Sweet Home Alabama Character Analysis

Sweet Home Alabama is a romantic comedy that involves a southern girl raised in Alabama who became a big shot in New York City. She is forced to revisit her past to obtain a divorce from her husband after being separated for seven years. This film involves three main characters; Melanie, Jake, and Andrew. Melanie and Jake were high school sweethearts who got married but eventually separated due to Melanie furthering her career as a fashion designer in New York. There she met Andrew Hennings who’s mother is the mayor of New York. They eventually fell in love and were planning on getting married. Melanie was still married to Jake and had to revisit her hometown in Alabama so Jake could sign the divorce papers. Eventually, Melanie ends up re-gaining …show more content…
The first step to avoiding conflict is identifying Gottman’s four horseman. These are the four attributes of conflict and being aware of these will help to address conflict and resolve it when it occurs. Criticism is a complaint that focuses on a specific behavior and attacks the personality or character of a person. The antinode to this is to complain without blame. Contempt is attacking with an intent to insult or abuse. Defensiveness is a form of self protection and reserves the blame to victimize yourself. Stonewalling is completely withdrawing to avoid conflict and convey …show more content…
Toward the end of the movie Melanie began to regain previous feelings she had for Jake. After time in Alabama she realized the reasons she fell in love with him. Being in her hometown, around family, and with Jake made her want to come back to the life she had there. This caused her to pull away from Andrew. Differentiating, circumscribing, stagnating, avoiding, and termination are all the steps of Knapp’s four stages of termination. These are the steps a person goes through to terminate a relationship. Differentiating began when Melanie realized she did not want to be in the city with Andrew anymore. It was then that she started regaining feelings for Jake again. Circumscribing occurred when she was not returning to New York which decreased the quantity and quality of time spent with Andrew. Melanie began stagnating when she no longer had interest in marrying Andrew anymore and was just going through the motions. Avoiding began when Melanie was no longer having physical or emotional contact with Andrew due to her feelings for Jake. Termination happened when Melanie left Andrew at the alter for