Soul Food the Movie - Term Paper Example

Soul Food the Movie Soul Food the movie Soul food is an American drama comedy film of 1997, produced by Kenneth, Tracey Edmonds and Robert Teitel. The film was released by Fox 2000 pictures featuring an ensemble cast, the film stars being Vanessa Williams, Vivica A. Fox, Nia Long, Michael Bech, Mekhi Phifer, Jeffrey D. Sams, Irma P. Hall, Gina Ravera, and Brandon Hammond. The movie focuses on the trials of an extended African – American family, joined together by well-established family traditions which start to fade as serious problems take center stage. Tillman positioned the family in the film on his own and soul food was acclaimed for proffering a more affirmative image of African-Americans than is typically seen in Hollywood films. This movie displays sociological theories which include conflict theory, critical theory, feminist theory, functionalist theory, structural strain theory, rational choice theory, social learning theory, game theory and many others. These theories are elaborated below. Feminist theory This is a major sociological theory that analyses the condition of women and men in societies with the need of using that knowledge to better women’s live. This theory is divided into four main types that are gender differences, gender inequality, gender oppression and structural oppression. In gender differences, it examines how position of women and experience, social conditions differ from that of men. For example, feminist of culture looks to the different types of values linked with womanhood and femininity as reason men and women feel the social world differently. In gender inequality, the theory recognizes that the location in which women are, practice of, social conditions is not only different, but also dissimilar to that of men. According to liberal feminists, women have similar capacity as men for virtuous reasoning and agency, but particularly the sexists pattering if the division of labor has historically denied women the opportunity to express and practice this reasoning. Due to the isolation of women to the private sphere of the household, they have been left without any voice in the public sphere. In gender oppression, theorists argue that not only are women different from or unalike to men but that they are a subordinated and even abused by men. In structural oppression, this theory posits that the oppression of women and inequality are a result of capitalism, patriarchy and racism. Soul Food movie perpetuates and reinforces the degrading stereotype of African-American women. This movie, according the theory of Feminism, show that black women can find pleasure and happiness only when providing the restorative broth of soul food to her loved ones. The movie soul food is an expression of the central core of Black culture. African-American women, as the images insist, must continue to be the sole life support system of family unity outside the womb with the soul food. The movie molded its celluloid women to fit the male dominant ideology of female subservience. In the final sequence, while Ahmad tells the viewer that thing had got better for his family after that soul food dinner reunion. Maxine, Bird and Teri are visualized as content and happy gathering vegetables in the family garden, a contemporary version of the allotted plantation garden. Social exchange theory This theory interprets the society as a series of information that is based estimates of rewards and punishments. Interactions from this view are determined by the rewards or punishments that people get from others and all human relationships are configured by the use of subjective cost beneficial analysis. According to Witt (2011), information that prompts approval from another person is more likely to be replicated than an interaction that elicits the disapproval. Rewards can originate in different forms, for example, they can come inform of recognition, money, tangible things such as gift. Reviewing the movie soul food, the film imposes upon African-American women the culturally constructed icon of Aunt Jemima strong, loyal, kind, good natured but subservient. It symbolically rewards the women who provide the construct while punishing those who do not fit to. This theory has basic assumptions such as people who are intricate in the communication are rationally seeking to increase their profits, people get access to the idea about social, economic, and psychological characteristics of their interactions that give them permission to consider more profitable conditions relative to their present circumstances, and finally people are goal oriented in a freely competitive system. Functionalism (functionalist theory) Functionalism is one of the crucial theoretical stances in sociology. It interprets each part of society in terms of how it supports to the stability of the whole society. Society is more than the total of its constitution, though, each part of the society is functional for the solidity of the whole society. Society’s institutions are the primarily different parts, whereby each is organized to fill dissimilar requirements and each of which has particular consequences for the form and shape of society. These parts depend on each other. By reviewing the movie, we can formulate functionalism whereby it is the Sunday dinners, the family house, and the ability