Premium Essay

The Movie Crash Sociology

Submitted By
Words 249
Pages 1
Crash , a 2005 film by director Paul Haggis, begins by saying, "It's the sense of touch . . .we miss . . . so much that we crash into each other just so we can feel something". The use of the word "touch" suggests human connection. "Feel" conjures a sense of emotion. We want to be moved by one another; to feel our common human existence. Our search for this sort of human connection persists despite many peripheral issues which divide us, but it is the search itself, not the issues, which provides the movie's main theme. I will explore this theme from the perspective of sociology, by examining how the movie deals with race and gender issues.

Social Constructs vs. Inborn Characteristics

Race and gender are not physical attributes. They are

Similar Documents

Premium Essay

Crash: Sociological Theories

...Rowland CRASH: SOCIOLOGICAL THEORIES “Sociology is the study of human behavior in society” (Kimmel and Aronson 2012). Sociologists study humans in their environments and the social interactions that occur in those environments in order to develop theories of how human behavior is shaped by groups of people and or how life is affected by those individuals. Paul Haggis’ movie Crash (Haggis 2005) contains both social and multicultural differences that we as humans experience in our society and in our world everyday. In the movie, he takes us on a journey through a sociological process made up of racism, social class, and gender which all play roles in stereotypes and assumptions we make about others. Crash is set in the city of Los Angeles, California as it continues to grow as a multicultural society, exploring how racial intolerance and prejudice are problems for all of the United States. The movie Crash (Haggis 2005), explains many of the sociological concepts that explain how one’s behavior or actions can have a direct effect on another persons life, shaping it profoundly and changing the outcome forever. The first few lines of the movie basically set the sociological tone for the film. Graham, played by Don Cheadle says, “It’s the sense of touch. In any real city, you walk, you know? You brush past people, people bump into you. In L.A., nobody touches you. We’re always behind this metal and glass. I think we miss that touch so much, that we crash into each...

Words: 918 - Pages: 4

Premium Essay

Analyis Paper

...Crash Kendra Koelsch SOC1101: Human Behavior Instructor Robyn Milliken-Setser August 17th, 2015 The movie Crash (2005) is intended to be a nature of life in America in regards to equality. It is set in Los Angeles, it is about social and cultural stereotypes, race, and the conflict that often ensues as a result. The movie is presented in the conflict perspective which according to Richard T. Schaefer (2009) "assumes that social behavior is best understood in terms of tension between groups over power including housing, money, access to services and political representation". Crash uses tension to the story line of each character forcing them into positions of conflict as well as dependence, and emphasizes the status of equality in America. In order to progress to a more equal society it is essential like Americans presented in the movie Crash, especially those most often seen in modern society such as stereotyping, hate crimes, etc… Schaefer defines stereotypes as "unreliable generalizations about all members of a group shows a car crash involving two police detectives and an Asian woman. You can see from the beginning of the movie that the stereotyping begins immediately when the Asian woman tells the police officer that is writing the traffic report that "Mexicans don’t know how to drive. She brakes too fast!" (Haggis, 2005) A verbal struggle ensues between the Latina police detective, who is driving and the Asian woman. RIA mocks the lady about her incorrect pronunciation...

Words: 2857 - Pages: 12

Premium Essay

Social Interationist Media Analysis

...Interactionist Perspective Media Analysis SOC/100 Introduction to Sociology 06/07/2012 Mrs. Christina Oberste Symbolic Interactionist Perspective Media Analysis In today’s society, all human beings have their very own distinctive, customizable features such as body composition, hair length, attire, and style. At the same token, they all have genetic-based features such as color, height, facial features, and gender. While these features are quite commonly used to identify all human beings, they also give way to categorizing, mislabeling, and stereotyping another individual. Categorizing society by means of race, social class, and gender, is very common in today’s society; almost too common as it may seem. In this paper, the Academy Award-winning picture “Crash,” will be used to display some of the social injustices in today’s society. Crash, Oscar-winner for best picture, best original screenplay, and best editing at the 2005 Academy Awards, was co-written, produced, and directed by Paul Higgins in 2004. Crash was inspired by a real-life event in which Higgins’ Porsche was hi-jacked outside a video store in Los Angeles California. Crash touches up on a lot of different topics such as stereotyping, racism, classism, sexism, and exposure to different forms of racial discrimination such as racial stereotyping and racial profiling all from the non-verbal, symbolic perspective of an outsider. The first scene of the movie takes the viewers on-scene of a motor vehicle accident in...

