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Juno
By Maria Corey

The movie Juno was released in the winter of 2007 and was immediately a blockbuster hit. It was nominated for three academy awards and won best screenplay. There are other movies that involve pregnancy but nothing like this movie. Juno demonstrates the ups and downs of being a teenager and being pregnant by showing how hard it can be to give up something that you grew to love.

Juno MacGuff (Ellen Page) is a 16 year old girl who is best friends with Paulie Bleeker (Michael Cera). Juno and Bleeker were in a band together and have the same struggles with school and family just like any other teenager, except Juno ended up getting pregnant. Juno was going to get an abortion but decided against it. Instead Juno finds a couple, Vanessa and Mark Loring (Jennifer Garner and Jason Bateman) who have been looking to adopt a child for a while. What Juno didn’t know when she agreed to give them her baby, was that their marriage was falling apart and split up around the time that Juno was about to have her child. Juno did not know if she wanted to give her child to just one parent, but she did not have many options. Juno decided to still give her baby to Vanessa who was ready to have a child with or without a husband.

Being a teenager is tough enough without being pregnant. There are hormones raging and emotions aroused, everything is all over the place. Being in high school there are many stressors like passing a course, getting along with your peers, and possibly finding someone you love. All of these things happened to Juno because she was just an ordinary girl going through the stressors of high school. Having the added stressor of being pregnant was the only difference to Juno’s life at that moment. Juno did not react to her pregnancy like other teenagers have. Other pregnant teenagers may have dropped out of school or just let their grades slip which is something that should not happen because that is what all teenagers have to base their future career on.

Teenage pregnancy is becoming more and more common today and this movie shows how some teenagers don’t think their actions all the way through. Some teenagers think they are responsible enough to have a child but they just don’t realize how much trouble it can be. Juno was a smart child who knew she wasn’t ready to have a child and gave it to someone who was ready and wanted a child. Some teenagers don’t realize how much responsibility it is and how everything changes for them. High school dropout rates increase, poverty increases, all the problems that go along with being a single mom happens when you have a child when you are too young or not ready. Nothing like this happened for Juno but it is social problems like those that happens everyday to many teenagers in America.

Juno did everything that any teenager would normally do; the only difference was that she was pregnant. When she went to school, she acted like it was any other day. It was everyone else in the school that were more shocked by Juno being pregnant than Juno was. In high school everyone talks and everyone knows everyone’s business but Juno acted like it didn’t bother her. She had other things on her mind like trying to control her feelings for Bleeker and keeping up in school. Being a pregnant teenager should not be a normal thing but it is occurring more often nowadays, which is not necessarily good thing. Teenagers are not responsible enough to take care of a child. Teenage pregnancy can be changed by teaching about the consequences of young parenthood and letting them know it is a serious matter and should be thought about seriously before making a decision.

The Devil’s Highway By Luis Urrea
By Peter Chirichiello

The Devil’s Highway: A True Story, is an account of twenty-six men who tried to come to America illegally through the strip of the American-Mexican border called “The Devil’s Highway.” Only twelve of the twenty-six survived. It was covered heavily by the press and was of great interest to the American people, not only because it is an issue that has yet to be solved, and in some minds made worse, but it was also the largest amount of illegal immigrant deaths at one time.

This book contains a very important story, a story of human rights. The author of the book, Luis Alberto Urrea tells the story as an observer, and as someone who is bringing to light the problems of American border policy, but does not try to give any definite solutions; that is left up to the reader.

The book raises the question: What can be done about the border situation in America, and are we approaching it in the correct manner? The questions has been debated on just about every major news network on television. The responses vary depending on if you’re listening to Fox, a conservative network that would tend to lead toward the construction of a border wall, not only for security reason, but economic ones as well, or a more liberal network like ABC which may be more compassionate to “illegals” in America.

According to Urrea, America is not taking the correct approach. What is being done now is the construction on a border wall, a wall the is not working; what it is doing is making the path to America more and more dangerous, in turn killing more. But isn’t that the point? Aren’t we supposed to be making it harder for people to come to our country illegally? After all they aren’t just coming here to steal out jobs and hurt our economy? Not exactly. In reality most jobs illegal immigrants are taking are jobs that average American does not want, jobs that do not pay well, and require little to no education. Illegal immigrants are willing to work in terrible working conditions for long hours. In Max Weber’s book The Protestant Ethic and Spirit of Capitalism, Weber argues that having citizens that are willing to work for little pay (like illegal immigrants) is actually a benefit to the capitalist society. Weber claims “the presence of a surplus population which it can hire cheaply in the labor market is a necessity for the development of capitalism,” because when wages are decreased so is the efficiency of the work, therefore cheap labor is needed in a capitalist society (p. 61); and the cheaper the labor the cheaper the product will be for the American consumer.