and effort of Big Mama Put into maintaining both help keep her three daughters from continuous fighting. Teri (Vanessa) is viewed as a driven attorney married to another attorney who wants to quit and be a musician. Because of this conflict Big Mama wants to bring them together. Functionalism stresses the consensus and order that prevail in society, focusing on stability of the sociology and shared values of the public. Systems disorganization such as deviant behavior leads to change because societal components must adjust to regain stability. When one part of the system in not properly working, it ruins all other parts and leads to social problems that later take us to social change. Functionalism has received criticism for neglecting the negative functions of an event such as divorce. Researchers also claim that the theory justifies the standing quo and complacency on the constituent of the members of the society. This theory does not stimulate people to take an active role in changing their social environment, even when such change profits them. Functionalism observes active social change as unpleasant because the various parts of society will remunerate naturally for any problems that may arise. Conflict theory This theory emphasizes on the role of coercion and power in producing social order. This outlook originates from the works of Karl Marx who viewed society as fragmented into groups that compete for social and economic resources. Order in the society is maintained by misery, with power in the hands of those with the considerable political, economic, and social initiatives. When consensus persists, it is attributable to people being united around common attention, especially in opposition to other groups. Conflict theory shows inequality that exists because those in control of a disproportionate part of society’s recourses actively defend their benefits. Sharing of values do not bound masses to society but are bound by coercion at the hands of those in power. Conflict theory from its view, emphasizes social control. Slightly reviewing the movie soul food, conflict theory appears whereby the matriarch plays role of being a peacemaker of conflict between Bird who does not realize that Lem (her husband) is about to be humiliated by her past boyfriend Jackson. It is also seen that when Big Mama suffers a stroke, Ahmad instead of thinking what to do to help her, he just wants to inherit her position. Another situation of conflict theory application in the movie is whereby Teri comes home from work where she and Miles sit down to eat her favorite dinner, a light salad that Miles has prepared for her. The communication over dinner is laden with conflict. They both argue about money and Mile’s decision to leave his law practice and devote full time to music performance. From that perspective, conflict theory focuses on the negative side while most of other sociological theories focus on the positive view of the ever-changing nature of the society. Unlike the functionalists who oppose the quo status, prevents social change, and believe people cooperate to effect social order; conflict theorists challenge the quo status, encourages change in the society, and believe wealthy and muscular people force social order on the weak and poor part of the society. Critical theory Critical theory is aligned toward critiquing and changing the entire society, in contrast to traditional theory aligned only to know and elaborate it. This theory aims to go deep the surface of social life and expose the assumptions that make us from a full and trusted knowledge of how the world works. The core values of critical theory are that it should be guided at the totality of society on how it came to be at a particular point in time, and that it should increase the societies’ experience by integrating all the major social sciences. The movie Soul Food can be viewed in a critical theory s full of compelling circumstances. The best artifact in it is that it never falls into peachiness. Although the movie is very easy to tell who is going to screw up and why, it still works as a great story telling because of the present characters from their own families. The family togetherness enables them to care for themselves in the deepest way. However, what makes this movie apart is the ease with which this familiarity is developed. There is no overacting present; there are no moments where one feels the film has gotten away from its inherent roundedness. According to Johnson, (1995) a critical theory is adequate only if it meets three criteria, must be explanatory, practical and normative viewing them at the same time. These conditions must intricate what is wrong with current social reality, identify the actors to change it, and provide both norms for criticism and achievable, practical goals for social transformation. Social learning theory This theory tries to explain socialization and how it affects the developments of the self. This theory looks at the individual learning process, the information of self, and the interaction of society in socializing individuals. It concentrates on the information one’s identity to be a learned response to social stimuli. It emphasizes the societal context of socialization instead of the mind of an individual. Social learning theory postulates that the identity of individuals is not the result of