Derrick During The Skin Head Party Scene example essay topic

Theory Assignment on American History This movie tells the story of a young man, from Southern California, that is the product of several unfortunate incidents, and his misguided search trying to answer the question why his life is the way it is. I. Daniel appeared to be dealing with the adolescent stage. Daniel seems to have developed his sense of self worth by mimicking his older brother. Daniels significant relationships, since his brothers incarceration has been derricks old friends (the skin head group). The scene in the principle's office shows that Daniel is trying to live up to what he believes are his older brother's ideals, which he believes are following in the foot steps of Nazis. Hate anyone that is not white and protestant. His own self image is one of an up and coming skin head; so he believes his identity is that of a racially intolerant neo-Nazi.

Daniel's search for that identity terminates when Derrick tells him about the experience of his prison time. This scene played out after Derrick confronted Conner at the skin head party and had to flee from his former admirers because he beat up their leader. Daniel followed Derrick and questioned him as to why he was behaving like a "Nigger lover". Daniels since of loyalty was shaken, and the explanation Derrick gave appeared to have turned Daniels beliefs around.

Stacey is derrick's girl friend at the beginning of the film. Stacey's conscious and sexual identity seems to have been developed somewhat askew to the norms of middle class America, but she shows her comfort in her self during the dinner scene where the school teacher is discussing oppression of minorities with Derrick. Stacy voices an opinion that states blacks and Hispanics are a bane on society. She is a yes man to all of Derricks opinions, and during the same scene she shows her sexuality when she sensuously caresses Derrick after the altercation with Derrick's family and his mother's date.

This scene showed that Stacey's role models were other racist, and her beliefs were based on the rhetoric that is espoused at hate monger meetings. Stacey's young adult stage is shown when she refuses to listen to Derrick during the skin head party scene. She had completely immersed herself in the "Derrick" persona. The idea of what she perceived Derrick would be like when he returned from prison. Stacey told Derrick, during the party scene that he as like a king in their world. She believed she would be his queen.

Stacey had completely loss herself in Derrick, and Derrick's rejection of the skin head values was like cutting off her love, her best friend and placing her in isolation from the person she was most intimate with. When Derrick rejected the prison white power group, he was without protection. By asking the "brothers not to hurt or kill Derrick, Lamont went out of his way to protect Derrick. This act of caring could have put Lamont's safety in jeopardy. This was a very unselfish act, and being unselfish is an issue of the middle adulthood stage. The act of speaking up for this white guy was an act of social activism, and helped contribute to the reformation that occurred to Derrick while he was locked up.

Lamont showed his capacity for caring, and, in a sense, gave love without looking for anything in return. 2. The social environment, depicted in the film, was one of racial strife. Social environment being the interactions between an individual and the people he comes in contact with, and the culture of that individual. The scene at the basketball court showed the haltered between the neo- Nazis and the black youths. The only thing portrayed in the court scene was hate and anger.

Other than skin color, the scene gave no clue as to why there were such acrimonious feelings between the two groups. The environment that Derrick allowed himself to become a part of was morally deficient. According to the norms of society, all people have a basic right to life and freedom. The basic institutions of people's rights did not exist in the environment of the skin heads... The scene where Connor takes Derrick to meet with the new skin heads, and they terrorize the workers of a Korean owned store, and destroy the store, showed the skin head's contempt for immigrants. The most telling environmental factor was the influence Derrick's father had on his way of thinking.

During the scene when Derricks is talking about the book Native Son, Derrick's father tells him that he should be wary of any new books that this black Dr that Derrick is so excited about, assigns for reading. These factors help determine the course of Derrick's actions, and are therefore the parts that make up and they help define the system of the film. 3. The first identified population is the black youth in the neighborhood. One of the reasons for their high risk factor is the role models shown in the film.

At the basketball court, during the scene when the young black male shows his "mentor", where Daniel is pointed out as "the one" who is slated to be shot, the victimization of the impressionable youth is apparent. If my "hero" is talking about "he ain't nothing", then for sure that is where my mind is going to be. By not having role models that portrayed societal norms, these youths are placed at risk If no one I know behaves in a manner that conforms with society, how can I be expected to understand what society expects. In the bathroom scene, when Daniel stands up to the three black youths, and tells the beaten white youth he has to stand up for himself, he is a marked man.

