“The Graduate” is a coming of age story as the film attempts to relay a message of an innocent boy being pushed in an unwanted direction through a society filled with expectations. It focuses on the development and the maturing of the young college graduate and his journey from being in the world of a child to adult. It captures what it is to be young, restless, skeptical and confused. It is reflective of a time when no one has any idea what the future has in store. It is Benjamin’s notion of the uncertainty of reaching adulthood, he struggles to accept this transformation and the idea of how frightening the future really is. The obscurity of the certainty in becoming established and successful adult, the film relies heavily on the imagery …show more content…
There are also more complicated issues, such as how he is supposed to assert his masculinity in a society that is no longer the cut-and-dry “man goes to work, woman serves man”. His parents still live in this more traditional world and do not understand that the world is changing. As a result, he spends his time being confused and pulled in two directions. On one hand his father’s understanding of manhood and a future in plastics, and on the other, the need to follow his heart and seek his true identity in a world that his parents would not …show more content…
This is significant simply because it already contrasts the two main issues. The idea of a birthday party is something associated with being a young boy, especially considering that he gets the scuba gear, his “toy” and is expected to play with it in front of the other adult guests. In addition, the fact that those at the party are all part of the older generation. No guy wants to party with a bunch of old people that just ask how college was and what your going to do next.The men at the party just discuss business and the women chat quietly. There is no one at the party or else where who understands the tension Benjamin is feeling. He docent quite understand at this point if he is a man or still a boy, the way the adults treat him almost confuses him. They want him to be a man and get his career started but yet they still treat him like a boy. This quickly turns into stress on Ben’s shoulders. This tension and stress is even further highlighted by what happens later at his birthday party. Benjamin is standing on the brink of boyhood and adulthood for example, as all the guests look on, Benjamin’s appearance seems to waver between man and boy constantly. While he is treated like a young boy, the men at the party seem to put even more pressure on him, such as his need to “be a man”
Mark Rydell’s “On Golden Pond” is a drama that emphasizes the stages people of various ages endures. Utilizing Erik Erikson’s Psychosocial Stages as learned in Dr. Malone’s class, each of the main characters can be placed within a stage and their age-related crises analyzed. As this film is a drama, it was relatable to the audience, prompting personal reactions as well as implementing life examples of some of the theories studied in Malone’s class.
First, the forms of aging and life course structures depend on the nature of the society in which individuals participate. Second, while social interaction is seen as having the greatest formative influence in the early part of life, such interaction retains crucial importance throughout the life course. Third, that social forces exert regular influences on individuals of all ages at any given point in time” (Theories of Aging. (n.d.)). The movie portrays aging being more about living the rest of life rather than dyeing in them.
In the article “Bros before Hos: The Guy Code”, by Michael Kimmel he writes about many different standards and ideals that young men must live up to, to be accepted in today’s society. The article talks about genders, at different ages sixteen to twenty six and how it is directed towards anyone that wants to know more about genders and how it can relate to masculinity and men. It was also based off of a book that he had written in the late two- thousands. According to (Kimmel) young men must live and abide, by a set of rules known as the spectacular “Guy Code”. The “Guy Code” was created to help understand why young men feel and act the way they do, and how masculinity may be perceived in their cultures. The code has been instilled into many young men around the world by their peers, family, and media at the age of four, or maybe even when a child has developed somewhat of a understanding. Being taught how to be masculine at a very young age is important to teach your child, it helps them discover who they are as a person, and who they are supposed to be perceived as, and how to find their inner virility as a young male. Kimmel also uses exemplification to help explain how the “Guy Code” is a collection of attitudes, values, and many traits that are together to help compose what it really means to be a man. The code lets us know how men are not suppose to cry, and how they are not suppose to be or act like sissies. But how men must be very
He has reached a point in his life where he is expected to follow many more rules and essentially 'how to be a proper responsible adult' guidelines. Instead of being curious about his growth and the developing relationships around him, he convinces himself that the adult world is entirely dishonest and uninteresting. He also calls adults phony.
