Pt. 2 Les Miserables

As we continue into the film we begin with Russell Crowe and Hugh Jackman at another altercation.  Finding Anne Hathaway near death Crowe is submissive to Jackmans orders to let him bring her to a hospital.  We can relate this to communication ethics by Jackmans actions of compassion towards Anne and her child. Compared to Crowe's actions that would have sent Anne to prison and her daughter would be condemned as a slave for the rest of her life with Sacha Baron Cohen and Helena Bonham Carter.  Next we see Jackman comfort Hathaway as she dies in the hospital.  At which point Crowe confronts Jackman that he is not the man that he thought he was.  Again the roles of each person flips from superior to prisoner and servant to superior.  This causes communication to change drastically between Jackman and Crowe.  Crowe refers to Jackman as a number like he did in the beginning when Jackman was a prisoner.  

Leading into the next situation of communication.  The way that Isabelle Allen was constantly belittled by both Cohen and Carter.  Compared to Cohen and Carters own daughter, which she was talked to as if she were equal to them even though they would not admit to it.  Allen (Young Cosette) is expected to submit to both Cohen and Carter because she does not know any other way besides complete obedience.  We could use the looking glass self concept, that Allen has no other way to perceive herself except as a small person that has no other choice but to succumb to them.  Carter and Cohen only project the perception that she is nothing and is only useful for work.  This also reinforces the social convention that we should obey/listen to our elders whether it is our parents, grandparents, or someone that is older and holds a higher social presence.  Through the years the social convention that held true in the early nineteenth century still holds true today.   

Another scene of the movie where the rebels are gathered as a group.  Eddie Redmayne (Marius) and Aaron Tveit (Enjolras) speak to Daniel Huttlestone (Gavroche), as well as the entire rebel group without any hint of condescending communication.  They speak to all as equals, men and women.  As the mob disperses Huttestone's grandfather approaches him to tell him how much of a disgrace he is.  At this point the grandfather spoke to his grandson not as if he were equal but an insubordinate child that is acting out erratically.  Or another way is that the grandfather now sees his grandson as someone that has a lower social status and has to display his superiority towards him.

9/17/2015 22:55