The film, Sleeping with the Enemy reviews interesting ideas that are relevant to the modern society. The film highlights that many developments happen in a society with the aim of improving people’s welfare. However, the ethical backgrounds of the events in the lives of common people dictate many elements about the relations of the people with their environments. Political and economic differences among the people lead to social deviations and disagreements among the people in the society. The ideas of death and social distractions are apparent in the film, sleeping with the Enemy. This film depicts a perfect society with members of individualistic cultures. Each society member sees themselves as autonomous agents driven by his or her preferences and goals (Quint 47). The egocentric culture rules the film with none of the characters ready to let their egos rest and suppress themselves.
The paper analyzes the poem, explaining the social and economic effects that arise from the characters. The paper also highlights domestic violence resulting from mental health problems and exposes the ideas that the film generates in the minds of viewers on family issues. In this context, the paper describes how the film shapes the audience’s perception of psychological of health of the family and the society. The film describes the dilemma that characterizes the families of the individuals who are suffering from psychological condition. The film also highlights the impact of such situations on the entire society. Furthermore, the film is keen at proposing solutions to these challenges. In particular, the film provides feedback and effect of how we should think about the psychological disorder. This consequence of this kind of portrayal is also apparent in the film. The film advocates for the need of abandoning biased assumptions that the society hold regarding victims of psychological conditions. This is in view, that negative attitudes toward the state, worsens the situation. Consequently, the film’s feedback towards this state emphasizes the need of embracing the condition and assuming joint interventions in addressing it.
Throughout the play, it emerges clearly that Martin suffers from Obsessive-compulsive psychological Disorder (OCPD), which may have resulted from random interactions with people through his growth. Moreover, this may have made him doubt his wife. Martin fosters the pursuit of self-actualization at the cost of social isolation. Living in individualistic cultural setup, martin values competition, hedonism, as well as self-reliance. The interactions with other members govern their social contract of rights and responsibilities. This culture promotes disharmony among people.
The film influences the thinking of the audience on the family because it portrays the family as a possessive affair especially through the actions of Martin (Quint 7). After marrying Laura, martin suffers from social effects of the marriage as he thinks that he can control everything that his wife does. Martin does not accept the fact that he married a grown up with social relations and interactive life. Materialistic thinking affects the ideas and thinking of the people this mainly affects the marriage institution especially due to the marriage obsession that it creates. For example, he prevents Laura from getting a job and provides everything she needs. This arises from his imagination that she would eventually cheat on him.
The film shows that Martin has mental illness through the jealous actions that he undertakes. Martin works hard to secure a good life for his family. The family lives across the coast, besides the ocean, which depicts the lifestyle of the wealthy people. The house has spacious rooms without walls, but rather glass doors and windows. According to Martin, the family would live happily if they had a rich and presentable environment, thus his wife would not complain even when he mistreated her. This later haunts him as his love and marriage break as much as he did all this for the family. For example, as much as they go swimming together, the viewer realizes that he is having misplaced love and care for the family, thus he does not match the social relations of the society.
The film shows that the psychological illness does not only affect the thinking of the people, but also affects the way people perceive their loved ones in the society. Individualism emerges as one of the most harmful effects of psychological illness in people. The individualism culture practiced in the film has greatly contributed Laura’s depression and negative attitude towards men. Laura suffers silently from domestic violence from a husband with Obsessive-compulsive Disorder, but no one seems to notice. She keeps quiet despite the fact that she faces abuse in order to keep the name of her husband good. An example happens when she escapes from her husband and adopts a new name in order to conceal her identity.
However, this affects her social life, as she can no longer interact with other people freely because she fears the reactions of her husband. She constantly seeks help from the legal authorities, but she cannot get help. The world outside does not seem disturbed by what goes on between the couple. They have no idea that Martin suffers from a psychological problem that poses a danger to his wife. Besides, Martin is an introspective person who never talks about his problem to other people making hard for him and Laura to get help.
The viewers also perceive Martin as a victim of his own beliefs and actions in the society. Laura does not like the fact that martin wants to dominate everything that she does. Unfortunately, the socio-cultural practices in this film support the idea that a wife should always be submissive to her husband (Jones 1265). The audience and viewers also believe that his extreme behavior and narcissism have contributed to his poor mental health. Furthermore, there is a resilient affiliation amid Low socioeconomic eminence, and the risk of one developing mental illnesses. However, this contrary to what seen in this film, Martin is from a high social class but suffers from mental illnesses of Obsessive-compulsive Disorder. This implies that he developed a mental illness from personal or biological events rather than the situations around him as many of the viewers may attempt to believe.
Many of the viewers argue that mental illnesses can occur because of various factors. On the other hand, gender is a vital determinant of well-being, including mental health (Quint 47). Gender defines the living of the people as well as their relations with the other people in the society. Racial alienation may not affect the mental health of the people as much as gender does. It tends to impact on the power, and this control both men and women have over their lives. Similarly, gender differentially influences the power, and this controls men and women hold over socioeconomic determinants. It also affects one’s access to resources, their roles, choices, status, as well as treatment in society. Increasing significant gender differences in established economies of high cultural practice can result into experiencing depression. It also leads to anxiety and somatic complaints.
The film sends the message that the mentally ill find it hard to interact the feelings and actions of the other people in the society as well as the reasons for their actions. Most of the mentally ill people will tend to react differently to other people in the society especially people of a different gender (Burchell and Cook 514). Martin physically assaults Laura because of his mental illness. According to him, the interactions between Laura and other men all imply that Laura involves herself in intimate relations with other men. He feels insecure about the matter and assaults Laura as a form of punishment. However, throughout the film, it appears that the insulted Laura since they got married and that the insult character was not a one-day character. This leads the viewers to sympathize with Laura and believe that she became victim of a mental situation that she could not account for them.
