The Imitation of Life, Sarah Jane Analysis

The Imitation of Life, Sarah Jane AnalysisThe Imitation of Life is ane of the most only-powerful cinematic displays of racial pass arounding in delineation history. hand knocked out(p), a unremarkably used term especially in the African American community, occurs when a member of hotshot racial category dupes the ethnicity of another (Alkon, 2012). The movie was before made in 1934 with a remake in 1959. The main character, Sarah Jane, treasured not just to pass within the dominant loving mathematical group ( vacuous), but to truly belong to that group and forget her African American identity that get along withs loaded with much prejudice and hardship. Despite having the racial liquid state to pass, her mother and the people who were close to her knew her true ethnicity. Although this is a movie, passing is pop out of our socio-historical background. In this paper I will examine how Sarah Jane does facework in browse to successfully pass as a sportsmanlike charr.Th ere atomic number 18 various examples of facework that al small(a) her to be in character. In Imitation of Life, Sarah Jane was the girl of a threatening house proceeder, who wanted to pass as a whiteness female. When attempting to cross ethnic barriers, there ar gains for the somebody who decides to attempt to pass. The ultimate gain is acceptance into a dominant class in ordering and the ultimate cost is eventually losing touch with blood relatives. For example, there is a scene in the movie when Sarah Jane begged her mother to leave her and to never notify any star they were related. In this scene, you could see Sarah Jane s practicallying a little bit as her mother emb hightail itd her and promised her daughter that she would leave her alone because she was getting tired of cosmos turned away from her daughter. This exchange was the last time they spoke to for each one other. In the process of passing as a means of survival, the quandarys cladding those who pass, is the degree to which they internalize the dominant values of the oppressor (Yee, 1998). Both of her parents were African American, all the same her outward appearance fit all the physical attributes of a ovalbumin person being of lighter fur.As a young child, Sarah was hand because she was given a sorry doll. She did not equivalent this because she had internalized and embraced that she looked just like the other white children around her. check to Mead, all children in this golf-club learn at an early age that, generally speaking, whiteness is inside and darkness is not and thus their choices in this regard are ordinarily not surprising (ISL, 2010). During this scene, she was in wrong face she pouted and voiced her sorrowfulness about the doll and their living situation, and her mother quickly came in to uphold Sarah Jane regain face by apologizing, a popular corrective process. In the reading, My Grandmothers Passing, XXX we were introduced to the writers grandmother, Mary Douglass, who was also upset because her granddaughter maxim herself as an Anglo American woman, became upset and distanced herself from her granddaughter after she called her Mexican (Lopez McAllister, 2011). In both stories the females involved were of darker skin and experienced self-loathing because of social comparisons and internalized racism.Sarah Janes mother, Annie, was able to find handicraft as a proceed-in maid with a struggling actress the descent of the two women clearly delimit the social structure in their relationship. Annie was a hard working woman but her master precondition was black. She used aroused labor on a daily basis and rarely had a backstage to unknot to when her day was over. In her job as a maid, she had to do a crapper of surface acting because it was hard for her to find employment and keep her daughter with her. She used corrective processes to avert aggressive interchanges with her employer and with her daughter. The strain of this emotio nal labor made her ill and this is what we are led to believe is the basis she dies. Throughout the movie, Karl Marxs conflict theory of the haves and the have nots is clear. The tension between the needing to be a mother and being able to build self-esteem and felicitate in her daughter was in contrast to her own need of employment as the maid and taking care of their family was quite evident. She did not lay down that her compliance in her situation made a social dilemma for her daughter. A social dilemma is an individually reasonable behavior that leads to a situation in which everyone is worse off (Newman, 2011).Sarah Jane grew up living in the shadow of a rich-white lifestyle longing to be a literal white girl, something she was able to accomplish once she had part ways from her mother. According to Romero (1995), Sarah Jane had to learn when she must act like the employers child and when she must assume the appropriate behavior as the maids e daughter. She has to recognize all the social cues and interpret social settings correctlywhen to expect