Preview

The Movie Crash

Powerful Essays
Open Document
Open Document
2476 Words
Grammar
Grammar
Plagiarism
Plagiarism
Writing
Writing
Score
Score
The Movie Crash
Martin Luther King stated "Yes, I am intouchable, and every Negro in the United States of America is an intouchable" (The African American Dream). Americans live their lives afraid to touch one another due to their differences in beliefs, backgrounds and ethnicities. Each person lives in a dream which separates them from reality and from the truth. Because they are afraid to have contact with others unlike themselves, they rely on stereotypes to determine people 's identity which causes their perceptions of the world to be distorted. They are resistant to leave their comfort zone and they fail to attempt to understand the people around them. They are sleepers in their own dreams afraid to awaken to reality. Their only opportunity to understand one another is by unintentionally crashing into one another.
However, when they crash, their emotions are driven by fear which prevents them from awakening from their reality. Dreams are often deferred due to fear. Fear of the unknown and facing reality. Each character in the film, Crash has a fear of other people unlike themselves. They find it difficult to leave their border space and enter the comfort zone of others. There is a blind fear which prevents them from breaking the boundaries which separates them from the people surrounding them. They use stereotypes as way to judge others and keep people at a distance in order to avoid interaction. Their form of resistance focuses on identifying the differences between themselves and failing to recognize the similarities. As sleepers in their own reality, people tend to judge people by stereotypes, which alters a person 's identity causing them to reach a point where they must resist the conforms of society.
The character, Cameron Thayer, plays an African American television producer. His character displays how an African American male feels he needs to manipulate his method of thinking in order to survive in American society. Our society has molded people to



Bibliography: Crash. The Internet Movie Database. Retrieved on December 10, 2005 from www.imdb.com/title/tt0375679. Kochan, Thomas A. Restoring the American Dream: a working families ' agenda for America. MIT Press. Cambridge: Mass, 2005. Nepo, Mark. Deepening the American dream: reflections on the inner life and spirit of democracy. San Francisco: CA, 2005. The African American Dream: A Knock at Midnight: Inspiration from the greatest Sermons of Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr. Retrieved on December 10, 2005 from www.stanford.edu/group/King/pulications/sermons/TheAmericanDream. The American Dream. Wikipedia Encyclopedia. Retrieved on December 10, 2005 from www.wikipedia.org/ameicandream

You May Also Find These Documents Helpful

  • Satisfactory Essays

    During two class sessions, we have viewed the movie Crash. In this particular movie, victims and offenders are shown to be victims of racism and end up being shown as a racist under different circumstances. This shows various characters of different backgrounds and ethnicities going through a certain roadblock in their lives due to a personal matter that may be because of a racial thought.…

    • 661 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Good Essays

    In Martin Luther King Jr.’s “I Have a Dream (1963)” speech, he addresses the idea that in order to fulfill the premise that “all men were created equal,” the people of the nation must work together to move past the injustices inflicted on African Americans in order to ultimately grant them their civil rights. King’s claim is supported by first repeatedly alluding to historically renowned milestones in the fight against oppression and illustrating numerous metaphors to create an emotional connection with his audience. King’s “dream” that he frequently mentions is the nationwide unification to work toward a common goal in order to bring integration of all races and coexist without oppression. By establishing his goal, he creates an earnest tone for the people of America working toward cutting the “manacles of segregation and chains of discrimination.”…

    • 714 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    The idea of the American Dream has always been a questionable topic. In a journal written by…

    • 1021 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    In “Is The American Dream Over,” Cal Thomas argues that although it seems like the American Dream no longer exists, it is…

    • 255 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Best Essays

    [ 41 ]. Martin Luther King, Jr., (1968) "The American Dream," Negro History Bulletin 31 (5), 10-15…

    • 4485 Words
    • 18 Pages
    Best Essays
  • Good Essays

    The movie Crash is a great showcase of the stereotype and prejudice seen in everyday life. Throughout the movie, stereotyping and…