Urrea points out that the perceived economic downfalls of illegal immigration are actually false. “Mexican immigrants use about $250 million in social services such as Medicaid and food stamps and another $31 million in uncompensated health care. That leaves a profit of $319 million.” At the end of the book Urrea brings up many facts like this that contradict the popular belief of illegal immigration.

The border wall needs to be looked at closer. What are the implications of a wall? And if Americans are so concerned about the economy we need to consider what has more of an adverse affect: having illegals enter America (which is inevitable, wall or not) or, building a wall that would cost over three million dollars per mile (San Diego Tribune), not to mention the maintenance that will be needed over the years? Another factor to consider is the private land that the government is taking from it’s citizens to build the wall (San Antonio Current); in this case the rights of American citizens are being controlled as well as a result of the wall.

Especially in the election year that we are in and the ramifications of the Iraq war, where America’s foreign policy is being heavily questioned and the economy is in a recession, can we afford to be isolating ourselves form other countries?

References

Harman, Greg. “San Antonio Current - News & Politics.” San Antonio Current - Home Page. 25 Mar. 2008 .

“Hitting the wall | The San Diego Union-Tribune.” SignOnSanDiego.com | The San Diego Union-Tribune | San Diego news, California and national news. 25 Mar. 2008 .

Parsons, Talcott, R.H. Tawney, and Max Weber. The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism (Dover Value Editions). New York: Dover Publications, 2003.

Urrea, Luis Alberto. The Devil’s Highway: A True Story. United States: Little, Brown and Company, 2005.

Who Rules America? by G. William Domhoff
Reviewed by Matthew Weidmann

As I’ve moved through my years as a student studying the field of sociology I, as many others, have faced the reoccurring challenge of marrying the dense, abstract theory laden principles of the field with contemporary, tangible, “real world” situations. No doubt such application is possible and intrinsic to my fascination with the discipline of sociology, however, as any student or lay person reading out of self interest can attest to; sometimes the valuable information is buried beneath lofty jargon. Thus, when a publication that applies the foundation of theory to a social issue in such a manner that all readers can appreciate and in fact, act upon it, it’s worth noting.

I am bringing to your attention G. William Domhoff’s, “Who Rules America?: Power, Politics, & Social Change”. I have found it to be one of the most important pieces of contemporary sociological literature to cross my desk in all my years as a student. Domhoff uses a brilliant application of empirical research, which includes case studies and up-to-date statistics, to provide his case for “who rules America”. Many important concepts are developed throughout the book such as the power elite, class awareness, the role of government, the corporate community, and policy planning. Knowledge of these concepts provides the reader with and important power! As Warren Goldstein from the University of Central Florida said, “this is the most important thing they [sociology students] need to know: who rules America”. This book is important because it provides the reader with information that helps to lift the veil of Marx’s “false consciousness”, and provides him/her with knowledge and resources that, if mobilized, can lead to significant social change.

Why should everyone care about who rules America? Knowledge into the inner workings of the upper class, the social networks they have established, and how they impact government is crucial in understanding a myriad of issues. It has implications when dealing with class conflict, socioeconomic stratification, and democracy in general. A brief trip down theory lane provides support for this. Conflict theorists and functionalists alike have recognized the existence of an upper class, an elite group of individuals at the top of the social order. Here in the United States many feel that the power held by this niche of society has far over stepped its bounds.

Important social change is needed in our country. Whether dealing with poverty, job-loss, health care, or environmental sustainability (to name a few) the role of the corporate community and their impact on government policy is deeply relevant. This book provides an inside look into the corporate interlocks that fuel the monopoly over policy planning in our country. As the cliché goes, Knowledge is power. As more and more citizens become aware of the intricacies of our democracy and how those in power exploit it, the more pressure that will rise for change. Domhoff’s book is an important piece in starting this process. “Who rules America” is must read for any individual seeking social change and a better America.

A Piece of Cake by Cupcake Brown
Reviewed by Kailey Malone

“A Piece of Cake” by Cupcake Brown, a New York Times Bestseller, is one of the most amazing autobiographies I have ever read. It is a confession of a young woman’s life after being thrown into a sea of foster homes. It all starts out when Cupcake’s mother dies, her father gets custody of her and her brother and instead of raising them himself like any normal father would he brings them to a foster home of a woman named Diane where she is starved, beaten, and eventually it just gets so bad that she doesn’t want to be there at all and ends up sneaking out and taking up prostitution and drugs. The second foster home she is brought to isn’t actually a foster home at all but her Aunt Becky’s house where she lives with her aunt and her cousins. Her cousins are members of a gang and as much as they didn’t want her to get involved in such a violent organization where you could get killed in an instant and not even know what happened, the closeness she felt with her cousins made her want to join and once you join a gang it is nearly impossible to get out alive. These are just the first in a long series of unfortunate events in Cupcake’s life.

