Driving Miss Daisy

Driving Miss Daisy depicts a strong friendship that progressively builds between an elderly Jewish widow named Daisy Werthan and an African American chauffeur named Hoke Coleburn. After crashing her car into a neighbor’s property from pressing the reverse peddle too hard, Miss Daisy Werthan lost her privilege to drive on the road. Since she cannot drive, her son hired Hoke to be her personal chauffeur. At first, Miss Daisy refuses to let Hoke drive her anywhere out of fear of losing her independence but out of necessity; she began to accept his offers. From driving to a local Piggly Wiggly to Miss Daisy’s brother’s 90th birthday party in Alabama, the two characters begin to appreciate and respect one another that gradually forms a loving friendship.
This film is an example of age related transformations throughout Miss Daisy’s life. The audience sees Miss Daisy from her 70’s when she is living in her own house through her 90’s when she is living in a nursing home. This paper analyzes Miss Daisy through the application of ageism, stereotypes, successful aging process, the life span perspective theory, as well as the place centric values. Most media portray great amount of stereotypes of all different ages, I personally expected this film to show great amount of ageism. There were times when Miss Daisy’s son interfered her life (when she crashed her car by pressing on the reverse pedal too much) but those were for her safety only and he let her be independent most of the time. Other than that, Driving Miss Daisy went against the typical stereotypes that are given to older adults. One aging stereotype would be that elders are physically impaired; yet, the film showed Miss Daisy continuing to carry out her normal daily activities such as gardening, cooking, grocery shopping, and even doing her own bills. Also, there were scenes where Miss Daisy was reading, sewing, and even playing multiple games of Mahjong with her friends. These activities ensure to the audience