Words: 858 - Pages: 4

Premium Essay

Content Analysis: Crash

...Yvonne Lara Professor Hall Sociology 101 20 April 2015 Content Analysis Essay: “Crash” The movie Crash is a sensational film that is as much thrilling as it is tragic. The film was released in 2004 as an ensemble drama, and ended up becoming a box-office hit in the spring of 2005. The producer, Paul Haggis, not only directed the film, but was a co-writer as well. It includes enough comedy, action, suspense, and emotion that it appeals to all types of film genre fans. Moreover, Crash had a very popular cast of various types of actors, actresses, rappers, and entertainers. Crash won Best Picture at the 78th annual Academy Awards. Crash is a narrative of many different life events that affect a group of individuals who are of different races, social classes, occupations, education levels, economic statuses, and gender. The film is attempting to portray the current social structure of race, social class, and gender in Los Angeles. Almost each character in “Crash” has a connection, whether direct or indirect, with every other character. Metaphorically speaking, the narrative of the film can be compared to the Domino Effect. One domino falls, and then a chain reaction starts, and one by one, the first domino brings all the rest of them down with it. The first scene opens with Detective Graham Walters speaking. He is a black man portrayed by Don Cheadle. He says, “It’s the sense of touch. In any real city, you walk, you know? You brush past people; people bump into you....

Words: 3030 - Pages: 13

Free Essay

History

...in The House of Flowers in 1954. By the time Carol was in junior high school, her family lived in a house that they owned in Harlem. Her father worked as a subway conductor at the Department of Transportation of the City of New York, and her mother devoted all of her attention to caring for her beloved daughter. Carol received abundant and strict parental attention, and she did her homework and took piano lessons faithfully. In many interviews about her childhood, Diahann recalls her parents’ support for her and that they enrolled her in singing, modeling and dancing. By time she was 15 she was modeling for Ebony Magazines. She was 6ft. and had a lean build body. After Carroll graduated, she attended New York University and majored in sociology. Carroll used of her time for voice lessons, rehearsals, modeling, and singing jobs. At the end of her first term in college, she withdrew from her classes, intending to use two years to explore the possibility that she could make a career as a singer. Although she tried to win roles in Broadway musicals, parts for black singers in the early 1950s were thin. Instead, she sang in mountain resorts in the Catskills, and she toured small towns on her own, singing in nightclubs. At 18, Carroll returned to New York City, and began to sing at the Cafe Society Downtown in Greenwich Village. She began to wear slinky gowns, to go along with the torch songs she was singing, and...

Words: 1000 - Pages: 4

Premium Essay

Management Accounting

...Handbook of Management Accounting Research Volume 3 Edited by CHRISTOPHER S. CHAPMAN Imperial College London, UK ANTHONY G. HOPWOOD University of Oxford, UK MICHAEL D. SHIELDS Michigan State University, USA AMSTERDAM – BOSTON – HEIDELBERG – LONDON – NEW YORK – OXFORD PARIS – SAN DIEGO – SAN FRANCISCO – SINGAPORE – SYDNEY – TOKYO Elsevier The Boulevard, Langford Lane, Kidlington, Oxford OX5 1GB, UK First edition 2009 Copyright © 2009 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form or by any means electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise without the prior written permission of the publisher Permissions may be sought directly from Elsevier’s Science & Technology Rights Department in Oxford, UK: phone ( 44) (0) 1865 843830; fax ( 44) (0) 1865 853333; email: permissions@elsevier.com. Alternatively visit the Science and Technology Books website at www.elsevierdirect.com/rights for further information Notice No responsibility is assumed by the publisher for any injury and/or damage to persons or property as a matter of products liability, negligence or otherwise, or from any use or operation of any methods, products, instructions or ideas contained in the material herein. British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data A catalog record for...

