Stereotypes In The Movie Exodus

Have you ever wondered what Muslims and Jewish people have in common? In a short clip showing a Muslim and Jewish girl, Amina Iro and Hannah Halpern, spoke out against stereotypes they face and told the world how they shouldn’t be judged for who they are. This video had a positive impact on me because of the girls’ confidence, the examples and problems they face as being Muslim or Jewish, and the message the girls were saying.

The movie Glory can be described as a classic “underdog story.” It is a true story about a group of African American soldiers known as the 54th Massachusetts Regiment who faced constant prejudice and resentment by white soldiers and officers throughout the Union. However, under the leadership of Colonel Robert Shaw, they were able to prove themselves as a formidable fighting force at the battle of Fort Wagner. Although the 54th Regiment suffered heavy casualties they showed the Union that African American soldiers could be just as effective as white soldiers. While the movie Glory did paint an accurate picture of the Civil War, the 54th Regiment, and the Battle of Fort Wagner, it did have its fair share of stereotypes.

The film is based on the Biblical book of Exodus, though based on Exodus the film has many flaws. Some of which are the Condition of the Nile, Giza and Rameses, also the burning bush. In the Film Prince of Egypt when a young, dashing Moses is placed into the reeds and water everything goes wrong. There are crocodiles, hippos & boats very nearly hitting him, this scene greatly differs to the Bible as shows that it was hectic. Though in the bible young Moses was put in the reeds and God carried him calmly across the water. Another setting change was the location of the Hebrew camps. In the story of Exodus the camps were in Rameses accordingly, unlike the animation where it was in Giza with the pyramids & the sphinx. The last setting change is the Burning bush; in the Moses narrative the burning bush is calm, quiet & soft. Whereas in the film the burning bush is set in a cold, hard, dark, scary cave with God's voice booming and quieting to creating

Stereotype; a widely held but fixed and oversimplified image or idea of a particular type of person or thing. In the realistic fiction novel, The Outsiders, by S.E. Hinton, and in the short story, “Geeks Bearing Gifts”, written by Ron Koertge, stereotypes are defied by ordinary people. In The Outsiders, Johnny Cade and Darry Curtis face many struggles throughout their lives. Their town in separated into two: the rich and dangerous Socs, and the quiet, tough Greasers. For them, living dangerously is a reality. As a result of their lifestyle, Johnny has become fearful and Darry is considered the toughest man in the gang. In “Geeks Bearing Gifts” aspiring journalist, Renee, interviews her fellow classmates who are classified as “outcasts.” After meeting several students, she realizes her assumptions were incorrect about them. After reading both of these stories, the reader learns that our thoughts about others often revolve around stereotypes and assumptions, but most of these ideas that we have about other people are proven wrong.

could be chalked up to a lack of Arab actors or inherent racism in Hollywood at the time,

Jumping into a burning building is one of the things that the boys from the “Greaser Gang” would do for each other. When the main character, Ponyboy, jumps into a burning church to save children from the flames, his two gang members and family, Johnny and Dally, jump in after him to help get the children out and ensure that he can get out. The Outsiders by S.E. Hinton shows two main themes. These themes show many examples of stereotyping could lead to misjudgment of people and to be loyal to the people around you, especially the ones close to you.

Through the use of images, films, and other media outlets harmful stereotypes are often times created. One of the many challenges that American cinema endures is the inability to correctly portray characters of color. Film directors have formed a habit of creating and defining characters in a way that the audiences can easily identify with, thus leading to the reproduction of racial stereotyping. Black characters have generally been stigmatized throughout the course of history as aggressive, inferior, and irrational beings. These common stereotypes are perpetuated through the use of redundant film clichés that have a significant impact on society’s popular image of blacks. Within the article In Living Color, Michael Omi claims that despite progressive changes in America pertaining to race, popular culture is still responsible for damaging racial stereotypes and racism. Whereas, within Matt Zoller Seitz article, The Offensive Movie Cliché That Won’t Die, he discusses film clichés such as “Magical Negro” that uses an African American character for the sole purpose of acting as a mentor for their oblivious white counterpart. However, Get Out, a horror satire on the micro-aggressive black experience, directed by Jordan Peele, debunks these racial stereotypes centered around black men. The film subverts the use of racial stereotypes, as it rejects America’s depiction of common black men behavior pertaining to their criminalized lifestyle, masculinity, and aggression in

We have all seen them in TV shows, movies, and music videos from the day. Greasers were heavily stereotyped gang members in the 40s and 50s that were known for their greased hair, switchblades, and leather jackets. How many of those are inaccurate, for greasers are not the only group that have been wrongfully stereotyped. One fictional greaser that has been stereotyped is Ponyboy, the fourteen year old narrator and main character of the popular novel The Outsiders by S.E. Hinton. Ponyboy is wrongfully stereotyped to be dumb, rough, and a criminal as are the rest of the greasers.

