Preview

Sixteen Candles Sociology

Better Essays
Open Document
Open Document
1315 Words
Grammar
Grammar
Plagiarism
Plagiarism
Writing
Writing
Score
Score
Sixteen Candles Sociology
In the film “Sixteen Candles” shows the power of social groups and cliques during adolescence. The image of women and the standards and stereotypes they are held to play a big role. It depicts the power cliques and social groups have during teenage years. This film allows many to rethink how their high school experience, even those who have recently graduated can relate to this high school experience in 1984.
The high school sophomore Samantha "Sam" Baker has a hard time getting through the day of her 16th birthday, which her entire family forgets because her older sister is getting married the next day. Sam is also distracted by her love for the popular senior, Jake Ryan. Her day at school is not any better when she finds out that her completed
…show more content…
Jake asks more about Sam, and Ted explains the situation. Jake makes a deal with Ted to lets him keep Sam's underwear, then he will let Ted drive home his intoxicated girlfriend, Carolyn Mulford, in Jake’s father's Rolls Royce. Ted never takes her home because, the very drunk, Carolyn makes moves on Ted while he's driving before passing out. He instead takes her to his friend’s house to ask them to take a picture of him with Carolyn together in the back seat of the car. At Sam's house the next morning, after the madness with all the relatives, the family eventually makes up before the wedding and apologizes for forgetting her birthday. They drive to the church, where her sister, Ginny, takes a few too many sedatives and causes a scene throughout the wedding ceremony. As Jake was out looking for Sam he finds Carolyn and Ted passed out in the back seat of the Rolls in a nearby parking lot, where he uses the excuse of finding them together to break up with Carolyn, who had fallen for Ted, and thus doesn't mind the breakup very much. Afterward, Jake drives to the church just in time to meet Sam after her sister's wedding. Jake and Sam finally meet face to face, and Jake invites her over …show more content…
A social role are expectations of a person in a specific status, or in a social position, these roles are learned through socialization. The social roles in this movie are popular, prom king and queen, and not so popular, geeky or unnoticeable. In the movie with these established social roles, Sam knows she will never get Jake Ryan due to his social standing in the hierarchy of high school. Many students in high school know exactly where they stand and who they are the day the enter high school, their identity shows greatly through the way they hold themselves. At the beginning of the film Sam wakes up and feels know different with another year of age. She knows that when she goes to school she will be the same Sam and no one new will notice her. Her identity is the quite teenage girl that wants what every kid wants for their sixteenth birthday: a date, a car, and maybe some cake, but most of all like most high school girls she lacks self-confidence. The identity Sam has related to is the girl you want to be, and the girl you already are. With different agents of socialization, groups or social contexts in which significant processes of socialization occur, in Sam’s life she identifies with a different behavior for each one. The first agent, family, is seen as your traditional family. This is this environment where Sam is most comfortable. In

You May Also Find These Documents Helpful

  • Better Essays

    Sociology 210 Unit 4 IP

    • 1273 Words
    • 6 Pages

    The author of this paper explains the evolution of the family unit through a historical examination which reveals that families have constantly been under pressure to shift with changes in the economy, our values, and even politics. The author explains why she agrees with experts that weakening of the family is one of the causes…

    • 1273 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Better Essays

    He starts dating Mary Elizabeth, a member of the group but soon despises how one-sided the relationship becomes. During a game of truth or dare, he is dared to kiss the prettiest girl in the room, and kisses Sam, which causes the group to alienate him, with a warning from Patrick to stay away. He begins having flashbacks about his aunt again.…

    • 1015 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Better Essays

    The film “The Breakfast Club” directed by John Hughes is a compelling film that illustrates the inner working of the teenage mind-set. A film quite literally opens your eyes to how teenagers work within different stereotypes. John Hughes is able to show how although each character may give the impression that everything is “OK” but really, on the inside their whole life is just constant stress. This stress, which numerous things, including their parents and peers brought on, effected them in a way in which throughout the film, we as the audience have more insight into their lives as teenagers. Many of the characters in this film are easily relatable; however, Hughes has been able to show the differences within the inner workings of their…

    • 1779 Words
    • 8 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    The movie “Saw:” focuses on a madman who sees himself as a vigilante and takes justice into his own hands by torturing his victims on both a mental and psychological level. The movie opens up to the scene of two men on the outsides of a bloody victim in a dirty bathroom floor. Jigsaw’s plot was to have one man decide who shall live and who shall be the first to see death.…

    • 481 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Good Essays

    After accidentally throwing a book at his teacher, he was told to leave the reservation so he wouldn’t lose hope. As a result of leaving, Junior lost his best friend, gained a new friend, had an identity problem and now he feels to blame for the deaths of his sister. After leaving the reservation, Juniors sister mary got married and moved to Montana. Furthermore, Mary lived in a trailer home with her husband. After drinking so much one night Mary and her husband knocked out in their bedroom. Therefore, someone left the stove on and as a result of that, mary and her husband burned to death. Mary's dream was to write a romance novel but because she lost hope, after Junior left the reservation mary ran off to live her romance novel. At the funeral, Junior ran into the woods where he saw rowdy crying, “It’s all your fault… your sister is dead because of you left us. You killed her” (211). As Rowdy ran deeper into the woods, “I had killed my sister” (211). Afterwards Junior was starting to lose hope but his friends at Reardan gave him hope by standing up for him when he walked into class late. In conclusion, even though Junior left the reservation, lost his best friend, gained new ones, had an identity problem and blamed himself for the death of his sister Junior had a bright future…