Words: 187223 - Pages: 749

Premium Essay

The Influence of Blackberry Mobile Phone

...youths no longer have boundaries as to when and where to use and not to use the mobile device and thus, It sought to explore the influence of blackberry mobile on Nigerian students. The research was conducted to study the influence of blackberry mobile phone on the students’ lifestyle. The theoretical basis of the study hinged on technological determinism theory and social presence theory. The quantitative method was employed and a survey research design was used with the aid of the questionnaire as a tool for data collection to elicit information from the respondents. 324 respondents were purposefully selected. The respondents cut across all six departments (Mass Communications, Geography& Planning, Psychology, Political Science, Sociology and Economics) in the Faculty of social science. 24 questionnaires were dropped from the analysis on the count of incomplete data entry at the respondent end. Therefore, the analysis presented is for the remaining 300 questionnaires i.e n= 300. The findings revealed that Blackberry mobile phone influenced the lifestyle of more than half (180) 60% of the respondents, the male respondents 96 (32%) were more influenced compared to the female respondents 84 (28%) and the male respondent (52%) couldn’t do without the Blackberry mobile for a day as compared to the female, (48%). The research found that Blackberry mobile phone had influence on the lifestyle of its users. Within all duration of usage the highest influence of Blackberry mobile phone...

Words: 12429 - Pages: 50

Premium Essay

Analysis of an Argument Questions for the Gmat

...Analysis of an Argument Questions for the GMAT® Exam This document contains all Analysis of an Argument questions used on the GMAT® exam. Each question is followed by this statement: Discuss how well reasoned you find this argument. In your discussion be sure to analyze the line of reasoning and the use of evidence in the argument. For example, you may need to consider what questionable assumptions underlie the thinking and what alternative explanations or counterexamples might weaken the conclusion. You can also discuss what sort of evidence would strengthen or refute the argument, what changes in the argument would make it more logically sound, and what, if anything, would help you better evaluate its conclusion. The following appeared as part of an annual report sent to stockholders by Olympic Foods, a processor of frozen foods: “Over time, the costs of processing go down because as organizations learn how to do things better, they become more efficient. In color film processing, for example, the cost of a 3-by-5-inch print fell from 50 cents for five-day service in 1970 to 20 cents for one-day service in 1984. The same principle applies to the processing of food. And since Olympic Foods will soon celebrate its 25th birthday, we can expect that our long experience will enable us to minimize costs and thus maximize profits.” Discuss how well reasoned . . . etc. The following appeared in a memorandum from the business department of the Apogee Company: “When the Apogee...

Words: 15216 - Pages: 61

Free Essay

Technology

...professor.. this story was posted in our book way back when i was third year highschool.... it's full of lesson.. it values life.   From childhood to senility, the very people who made beautiful contribution in our lives always seem to have special place in our hearts, minds & souls.   This movie/book was one of our projects. As a teenager, I really had no interest to read this kinds of books but after a few more chapters, I realized that this book contains lots of valuable lessons. It changed the way I see things. It also made me realize that life is very important so we should not waste it but instead make it a very happy one. We should also spend our lives with our loved ones because we dont know how long we will be with them. I relly love this book/move. ily Morrie!!!!!!!!   I'm so happy that finally I got a copy of Mitch Albom's book, Tuesdays with Morrie. I have been wanting to have it. This is the best book I've ever read. I've shed a lot of tears, laughed out loud and pondered about the reality and wisdom shared by an intelligent, compassionate, loving and very kind old man. I love you Morrie Schwartz. Forever I will cherish your words.   The movie as well as the book inspired me a lot. This was the 3rd time i read an inspirational book. Just like other people i had no interests reading books before but as i read the 3 books namely living, loving, learning; the secret and this tuesdays with morrie it change the way i live my life. The three books have...