Being born in the heart of the ghetto Cupcake had all the odds stacked up against her. Typically minorities and people born into poor socioeconomic conditions have the largest rate of violence, gang involvement, poor education, familial upsets and criminal activity. Throughout the span of her story she experienced “overcoming the death of a parent, childhood abuse, rape, drug addiction, miscarriage, alcoholism, hustling, gang banging, near-death injuries, drug dealing, prostitution, and homelessness. Cupcake survived all these things before she’d even turned twenty.” This inspirational story shows the social pressures and influences life can have on a person.

All of the people Cupcake met, and all of the experiences she has had, have shaped her into very well adjusted women. She even goes into her recovery from alcoholism and drug addiction, complete with hallucinations of spiders singing “We Will Rock You”. She describes what it was like to kick her speech from the street and develop a more professional way of speaking. When she got to her lowest point she gets 12-step help and finds a mentor who helps her achieve her goal of becoming clean and sober magnificently.

Filled with tragedy as well as humor and written in a conversational manner in which you feel that Cupcake is telling you her story directly, Brown delivers a story the should be known by any person who is interested in how someone so far down in a hole where they’re eating out of dumpsters and doing sexual favors just for a small hit of blow can eventually climb their way back up in society landing in the ranks of lawyers and having such respect for herself and her body. Through the help of her mentor and friends she went back to school for 8 ½ years and she now practices law at one of the nation’s largest law firms, is a great motivational speaker, and lives in San Francisco.

Grand Canyon: Diversity in American life
By Patrick Davis

An enormous part to being an American is grasping the concept of what diversity means. Americans need to stop stereotyping people that are different from them. Instead they should be intrigued with other people’s different ways of life, including culture, values and beliefs. This sociological issue of diversity is known to researchers all over the United States and the world. People need to appreciate what diversity means before they make assumptions about other people. America is an extremely racially diverse country and a lot of the time it causes conflicts in our everyday life and neighborhood settings. My definition of diversity would be a social policy encouraging tolerance for people of different backgrounds.

A perfect entrance in the topic of diversity would be the movie Grand Canyon (1991) by Lawrence Kasdan. This vivid movie from the 1990s portrayed different types of diversity and life changing events. The movie revolved around the lives of six residents from extremely different backgrounds whose lives interconnected in modern day Los Angeles. Each character in the movie played an important part in the movie representing diversity and how in the end everything works out with a little effort and time. The film overall is trying to reveal the image that you have to be tolerant of all people even if they are different from you and have different beliefs or skin color.

An example of diversity revealed in the movie is when Mack’s (main character) car broke down on the way home from an LA Laker’s game. Soon after it broke down a group of teenage gang members quickly approached his car. Mack was scared and the African American gang members could sense a feeling of uneasiness. This is when Simon (an African American tow truck driver) came to the rescue. He pulled the leader of the gang over to the side and talked to him in a stern but respectful manner. In this opening scene Simon showed tolerance and respect to the troubled gang member. He tried to talk to him at a level that the gang leader would understand. Moreover, Simon’s strategy worked extremely well in this situation. It is always important to be the bigger man in the situation and that is exactly what Simon did. The way Simon handled this circumstance is the way people should handle it in everyday life, polite and well mannered.

Another example of diversity that I recognized in the film was the differences in the white verses black neighborhoods in Los Angeles. Mack and his wife Claire lived a rich life a few miles outside the city. They had a huge house, and well paying jobs. They were based in a mainly white centered neighborhood; it would be very rare if you ever saw an African American walking on the streets in this section. Simon and his sister on the other hand lived in a predominately black neighborhood. This area was poor and run down. In this part one would experience poverty, drive by shootings, and more crime than the white area. I noticed this in the movie because they kept showing the difference in diversity and race very clearly. An example of resistant diversity would be Simon’s nephew, Otis, who was contemplating about joining a nearby gang. Resistance occurs when we reject the beliefs of particular cultures or social communities. Otis didn’t like living where he did so he wanted to try and find a new life style.

Overall I think this movie was worth while for me to watch because it touched a lot of different aspects of diversity and paying your dues. Mack paid back Simon in multiple ways throughout the movie for saving his life that night. It is a movie about every good thing you do will be rewarded in the end. The last scene of the movie explains it all when Simon brings everyone to the Grand Canyon, and they take the beautiful sight all in. The movies main message is to tolerate people that are different from you. This movie made me think critically and sociologically about diversity and made me more aware of my surroundings. I learned to be more respectful to people that are different from me.

mwalsh @ April 10, 2008