Social stratification and Film - Essay Example

The name of the film was taken from the real name of the ship that sank into Atlantic on April 15, 1997. The film was an epic romance. The story of the film mainly focuses on the romance of Jack and Rose, on their eternal love and faith on themselves. Jack and Rose belong from two exactly opposite classes of society, so there arises many bounds in between their love. The voyage of the ship gradually helps them to meet again and again and finally they get closer to each other. Suddenly the ship hits an iceberg and begins to sink into the cold water of Atlantic.

Jack comes to an end when the ship totally sinks into water. But the love between these two never ends. The film starts with the search for a necklace named Heart of the Ocean, but it ends with the sink of only the necklace, not the love. Besides love and friendships, this film also generates some social aspects like class difference and race or ethnicity. Social stratification dimension: Every scene of the movie portraits social stratification dimension accurately. From the beginning the voyage of the ship the movie tries to mark differences between two classes of the society, namely rich and poor.

All the rich people are receiving warm welcome from the crew members of the ship, while the poor people are getting searched by them. The rich people are allowed to take enter into the most luxurious parts of the ship, while poor people are not at all welcomed to go there. The crew members and the authorities of the ship are treating the poor as if they do not even exist and as if they do not have any value in the society (Mantsios, 272-273). This scenario gets prominent when Cal invites Jack to a dinner party at the “first class” part of the ship just to get insulted and destroy his dignity.

Despite of trying so hard, Cal does not get his desired success. The charismatic attitude of Jack forces Cal to receive a loss. Again the intolerable comments and questions of Rose’s mother about Jack’s life and earnings are clear indications of the psychological torment through strong discrimination of rich people towards the poor. Again the differences of facilities that are given to the poor people compared to the rich are highlighted prominently by the director James Cameron. The rich people are allotted to stay in luxury suites of the ship, while the poor are ‘allowed’ to stay in small rooms where “there is hardly any rat”.

Even the rich girl is not allowed to talk to any person who belongs to the poor and hence lower class or “third class”. The poor people are not allowed to know any advanced information regarding the ship. This kind of disparity is well indicated by the director. The director also highlights the differences in the services provided to the people. In a scene where the ship is just about to sank, the rich people are getting the safety jackets faster than the poor people. Also the rich men (of the “first class” part of the ship) are getting the ‘assistance’ to sit into the lifeboats along with women, while the poor people men are just getting forced to wait for the death.

In a scene, where one of the friends of Jack is fired with a gun by a crew member, this unexpected mentality of the higher class of the society is well indicated. But the director does not forget to highlight the ethical aspect of the movie. The moment the crew member shots Jack’