英美文化鉴赏论文范文
我爱我的老师-月末总结
山东农业大学学期论文
The Study of Domestic
Violence on
American Beauty and Its Action
Guidance
Abstract:
paper presents a new
method for the interpretation of American Beauty.
In modern
society, family violence is the
destruction of the traditional family happiness.
Family cold violence
in the Burnhams and
thermal violence in the Fitts are the
representatives of the domestic violence.
And
also, the family violence makes the family life
become not only an invisible battlefield, but a
nightmare, distorting the couples, the
parents, children and family relationships. In
this movie, the
heroes awaken people with
their blood and lives, to re-examine their family
life. This paper
focuses on the domestic
violence in this film and some statistics or
backgrounds specifically on
the domestic
violence in the United States. Then the paper will
give some preventions and services
act, giving
family violence in real concern and action
guidance.
Key Words:
American Beauty;
domestic violence; cold violence; thermal
violence; action
guidance
《美国丽人》中家庭暴力的研究及其行动指导
摘要：
本文提出了电影《美国丽人》的
一种新的解读方法。现代社会的家庭暴力正在毁灭
着传统的家庭幸福。以莱斯特家为代表的家庭冷暴力和
以弗兰克家为代表的家庭热暴力是美
国家庭暴力的代表。并且家庭暴力不仅使家庭变成了看不见硝烟的战
场, 而且把家庭生活变
成了一种梦魇，扭曲着夫妻、父母与子女的家庭观念。电影中主人公们以鲜血和
生命唤醒人
们重新审视自己的家庭生活。本文则着眼于此部电影中家庭暴力的研究，美国家庭暴力的数<
br>据和具体背景。然后将给出相应的预防措施和服务指导，给予家庭暴力以实质性的关怀及行
动指导
。
关键词：
美国丽人; 家庭暴力; 冷暴力; 热暴力；行动指导
uction
As we all know, it is very important for
people to live in a harmonious family, and also it
is
both an individual benefit and a social
necessity. However，in modern society, family
violence is
the most popular violent crime in
America. And domestic violence is destroying the
traditional
family film Beautyis a vivid
description of the American family
violence.
So I have a study of domestic violence on American
Beauty in details and make some
findings on
this topic. In this film, the family violence is
too numerous to enumerate. The
Burnhams, a
typical American family, although have no direct
physical damage, but their hearts
are
frustrated, and it also affects their daughter’s
heart. Similarly, in another family, Ricky’s
parents also seem to be in harmony, but have
contradictions. Generally speaking, this is a
violence
in America and finds more about
it. Maybe this study can make people think or
consider how they
should develop a good
relationship in family.
2. Plot and the
Analysis about the Movie
American beauty tells
the story of Lester, a middle-aged man who lives a
sedated life with his
family in American
suburbia. One day, Lester is pressured by his wife
Carolyn to attend a
performance at their
daughter's local school. When watching the
performance, Lester is
mesmerized by his
daughter’s best friend Angela. Lester’s meeting
with Angela awakens in him a
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山东农业大学学期论文
vitality he has not
known for many years .With the assistance of his
neighbor’s son--Ricky, he
begins to rediscover
the pleasures of his youth. Lester quits his
meaningless office job; at the same
time he
begins to keep healthy. Meanwhile, his wife
betrays him and his daughter Jane begins to
make friend with Ricky. One day, Lester
witnesses his wife's infidelity and his daughter
Jane falls
in love with Ricky at the same
time. Ricky’s father misunderstands the
relationship between
Lester and his son and he
accosts Lester, but is refused. Finally when
Lester obtains Angela, he
understands
everything. However, at last, he is killed by
Ricky’s father.
2.1 Domestic Violence on
American Beauty
I think Lester tells about his
family cold violence. The so-called family cold
violence
generally refers to a behavior,
dealing with each other by showing indifference,
contempt,
alienation, insults and so on, when
the conflict between husband and wife or other
members of the
family has broken out. They
will not ignore each other, will reduce verbal
communication, stop
sexual life and do not do
housework. So they hurt each other. The so-called
family thermal
violence refers to the behavior
that the family members fighting with each other.
The movie
American Beauty is exactly a kind of
realistic description in family Violence.
2.2
Cold Violence in the Burnhams
Lester’s family
tragedy of life first originated from their
personalities clash. Lester advocates
freedom
and he is a downright romantic. When he was tired
of his job, he resolutely chose to
resign. His
wife claimed that, in order to keep the job, we
must do at the request of the boss, but
Lester
countered this. After the resignation, Lester
feels like a bird flying out of the cage. In
contrast, Carolyn is a fully-fledged
mammonist. Money is the only matter of concern to
her. The
conflicts in their outlook on life
make their family life full of conflict and
disharmony, but they
never make compromise
with each other. In the life of a 42-year-old man,
he has no choice but
only to release his own
sexual desire through masturbation. Carolyn
stopped sexual life to punish
her husband, but
this approach did not make her husband give in.