    • 905 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Martin Luther King Jr. once said, “I have a dream that one day this nation will rise up and live out the true meaning of its creed, we hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal.” Martin Luther King Jr. gave this speech on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial in 1963. In this speech, he states the struggles that African Americans face, due to discrimination and racial inequality in America. King held many peaceful protests concerning these issues, but no matter how peaceful they were, there was always police brutality and discrimination against them. He had hoped that all Americans, who heard the speech, would be touched by it and would take action on how poorly they were treated.…

    • 734 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Better Essays

    Everyone has heard of the American Dream, this assumption that social transgression is obtainable to any individual, non-adherent to that individual’s background. However, this bare meaning of the American Dream was the adequate meaning during the 20th century, but in today’s terms, it exemplifies this sense of hope that any person, despite of what life they were born into, can ascend to their interpretation of success through diligent work and resiliency. This universal acceptance to the American Dream can be distinguished throughout Outliers, by Malcom Gladwell, and throughout the numerous of today’s successful people.…

    • 990 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Good Essays

    In a country that has implicitly fabricated a universal aspiration called “the American Dream”, the application proves to be exclusive in who will attain and who will be rejected. Through racist historical archives such as slavery, Jim Crow Laws, Three Strike Law, and War on Drugs, African-Americans have mostly failed to shatter societal discrimination and accustomed the despair that “the American Dream” and “melanin” do not intertwine or even worse, coexist in the same reality. However, there are the few exceptions that disobey the convention, which receive polarizing reception from Caucasian Americans and fellow minorities on their transformative approach to reality. Individuals like Booker T. Washington, Nat Turner, W.E.B. Dubois, Angela Davis, and the incumbent president, Barack Obama, proves to diversify the face of the African American, which however cannot fully modify due to the overwhelmingly white patriarchal dominance in the American Dream. Pieces of literatures such as Just Walk on By: A Black Men and Public Space by Brent Staples, Invisible Man by Ralph Ellison, and On Being Black and Middle Class by Shelby Steele, reflect the exhaustion and vexation of being an African American, through anecdotal evidence, stylistic rhetoric, and qualitative diction. Through societal predispositions of African Americans, color victimization, and depiction of violent reactions, the three texts mutually convey the limitations people of color face when engaging in pursuit of individualism and stability, elements of the American Dream.…

    • 265 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    American Regression

    • 627 Words
    • 3 Pages

    In Cal Thomas ' article, “Is the American Dream Over?” he expresses a strong, anti-liberal opinion that explains why “the American dream” is lost. The article points out that the American society has become too dependent on a dysfunctional government while the key to a successful life in America used to lie in individual initiative. Certain traits, that had lead past generations to success, have been lost, buried underneath laziness, dependance, and indulgence. Most Americans refuse to acknowledge their own flaws, that keep them from achieving their goals, and look for any kind of scapegoat that they can fine: rather it be the government, the media, or their situation. Thomas provides the realistic evidence that proves that “the American dream,” is long gone as a result of the American society itself.…

    • 627 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    “I have a dream that my four children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character.” One of the most memorable quotes in American history was given by Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. in his I Have A Dream speech. This speech shows current Americans and the younger generations to come of how King and his movement changed the face of the country (Kazin, 981). To this day, Americans celebrate Martin Luther King Jr. Day, schools all over the nation still teach children the impact that he had on American…

    • 587 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    Dream Act

    • 1766 Words
    • 8 Pages

    Bibliography: Duncan, Arne. "DREAM Act Gives Hard-Working, Patriotic Young People a Shot at the American…

    • 1766 Words
    • 8 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    American Dream

    • 351 Words
    • 2 Pages

    Essential Question: “How is our understanding of culture and society constructed through and by language?”…

    • 351 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Better Essays

    The American Dream

    • 1151 Words
    • 5 Pages

    Wright, Luke S. H. "The Death Of The American Dream." Virginia Quarterly Review 85.4 (2009):…

    • 1151 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Better Essays

Related Topics