Introduction
Boy A is a fictional story concerning Eric. He was a pre-adolescent who had a wrong kind and violent and streak friend by the name Phillip. They collaborated in killing a girl of their age. They were thus put into trial as Boy A and Boy B. The prosecutor placed an argument that the two Boy A and Boy B were essentially evil and thus deserving maximum legal sentence. It was too unfortunate that Phillip passed away while in prison; Eric now at 24 years old was released from prison into unrecognizable adult world. He is give a new home, name, and job and thus started very new life. However, anonymity is considerably both a curse and a blessing since Jack Burridge contended to never leak to all the people he loved and know of what he considered monstrous secret and past. He vowed to make it a lifetime-hidden agenda (Roger, N.p).
The film Boy A is based on a novel written by Jonathan Trigell. The novel hence the film was inspired by a true story of two British boys who were captured by security video cameras in a shopping mall while leading away a girl who was later found dead. The cases raised the question of whether such children who go to an extent of killing are essentially evil or there is a possibility for them to change over periods of years. Another question is on whether the society needs to secure another chance for such children (Trigell, 23). Terry the ferment of renamed Jack believed on the possibility of second change and second chance for such deviant youth. Terry the rehabilitation counselor of Jack lectures him on the risk of revealing of his secrets of the past because he was convinced that Jack was a new person with new personality all together but the society will never give a chance to understand the same. He thus warns him that if he reveals his secret of the past then the society will crucify him. Jacks took a job with Manchester firm.
As Jack rebuilds his existence and the job, goes well as he was daily put on spot by the encouragements of Terry. He becomes friends with his co-workers Chris and the secretary at office Michelle whom they later fall in love. Jack is urgent to reveal his secrets to Michelle but Terry forbids him. One day as Chris and Jack were driving down a country road, came upon an accident and managed to save a young girl from the debris. The act hailed Jack and Chris as heroes leading them to be featured in the Manchester Evening News front page (Roger, N.p).
A chain of events leads to the revelation of the hidden secret of Jack. A shameless London tabloid displayed photos of Jack saying that they have found Boy A. Jack is considered an embodiment of evil and his was not supposed to walk free in streets. This formed the collapse of Jacks life. The scenes form parts of the desperate actions of the movie, which ends at Brighton where Jack meets Michelle. At a bar, Jack shows his real identity as he depicted capability of violence. In flashbacks, the boyhood behavior of Jack is revealed as the real cause of the murder. The whole identity of Jack falls apart all together and he remains wandering and homeless.
In this movie, Jack (Boy A) portrays the type of lifestyle the youths of the current generation encounter in their daily endeavors. This is displayed in the movie at first instance when Jack comes from the prison having served his sentence. Despite of his inhuman nature as explained in feedback mode in the movie, he comes upon another individual of his past-life-kind, (a troublemaker) and be friends him by rescuing him from the angry group bullies. In this context, we can simply understand that no matter how bad or good one might be, they will always have someone who will reside and help them in times of hardships. As the story unfolds, we discover more of the cruel acts of individuals under which we get the information about Philip being a victim of rape. Adding to this, the director sets the story in a manner that the audience gets to understand how selfish and centre-minded human beings can become through Philips brother, of all others appearing to be the perpetrators of this evil act against his own blood (Giddens, 32).
Having spent most of his young life in the juvenile prisons, Jack has completely changed leading to magnificent change in attitude, behavior and respect to others. As many other children who undergo the same type of tremor as Jack, and on the contrary have no one to help them in understanding on how to face their current adult world. They have a very low idea on how to relate with their new environment as they were imprisoned at a very tender age in which they could not understand anything in a mature way of viewing things (Macionis, 118).
Jack’s new way of relating to the new environment is observed when he bravely rescues a young child that could have died were it not of his courageous and his humanly heart. Despite of him being featured in a newspaper article, he does not boost or praise himself as many would do. As jack has completely changed and has become a trustworthy and lovable person. The director surprises the audience when beautiful and humble Michelle (the office girl) falls in love with the once-in-a lifetime known cold hearted Jack.
