Summary Of The Film Pariah

The main protagonists in A Complicated Kindness and The Kite Runner convey that identities are socially constructed. Identity is shaped through the following factors: parenting, conflict, culture, gender, and genetics. These factors all intertwine and are the main influencers for shaping the protagonists identity. This is formed by the people that surround a person, their cultural stereotypes, how they teach others, and how a person learns. This essay will discuss how these factor effect identity and why they are important.

Each and every person on this Earth today has an identity. Over the years, each individual creates their identity through past experiences, family, race, and many other factors. Race, which continues to cause problems in today’s world, places individuals into certain categories. Based on their race, people are designated to be part of a larger, or group identity instead of being viewed as a person with a unique identity. Throughout Richard Wright’s Black Boy, Richard is on a search for his true identity. Throughout Black Boy, one can see that Richard’s racial background assigns him with a certain identity or a certain way in which some

Pariah is an acclaimed drama written and directed by director Dee Rees in 2011. The film tells the story of an adolescent African American teenage girl named Alike who struggles with her identity as a lesbian. The film introduces Alike to the audience in a club, in which she often hangs out with her openly gay friend, Laura. This rambunctious lifestyle is quickly contrasted by the introduction to her notably structured and religious family. Alike’s mother, Audrey, in particular, seems to not only oppose Alike’s friendship with Laura, but also question her sexuality. Although Alike struggles with an oppressive relationship with her mother, she also does not seem to wholly fit in with Laura and her brazen lifestyle, thus making her a true outcast, a pariah. Amidst everything, Alike forges a friendship with a girl named Bina and a complicated and disastrous relationship quickly ensues, ultimately resulting in Alike’s coming out, estrangement from her mother, and her departure to college. Director Dee Rees draws on particular filmmaking techniques and personal experiences to depict Alike’s struggles to embrace her lesbian identity, ultimately in order to fuel a growing gay rights sentiment.

There are some groups that none of us has any choice in whether we belong to them or not. Factors such as gender, ethnicity, family and even social status are at birth, groups that we belong to, yet cannot choose, and many of these endure throughout life. Although family, religious beliefs and even social status can be altered in later life, all of these groups are ones that are integral to an individual’s identity and in fact add it in life. However, as a child their influence is perhaps even more important as in these formative years one’s gender, culture, family and even religion actively create individual identity.

Moses Kaufman is the producer of the successful play “The Laramie Project” after a horrific incident that occurred in Laramie. Members of the artistic group of Kaufman 's, traveled to Laramie to find out more about the horrific incidence. The main aim of the whole project was to find the emotions, reactions, and reflections that the people of Laramie manifested concerning the beating and subsequent death of a twenty-three-year-old college student (Gale, 2016). A lot of questions were raised concerning the death as people had different point of views. Some thought it was a hate crime, others thought it was just a brutal assault or a form of robbery. Four hundred interviews were conducted so as to come up with the reasons behind the brutal murder straight from the town folks. The main issue was how homosexuality was defined in the crime. The Laramie Project, questioned the rights of the LGBT+ group. For example, why were Lesbians, Gays, Bisexuals, and Transgenders discriminated by the community and the society as a whole even though their rights were constitutional?

According to Salmon, 1985 (Salmon 1985, p171), development and change are not limited to childhood but continue throughout our lives. It is however argued that personal identities are similar to social identities, and include group or collective identities.

Individuals often find the definition of identity complex and difficult to comprehend. A balance must be struck between the contending concepts that a person’s identity is founded on how they view themselves, or how others perceive them to be. During the 20th century, strict adherence to archetypal roles was expected. Who an individual was, how they interacted with others, and their status in society, was determined through the judgement of others and subsequently, the archetypal roles they were placed in. For Stephen, a young fifteen year-old who is struggling on achieving true self-fulfillment in a society that is male dominated, he drives his sense of identity and self-perception from how others see him.

The world has become modern and global. Identification of the self is a complicated, though, an important problem of every individual. Self- identity is based on inner values and reflections on culture, politics and social interactions. The main point is that people label themselves to any particular group in the society (Worchel etc., 1998). According to Ferguson: “Identity commonly refers to which it makes, or is thought to make

In today’s society, sexuality appears to be represented on a large, accurate, and diverse scale. But in reality, the scale is much smaller, less accurate, and very stereotypical. Movies are among the many pop culture sources that are guilty of verifying these stereotypes, with films such as the sociopathic lesbians in Basic Instinct (1992) and I Now Pronounce You Chuck and Larry (2007). But one musical-made-film in particular stands out in the untraditional way of portraying sexuality, untraditional as in positive and more accurate. That film is RENT (2005), a story about eight friends in Manhattan, New York and their struggles in dealing with different sexualities and other emerging issues of the late 1980s and 1990s. After an introduction of the characters and summary of the plot, an analysis about each of the main relationships (lesbian, gay, and straight) will discuss about how they are positively portrayed in the film. Finally, an analysis of other important points, such as their representation of sex and people’s perceptions of the different types of sexuality.

Our identity can sometimes be shaped by the way others see us. As we have seen, the way in which others view us can have some sort of impact on how we see ourselves. There are also other contributing factors such as our years of adolescence, the basic human need of wanting to belong and maturing; all play an equally important part in the forming of our character and who we are. On balance it appears that there is not only one influence in the shaping of our identity, but there are many.

The movie industry creates projects based on viewer demand. The more familiar a subject or situation feels to the audience, the more likely it will generate revenue and positive reviews. Therefore, popular films – especially the teen girl genre – are used to communicate present cultural issues in order to create a familiar atmosphere for their audience. For example, two distinct teen girl films – Pariah and Blue is the Warmest Color – incorporate similar coming of age stories in order to communicate and relate the complexity teenage girl development. Both films deal with queer adolescent females who explore their identity through different circumstances. Therefore, these films express female sexuality as a fluid experience by challenging

Moreover, as an individual grows up from being a child, they receive cultural values from the family or the society around. There are questions raised on matters dealing with identity: Can an individual choose his or her own

Identity in a sociological sense is more than individual genetics or individuality. Self identity is made up by many characteristics including; our personal experiences, beliefs, socio-economic status and other factors. Society plays a huge role in determining identity, although true identity generally isn’t a true reflection of an individual’s self identity. Over the generations there have been

In most case, identity is shaped by culture. Since culture is a set of ideals life practices, routines and attitudes set up by a certain community hence culture plays a major role in shaping the identity of an individual. An individual’s character and attributes can be because of their background. This is due to the set up that one has grown up (Dumas 19). People tend to learn more about their culture, and as they grow up it becomes part of them. They embrace the culture’s beliefs and tend to do things following the set routines. The aspect of following the set routine and beliefs play a significant part in shaping the identity of an individual.

Every human being has their own identity and defines the uniqueness of an individual. Personality, physical appearance, and how an individual acts define identity, or in other words, define who a person is. The world has come with many different meanings and interpretations of the definition of identity. Identity, for some is what they are still searching in their lives, and others already found who they are. There are many factors that impacts greatly on an individual. These factors are found in the characters that are in the book of The Young Elites and The Outsiders. Both Lu and Hinton show how their true identities are heavily impacted by experience, divided communities and betrayal.