No matter what, we are almost always talking about violence masculinity in America. Whether we are talking about the horrifying, high-profile mass shooting we have seen over recent decades, the far greater rates of murder and gun violence we see on a day – to – day basis that barely register in the national news, or the epidemic of sexual violence and domestic violence, the vast majority of this violence is committed by men, young men, and boys (Jackson Katz, 2013). Throughout this essay the topics covered will be how culture defines masculinity, according to the film, violent masculinity as a cultural norm, agents of socialization that teach boys how to be men, the cool
For a long time, men and women have been dealing with the controversy of gender roles. In modern day, the battle for gender equality has been more known. In the story “Guys Suffer from Oppressive Gender Roles Too”, the author Julie Zeilinger explains how males are held to a more macho standard, but do have prevalent emotions. If we were to let go of these rigid rules about what is manly, there would be no standard for any gender. If that was reality, men shouldn’t have to feel humiliated about staying home, and if their companion makes more money than they do. Zeilinger talks about how males detach themselves from some emotions, and live a “life nub to a true range of human emotion” so they can meet this masculinity standard. However if males
The central theme of the movie is that despite your age, you still have a something to offer and a job to do. The “secondhand lion” that uncle Garth bought for sport ended up protecting Walter from an attacker trying to find the uncles’ money. The uncles are like “secondhand lions” in that they are being called to care for young Walter and to be the male examples in his life. Once both uncles discover their new purpose in life, they become happier with their current stage of life.
In Guyland, Michael Kimmel chronicles the journey of young males and the issues they face while trying to exert their masculinity and prove themselves to their peers. Based on interactions among North American males between the ages of 16 and 26, Kimmel has found that at an age where young men had previously prepped for a life of work and committed relationships, they are now living in “Guyland” where they spend their time drinking, playing video games, and having immature relations with women. Kimmel explains that these young men are “frighteningly dependent on peer culture” and “desperate to prove their masculinity in the eyes of other boys.” (30) These young men live in constant fear that they will not measure up to the ideals of
To truly understand what adulthood means, grasping who we are as people, we all must first undergo a metamorphosis. This transformation from boy to man has overtime been a common theme amongst writers. Typically, the passage a young adult must make to enter adulthood is romantic or sexual, experiencing their first relationship, or purchasing their first condom. However, a severe, twisted and arguably more meaningful test into adulthood is understanding mortality, and one’s depth of humanity. Mercilessness of individuals and our world is often viewed as a theme amongst horror novels, creating an ideal platform for a coming of age adventure. In all forms of storytelling, character archetypes are expressed. How they react in various
The movie surveyed a wide array of the troubles faced by boys and men as they try to navigate the realm of masculinity. A common theme was the command “be a man” and the cultural baggage that comes with living up to that ideal. To “be a man” means to not cry, to not be sensitive, to not let people mess with you, to respond with violence, to be angry, to drink, to womanize.
Growth is a strong component that symbolises how the human condition can be shaped to become today’s society’s perception of moral standards through generations; this is clearly represented through the film’s change between the teenagers of the 1950s and the 20th century eras.
Death of a Salesman is usually saw as a play about a troubled father called Willy Loman who struggles to be a good father and a great businessman. Even though this play is thought to be the tragedy of Willy Loman, but some may say this play is truly a coming of age story for Biff Loman and not Willys story. Carl Jung's review of coming of age includes some key aspects of the development of personality: it's brought by necessity, creates feeling of isolation, and involves conscious moral deliberation and fidelity(loyalty) to the law of one ’s being. Biff coming of age story makes him face all of this realitys in order to find out who he really is.
As an adult reader who has crossed over to the reality of life, reading about these characters can be a transparent, futile exercise because as adults looking back at youth we have the experience to know where these characters are headed before they even start their journey. However, for young adults who are still in the throes of existential angst this is a powerful novel that handles teenage rites of passage and coming-of-age issues such as loyalty, friendship, belonging, and even death and loss very well.
The movie On Golden Pond represents three stages of development: adolescence, middle-adulthood, and late-adulthood. In the movie, Billy, Chelsea and Norman, three of the main characters symbolize the three stages of development by specific behaviors related to biosocial, cognitive, and psychosocial developments. It was necessary for the three characters to break down during hard situations in their lives to start appreciating the different seasons of their lives, the transition from adolescence to adulthood to aging and the people around them. In this paper I will discuss how these characters develop as individuals through the lenses of biosocial, cognitive and psychosocial development, and I will also end my discussion by explaining how
As a boy grows into a man he faces the ever-raising mountain of masculinity. In regards to the occurrence, he finally reaches maturity he has no choice but in order to fight to retain his measly sense of manhood. He is not allowed to act feminine or else he’s not man enough, he can’t show his emotions, he has to hide that he can do anything a woman can do sans give birth. Boys grow up being told they are not allowed to cry and that they are supposed to be tough, that they are not able to be like girls and in the event that they are then they are not real boys. This concept is known as toxic masculinity, some people are not aware that men are being forced to suppress their emotions or even that toxic masculinity should be a topic that is