The film presents mental illness as a dangerous character among the people in the society (Jones 1269). The mentally ill people in the society endanger other people’s lives in the society especially through the actions of the mentally ill people on the other people in the society. Most of the mentally ill people in the society act in immeasurable ways to the other people in the society. Martin appears as a dangerous people to the lives of other people due to his mental illness. He comes from a wealthy class of people in the society. According to many people, lower class people faced most of the mental illness cases due to the depression that came with the situation.
Martin physically insults Laura because Laura is a woman, and she must submit in order to stay in the marriage (Quint 47). Martin endangers Laura’s life because of the constant insults to Laura. After Laura runs from home and tricks him to believe that she drowned and died, martin learns of the fact that she tricked him after uncovering the swimming lessons she undertook before the trick. He discovers that Laura organized the plot in order to deceive him and run away from the home. He also discovers that Laura’s mother is alive and uses the link to trace Laura. The discovery shows another element of egocentrism as Martin furiously reacts to the discovery by hunting Laura down.
The film also shows that the cultural background ad life of a person affects the decisions that they take through the mental illness of martin and the actions that he undertook. Martin knew well that Laura had no grounds to reject him for the fact that society rules required her submission in the marriage (Quint 7). The social life of martin shows that the social class of a person dictates the actions that they will take and the level of interaction that they develop in the society. Martin believes that money can help him to solve all his problems. He believes that having enough money and living a good life would convince Laura to love him. This happens despite the fact that he mistreated her. He builds a good house for her and constantly takes her out for fun activities like swimming in order to relax. However, he mistreats her to the point of brutally assaulting her for interacting with other men in the society. This shows that as much as he wants her to live a good life, he also wants her to restrict her social environment to women, which is not possible.
However, some of the decisions that martin makes are intentional as he intends to keep Laura out of reach for the other men in the society (Burchell and Cook 512). He acts in a possessive way that suggests that he did not want Laura to have a free social life. At the same time, Laura also shows that the decisions of many people in the society are intentional in a number of ways. She plans and fakes her own death in a bid to trick martin into believing that she was dead and run away. She starts by faking the death of her mother to ensure that Martin does not find the information about her, when she finally disappears. She also learns swimming lessons to confuse Martin and run away.
The film portrays the differences that exist among different people in the society especially based on their mental health. The film affects the social lives of people because it helps in making rational decisions on the positions of different people in the decision-making chains. Martin makes his decision fast and acts on the decisions that he makes. After noticing that Laura did not die, he decides to pursue her and kill Ben. However, Laura shows a directly opposite character as she acts slowly and rationally. Laura noticed that Martin lacked the ability to change and started a plan to escape without physically hurting him. This leads to the conspiracy plan to fix her own death and run away. However, Laura’s plans emerge as Martin finds her wedding ring and discovers foul play through her swimming classes.
Concisely, the film shows a society where the people do not accept some of their situations and actions and allow their actions to come from their mental stability. The film also shows a society controlled by perfectionist views and individualism. Societies with individualism promote inequality and competition, which may lead to stress and depression among the people. Furthermore, narcissism and egotism seen in this film, this can be empirically associated to violence and mental disorders. Martin dictates on Laura because of his ego. He believes that Laura should obey all the instructions that he gives and that she should submit by virtue of being a woman.
Reflection letter
Dear sir/ madam,
Re: Reflection on my academic life and the experience of completing the capstone project
At the start of my academic life in this institution, all indications showed that this institution had the potential to model me to an all-rounded professional. Responsibility and personality development topped the list of priorities during the academic life. With time, the evolution took place and I am slowly becoming a complete professional. Reflection on my life throughout the academic life provides mixed feelings especially on my experiences in school. However, I have also made a number of mistakes through the same life and learnt from most of them. I have developed a winning mentality that has helped me through all difficulties in the institution. I hereby present this reflection letter to help you evaluate the quality of my academic life in this institution this far.
Through my learning in the film class, I contributed in a number of ways. First, I helped in critical analysis of films discussed in class and allotted for assignments. I undertook film analysis in order to help my classmates understand films especially films from my native language. This helped me as I developed strong analytical skills for films and visual art. I also contributed to creation and directing of class films which helped the class in public relations and revenue earning. Film critique allowed the learners in my class to identify the elements of the films that fitted well in the modern film industry and those that did not fit. Through the class discussions, film critique became one of the most common techniques in analyzing films. I also contributed to the class through moderating and facilitating the film critique sessions in the class. This exposed me to more advanced tools and applications in my course.
At the same time, I met many challenges through the academic life ad solved them in order to move forward. First, organization presented leadership challenges where a few of the students disrespected me because of poor knowledge of English. I faced a challenge of intimidation; however, I dealt with it through avoiding discussions that would lead to people mocking me because my accent. Moreover, language barrier presented another huge problem. My English accent when I started learning was so poor that no one seemed to understand me. However, I dealt with this challenge through constantly interaction with different people who taught me the English language.
Summarily, my life in this institution has mixed fortunate activities, unfortunate events and an extensive learning platform. I have learnt through my activities that all the events going on in school are opportunities waiting for people to tap into them in order to succeed.
Works Cited
Burchell, Jon, and Cook, Joanne "Sleeping With the Enemy? Strategic Transformations InBusinessâeuro]"Ngo Relationships through Stakeholder Dialogue." Journal of Business Ethics 113.3 (2013): 505-18.
Jones, Clifford A. "Sleeping With the Enemy: Tales of Yankee Power, Globalization, and the Transformation of Economy by Cartel in the European Union." The George Washington International Law Review 36.5 (2004): 1263-71.
Quint, Barbara. "Coopetition: Sleeping With the Enemy." Information Today 14.1 (1997): 7,7,47.