Do you ever feel like everyone has a “thing”? That one thing, something they’re good at? But you just can’t seem to find your thing? Then you share the same feeling with Doug Glatt, played by Seann William Scott has in the movie Goon. All Dougs family and friends have their thing, his parents and brother are doctors, his best friend has a hockey themed webcast he owns, but Doug has nothing but his job as a bouncer at the local bar. All that changes when a hockey coach witnesses Doug in a fight, bashing some unfortunate souls face in, he quickly offers doug the opportunity to play hockey as an enforcer claiming, “You’ve been touched by the fist of God for Christ’s sake!” . An enforcer is a player in hockey who is on the ice solely to protect the team’s star players, they are “goons”.

Bagels, big noses, curly hair, and penny pinching, are some of the common stereotypes of being Jewish. I’ve experienced all of them. My mother's side of the family is all Jewish. This Jewish heritage strongly differs from my father's side who are all of indian descent. Over the years, I have experienced challenges with my faith, especially the split between my divorced Jewish mom and Hindu dad. Even with this challenge, my mom has always been able to keep me on the page of Jewish faith and for this, I’m thankful. My faith has never come to me easy, and for a long time I questioned it constantly. I’ve found that when you really invest in something you discover the good and the bad and that's exactly what I experienced with Judaism.

Let’s face it. Almost all Jewish characters we see on screen are written by Jewish writers. We like seeing ourselves represented, and we love writing about ourselves. It’s the same with every minority: Asians write about other Asians, African-Americans write about African-Americans. But the reverse rarely happens. When was the last time you watched a film or TV show that centred around a minority and the writers and creative team weren’t comprised of people from the minority? Shows about African-Americans written by White people? A story about a Gay couple written by a Straight dude? I don’t think so, minorities write about minorities and majorities write about majorities.

Stephanie Beatriz writes, “When you label somebody and put them in a box, then you put the lid on the box, and you just never look inside again. I think it's much more interesting for human beings to look at each other's stories and see each other. Really see each other and then see themselves through other people's stories. That's where you start to break down stereotypes (brainyquote.com). This quote represents how if you label someone you put them in the box because that is not who the truly are and when a person takes off a lid and listen to their story it is a lot more interesting.

The major themes of self-determination and liberty are seen constantly spread out through Exodus. The text is most definitely read and examined by many people across the world and one of them being Carol Meyers, an archaeologist, scholar and expert in religion at Duke University. She feels that the theme of restoration and ones will is an “archetype… in western culture in general” which is absolutely true. Since the early twentieth century, Americans have been addressing and seeking the American dream and migrating from their land over to America where they cold live their lives free of oppression and discomfort. This is no coincidence seeing that this country was founded and based on Christian and Biblical principles. Through Exodus we see

As stated above Exodus was written during the pre-exilic times for the people of Israel. This type of environment could account for some of the ways in which the story of Exodus is told. God wants to help the Jewish people escape the clutches of Egypt, “Then the Lord said, ‘I have observed the misery of my people who are in Egypt; I have heard their cry on account of their taskmasters. Indeed, I know their sufferings, and I have come down to deliver them from the Egyptians.” (Exodus, 3:7-8). God is foreshadowing what he will do, in terms of violence, to free

                There are handful of movies released featuring Arabs characters in a negative way although the one that caught my attention is Rules of Engagement. The film Rules of Engagement, was produced by Scott Rudin and Richard D. Zanuck, which was released in March 31st 2000. The film star leading characters are Samuel L. Jackson and Tommy Lee Jones. The film illustrates how misrepresentation of Arabs culture and tradition is being normalized. The film is about a U.S. Marines whose base was in Yemen and had conflict with the civilians. The Arabs in the film were portrayed as violent people who were killing the Marines at the U.S. Embassy, where the civilians were protesting. The film set unacceptable image of Arabs.  In American society where technology is advanced image is a big deal because society perceive image as important. Hollywood as the biggest entertainer in the world set unacceptable image of Arabs and the images has a power to change people's perspective of how to view/interpret the