Words: 19539 - Pages: 79

Premium Essay

Gmat

...Analysis of an Argument Questions for the GMAT® Exam This document contains all Analysis of an Argument questions used on the GMAT® exam. Each question is followed by this statement: Discuss how well reasoned you find this argument. In your discussion be sure to analyze the line of reasoning and the use of evidence in the argument. For example, you may need to consider what questionable assumptions underlie the thinking and what alternative explanations or counterexamples might weaken the conclusion. You can also discuss what sort of evidence would strengthen or refute the argument, what changes in the argument would make it more logically sound, and what, if anything, would help you better evaluate its conclusion. The following appeared as part of an annual report sent to stockholders by Olympic Foods, a processor of frozen foods: “Over time, the costs of processing go down because as organizations learn how to do things better, they become more efficient. In color film processing, for example, the cost of a 3-by-5-inch print fell from 50 cents for five-day service in 1970 to 20 cents for one-day service in 1984. The same principle applies to the processing of food. And since Olympic Foods will soon celebrate its 25th birthday, we can expect that our long experience will enable us to minimize costs and thus maximize profits.” Discuss how well reasoned . . . etc. The following appeared in a memorandum from the business department of the Apogee Company: “When...

Words: 15216 - Pages: 61

Free Essay

Story of Success

...Outliers THE S T O R Y OF S U C C E S S MALCOLM G LAD W E L L # 1 bestselling author of The Tipping Point and Blink $27.99 $ 3 0 . 9 9 in C a n a d a Why d o s o m e p e o p l e succeed far more than others? T h e r e is a story that is usually told a b o u t extremely successful p e o p l e , a story that focuses o n intelligence a n d ambition. In Outliers Malcolm Gladwell a r g u e s that the true story o f s u c c e s s is very different, a n d that if we want to u n d e r s t a n d h o w s o m e p e o p l e thrive, we s h o u l d s p e n d m o r e time l o o k i n g around them — at s u c h things as their family, their birthplace, or even their birth d a t e . T h e story o f s u c c e s s is m o r e c o m p l e x — a n d a lot m o r e interesting — than it initially a p p e a r s . Outliers e x p l a i n s w h a t the B e a t l e s a n d Bill G a t e s have in c o m m o n , the e x t r a o r d i n a r y s u c c e s s o f A s i a n s at m a t h , the h i d d e n a d v a n t a g e s o f star athletes, why all t o p N e w York lawyers have the s a m e r é s u m é , a n d the r e a s o n y o u ' v e never h e a r d o f the w o r l d ' s s m a r t e s t m a n — all in terms o f g e n ­ eration, family, c u l t u r e , a n d c l a s s . It matters w h a t year y o u were b o r n if y o u want to b e a S i l i c o n Valley billionaire, G l a d w e l l a r g u e s , a n d it matters w h e r e y o u w e r e b o r n if y o u want to b e a s u c ­ cessful p i l o t . T...

Words: 86962 - Pages: 348

Premium Essay

Hi Hop

...This article is about the cultural movement. For the music genre, see Hip hop music. For other uses, see Hip hop (disambiguation). Graffiti of "hip hop" in Eugene, Oregon Hip hop is a form of musical expression and artistic subculture that originated in African-American and Hispanic-American communities during the 1970s in New York City, specifically the Bronx.[1][2][3] DJ Afrika Bambaataa outlined the four pillars of hip hop culture: MCing, DJing, B-boying and graffiti writing.[4][5][6][7] [8] Since its emergence in the South Bronx, hip hop culture has spread to both urban and suburban communities throughout the world.[9] Hip hop music first emerged with disc jockeys creating rhythmic beats by looping breaks (small portions of songs emphasizing a percussive pattern) on two turntables, more commonly referred to as sampling. This was later accompanied by "rap", a rhythmic style of chanting or poetry presented in 16 bar measures or time frames, and beatboxing, a vocal technique mainly used to imitate percussive elements of the music and various technical effects of hip hop DJ's. An original form of dancing and particular styles of dress arose among fans of this new music. These elements experienced considerable refinement and development over the course of the history of the culture. The relationship between graffiti and hip hop culture arises from the appearance of new and increasingly elaborate and pervasive forms of the practice in areas where other elements of hip hop...