It is quite unfortunate how the story continues after the newspapers start revealing the old real identity of Jack. We find this innocent individual undergoing a severe social stigma through which his closest friends flee from his presence. The poor fellow undergoes a very depressive moment when everyone whom he thought to be dear to him turned to be the worst enemy.
In relation to Goffman’s way of defining stigma, Jack undergoes a severe deviation in his personal traits and mental illness, which leads him to make a decision to run from his home. The stressing press presenters also highly impacts on Jacks decision of fleeing from his homestead as they over flood him with questions that bring back the extremely hurting memories to him. In the real world, we can relate this story to people way of perceiving wrong information due to external influences (Giddens, 286). It is clear that Michelle and other close friends to Jack have lived peacefully with him easily and made the best and happiest moments of their life until the moment when they are led to perceive negatively on Jack’s present personality.
Labeling theory in sociology holds on the idea of behaviors being deviant on if the society as a whole labels them so. In this movie, Jack remains to be a criminal to the eyes of the society despite of his positive contributions to his society’s well-being. As earlier seen, the people around Jack after his return from jail find him charming with a lovable kind personality only until the media talk’s ill of him in regards to his past life.
Jack’s experience from rejection by the society he has done his best to help is one of the worst feedbacks one can get from his own kind. Jack had given his all in his recovering process into a new reformed individual. This is a common challenge that many ex-offenders experience when they are done with their jail terms. Everyone looks at them as a public disgrace despite, of their endless efforts to help fill the gaps they had left in their past part of life. This reaction by the community leave these individuals in a world of self-blame and regression that make them feel as though they cannot fit anywhere in the society. The only thing left is deeply indulging into crime or committing murder s in the relation to the movie where Jack stands over the edge of a pier, which implies his intension of committing murder (Macionis, 301).
Strain theory emphasizes that social structures in the society might pressure the citizens to commit crime. The director of this fictional work of art tries to incorporate a state where Jack is changed and led by his surrounding environment to feel that he lacks something in his life which is the course of for his anticipation to commit suicide as he feels to be of less importance to the society.
The broken windows are the theory of signaling effect of the urban and norm-setting on increased crime and anti-social behavior. We can clearly evidence the presence of urban crimes when Philip uses a knife to stab a lady they argue with. On the same point, exclusive anti-social behavior is experienced when Philip’s brother becomes the perpetrator of Philip’s rape
Discussion and Conclusion
The text is significant in studying deviance as it gives various perspectives on whether at first the Jack was to be give a chance or whether his chance of identity was necessary based on conceptualizing stigma, which considers the modeling of character at old age as tainting and conveys a devalued social identity and stigma of trait. The film makes us understand the conditionality of tainting of social identity as a strategy to manage spoiled character. The movie does not reflect the course content because Jack and his counselor Terry never realized the need to deal with normals by assuming that normals are ignorant rather than malicious (Goffman, 46). However, they insisted and relied on stigmatization response of hiding identity. The movie is a social construction because the society of its setting is conclusive that a murderer is evil and not supposed to be free. London tabloid and Terry who seems a constructive himself exhibit this. Social construction of the society is worthwhile studying since it constitutes knowledge that a particular society consider true, applicable and go by it as it is exhibited in the film Boy A.
Works Cited
"Boy A Movie Review & Film Summary (2008) | Roger Ebert." Movie Reviews and Ratings by Film Critic Roger Ebert | Roger Ebert. N.p., n.d. Web. 2 Dec. 2013.
Giddens, Anthony. Sociology. Cambridge [England: Polity Press, 1993. Print.
Goffman, Erving. Stigma: Notes on the management of spoiled identity. SimonandSchuster. com, 2009.
Macionis, John J. Sociology. Upper Saddle River, N.J: Pearson/Prentice Hall, 2007. Print.
Trigell, Jonathan. Boy a. Profile Books, 2008.