the unconscious though it is the result of modeling oneself in response to the waiting response of others. People’s behavior and attitudes spread in response to reinforcement and encouragement from the people around. Soul Food is the movie that displays social learning theory. By watching the movie, most people wish that all families could be in this warm. People fall in love with the notion and the idea of the togetherness in Joseph’s Family. Teri was stock in misery without the experience of love of a husband, the envy between her and Maxile could have destructed any relationship. Kenny treated his wife in a sociological way. He caller her “beautiful” the way he looked at his wife after she had a baby was so touching. Big mama was a remarkable mother, grandmother, friend and cook. It takes a strong person as Big Mama to hold a family together. Game theory This is a social interaction theory that attempts to elaborate the interaction people have with one another. This theory was originally an economic and mathematical theory that foretold that social interaction had the attribute of the game, including strategies, winners and losers, rewards and punishment and profits and cost. It was initially spread to understand a large variety of economic behaviors. Before, game theory was used to describe and model human populations behave. Some scholars believe that they can forecast how actual human populations will behave when challenged with situations analogous to the game being deliberated. This perspective view has been criticized because the assumptions made by the game theorists are violated. For example, scholars assume that players act in a way to increase their wins chances, when, in fact, this is no always true. According to the movie soul food, it talks about a big African-American family from Chicago that interact together with a warm hearted good cheer; in the process it cuts between stories of romance and disaster, it is like “waiting to Emanate” but more down to earth and believable and funnier. This movie shows how black families communicate in a constant communication down three or four generations and out to third cousins, also tells how a matriarch as the Big Mama in the movie, hosts a holiday supper, there are going to be many people in the residence, and a lot of stories to catch up with, thus displaying sociological game theory. Structural strain theory This theory traces the starting points of deviance to the tensions that are the caused by the difference between social goals and the resources people have available to achieve. This theory characterizes societies by both culture and social structure. Culture provides goals for people in society while social structure provides or fails to establish the means for people to attain those objectives. According to Merton (2010), in well integrated society, people use to agree and appropriate means to obtain the achievements that society introduces. The imbalance between social objectives and structurally available resources can lead an individual into deviant behavior. The economic success goal in the U.S is a significant example that aids further explain the structural strain theory. In the country, everybody strives for economic success achievement. Viewing another example is from the movie soul food, the essence of the movie is about the three sister, their stories and their marriages. The actions of all the actors in these sequences are a reminder of how wealthy the African-American acting community has developed in recent years, with the renaissance in black themed films. Williams plays Teri, who is the most successful woman in her family, ambitious, competitive, and tired of picking up bills. She is happy to give Bird money but has a lifelong competition with Maxine because her senses a happiness and marital security she will never know. Drama in the film is displayed when Birds ex-boyfriend pretends to help Lm get a job and uses the opening to humiliate him. Watching this movie, in many processes, it portrays a world which white audiences will find unfamiliar. The family shares the same kinds of values, problems, worries, failures and success as whites. The family applies a structural strain theory to finally achieve their goals, that is, uniting at the end of which becomes successful. Symbolic interaction theory This theory analyses society by addressing the subjective meaning that people impose on things, occurrence and behaviors. Subject meanings are considered primary because it is believed that most humans behave on what they believe and not just on what is partially true. Thus, society is sociologically constructed through people’s analysis. Humans interpret each others behavior and it is these interpretations that form the social bond. These interpretations are known as definition of the situation. The theory’s critic claims that symbolic interactions neglect the macro level of social analysis. In a simple way, symbolic communication can miss the biggest issues of the society by pivoting too closely on the “trees” rather than the “forest." Reviewing the movie soul food, Terry who chooses to pursue liberation and creativity outside the domestic sphere, is scripted as unhappy and unfilled. The role played by Teri and Maxine symbolizes reward and punishment, narratives of happiness and unhappiness. The contrasting scenes