Interracial Sex & Marriage Essay

Project description
One 4-page essay. (30% of final grade) This assignment will address two things thoroughly: 1) what you think is the prevailing message of the film, conscious or unconscious; 2) your thesis about this message. ((( An attachment of a list of movies, please choose any one of them)))

1) Every film conveys a message through its plotline, characterization, techniques. In this class we’ll be looking for a film’s message concerning interracial relationships. A message is not a theme (themes are, e.g., interracial romance, racism, attitudes of immigrants, the search for one’s father, the nature of political persecution). A message is a statement that reveals an ideology or certain attitude toward the theme (e.g. Interracial romance exposes ugly attitudes in a community; interracial romance is unrealistic and tragic in the era of this movie)

2) Your thesis about this message expresses your opinion about how the film goes about transmitting the message. (e.g. The film shows in many ways that Joey and John are an ideal interracial couple because the black John is “too good to be true” and will not rock the boat; By avoiding obvious racial differences and instead focusing on age-related differences, Lethal Weapon makes Riggs and Murtaugh an ideal, “colorblind” working couple) Notice that a thesis is always debatable—somebody could disagree with you. Your job is to provide strong evidence for your thesis, be a persuasive essay.

I will not accept 4 pages, or even one page, of plot summary. Plot summary just tells me WHAT the movie shows us, takes what happens in the film only at face value. I don’t need this—I have seen the movie probably a dozen times, and your telling me what happens in the movie tells me nothing new, doesn’t enlighten other readers. It’s also where most students succumb to plagiarism—see Plagiarism below. The purpose of your assignment is to look BEYOND what happens and tell me HOW the film advances its agenda through its images, sounds, techniques, characterizations.

The best way to approach this assignment is to ask a very specific question (such as, “What do Hank and Leticia bring to their interracial relationship in Monster’s Ball?” or “Why do so many films about interracial romance provide a ‘second-tier’ romance in addition to the main characters’ romance?”) and answer it in your opinion (thesis), providing evidence from the film to make your thesis undeniable.

These are not theses: “This film was great, two thumbs up; I cried so hard; I know how this character feels; I know somebody just like X; it seems so true; it doesn’t seem real; this wouldn’t happen in real life; character Y should not do this.”

These are nonnegotiables—5 points off automatically if you don’t do these: Always identify the film and its year of release at the beginning of the assignment, italicize film titles all through the essay, use the characters’ names and not the actors’ (don’t mention Denzel Washington unless there is something specific about actor Denzel Washington that you want to discuss—talk about Demetrius Williams or Frank Lucas instead), describe film events in the present tense, keep plot summary to an absolute minimum and only for the purpose of advancing your thesis, and proofread word by word (not just spellcheck, which doesn’t look for missing words or wrong homonyms). Give me a clean assignment—I frown on typos, missing words, long paragraphs, weird margins and misspellings.

Form of 4-page essay: • All typed, proofread, clean, Microsoft Office/Word document, 12-point type, .doc(x) or .odt filename
• Your name on every page (duh, but I often get no name!) • All double-spaced (not single-space or one-and-a-half space!)
• Identify film title and year of release in first paragraph
• Italicize title each time it occurs
• Use characters’ names (John Prentice), not actors’ (Sidney Poitier)
• Describe film events in present tense, not past
• Summarize plot only when supporting a point
• Proofread word for word, not just spell-checking
• No typos, missing words, long paragraphs, weird margins or misspellings. If it’s hard to read or to understand, it will get a low grade.