the same rights and privileged as the employers children and when to execute the expectations and obligations as the maids daughter (p. 89). The ways in which parents, family, community and society charge various interpretations of race eventually determine how one identifies oneself. During the film, Sarah Jane was challenged because she lived in affright of being found out. Sarah Janes emotion work involved a lot of deep acting to watch over the role and achieve the master status of a Caucasian person that she was not ascribed. In society, race is commonly visually confirmed.As Sarah Jane grew older she constantly denied her ethnicity which led to another challenge. For African Americans, understanding the past is essential in analyzing present day issues of the community. The topics of colorism and the relationship between light and dark skinned Blacks are especially essential because history indicat es that the subject is imbued with cryptic discomfort (Cunningham, 1997). Light skin is cherished in some minorities especially African American. When Sarah Jane started to date she thought that if she matrimonial a white man, her children would come out white and no one would fuck the wiser. Contrary to her wishes, her boyfriend, who was white, found out that her mother was black. He asked her on a date and savagely beat her and threw her in the gutter. He snarl that she tricked him because he would never date outside of his race. Having one drop of black blood was considered contaminating, and its presence made one totally and absolutely black. The one drop rule became law during re-construction. In addition, many Whites feared an infiltration of black blood, and anti-miscegenation laws were born partly out of the fear that a White person might accidentally marry a black person (Cunningham, 1997). afterwards this beating she felt more(prenominal) resentment towards her mothe r because she felt all the obstacles she was facing were her mothers fault.There are also breaks in facework in which emotions are not managed properly. Sarah Janes status is constantly changing in response to the blanket(a) range of social settings she encounters (Romero, 1995, p. 89). To avoid embarrassment because of the many awkward situations she go about because of her race she decided to run away in order to maintain face. She joined a chorus line in a low class night club and became comfortable living as a white woman. She successfully passed in her new identity. This allowed her sense of self to receive she was able to distance herself from the social norms that were in place for African Americans.Facework allowed Sarah Jane to avoid stigmatized identity After she ran away, in her new environment, there was no one to stigmatize her as a black woman. She made friends and found a job. Being a light skinned African American was often a barrier to find jobs because in the ey es of some whites, they were a picture of the outcome of a mixed relationship which was taboo at that time. The mere idea of people who were black being able to pass and live among whites caused an ongoing threat of racial obscurity for white so naturally passing as a white woman modify her looking glass self, by seeing herself as she thought others saw her (Alkon, 2012).Sarah Janes mother was getting older and she was getting very sick. She eventually cooperated with Sarah Jane in the process of facework by promising her that she would never acknowledge that she was her mother so that Sarah Jane could maintain her face and keep the persona of being a white woman. While Annie was dying she told her employer to tell her daughter that she was sorry and that she was being egotistical as her mother but she loved her because she was the only thing she had. As I mentioned above, Annie used facework and corrective processes until she died. Unfortunately at the end of the movie Annie died . During the funeral, Sarah Jane ran down the crowded street and threw herself on the coffin, this time she was screaming and grave her mother that she was sorry. She was using a corrective process by apologizing and postulation her mother for forgiveness. Unfortunately it was too late because her mother died of a downcast heart.In conclusion, Sarah Jane used facework to successfully pass as a white woman, and allowed Sarah Jane to avoid a stigmatized identity. She was able to do this because visually you would not know she was African American. Passing as a white woman impact her identity because she used deep acting to internalize the white race that she infiltrated. Sarah Janes passing deeply affected her mother because her mother wanted her to live as a black woman and marry black man. Passing is a small piece of African-Americans socio-historical background and usually remains inscrutable like a long buried bone, ironically society is more tolerant and would not see it as a stigmatized behavior. Society has come a long way from the 30s and 50s and there is more opportunity out there to be successful regardless the color of your skin.