Theme Of Discrimination In Cry Freedom

Superior Essays
Seen in five films titled Crash, Pleasantville, Cry Freedom, The Pianist and American History X, there are a handful of noticeable themes portrayed in each. Anthropologically, sociologically and psychologically, these films and their themes of discrimination, conformity and alienation as well as self actualization and realization interconnect among one another. Discrimination is the unjust treatment towards categories of people based on prejudices. In all five movies this was revealed, some more predominant than the rest. The social organization of each culture proves the disparity between groups of people. Evident in Cry Freedom is the inequity of the blacks of South Africa. The white individuals are portrayed as superior and everything about …show more content…
Anthropologists would analyze factors such as changes in leadership, aspects of culture and sources of social change when looking at conformity and alienation. In Pleasantville, the grey individuals have conformed to their colourless, ignorant world they live in just as Jean Cabot in Crash conforms to a life full of stereotypes; it is all they know. However, because of David, a charismatic leader and therefore a change in the society’s leadership, some individuals choose to stray from their basic society. He allowed them to discover new technology and taught them similar ways of living from his own society which is proof of diffusion. The appearance of colour to ones’ body symbolizes their conformity just as the acceptance of suffering of the black community in Cry Freedom signifies the same. “Blacks are not unaware of the hardships they endure... We want them to stop accepting these hardships,” Biko stated upset about the fact that the blacks conformed due to hopelessness. In American History X, individuals conform to the white supremacy and therefore work together to destroy the convenience store. In The Pianist, the Germans conform to alienating the Jewish community during a World War. In return, the Jewish community conforms to the segregation because they fear the safety of their own lives. The Jewish community is told to clearly exhibit the swastika on their body. They …show more content…
In Pleasantville, Betty Parker gradually learns to accept her colour. However, she initially chooses not to because she does not want to disappoint the society. In the film, David applies makeup in order to cover up the colour on her face. She feels dissonance for the reason that she is believes that the change is good while she portrays the opposite. The society influences Betty just as Danny Vinyard, from American History X, is influenced by his brother Derek and Cameron to follow in their footsteps. Cameron uses Derek’s absence as the freedom to transform Danny into his brother. Similarly in Crash, Jean Cabot is unconsciously influenced by the way her husband, Rick, treats her. She is affected negatively by this and therefore conforms to the society’s norm of subordinating immigrants in order to release her anger. Proof of this lies in the scene where she assumes that the Mexican man will copy her house key and give them to his gang members. In The Pianist, a German soldier by the name of Wilm Hosenfeld conforms to the society’s harassment and physical harm towards the Jewish community. However, after meeting Wladyslaw Szpilman, he feels sympathy for those that are being subordinated and therefore feels dissonance. To align his attitude and behaviour, he helps Szpilman to hide in a room away

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