has or is going to encounter significant experiences that will change their identity forever. In the 2009, American biographical sports drama film The Blind Side directed by John Lee Hancock, the main character Michael Oher, a black teenage boy goes through many ups and downs through his life to finally become a successful NFL football left tackle player. The director of this film chose this story because it exhibits the importance of the experiences we encounter in our lives and how they can be life changing. Momentous experiences and exposure to various situations in life impact an individual to transform because

“The Blind Side” is a movie based on a true-life story of how Michael Oher goes through the difficulties in his life before he becomes one of the best defensive players of the NFL football team. Growing up in a broken family; where he had a drug-addicted mother, the father being in the prison and he, himself was always going in and out of the foster homes, as the audience, we all probably have already expected what will happen to this young man.

This one is a true story of a black boy which is Michael Oher (Quinton Aaron) – a homeless, no family and uneducated whose father was murdered and his mother was a crack addict was then adopted by a rich family which is the Tuohys’’.