Course Name
Instructor 's Name xx April 2013
“On Golden Pond” In our contemporary world, it is almost universally the case that men are valued more than women. Customs as well as social institutions subordinate women to men. The imposition of patriarchal power, which has come to dominate political, social, economic, and even family life, the male species all over the world have come to take the essential roles in the society while the women have ended up being debarred. men are the superior gender in terms of their biological and sociological aspects. Women, as expected, are secondary to men because of their physical shortcomings and weaknesses caused by their biological composition that, consequently, limits the place of women within the boundaries of the home and their role as a wife and supporters of their husband. Such kind of power play between the roles of men and women and how these roles impact the family is discussed in the movie On Golden Pond. In this movie, we see how control dominates the life of Norman who, even during his senility, inflicts power over the people around him, thus gravely affecting his relationship with his daughter Chelsea.
Brief Background on the Movie: On Golden Pond is a beautiful movie about family relations. There are various contemporary issues discussed in the movie like the challenges of growing old, dealing with aging parents, the relationship between a man and a woman, and the challenges of being a daughter within a highly patriarchal family. In this paper, however, I would like to focus on the sociological phenomenon of power, the way it manifests in the character of Norman, and how it affects his relationship with his family, especially his daughter. Before I delve further into the issue of Norman with his daughter as well as with his wife, I believe it would be better to provide a brief background of what the movie is about. On Golden Pond is originally a play written by Ernest Thompson. Thompson
Cited: Andrucki, Martin. On Golden Pond. May 2012. Web. 30 Apr. 2013. Haga, John, John Simpson and A. R. Gillis. “Class in the Household: A Power-Control Theory of Gender and Delinquency.” American Journal of Sociology 92.4 (1987): 788-816. Print. Lamphere, Louise. “The Domestic Sphere Of Women And The Public World Of Men. In Caroline Brettell & Carolyn Fishel Sargent (Eds.), Gender And Cross-Cultural Perspective, 3rd edn. Saddle River: Prentice Hall, 2008. Print. On Golden Pond. Dir. Mark Rydell. Perf. Katharine Hepburn, Henry Fonda, and Jane Fonda. Universal Pictures, 1981. Film. Townsend, Nicholas W. “Fatherhood And The Mediating Role Of Women.” In Caroline Brettell & Carolyn Fishel Sargent (Eds.), Gender And Cross-Cultural Perspective, 3rd edn. Saddle River: Prentice Hall, 2008. Print.