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May 7, 2017 at 9:57 pm #1037Marissa ToranParticipant
I really like your analysis of the film and I tend to agree with the points you make. Specifically the comment about the antagonist of the film being addiction. I’m not sure if I enjoyed the film more because it was prefaced with negative reviews, but regardless I was pleasantly surprised by the film for being so real about enabling addiction, especially as it has to do with family members. With that in mind, I think that maybe the film is called Georgia because she, along with the film itself, represents dealing with the addiction of a loved one by unintentionally enabling it. Georgia’s broken relationship with her sister is due to Sadie’s addictions, but when Sadie shows up in Georgia’s life, she lets her in without initially trying to help her mental or physical health. She tries to help her by offering a place to live and money, but Sadie may have actually needed medical help for her addiction sooner. Eventually, Georgia does do the right thing and is there for her sister at the rehab center. Rather than the film being about Sadie’s career, it’s actually about the way in which Georgia deals with her sister’s addiction.
April 17, 2017 at 12:08 am #1013Marissa ToranParticipantI definitely agree with your analysis of privilege the film. The textbook scene is interesting to me because I find that it has another and more subtle show of the boys’ privilege that I think I noticed because of my background in education. One aspect of the classroom curriculum that many people are unaware of or don’t frequently notice is called the “hidden” curriculum, and it teaches students skill sets that are outside of the specific content area. For example, in any classroom a group project can teach students to work well with others, regardless of the subject of the class. In Dead Poet’s Society and in the textbook scene in particular, Mr. Keating teaches the students to ‘think outside of the box’ and value new perspectives, to question the world around them, and to challenge authority figures. Ultimately, when these values are a part of the hidden curriculum, the goal is for the students to excel at being innovators and leaders. The hidden curriculum in schools also has a lot to do with socioeconomic status — so these values are common for wealthy and predominately white schools, where the students are going to be innovators, entrepreneurs, and leaders in the workforce. The hidden curriculum of schools of low socioeconomic status typically teach their low-income/minority students to be hard workers, to work well as a team, and to follow directions. These students are likely going to be workers in blue collar jobs who need these skill sets for their future jobs. So when Mr. Keating tells the wealthy white students in his class to rip text books, to stand on their desks, and to disobey authority figures, I understand that these aspects of the hidden curriculum are actually normal for that kind of school. However, what really makes me notice the boys’ privilege is that they don’t actually seem to learn anything about literature or poetry throughout this scene, or really any part of the film at all. The boys in this film are ultimately learning that they can be successful in life regardless of how much they actually learned from their prestigious education, because of their privilege.
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