Gran Torino

Joe Dickerson

Sociology 1

Gran Torino

War often inspires ordinary people to commit acts of atrocity that they would, under normal circumstances, never be capable of. This is because people are trained to dehumanize their enemy, otherwise they would feel tremendous guilt and anguish for taking the life of another human being. From the Nazis who not only committed mass genocide but experimented on over 200,000 mentally and physically handicapped, to the 2011 court martial case where American soldiers were photographed with dead Afghani civilians, sometimes half clothed. This is the social climate that Walt Kowalski found himself in during his time in the Korean war.

In Gran Torino, Walt Kowalski can be seen using racial slurs throughout the movie. Whether he is referring to the three black men as “spooks” when he sees them harassing Sue, or calling his barber, a presumed friend, a “dago”. However, he seems to save most of his vitriol for the Hmong. At various times in the film, he referrers to them as “zipper-head”, “gook”, and “swamp rats” when he sees how many people are living in the house next to him. One may be tempted to write this off as being the product of a bygone era where stereotypes and racial slurs were more common and where ethnocentrism was widely accepted, but a closer analysis reveals the dehumanizing of people of Asian descent during Walt’s time in the Korean war. Walt spends the bulk of his life being especially prejudice against the Hmong people who he sees as encroaching on his America, and shapes his attitudes towards them. It isn’t until nearly the end of his life that an effort by an affable girl, Sue, causes him to see them as human. It is only at that point that Walt is able to become a mentor to Thao (Sue’s brother) and a protector of Sue’s family against a Hmong gang.

In my life, I have never been what society would call a very masculine man. In middle school, I remember being beat up and thrown against lockers because I was more interested in art and music than playing football. In my working career, I have tended to gravitate to more female-dominated roles, such as sales or learning and development, rather than mechanical or operations roles, which has often left me out of the “boys club”. Recently I made the choice to be a stay at home dad and run my household, while my girlfriend works to support the family. While I have experienced some positive reactions, there have been just as many negative reactions. I’ve been slighted at times by people calling me “Mr. Mom” or saying that I was now the “bitch” of the house. Through the film, I find myself relating to Thoa, as he experiences much of this same prejudice. He is called a “pussy” and “bitch” because he is doing “woman’s work” while gardening. The elders in the house mock him when he does the dishes, which are also woman’s work. The cultural sanctions imposed on him are predictable, as is Walt’s response as he tries to help, or fix Thao. Walt tries to “man him up” by teaching him how men interact with each other in a particularly prejudiced scene inside a barber shop. He gets him a “man’s job” at a construction site, and makes sure he asks out the girl he is interested in. While many of these things could be seen as positive structure and building on Thao’s self-esteem, it also furthers the stereotype that men need to be masculine and further enforces gender roles in a society that is already prone to prejudice against women, or men who aren’t masculine enough.

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