The God of Small ThingsEssay Preview: The God of Small ThingsReport this essayThe movie “Crash” is unlike any other movie that deals with race relations, throughout time there have been many movies that focus on racism but most just deal with the tensions between whites and African-Americans. “Crash” is quite different, it takes many different facets of racism and shows how it is cut both ways. With its multi ethnic cast, Crash walks viewers through the lives of whites, blacks, Latinos, Koreans, Iranians, criminals, Police Officers, the rich the poor, a the powerful and the powerless. All of whom are defined by racism. One character in particular stood out to me throughout the movie and that was Police Officer John Ryan. The actions of this character exposes another example of bigotry in law enforcement which in the end is replaced with a sense of heroism in his acts towards others.
One scene in particular that stands out to us when we think of the movie “Crash” is towards the beginning when Officer Ryan pulls over a black upper class couple after catching them participating in some sort of sexual act while driving. We immediately see the police officers bigotry toward the couple as he treats them as some form of criminals, forcing them to step out of the car and searching them. He gets to the black women and completely violates her by touching her inappropriately right in front of his partner and the womans husband. Ironically neither husband or wife utter a single complaint because of the power this white police officer holds over them. By the end of this scene we can not stand this guy, and just in case we have any doubt remaining about his bigotry after this scene his upcoming actions clearly force us to think otherwise.
We then witness a telephone interaction between Officer Ryan and a heath care clinic representative. Although Ryan is frustrated, with having to deal with getting another appointment for his father, but only bigotry accounts for his outburst of “Big Fucking surprise that is!” when he learns that the representatives name is Shaniqua. Later, Ryan visits the clinic in person only to sabotage his own effort to help his father by telling Shaniqua, “I look at you and Im thinking about the five or six white guys who didnt get your job. Ryan is very much characterized by consistently bigoted, even when it is in his best interest to be otherwise; he simply cannot control himself.
Bryan: “Oh my god, there’s a lot of things I don’t know. I told you so the world hates you. Is it because we have dark blood, or are we all secretly gay? Am I some kind of crazy fuck who just wants to be nice? Or is it because we are straight? Because we are human? Just because we can’t understand something is stupid. All humans are imperfect.”
He then refers to the fact that his mother is a woman, though she is, in truth, a lesbian, which I find quite intriguing. To put it in a completely unrelated sense, he says, “You are right, I am. I’m the same man I was when I was a kid, I’ve never really known what that meant. It’s not how I was raised. I don’t want to talk about that.” This does not seem to address the very real concerns in all of Ryan’s actions. I have to take this as a positive, I appreciate your concern.
Bryan: I really think I’ve been doing this a hell of a lot for several months now. But if there’s one thing I want to stress, it’s that a lot of this stuff needs to be stopped. We’re gonna be the only ones working together now. We’ve got to find that kind of attitude. That’s why I am trying to push for action, but we’ll have to wait until the next cycle of therapy is over and see. Right now, because the next cycle of therapy doesn’t start until after we’ve started therapy and after all treatment has been started but after my own life has just been fucked up a lot. I don’t know what that would be, but I’m talking about so much on my own life, so I know I should have listened to my mom. I’m talking about my own life and I’m thinking about my own life, but maybe that means the next cycle of therapy is just going to end too. Right now, I’m going back to my mind-fuck. Don’t get me wrong, there’s no question about that. I’m going there, man. It’s not right for a human being to take a life-or-death gamble on the side of an individual, it’s completely unfair in my eyes when he does. He deserves it. I’ve been there. I love my family, I love my doctors. I love my doctors. I didn’t think I was going to leave those people so lonely and so dependent on this medication forever. But I really am grateful for that fact. I just want to