Another population at risk in the film is the skin heads. When Derrick is first introduced, by killing the black youths that were trying to steal his truck, the risk factor is apparent. If the person an entire group of peopled look up to the most is out of control, then the other members of that group are probably going to emulate his actions. In the flash back scene when Derrick directs the carnage on the Korean's store, the realization that these people were operating on borrowed time was apparent. No group operates above the law without dealing with the consequences eventually. Another population at risk is the immigrant workers.

Whether they are legal or otherwise, a part of society perceives them as a threat. During the Korean store debacle, some of the skinheads were saying things about the illegal status of the store employees. The store owner was told not to hire illegal workers for cheap wages. The prejudices of "citizens" put all immigrants in a risk category. When Derrick tells the teacher, during the scene where Derrick kicks the teacher out of the house, that immigrants from Europe came to America without incident is a falsehood. Italians, Germans, Irish, and all other immigrants face the same situation of assimilation, or isolation.

The established community sees any influx of new people as a threat to security of some type. Whether it is a threat to income, power, or land, the threat is perceived and dealt with by hostile means I many cases. 4. The reason a defense mechanism is necessary is to cope with unacceptable situations.

In the scene where Derrick assaults his mother, brother and sister, Derrick mother continues to defend him when she talks to the Jewish teacher she had asked to come to dinner. Derrick had physically assaulted his entire family, and had totally disrespected his mothers date. The mother follows the teacher outside, and still defends her son knowing her son is wrong, and even saying she is ashamed of Derrick, The mother defends him by saying, "He's just a boy without a father". By continuing in this state of denial, Derrick's mother does not have to face the monster her son is becoming. 5. The person I would have to refer would be Cameron Alexander.

The scene when he manipulates Derrick into leading the "pack' of skin heads against the Korean Store was a glimpse into his way of thinking. Cameron believes he is the cure all for white America. He believes that the destruction of the young minds, into his way of thinking, will eventually lead to an all white America. The scene where Cameron tells Derrick that Daniel sees him as more important than Derrick will ever be is his perception of himself to all the young skinheads.

Cameron's sense of self importance would cause feelings of counter transference about his racial intolerance, and I would no longer be impartial, or objective. My feelings as a black man would surface, and I would probably tell Cameron how I felt about his beliefs. 6. The type of attachment of Seth, the character that seemed so needy at the basketball game, wanting to be noticed, searching for approval from Derrick and Cameron, appears to be in the disorganized / disoriented stage. His actions throughout the film were one contradiction after the other. He would come on like gangbusters when talking to the black players' on the ball court, and then he became so submissive when talking to Derrick after making the bet.

He acted the same way when Derrick came home. He was so tough and abusive to all of Derrick's family, yet he became so submissive when Derrick spoke to him. 7. Erickson's proposal of personality development defines competence as the need to master one's environment. For me competence is the ability to do the things necessary to survive. In the film, the most competent character is Lamont.

Lamont is a prisoner by circumstance. The explanation of his incarceration in the laundry scene qualifies this statement. Lamont is not a tough guy or a gang thug. Yet he has enough clout to ask the "brothers" in prison not to kill Derrick. For me, that is definitely mastering one's environment. 8.

An example of an irrational thought is the scene where Daniel begins to blame himself for Derrick's action. Daniel is in the bedroom looking at old news clippings and Nazi emblems. He begins to question whether their life would have been the same if he had not told derrick his truck was being stolen. Thinking their life would have been rosy if he had not awaken and told Derrick that the black guys were breaking into his truck is an irrational though by Daniel. 9.

The location of what controls a person dictates how that person behaves. Some people believe they control their own destiny, and others believe destiny is controlled by fate. External locus of control is the belief that fate other people control lives. An example of external locus of control is given by Dr Bob In the prison hospital scene; Bob is telling Derrick how he blamed everyone, and everything for the poor conditions of his life and the lives of all black people. Bob shows Derrick how he had allowed outside forces to control his life. Bob then told Derrick to ask himself the question Bob had asked himself to begin his life turn around.

"If anything he had done made life better?" It is at this point in the film it seems that Derrick has a breakthrough, and begins to see that the reason for his problems are his own actions, and not the actions of others. 10. Culture is the shared learned beliefs and attitudes of a society. Culture is also the symbols of that society, along with the values of the society.

The culture of this film is defined by the beliefs of the skin heads. This would be a culture of racial hate and anti establishment rhetoric. Drug use and few sexual restraints. Another culture prevalent in the film is the black culture of the inner city. Gang violence, drug use and turf wars.

Also shown is the culture of middle-America trying to survive in a war zone is the undeniable strength of the American middle class. A once lost black youth has managed to rise to a PHD, and has become the principal of his school. A struggling white family is surviving in the midst of the same turmoil. Although they have wavered at times, the family is not lost.