Words: 8353 - Pages: 34

Free Essay

Edward Snowden

...11 Position Papers I f you like to argue, you will enjoy writing position papers and argument essays. The purpose of a position paper or argument essay is to explain both sides of a controversy and then argue for one side over the other. This two-sided approach is what makes position papers and argument essays different from commentaries (Chapter 10). A commentary usually only expresses the author’s personal opinion about a current issue or event. A position paper or argument essay explains both sides and discusses why one is stronger or better than the other. Your goal is to fairly explain your side and your opponents’ side of the issue, while highlighting the differences between these opposing views. You need to use solid reasoning and factual evidence to persuade your readers that your view is more valid or advantageous than your opponents’ view. In college, your professors will ask you to write position papers and argument essays to show that you understand both sides of an issue and can support one side or the other. In the workplace, corporate position papers are used to argue for or against business strategies or alternatives. The ability to argue effectively is a useful skill that will help you throughout your life. 221 CHAPTER AT–A–GLANCE Position Papers This diagram shows two basic organizations for a position paper, but other arrangements of these sections will work too. In the pattern on the left, the opponents’ position is described up front with its...

Words: 11159 - Pages: 45

Premium Essay

Nothing

...Generated by ABC Amber LIT Converter, http://www.processtext.com/abclit.html THE PERKS OF BEING A WALLFLOWER by STEPHEN chbosky Published by: POCKET BOOKS, Simon and Schuster Inc., 1230 Avenue of the Americas, New York, NY 10020. Copyright 1999 by Stephen Chbosky BOOK JACKET INFORMATION standing on the fringes of life ... offers a unique perspective. But there comes a time to see what it looks like from the dance floor. This haunting novel about the dilemma of passivity vs. passion marks the stunning debut of a provocative new voice in contemporary fiction: The Perks Of Being A WALLFLOWER This is the story of what it's like to grow up in high school. More intimate than a diary, Charlie's letters are singular and unique, hilarious and devastating. We may not know where he lives. We may not know to whom he is writing. All we know is the world he shares. Caught between trying to live his life and trying to run from it puts him on a strange course through uncharted territory. The world of first dates and mixed tapes, family dramas and new friends. The world of sex, drugs, andThe Rocky Horror Picture Show, when all one requires is that perfect song on that perfect drive to feel infinite. Through Charlie, Stephen Chbosky has created a deeply affecting coming-of-age story, powerful novel that will spirit you back to those wild and poignant roller coaster days known asgrowingup. visit us on the world wide web _inghttpwhststwwwlessimonsayscom_wh _inghttpwhststwwwmtvcom_wh stephenchboskygrew...

Words: 66427 - Pages: 266

Free Essay

Kiki

...THE B L A C K SWAN The HIGHLY I mpact IM of the PROBABLE Nassim Nicholas Taleb U.S.A. $26.95 Canada $34.95 is a highly improbable event with three principal characteristics: It is unpre­ dictable; it carries a massive impact; and, after the fact, we concoct an explanation that makes it appear less random, and more predictable, than it was. The astonishing success of Google was a black swan; so was 9 / 1 1 . For Nassim Nicholas Taleb, black swans underlie almost everything about our world, from the rise of religions to events in our own personal lives. A BLACK SWAN Why do we not acknowledge the phenomenon of black swans until after they occur? Part of the answer, according to Taleb, is that humans are hardwired to learn specifics when they should be focused on generalities. We concentrate on things we already know and time and time again fail to take into consideration what we don't know. We are, therefore, unable to truly estimate oppor­ tunities, too vulnerable to the impulse to simplify, narrate, and categorize, and not open enough to rewarding those who can imagine the "impossible." For years, Taleb has studied how we fool our­ selves into thinking we know more than we actually do. We restrict our thinking to the irrelevant and inconsequential, while large events continue to surprise us and shape our world. Now, in this reve­ latory book, Taleb explains everything we know about what we don't know. He offers...

Words: 158140 - Pages: 633