Author: schoch.34

Text Review Assignment- Kara Schoch

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The film poster shows a man and a woman hugging over a picture of the Titanic's bow. In the background is a partly cloudy sky and at the top are the names of the two lead actors. The middle has the film's name and tagline, and the bottom contains a list of the director's previous works, as well as the film's credits, rating, and release date.

The 1997 film, Titanic, is one of the greatest romance/drama movies filmed to this day. After the movie was released it made a total of $2.195 billion. The movie is based off of a true historical event, but with a fictional storyline to go along with it. The actual Titainic wreck happened in 1912. Director, James Cameron, grew up having a fascination with ship wrecks, specifically the Titanic. Therefore, Cameron wanted to create a movie based on the disaster, but wanted to incorporate a love story in order to capture an audience. The film is about two people, Jack and Rose, from different social classes finding themselves to each be falling in love with the other person while aboard the ship, Titanic.

The luxurious Titanic was divided by social class. Rose was a teen girl from a wealthy family who was in first class on the ship. However, Jack won third class tickets in a game of poker right before the ship departed from shore. Throughout the movie, we see the differences in how each class is treated. First class were given better treatment from the staff, given better rooms, had higher quality food services, etc. First and third classes were rarely seen talking to one another. So, when Rose starts falling in love with the poor man Jack, her parents are quick to judgements about the relationship. They want their daughter to marry a fellow wealthy first class man instead. As being apart of first class, they look down on people within third class. They view them as worthless individuals. This however doesn’t stop the two from falling madly in love with one another. Titanic: 10 Behind-The-Scenes Facts About James Cameron's Epic Movie - CINEMABLEND

These differences in first and third class can easily be related to the One and Other concept that we have previously learned in this course. The One would be the people in first class, whereas the Other would be the people in third class. When Rose’s wealthy fiancé finds out about Jack and her’s relationship, he has Jack locked away. This specific scene really shows the power a first class individual can have over a third class individual. If it were to be the other way around, they probably would not have locked up the first class person.

The film ends with the Titanic hitting an iceberg and beginning to sink. As the ship beings to sink, everybody panics and rushes to the main deck in order to get a spot on one of the few safety boats. However, there is not enough room for every passenger to get a spot on these safety boats. As a result, they prioritized the first class individuals before the third class, specifically women and children though. If you were in first class you were more likely to get a spot than if you were in third class. Although this is a fictional movie, it shows some of the important details on how socioeconomic classes differ from one another and how. These treatments are still seen in today’s society.105 Years After the Sinking of the Titanic, Ship Tale Remains Unsinkable on Film - InsideHook

 

“A Small Place” Context Presentation- Kara Schoch

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“A Small Place”

How do you feel when traveling to a foreign place? Excited? Intrigued? Curious? If you said yes to any of those emotions, you are like most people. When traveling to a new place, such as a foreign country, we become these naive, curious tourists. As a tourists, the first thing we want to do is look around to see all the beauty found in our surroundings. Without realizing it, we are actually ignoring big issues currently going on in the environment. We have so much built up adrenaline and excitment for our trip to begin, that we don’t even notice the big picture going on in the society we are visiting, like corruption. Although not all foreign nations are corrupt, many small nations are.

A Small Place is all about how small places, such as the island of Antigua, can be impacted dramatically by foreigners. Kincaid divides the reading into sections whcih further explain the impacts. Locals of these smaller foreign countries describe tourists as ‘ugly people’. What is meant by that phrase is that the locals find it annoying and confusing on why these people leave their perfect lives at home to visit these less fortunate places for entertainment purposes. In fact, most locals can’t stand tourists. Tourists are not only threats to the peace of the locals, but also a threat to their culture and practices.

Most of these nations hold resentment againsts tourists because of past events. Antigua, for example, had a rough up bringing. Locals of Antigua were living comfortably with their own lifestyle until the English settlers colonized it in the late 1600s. This changed everything in Antigua, from architecture to beliefs. They experienced racism verbally and in the form of slavery. Also, the governemnt that was set up was horrible. The corruption seen in Antigua today, is mostly related to this. Natural distasters that took place, such as Earthquakes, did not help out.

Although Antigua achieved independent in the late 1900s, there still hold a grudge towards foreigners. The locals are still suffering from poverty because of their past. Antigua is the only place the locals are familar with, therefore don’t see the reason why people come and visit. All they see are the poor conditions of the island. Therefore, they hate seeing these toursists come through admiring the ‘beauty’ of their island instead of acknowledging the real problems.

 

Work Cited

Abe, et al. “Why Tourists Ruin Places They Visit (and What You Can Do).” Nomadic Matt’s Travel Site, 1 Jan. 2021, www.nomadicmatt.com/travel-blogs/why-tourists-ruin-the-places-they-love/.

Eunice, Mary. 25 Countries Where the Locals Are Totally over the Tourists. 26 Dec. 2018, www.thetravel.com/25-countries-where-the-locals-are-totally-over-the-tourists/.

“History of Antigua and Barbuda.” Encyclopædia Britannica, Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc., www.britannica.com/place/Antigua-and-Barbuda/History.

 

Diary of Systemic Injustice Showcase- Kara Schoch

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The United States is the country for freedom and equality, however if you look deeper, that is not exactly the case. Racism is still continuing in today’s society without most people noticing. This is because it has been adapted into our society and seen as normal, therefore is being overlooked and swept under the rug. A prime example of systemic injustice going on in today’s society, especially lately, is within the nation’s political system. Every U.S. citizen should have the right to vote. However, in the past elections we see that a large portion of the African American community lacked voting rights. This causes issues in the election process because many of those can’t vote on people who they share values and ideas with.

These people are being denied voting rights because of new rules being implemented into the voting process. For example, in 2018 a law required citizens to provide an ID and a valid residential street address in order to vote. This law was indirectly aimed towards Native Americans, because they lived on reservations with no residential street address. In 2017, it was seen that people of other races are 4 times as likely than whites to experience racial discrimination throughout the voting process. Finally, in 2012, the national voter turnout for African Americans was higher than whites for the first time ever. This caused the U.S. Supreme Court to eliminate voting right protections and threaten to undo decades worth of equality voting progress. The nation’s political system has improved over the years with racial discrimination. For we have had an African American president elected. However, that doesn’t mean racial discrimination is not still going on behind the scenes. Examples of old discrimination tactics are still being used in politics to this day whether people notice or not since it has become a norm in society.

This systemic injustice example can be easily related to the concept of the “One” and the “Other” that we learned in this course. In this case, the government/political voting system would be considered the “One”, whereas the African American community would be considered the “Other”. The African Americans have little to no say in whether they are eligible for voting rights or not since the policies are changed by the government. It is all determined by our nation’s voting system. This can also be related to the “Letter from Birmingham Jail” that we read previously in this course. This reading is about the whole Civil Rights Movement and fighting for African Americans equal rights, which can easily be tied into this systemic injustice example seen in our nation to this day.

Resources:

https://www.americanprogress.org/issues/race/reports/2019/08/07/473003/systematic-inequality-american-democracy/