Lester falls in love with his
daughter’s best
friend—Angela, which makes Jane hate him and even
want to kill him. Carolyn’s
affair with the
other man aggravated the relationship between her
and her husband. She always
blames Lester for
his incapability. She seeks for money, living with
her own strong will and
excessively
independence. So she refuses to be a victim but is
weak in her inner this
protracted family cold
war, the couple causes destruction to both sides.
If there is no love between
husband and wife,
divorce is not the only way to resolve it. Lester
does not want to divorce and
make his wife
ruin the idea of divorce. Neither a divorce nor
love, domestic cold violence has
become a
lifestyle.
2.3 Thermal Violence in the Fitts
We can say that the family cold violence in
the Burnhams mainly caused by the conflicts of
language. However, in Ricky’s family, the
thermal violence between father and son is easily
found.
Frank Fitts once was a member of the US
Marine Corps, and he brings his military rules to
the
family. He is a violent homophobe and
arch-conservative. There seem to be no positive
conflict in
this family, because Frank is
satisfied with his dominant posiiton and his wife
is very obedient.
She has the desperation for
future. Ricky gives a complete obedience to his
father’s authority on
the surface, but he is
still addicted to drug secretly. In this film,
Frank beat his son twice. Frank
also became
the victim of family thermal violence. Under his
control, his wife has no spiritual
communication with him. When his son was out
of the house she cried. Frank believed that the
societies need discipline and rules, so he
used the discipline and rules. He was satisfied
with his
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山东农业大学学期论文
living style which followed his heart. He is
rough and rude and always brought his military
values
to life, in particular the idea
that—―you can’t just go around doing whatever you
feel like‖. On a
rainy night, when he exposed
himself as a homosexual, he felt that he had a
great insult. On
impulse, he killed Lester and
ruined his whole life.
2.4The Influence of
Family Violence onChildren in This Movie
The
family violence makes children become the innocent
victims. Jane is the daughter of
Lester and
Carolyn, and she is the direct victim in the
domestic cold violence. Her mother looks
down
on her father, so she is influenced by her mother.
She thinks that her father did not set a
good
example. She hopes that her parents can pay more
attention to her, but she can not obtain
their
parent’s love. Thus, she never cares about her
studies instead of dreaming for changing her
appearance. She enjoyed all the materials
brought by her parents, but didn't understand
them. She
was critical of the dinner music
played by her father and mother and refused to
talk with her father.
She speaks in a
sarcastic way, and even wants to kill her father.
At last, Jane becomes a lonely,
selfish and
indifferent youth.
Ricky has lived under his
father's control for a long time, but he has been
starting to take
drugs since he was 15. He was
in the high discipline of his father and fond of
filming DV to record
beautiful things.
Finally, Ricky and Jane fall in love with each
other because of lacking of family
love. Then,
they run away from home and trapped in a wrong
road.
There is no doubt that the two parents
love their children very much. On the one hand,
before
Lester’s death, when he heard that Jane
was very happy, he smiled. On the other hand,
Frank
examines Rick's urine regularly in order
to prevent him from taking drugs. However, the two
parents failed to make their children feel the
warmth and love of the family. They can't help
making the two children fall into the abyss
during the family violence.
2.5The Action
Guidance on the Two Families
In the life or
society, reason caused the family violence is that
the conflicts between the
couples, and they do
not want to deal with in a reasonable way. If the
couple can understand each
other, communicate
with each other and forgive each other, the
relationship between them will
become more and
more harmonious. After analyzing the structure of
the two families and the
problems of the
members, I can only give some real concern and
action guidance with reference to
the family
violence.
2.5.1The Action Guidance on the
Burnhams
They can enhance the close
relationships between family members and make
everyone feel
their sense of existence.
Carolyn should give Lester more prestige and
rights to speak, and
maintain the balance of
family structure. What she focuses on is not only
the wealth, but also the
family. They should
care more about their daughter.
2.5.2 The
Action Guidance on the Fitts
Frank was very
rough and arbitrary in the family. And he always
brought his military values
to life, which
blocks the normal communication between the family
members. The obedience of
Ricky and his
mother’s does not form an effective action to the
structure of the family balance. So
the
dominant members should realize their problems and
encourage the family members to
express their
true thoughts. The right way is to establish
families’ communication in an
appropriate
method. They should ease the rigid atmosphere and
promote the equality between the
family
members.
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山东农业大学学期论文
3. The Domestic Violence in the United
States
Domestic violence in United States is a
form of violence expressed by one partner or
partners
against another partner or partners
in the content of an intimate relationship in the
United States. It
is recognized as an
important social problem by governmental and non-
governmental agencies.
