"Ordinary People" Movie Analysis Essay

She is very interested in keeping up appearances and looking good in public. Public image is an idol for her. Beth goes so far as to discourage the idea of Conrad going to therapy in the name of returning to "normal."

For several weeks, Conrad avoids telling his parents that he quit the swim team. When a friend of Beth's lets her know of the news, she gets angry with Conrad: "I wish I knew, Conrad, why it is so important for you to try and hurt me" (110). As a result of Conrad and Beth's lack of communication, they have a difficult time understanding and sympathizing with one another. Beth believes everything Conrad does is in an attempt to hurt her, and Conrad thinks his mother hates him. Something similar happens between Beth and Calvin. The both of them stand on opposite sides of the fence. Calvin wants to talk about the family problems, while Beth wants to leave them in the past. Calvin cares for Conrad in the way a parent should, while Beth doesn't care enough and believes the care Cal has for Conrad is a lack of love for her. This poses many issues in their marriage, and leads to Beth eventually leaving Calvin. Without an established community, communication within the Jarrett household could not properly occur. This contributes in this family's ability to fully

Calvin thinks that Beth’s unwillingness to come back and join them in therapy is a threat to their relationship. He describes himself as powerless and abandoned by her. Also, Calvin is worried about Conrad well-being. He believes Conrad is too sensitive and does not want he blames himself as the reason for the marriage crisis.

In fact, his mother denies her loss, hoping to maintain her composure and restore her family to what it once was. She appears to have loved her elder son more and because of the suicide attempt, has now grown cold toward Conrad. She is determined to maintain the appearance of perfection and normalcy. When Conrad was in the hospital, Beth never went to see him for the four

One thing the made Conrad progress throughout the novel was the fact that his father kept pushing him to go see Dr. Berger. At the beginning of the novel, Calvin was pushing Conrad to go see Dr. Berger, who was a psychiatrist. Conrad finally gave Berger a chance and decided

The book, and the movie, “the Outsiders” is about a conflict between greasers and socs. Up until the point where Johnny kills a soc, there are mostly only small fights and arguments between the two. The story “the Outsiders” takes place in the 1960’s, when there were two main lifestyles. Greasers and Socs. Greasers are known for greasing their hair. Socs are rich kids who have good clothes, drive mustangs, and always have an argument against the greasers. The main character in S. E. Hinton’s book “the Outsiders” is Ponyboy Curtis. He has two older brothers Darry and Soda. Pony is 14 years old and his best friend, Johnny, is 16 years old. S. E. Hinton wrote “the Outsiders” when she was 17 years old. Her book was published in 1967. The

The Disney Way of Death explains the unfortunate/sad reaction to the evident loss of a loved one (friends and family). The reactions associated were common characteristics that Americans experience when they encountered death- Invisibility, silence, dispassion, institutionalization and taboo. (Laderman, 2000)

Painful as it may be, such experiences brings home the finality of death. Something deep within us demands a confrontation with death. A last look assures us that the person we loved is, indeed, gone forever.” (108) Cable finishes his essay by asking, Tim if his job ever depressed him. Tim in reply says, “No it doesn’t, and I do what I can for people and take satisfaction in enabling relatives to see their loved ones as they were in real life.” (108) After reading this essay I feel as though sometimes we don’t understand death so therefore we do not talk much about it. By reading about what goes on after your loved one dies and is sent to these places to be prepared and ready for burial, it helps to understand why morticians and funeral directors do what they do. Knowing that someone enjoys taking the responsibility in providing that comfort in a sorrowful time makes me appreciate these people in these occupations a bit

The Outsiders movie which was released on March 25, 1983, is a American drama film directed by Francis Ford Coppola .It is a crime thriller and is adapted from a novel of the same name by S.E. Hinton .The Film was shot on location in Tulsa, Oklahoma and set in 1965 .The story of this movie revolves around the conflict between the two different social groups ,which is the rich and the poor. It is a class versus class conflict which gives rise to a physical conflict between the Greasers and the Socs .I feel there are physical fights throughout the story between the two groups due to enculturation. The native culture that is transmitted from one generation to another among the Greasers is the reason for their limitations.