signify that choosing a career brings unhappiness and loneliness, but, if one confines oneself to husband and family, one is rewarded with idyllic life blessings. Teri lives in a high-tech modern apartment. In one scene Teri comes home from work where she and Miles have prepared for her. The communication over dinner is laden with conflict. They argue about money and Mile’s decision to leave his law practice and devote full time to music performance. In contrast, Maxine’s home is similar to Mama Joe’s and her interactions with her children and husband resemble a twenty-four hour nurturing incubator. Her anniversary party is a celebration of joy and happiness where all that attend are happy, except Teri who is depicted as an outsider. Maxine, the audience, is told, is the strong one of the family. The scene where Maxine interacts with Uncle Pete signifies that Maxine will assume Big Mama ideological mythic part. As Maxine walks into the empty dining room of Big Mama house she finds Pete seated at the table and engaged in confused rambling about his past in Mississippi (Taylor and Anderson, 2009). Rational choice theory Economics applies a significant impact in human behavior. People are frequently motivated by money and the probability of making a profit, calculating the likely costs and advantages of any action before determining what to do. According to Scott (2000), this theory looks at the ways in which the output, distribution, and depletion of goods and services in is organized through money. Several theorists have asserted that the same general principles can be used to comprehend social interactions where time; information, approval and prestige are the resources being exchanged. From this theory, people are motivated by their personal requirements and objectives and are driven by personal desires. Because individuals cannot obtain all the various things they require, they should make selections related to both their objectives and the means for attaining those objectives. They must prompt the outcomes of alternative courses of action and compute which action will be best for them. Finally, rational individuals select the course of action that is likely to execute them the greatest satisfaction. Reviewing the movie soul food, it has introduced into popular culture a significant amount of food to digest in understanding soul food’s power to express communal spirit and African-American identity. In the act of creating a cuisine, the slaves exercised social skills at a substantial remove from the initial economic objectives of the slave society. This movie lies in its trans-significance whereby the material element of food not only satiates biological hunger, but also satiates the psychological hunger for social identity. Aunt Jemima is used as a symbol of good, benevolent person who experiences fulfillment and joy in the care and nurturance of others. This appears to be a true character of Big Mama. Teri and Maxine are, however, placed in opposition, suggesting that choosing a career negates a women’s ability to find happiness and share the joy of family life and vice versa in the character of Maxine. In the real situation, women are multi-dimensional. They combine both career and family, experiencing joy, fulfillment and conflict in an attempt to balance both. One key objective in rational choice theory is the conviction that all action is fundamentally rational in personality. This differentiates it from other forms of theory because it denies the existence of any action other than the entirely rational and calculative. This theory explains that all social action can be seen as motivated rationally, although much it may appear to be irrational. Also, central point to all forms of rationalism is the supposition that complex social event can be explained in terms of the individual action that lead to those phenomena. This process is called methodological individualism, which persists that the elementary unit of social life is individual human activity. Thus, if it can be explained, social change and social institutions only require showing how they emerge as a result of independent action and interactions (Edmonds et al, 1997). Conclusion Feminist theory is the commonly used sociological theory in the movie. It is an image of control that limits the power and agency of African-American women to the kitchen. In its depiction of women, soul food contradicts the original symbolic expression of soul food as a source of freedom, power, action and identity. The film misconstrues its important symbolic meaning of freedom by employing a food as a coercive force to keep African-American chained to a metaphoric plantation kitchen and garden. References Edmonds E. T, Michael M., et. al. (Producer). Tillman G. Jr (Dir.). 1997. Soul Food. United States. Film. Taylor, H.F. and Anderson, M.L. (2009). Sociology: The Essentials. Belmont, CA: Thomson Wadsworth. (functionalism) Johnson, A. (1995). The Blackwell Dictionary of Sociology. Malden, Massachusetts: Blackwell Publishers. (critic theory) Merton K. Robert , (2010). Sociology of science and sociology as science. Columbian University Press. Scott, J. (2000). Understanding Contemporary Society: Theories of the Present. Sage Publications. Witt, D.D. (2011). Social Exchange Theory and Developmental Theories. http://www3.uakron.edu/witt/fc/fcnote5b.htm Read More