    • 921 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    "The Color Purple" is a very powerful film that tells the story of Celie, a poor black woman living in the old south. The film begins at her childhood and follows her up to old age. She was raped and abused by her father as a young woman and was sent to marry and equally abusive man, Albert. The various people in Celie's household may seem strange in their actions to an outsider. However, if one examines the actions of the characters, their behabiors can be explained, and sometimes justified, by the systems theory, symbolic interactionism and finally, developmental theory.…

    • 694 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    The Lost Boys Sociology

    • 274 Words
    • 2 Pages

    The Lost Boys reflect the exact definition of their name; they are lost in a new culture. This reality will create great difficulties as they move forward, and attempt to create stable, independent lives for themselves. Not every one of these boys will be successful in their journeys. It is these individuals that could create a negative stigma for their fellow Lost Boys in society. This negative influence might be caused by the inability to stay in school, and get a job which could lead to drug and alcohol abuse as a means to cover the shame or pain. Bad circumstances will quickly create a downward spiral for the boys that will be very hard to pull away from. The community will only see these negative ripples, and not the harsh causes; therefore,…

    • 274 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    The Battle of Jericho

    • 522 Words
    • 3 Pages

    Arielle Gresham, disliked and mistrusted by most of the students at her school, has a secret past, an unbelievably complicated present, and a shaky future. But no one knows or cares because she has managed to alienate anyone who could help her. She tries to cope with problems at school, but difficulties at home almost break her spirit. As the school tries to deal with an outbreak of false fire alarms, a series of thefts, a student addicted to prescriptions drugs, and another who is a victim on vicious online bullying, Arielle finds that outward appearances are seldom what they seem to be.…

    • 522 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Better Essays

    Breakfast Club

    • 945 Words
    • 4 Pages

    The movie “The Breakfast Club” portrays five main characters all from a different set of cliques in Saturday morning detention in an Illinois high school. Their detention is a result of myriad violations. Each character has different stereotypes, home lives, and issues but find out they have several similarities. The theme of this movie is to accept yourself for who you are. This movie focuses on different people getting to know and get along with each other based on school, different people, and social groups. Each character learns how to do this in their own ways. The five main characters are named Andrew Clark; Brian Johnson; Claire Standish; John Bender; and Allison Reynolds. These characters wrestle with self-acceptance; longs for parental approval; and fight against peer pressure.…

    • 945 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Good Essays

    Popularity can suck high schoolers into a hole so deep that they don’t realize that they aren’t who they want to be. Whether it makes them mean, distant, or cliquey, like Millicent, status and ego can turn people’s personalities and friendships upside down, for the worst. Through the sparrows, heather birds, basement, Millicent emerges from this hole and understands who she wants to be. Symbolism in “Initiation” represents the growth of Millicent's character, from unassertive, to her sorority initiation changing her into a confident, non-conformist who realizes the power of individuality.…

    • 1011 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    The Breakfast Club

    • 1893 Words
    • 8 Pages

    “The Breakfast Club” provides us with many unique displays of how small groups interact in their case it’s through ,dancing, harassing each other, telling stories, they fight , smoke pot and speak on a number of topics. During this time they eventually open up to each other and reveal their inner secrets. After listening to our presentation you may see “The Breakfast Club” in a different way other than just their stereotypes portrayed in the movie but how they communicate as a group to solve problems throughout the day. During our presentation we will provide you with examples of status, rules and norms, power and cohesiveness that were illustrated in the movie.…

    • 1893 Words
    • 8 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Good Essays

    South Park Sociology

    • 285 Words
    • 2 Pages

    South Park is an adult animated television show that was created by Matt Stone and Trey Parker (Wikipedia). South Park had originated in 1992, as the creators had to make a short film for their film class at the University of Colorado (Simple Wikipedia). Nonetheless, Stone and Parker created a short film of four boys who created an evil frosty snowman who tried to attack, the boys, although the boys were saved by baby Jesus (Wikipedia). This short was seen by a producer from Fox, who asked the creators to make another Christmas short for his friends (Simple Wikipedia). Furthermore, the creators made another short called Jesus versus Santa, where both Santa and Jesus fight over the true meaning of Christmas (Christmas means getting gifts or…

    • 285 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    “12 Angry Men” focuses on a jury’s deliberations in a capital murder case. A 12-man jury is sent to begin deliberations in the first-degree murder trial of an 18-year-old Latino accused in the stabbing death of his father, where a guilty verdict means automatic death sentence. The case appears to be open-and-shut: The defendant has a weak alibi; a knife he claimed to have lost is found at the murder scene; and several witnesses either heard screaming, saw the killing or the boy fleeing the scene. Eleven of the jurors immediately vote guilty; only Juror No.8 (Mr. Davis) casts a not guilty vote.…

    • 922 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Red from Green

    • 993 Words
    • 3 Pages

    At first she feels like the caring relationship she has with her father is too important but she changes her mind after a trip she makes with her father, Uncle Harry, and one of Harry’s clients from his law firm called Layton who is a bit younger than Harry is. Sam lives in Montana with her father, and every summer they take a trip down to the river, but this time they are accompanied by Harry and his client. The weather on the trip is very fine, the sun is shining, and there is fresh air. The group of four people is sleeping in tents, and sometimes they make a bonfire to make it all cozy.…

    • 993 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    Sociology

    • 2089 Words
    • 9 Pages

    Critically discuss the ways in which information on security and/or crime in South Africa is generated and interpreted, as well as the implications that this has on addressing security/crime concerns…

    • 2089 Words
    • 9 Pages
    Powerful Essays