In Jordan Peele’s film Get Out he attempts to tackle many of the same ideas that we learned and read about in this course. Focusing mainly on the topic of race and slavery his story confronts major theories such as the concept of the Other as well as the discussion of being heard that was prominent in Recitatif. In the film, a young black man is meeting his white girlfriend’s family for the first time. Over the course of their visit there, he constantly noticed strange behavior from the family’s housekeeper and groundskeeper, who are both black as well. After an intriguing hypnotherapy session with Rose’s mother, he is deeply concerned and expresses his desire to leave to his girlfriend, Rose. He discovers that the family and many of their wealthy white friends use Rose to attract African Americans to the isolated home where they switch their brains into their bodies.
Throughout the plot, the concept of Otherness is consistently shown as the wealthy white family have set up African Americans as the others. They do not even look at them as humans, more as a collection of various aspects that they want to improve in themselves. They use Rose to lure people into their family and then switch themselves into their bodies in order to possess those traits. For example, one of the wealthy characters wants to switch with the main character, Chris, because he is a photographer and is seen as an avenue for better sight and photography skills. This relates to the concepts discussed as Chris is part of the Others and is being treated as nothing more than a means to an end for a wealthy man who believes that his life is more valuable than Chris’.
The concept of being heard is very prominent in the film. One of the main ways that this is conveyed in through the hypnosis that sends Chris into the Sunken Place. This is described as a place in which the conscious goes while the host’s body is being used by the white transplant. While in the Sunken Place they are conscious but powerless to do anything. This relates to the plight of African Americans across many generations as they were suffering and conscious of all the injustices against them, but they were powerless to do anything to change that. This also shows in how Chris escapes, using cotton to plug his ears so that he can not be hypnotized, flipping the script in a sense. Making it so that he can not hear them, he keeps the power and ability to save himself.