Moral Theme

Posted: October 17th, 2013

Moral Theme

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Moral Theme

A major theme that is clearly brought out by the producer Selznick in Gone with the Wind is that of slavery and emancipation in Georgia. By around early 1730’s, nearly half of Georgia’s population consisted of African slaves. Slavery therefore played a great economic and political role in Georgia as slaveholders controlled the state political system. The emancipation process was gradual and for the first time, slaves in Georgia developed concepts of universal freedom for all as well as civil rights.

The Fountainhead focuses on Howard Roark who is an architect who is more concerned with realizing his personal opinions and preferences even to a point that he turns down lucrative projects. Later after being arrested, in court, Howard defends himself talking at length about individual rights and freedoms of individuals to do as they please. The individualism of Howard Roark is the subject matter of this movie with other related themes like integrity, idealism, non-compromise, personal will, honesty and ambition.

Philadelphia holds a rich and controversial theme that acknowledges HIV /AIDS, homosexuality and homophobia in the society. This movie presents an associate, Andrew Beckett, who is victimized and discriminated against after being diagnosed with HIV /AIDS. Convinced that there was a cover-up for the real reason of his dismissal, Andrew seeks a lawyer to plead on his behalf, Mr. Joe Miller who ends up suing his employer for terminating his employment on wrongful grounds as well as fighting the discrimination and stigma faced by people with AIDS.

In this movie Chocolat, Vianne Rocher opens up a chocolate shop, which brings up a whole lot of questions on the morality of the community having deep social prejudices, which were all but broken down by the arrival of Vianne, and the chocolate shop. Vianne introduced open and secular principles like liberation of the peoples repressed instincts.

The movie Philadelphia stands out as having a strong theme of equality and non-discrimination against fellow human beings. In society, many people are disadvantaged in some way and they all need to be treated in the same way. In this movie ,the lawyer Joe Miller goes out of his way to change his own thinking in as far as gays and AIDS is concerned to accept to represent Andrew Beckett in court over his alleged incompetence as a reason for his dismissal. In a twist of attitude, Joe Miller emerges as a hero in the viewers’ eyes as he defends the victim he is awarded full compensation for all the damages. The actions of people in this movie go against the very tradition of Philadelphia, which translated means “brotherly love”. An underlying but still prominent theme at the time was also the discrimination against the black population as was witnessed by the clear discrimination of Mr. Joe Miller. Transparency especially about one’s status also comes out as one of the ethics to be embraced.

Applying the ethic of non-discrimination and equality of all men, I must accept that all men are equal. Therefore, they should be handled in the same way regardless of their race, origin, occupation, status or health. Such qualities as standing up for the rights of the underprivileged and promoting equality should be emulated in the society. Having a principle of equality will be important in that it will help me as an individual to be more aware of the societal injustices in my environment as well as intervening in order to bring about equality and justice. As we speak, these prejudices against color, sexual orientation, religion and social status still apply to many people in the world and even though most of these triggers of prejudices have been eliminated, it is my duty to respect the variety of each person in the community, making sure that each and everyone’s rights are respected and upheld.