Chunk - Movie Review

Hong Kong Polytechnic University

Course code and title:

APSS112- Introduction to Sociology

Assignment: Reflection paper

Name of movie selected: Cast away 劫後重生

Teacher's name : Mr. LO Hung Kei, Kenneth

Word count:

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Student Name:  TSANG Ping Kwan

Student ID:        13085852D

Reflection Paper

The first sociological concept applied in the movie is social stratification. The exploitation is concealed which means the capitalism blurring laborers with false consciousness. For instance, in the movie Chunk always urges the workers in FedEx probably the working class to work faster to compete for the time. He believes that the employees are paid so they must to work desperately to enhance the competitiveness or the image of the company. However, employees can be paid unequally which means their salaries may not positively correlate to their effort. Such exploitation is always obscured by the capitalists. Moreover, I am shocked and doubt that Chunk maybe blurred by capitalism, which even exceeds his value of survival. Chunk finds some parcel in the uninhabited island but he does not open them immediately to find whether there are foods or tools for saving his life.  

Anyways, the social status theory also can be revealed in the movie. Chunk has gained the social honor or prestige.  Since he is returned to the homeland, his social status rises due to his amazing survival experience but not the wealth he possess. It can conclude that wealth is not the only determinant of social class.

The second concept is the functionalistic view on gender. In the movie or even the real world, it is common that most of the pilots are male. Male is possibly arranged to carry out instrumental activities. The characteristics of male are assigned or assumed that they are more rational, calm, decisive and familiar with numeric than female. All of these personalities are the basic requirement of being a pilot. Moreover, the social status of pilot is always higher, it is because of not only the well-paid salaries, but also the professional knowledge they possess. This example is always accepted as the gender role through the socialization in schools and media.

The third concept is the symbolic interactionism. By learning and symbols, Chunk can predict the costly possible mistakes and increase the possibility of survival. He uses hypothesis rather than trial-and-error. For instance, he uses the clothes to bind up his foot because he expects he may get hurt when climbing the rock. Besides, after the first failure of drinking coconut juice, he is capable of using his knowledge to make some traps to collect the rainwater for survival.

Besides, such activities can be explained by Marx’s view on “production”. As Chunk is not self-maintaining which the body cannot produce the resource it need itself, so he must alter the environment to satisfy the bodily needs. This is a relationship of human transforming nature to survive.