So I suppose the film is actually multi-cultured. To label this film as only having one culture would be doing a disservice to the film. 11. A reciprocal effect is the influence of the environment on a person, and the person influencing the environment.

An example of this is what happens to Derricks beliefs when his father is killed by a black man. The influence of this action causes derrick to begin hating not only blacks but all people not white and Protestants. The tirade Derrick spews when the TV anchor questions him, after the death of his father, tell everyone the hate he is beginning share. The Hate message Derrick's father was preaching has finally taken root.

Because of Derrick's feelings of hate, he becomes a leader of a small band of neo-Nazis. The effect of his rise to power on his neighborhood, causes the death of two black youths, his incarceration, and ultimately the death of his brother. The cycle that began when Derrick's father was teaching him to hate Blacks continued throughout the film. 12. An example of biological time is the deteriorating health of Derrick's mother.

Derrick's mom smoked excessively when she was first seen, but she appeared to be in good health. Near the conclusion of the film she appears to have a bad lung condition, and the four years since the death of her husband has taken a big toll on her health. The biological time on Derrick's mother has her going from a strong woman, to a woman that has chronic health problems. 13. The physical setting of the film begins in the late 90's in Venus Beach California. The setting is a middle class neighborhood that is in transition.

The scene where Derrick is inciting the young skin heads to terrorize the Korean store tells how the neighborhood is viewed by the skin heads. The whites are being pushed out, and the neighbor hood is being overrun by Blacks, Hispanics and Orientals. This setting allows the feelings of resentment and hate fester until there is a collision of differences, and the out come is murder and imprisonment. The time is right after the Rodney King trials, and the people are ripe for an explosion. The proximity to the King trial, and police brutality trials, would have kept feelings drawn between racial lines, so that allowed the story to capture the animosity between Blacks and Whites.

14. After derrick was raped by the White prisoners, he had no protection. During the next scenes, the film shows Derrick worrying about when his death will come. He is thinking that death is imminent, and he only hopes it will be swift. The expectation of certain death, and not knowing when or how it will come, must be one of the most stressful situations imaginable.

The inability to control your own fate has to be one of the most stressful situations I can think of. Especially if that situation is about your life or death. 15 Sexuality is displayed very freely throughout the film. During the opening scene, derrick and his girl friend are having sex in the home of his mother. The rape scene in prison, though deviant to people on the outside of prison, may be consider a norm inside prison; at least that is how the film portrays the situation. There is much kissing and caressing by the teens at school, and by Daniel and his girl friend.

The behavior and attitude of the characters in the film is one of a liberal sexual attitude. From a biophysical view, the film seems to state that sex is a natural part of the culture of the movie. Psychological sexuality seemed au-natural as well. That is until derrick thought his mother was going to have sex with a forbidden Jew. The thought of A Jew with his mother seemed to enrage Derrick. The social view of sex, by the characters engaged in any form of sexual activity, seemed to be anything was ok as long as it was between two heterosexual white Protestants.

16. Aging in the film is viewed in a time span of about four years The biophysical aging of the characters in the film is slim. Except for Derricks baby sister, and the health issues of Derrick's mother, the aging of the characters is not very much. The baby's aging is more noticed because she grew from an infant, to a toddler.

The mother's aging was noticeable because her health deteriorated so much. The view of aging from a psychological point can be seen, from Derricks perspective, as a full circle. Derrick was introduced as a young adult with good values and a person with an open mind. During the course of the film, Derrick went from a rational teen, to an irrational person filled with hate.

It seems that Daniel took the same psychological ride as Derrick. The other characters remained at on a level psychological playing field. The skin heads may have become more radical, but that appeared to be because of the strength in numbers. The social view of aging in the film seemed to encompass the hatred of the time between two factions in a community in flux. The the presentation of community leaders trying to heal the community, the police captain and principal bob trying to enlist Derrick to help quell the possible uprising in the final scenes, also showed some social aging. 17.

The roles of men in the film were depicted at the beginning by Derrick and his father as dominant figures in their household. Principal Bob was another strong male figure. The main female characters differed only in that Stacy seemed to become independent of Derrick at the end of the film. Derricks mother and sister seemed to be typical obedient females.

Derricks mom Derricks mom was "just" a housewife, and when her husband died Derrick filled the head of household role. Derricks oldest sister remained a liberal democrat throughout the movie, but showed no real interest in taking charge of her life.