Regarding psychological functioning, Conrad is under the vicious cycle of depression. His brother’s death led him to adapt a negative explanatory style. This in turn resulted in his depressed mood and cognitive and behavioral changes. He also believes that he has disobeyed his parents and does not deserve their forgiveness or affection (1:09:38). Conrad lives with a sense of guilt, not only for attempting suicide, but for things he had no control over (ex. Karen’s death). From a socio-cultural approach, Conrad depression worsens due to his unstable relationship with his mother, along with other relationships in his life. Throughout the movie, we clearly see that Conrad’s mother does not understand the severity of Conrad’s mental state. She frequently believes that Conrad is fine and wants their lives to ‘get back to normal’ (0:24:37). She believes Conrad’s mental health is a phase that can be fixed by simply being harder on him. The movie also takes place in a time where discussing mental health is taboo. Mental illness was significantly less common and thought to be a touchy subject. Throughout the movie, we can see that people do not know how to approach the Jarretts about Conrad’s state and frequently stumble through conversations or do not understand the situation (0:22:14; 0:31:52; 0:48:05). This plays a part in Conrad’s depression because he feels he can’t talk to or relate to anyone

After Conrad's suicide attempt, all the characters need to figure themselves out. Calvin, Conrad's dad is more concerned with how Conrad is doing than anyone else. Conrad and Calvin's daily conversation consist of, "How's going it going? School. Swimming. Everything okay? Yeah, fine. Same as yesterday. What does that mean? A faint smile. It means you ask me that every day. Sorry. He smiles, too." (Guest 11). Nobody understands who they truly are. "He laughs now, out loud. See? Haven't lost your sense of humor after all but your sense of identity is what seems to have been misplaced. No. Wrong. You don't lose what you never had."(Guest 35) Conrad is focused on moving on from his suicide attempt, but every thing he does Calvin,

I had never seen this movie before. I found it to have a slow beginning and I did not care for the ending. The movie left me with questions. I also felt the mother had serious problems. She wanted to have her family portrayed as perfect although they far from being perfect. I also felt she was not loving towards Conrad even towards the end when he hugged her. She could not bring herself to hug him back. The movie did not make it clear if she was always this way with Conrad or if she became that way after his brother died. I wondered if she blamed him for his brother’s death. The father appeared to try to understand Conrad. The father could see that his wife wanted to be away from their son. I felt sad to hear the father tell his wife he did not love her anymore because she had become a person he

The narrator seems to view selfhood and a person’s sense of self as something everyone needs but not all have. The narrator shows this through the main character Conrad. He is an example of when a person lacks selfhood they can end up lost and depressed. The character that best expresses view of selfhood is Conrad’s mother, Beth. She expresses view of selfhood because of how she finds her identity in how others view her. For example, when she didn’t know Conrad had quit the swim team and another mom knew she said, “It was rather embarrassing” (Guest 109). Revealing that Beth cares so much about how other think of her shows that she finds her identity in being portrayed as “perfect”. An example of Beth wanting to be seen as perfect and having

Unlike Ed, her “hot tempered” nature and her inability to empathise with her son, has meant that she is unable to adapt to the demands of Christopher’s social barriers. This is evident in a letter in chapter 157 where she states “ Maybe if things had been differant, maybe if you'd been differant i might have been better at it. But thats just the way things turned out”. The repetition of ‘maybe’ demonstrates the initial complexity of human communication which in Christophers case, was further complicated by his social demands. Through Mark Haddon’s incorporation of a letter in this chapter, the difficulties in human communication is shown as his mother has resorted to indirect communication in explaining her reasoning for his abandonment. Although Judy lovingly and diligently cares for Christopher she struggles with the frustration she feels as a result of not always being able to understand her son’s behaviour. This ideology is further reiterated through the comparison in the letter between Ed and Judy seen in “Your father is a much more pacient person. He just gets on with things.. But that’s not the way i am…” Haddon’s characterisation of Christopher’s parents presents to the responder the conflicting side of love, the multi-faceted and complicated nature of human interaction, and the opposing approaches of both parents in communicating and dealing with Christopher’s condition, as part of their

One problem with bottling up emotions is that it causes people to distance themselves from other people; eventually leading to serious mental disorders such as depression or anxiety. As seen in Ordinary People, When Conrad had the least amount of stability in his mental health when the lines of communication between others and himself were the least active. For instance, during Conrad’s most unstable period's post-mental hospital, Conrad tells Calvin, “Lazenby’s