movie: Crash

Short Writing Assignment: Stereotyping and Power: Crash Character Analysis

Length: Minimum of two pages, and a works cited page

Point Value: 100

Audience: Adult who has seen the film one time.

The Assignment:

As Katherine Ledford points out, stereotypes of groups of people often arise out of someone’s need to justify his/her actions, usually in terms of some kind of power. In other words, viewing a group of people as not being worthy of something—because members in that group are, for example, lazy or stupid or cowardly or whatever trait serves the purpose—allows one to dismiss or take advantage of members of that group.

In the film Crash, we watch various people—as individuals, as partners or as pairs, as families or as groups—“crash” into one another in a seemingly random fashion. In particular, we see crashes between races, ethnicities, and genders in the form of stereotypes.

Characters in the film become the objects of stereotyping, perpetrators of stereotyping, or often both, as they jockey for positions of power. For example, at the very end of the film, as the camera pulls back for an aerial view of a car crash, we see/hear one African American woman Shaniqua Johnson—who previously in the film had been the object of stereotyping—now yelling ethnic epitaphs at another person. At this point, Shaniqua is the perpetrator of a stereotype.

For this assignment, the parts of your paper are as follows:

Introduction:

· Introduce the title of the film (and, if you wish the director and/or key actors) and brief summary of film. In your introduction, include your thesis. Here is a model for the thesis statement:

In the film Crash, viewers watch as the character of [character’s full name, if given, and title, if given] becomes the [object/perpetrator/both] of stereotyping. By analyzing this process, we can see how stereotyping and power are related and what is at stake when such stereotyping occurs.

Body:

· Analyze one character or two connected characters in terms of the ways the characters are the objects of stereotyping or the perpetrators of stereotyping or both. (In the example above, you might look at social worker Shaniqua Johnson and Officer John Ryan.)

· In your analysis, also demonstrate how such stereotyping increases the characters’ feelings of power or increases the characters’ feelings of powerlessness. (In the example above, you might analyze how the racial slurs directed against her affect Shaniqua as a person and as a social worker.)

· Include in your discussion of the “power play(s)” what is at stake—what is gained and what is lost through such stereotyping. (For instance, in the above example, Shaniqua Johnson’s position requires her to make judgment calls on other people’s lives—so, her job and others’ welfare may be at stake.)

Conclusion:

· Write a conclusion that includes a discussion of how what is learned about your character(s) can be applied to our lives in general.

What follows here are a list of major characters with an attempt to show how some of them cross one another’s paths and a selection of direct quotations from the film.

Works Cited

Page 1 of 2

Crash: List of Relationships

John Ryan, white LAPD officer and

· Pop Ryan his father

· Medical assistance supervisor Shaniqua Johnson and

· Pop Ryan

· Unknown driver

· White partner Officer Tom Hansen and

· Peter Waters

· Anthony

· Lt. Dixon

· Movie director Cameron Thayer and

· Wife Christine Thayer

· His boss Fred

· Officer Hansen

· Anthony

· Woman Christine Thayer and

· Husband Cameron Thayer

Graham Waters, Black detective, and

· Hispanic partner & lover Ria

· Ria and Asian woman driver, Choi’s wife

· Mother Mrs. Walters and

· Son Peter Waters

· Brother Peter Waters and

· His friend Anthony and

· “China man” Choi

· chop shop owner Lucien

· Asian captives

· “China man” Choi and

· Choi’s wife who comes to hospital and has encounter on street with

· Ria

· chop shop owner Lucien

· Officer Hansen

· DA’s assistant Flanagan and

· White undercover cop Conklin

· White undercover cop Conklin

Persian man Farhad, shop owner, and

· Daughter Dorri, medical examiner and

· Gunshop owner

· Body in morgue

· Gunshop owner

· Asia-American insurance adjustor Ken Ho

· Hispanic locksmith Daniel and

· DA’s wife Jean

· Daniel’s daughter Maria

District Attorney’s wife Jean Cabot and

· Locksmith Daniel and—see above

· Husband, L.A. district Attorney Rich Cabot and

· Assistant Karen

· Graham Waters

· Assistant Flanagan

· Hispanic maid Maria

Page 2 of 2

Lines from Crash

·

· Graham : It's the sense of touch. In any real city, you walk, you know? You brush past people, people bump into you. In L.A., nobody touches you. We're always behind this metal and glass. I think we miss that touch so much, that we crash into each other, just so we can feel something.

· *****************************************************************************

·

· Jean : I am angry all the time... and I don't know why.

· *****************************************************************************************

·

· Cameron : [to Anthony] Look at me. You embarrass me. You embarrass yourself.

· ****************************************************************************************

·

· Anthony: Look around! You couldn't find a whiter, safer or better lit part of this city. But this white woman sees two black guys, who look like UCLA students, strolling down the sidewalk and her reaction is blind fear. I mean, look at us! Are we dressed like gang-bangers? Huh? No. Do we look threatening? No. Fact, if anybody should be scared around here, it's us: We're the only two black faces surrounded by a sea of over-caffeinated white people, patrolled by the trigger-happy LAPD. So you tell me, why aren't we scared?

·

· Peter : Because we have guns?

·

· Anthony : You could be right.

· **************************************************************************************

·

· Anthony : That waitress sized us up in two seconds. We're black and black people don't tip. So she wasn't gonna waste her time. Know somebody like that? Nothing you can do to change their mind.

·

· Peter : So, uh... how much did you leave?

·

· Anthony : You expect me to pay for that kind of service?

·