Many scholarly studies
of the problem have stated that is often part of a
dynamic of control and
oppression in
relationships, regularly involving multiple forms
of physical and non-physical abuse
taking
place concurrently. According to the Merriam-
Webster dictionary definition, domestic
violence is:
a repeated or habitual
pattern of such behavior.
3.1The History of
Domestic Violence in America
Prior to the
mid-1800s, most legal systems accepted wife
beating as a valid exercise of a
husband's
authority over his wife. Political agitation
during the 19th century led to changes in both
popular opinion and legislation regarding
domestic violence within the United Kingdom and
the
United States. In 1850, Tennessee became
the first state in the United States to explicitly
outlaw
wife beating. In 1878, the Matrimonial
Causes Act made it possible for women in the UK to
seek
separations from abusive husbands. By the
end of the 1870s, most courts in the United States
were
uniformly opposed to the right of
husbands to physically discipline their wives. By
the early 20th
century, it was common for the
police to intervene in cases of domestic violence
in the United
States.
Modern attention to
domestic violence began in the women's movement of
the 1970s,
particularly within feminism and
women's rights, as concern about wives being
beaten by their
husbands gained attention. The
first known use of the expression
context,
meaning men's
movement of the 1990s, the
problem of domestic violence against men has also
gained significant
attention.
3.2The Types
of Domestic Violence in America
Domestic
violence may include verbal, emotional, economic,
physical and sexual abuse. All
forms of
domestic abuse have one purpose: to gain and
maintain control over the victim. The
dynamics
between the couple may include:
1).Situational
couple violence, which arises out of conflicts
that escalate to arguments and then to
violence, is not connected to a general
pattern of control, generally infrequent, and
likely the most
common type of intimate
partner violence. Women are as likely as men to be
abusers, however,
women are more likely to be
physically injured, require police intervention
and become fearful of
their mates.
2).Intimate terrorism (IT), involves a pattern
of ongoing control using emotional, physical and
other forms of domestic violence and is what
generally leads victims, who are usually women, to
women's shelters. It is what was traditionally
the definition of domestic violence and is
generally
illustrated with the
3).Violent
resistance (VR), or is violence perpetrated by
victims against their
abusive partners. It is
generally used infrequently because men are
usually able to physically
overpower women.
4). Common couple violence, where both
partners are engaged in domestic violence actions.
5).Mutual violent control (MVC) is a rare type
of intimate partner violence that occurs when both
partners act in a violent manner, battling for
control.
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山东农业大学学期论文
3.3The Statistics of Domestic Violence in
America
1).1% of all women (age > 18) who
participated in a UN national study in 1995–96,
who may or
may not have been married or
partnered, were victims of domestic abuse within
the previous
12-month period. Since this
population included women who had never been
partnered, the
prevalence of domestic violence
may have been greater.
2).A report by the
United States Department of Justice in 2000 found
that 1.3% of women and
0.9% of men reported
experiencing domestic violence in the past year.
3).About 2.3 million people are raped or
physically assaulted each year by a current or
former
intimate partner or spouse.
4).Physically assaulted women receive an
average of 6.9 physical assaults by the same
partner per
year.
3.4 The Action Guidance
on Family Violence.
1). Law enforcement.
Statistics on incidents of domestic violence,
published in the late 1970s,
helped raise
public awareness of the problem and increase
activism. A study published in 1976 by
the
Police Foundation found that the police had
intervened at least once in the previous two
years.
In some instances, these groups took
legal action against police departments, including
Los
Angeles's, Oakland, California's and New
York City's, to get them to make arrests in
domestic
violence cases.
[89]
They
claimed that police assigned low priority to
domestic disturbance calls.
2).The Family
Violence Prevention and Services Act (FVPSA),
which provides federal funding to
help victims
of domestic violence and their dependent children
by providing shelter and related
help,
offering violence prevention programs, and
improving how service agencies work together
in communities.
3). If the couple can
understand each other, communicate with each other
and forgive each other,
the relationship
between them will become more and more harmonious.
4. Conclusion
Family violence has become
the invisible killer in the family and destroyed
the happiness of
traditional family. The movie
beauty shows us a horrible scene about family cold
violence and thermal violence. Although this
film is a tragedy of the two families, it is the
duty of
the whole society to reflect and
consider on this topic. It is exactly a topic that
our social workers,
especially the family
social workers, need to pay attention to. In
family life, it is essential for
everyone to
establish a reasonable communication and family
structure to maintain the balance of
stability. We should make full use of the
action guidance to keep a good relationship in
family.
We should not repeat the tragedy
instead of cherishing our family members. I hope
that people can
find their own shadow from the
movie and reflect profound way on their family
life.
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山东农业大学学期论文
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