Sami White
Mr. Everett
World Literature
19 October 2014
Gran Torino Hero’s Journey Analysis “You know Thao and Sue are never going to find peace in this world as long as that gangs around” (Eastwood). In the movie Gran Torino, directed by Clint Eastwood, Walt Kowalski, a Korean War veteran dislikes his neighbors who are Hmong, an ethnic group from Southeast Asia, because they moved into his neighborhood which used to be a primarily white community. Walt slowly accepts and becomes close to Sue and Thao, his next door neighbors, especially when their cousin Spider comes into the neighborhood to get Thao to join the local Hmong gang. Walt completes the hero’s journey by accepting the call to action and responding to the call, overcoming great obstacles and leaving behind great rewards. Walt’s call to action was catching Thao trying to steal his 1972 Gran Torino as initiation into the local gang. Thao fails the initiation because Walt enters the garage while Thao is in the process of stealing the Gran Torino but Walt doesn’t catch him because he trips and falls. The next day the gang comes back to give …show more content…
The call to action leads to Walt stopping the gang from getting Thao to join and leads to him becoming close to his Hmong neighbors, a part of the family to Thao and Sue. To Thao Walt is a father figure and leaves behind knowledge such as the construction knowledge but also the knowledge and value of life and that you should appreciate it. Walt also leaves behind his story of bravery to stop the gang by basically getting himself killed so they go to jail and cannot bother his neighbors any more. Walt was a genuinely good man although he started off as a racist, grumpy old man but he becomes part of a family that actually appreciated and valued him for who he was not who they wanted him to
Mr. Everett
World Literature
19 October 2014
Gran Torino Hero’s Journey Analysis “You know Thao and Sue are never going to find peace in this world as long as that gangs around” (Eastwood). In the movie Gran Torino, directed by Clint Eastwood, Walt Kowalski, a Korean War veteran dislikes his neighbors who are Hmong, an ethnic group from Southeast Asia, because they moved into his neighborhood which used to be a primarily white community. Walt slowly accepts and becomes close to Sue and Thao, his next door neighbors, especially when their cousin Spider comes into the neighborhood to get Thao to join the local Hmong gang. Walt completes the hero’s journey by accepting the call to action and responding to the call, overcoming great obstacles and leaving behind great rewards. Walt’s call to action was catching Thao trying to steal his 1972 Gran Torino as initiation into the local gang. Thao fails the initiation because Walt enters the garage while Thao is in the process of stealing the Gran Torino but Walt doesn’t catch him because he trips and falls. The next day the gang comes back to give …show more content…
The call to action leads to Walt stopping the gang from getting Thao to join and leads to him becoming close to his Hmong neighbors, a part of the family to Thao and Sue. To Thao Walt is a father figure and leaves behind knowledge such as the construction knowledge but also the knowledge and value of life and that you should appreciate it. Walt also leaves behind his story of bravery to stop the gang by basically getting himself killed so they go to jail and cannot bother his neighbors any more. Walt was a genuinely good man although he started off as a racist, grumpy old man but he becomes part of a family that actually appreciated and valued him for who he was not who they wanted him to