Children are typically powerless; they have to adapt to the
reality handed to them. Some of you felt that he is often being
criticized, and that might be so.
He is somewhat of an observer, maybe a little dreamy, and so is a little
bit at odds with the external world.
He has often had to deal with ways in which he has fallen short, or
adults have made life hard for him.
We have also been watching his character develop as a result of everything
he faces. We’ve seen the kid who
wanted to believe in magic, the kid who had a bully for a stepfather, the kid
who faces bullies in the junior high bathroom, and the kid who is “camping out”
with older boys and who is facing their masculine boasts and pressure.
At the end of today’s viewing, we see Mason chastised by two
male figures, the photography teacher and his mom’s boyfriend. They don’t see him as we see him since
we have been watching him grow up, but their lack of this perspective does not necessarily
negate what they see and what they say to him.
1. We want you
to see Mason from two sides. Not a simple good/bad assessment, but more
descriptive. What do we see? What do they see?
2. On his 15th birthday, his mother doesn’t get
mad at him when he comes home and admits to having been drinking and smoking
weed. She is being lenient.
In some ways, this contrasts with the men above. What do you think of her leniency, and
how might this contribute to Mason’s character? Don’t speculate.
Stay close to the actual events in the movie.
3. Is Mason
soft? Yes or no--& why?
I think the two sides of Mason are from different viewpoints. Our viewpoint of Mason is drastically different than the viewpoint authority figures have of him. We view Mason as a normal boy going through his teen years trying his best to live a normal lifestyle. Of course, he can never truly live a normal lifestyle due to the difficulty and instability of the family around him. From our viewpoint, Mason also seems very thoughtful, intelligent and insightful. This is illustrated by the conversation he has with the girl he probably hooked up with. He thinks a lot about the big questions about life and we admire him for that. However, some figures in his life don't like the path he is headed on. Mason generally ignores required work and seems to have a lack of work ethic in things that are necessary but not fun or interesting. The photography teacher berates Mason for not doing the work to help him realize his full potential and the new stepfather gets angry at Mason for not abiding by the rules of his house.
ReplyDeleteI think in some ways her leniency is bad. I think Mason's mother's leniency allows for Mason to think breaking rules is acceptable and doing what you want rather than what's required is also acceptable. I think to a certain point, leniency is good. To have a parent that trusts you and allows you to experiment indoor teenage years without being too strict is good, but allowing alcohol and marijuana use as a 9th grader seems a little extreme. The men are structured and strict. They fight Mason on his rule-breaking habits which his mother helped create.
I think Mason isn't soft. He isn't aggressive, nor does he seek trouble, but when faced with trouble he is able to maintain his composure and avoid harm. Often times this can be done with his "I don't give a shit attitude" or with strength to just avoid trouble. If he was soft, I think he would allow a lot more of the troubles in his life to truly affect him in a bad way on a mental and emotional level. However, I think he is strong because he doesn't let all the variables and troubles of his life affect him and his dreams too much
We see a kid growing his whole life so we can see that his childhood has been hard and how he deals with these difficult situations. They just see a kid who's nonchalant about life, just coming and going at home whenever, not doing his work, not taking much responsibility in life. I to be honest, probably would not like Mason if I knew him because he seems like one of those kids that just does what he wants and doesn’t care about school or life. He seems like one of those kids that’s always trying to be different.
ReplyDeleteI like that the mother didn’t get angry at him but I’m concerned on how she handled it. I think the best way for a parent to handle drug and alcohol use is by saying “I don’t want you smoking or drinking but if you do don’t drive, make sure you are in a safe place, etc.” That way when the kid inevitably does break the rules he’s being safe. That did not happen in the movie. She didn’t ask him where he was, who he was with, or even if he was riding with someone who was driving under the influence. It went from me respecting her for allowing experimentation to being confused if she was just negligent. This allows him to later in life not being doing his homework for photography, continue coming home late,
I don’t think Mason’s soft but I definitely don’t think he’s hard either. When the men are berating him as a teen he just sits there and takes it. Jim lectures Mason and Mason manages to squeak out something but for the most part he just stands there and mumbles answers to his questions. In the dark room Mason just sits there and takes it from his photography teacher without actually explaining himself or anything. When he’s at the table and Jim makes fun of Mason for the earrings and the nail paint what does Mason do? Oh, he still just sits there and takes it. The only time we see him get worked up he’s not standing up for himself. His dad tells him he sold the car and what does Mason do? Starts crying like a child does when he doesn't get what he wants. So I don’t think he’s soft but he’s much closer to soft than he is hard.
1) The two sides of Mason kinda tie back into the whole intentions/motivations vs actions and effect. He has lived a very turbulent life with abusive authority figures, or people seemingly there to tell him what he is doing wrong (like his elementary school teacher.) It honestly makes sense that he not only wouldn't trust authority, but would ignore or challenge it. As he is coming of age, he can finally hold his own, he can no longer be pushed around so easily.
ReplyDeleteThe second side of Mason is what his Stepfathers and teachers often see. He seems to be a slacker without respect for others and what he does. They don't see his home life, or the reasons for why he acts the way he does. For this reason, they only judge him based on his actions. You cant quite blame the teachers, as they often shouldn't be involved in a child's private life. However, the stepfathers Mason has should make more of an effort to understand him, similar to his biological father. Mason Sr. rarely judges or criticizes Mason jr. because he has taken time to understand the backstory.
2) The mom's leniency is (in my mind) a response to how difficult his life has been. He is honest with her about his actions, and from what we have seen is safe in his drinking and partying. We see him engaging in conversations and being driven around making out, but no drunk driving or other dangerous activities. I believe with all the mother and Mason have been through, their shared trust is responsible for the lack of a reaction on the Mother's part. I do believe that this may not be beneficial to his character, as it may lead to a slippery slope where he values drinking and partying over photography and school work. In the past, he has been very dedicated to photography (his passion) but not at all to school work, so it will be an interesting transition period for his character.
3) In my mind, Mason is a soft kid trying to be hard. Pushed around, bullied, and abused for the majority of his life, he has every reason to be more reserved or "soft." That being said, teenage boys are often expected to be hard. I think he makes up for this by spending time with the older boys who introduce him to drinking and smoking weed. Having those adult activities in his life help him to regain control in a way.
1. Mason is very passive, but perhaps it is better that he is withdrawn; by never fully investing in the world around him, he protects himself from being hurt by all the changes that he cannot control. We understand that the world of his own head may have been the safest for much of the life – he can always stare out a window, regardless of his mother’s decisions or his step-father’s anger. His teachers and other new role models see someone who is creative and thoughtful but does not have an exceptionally strong personality. Either his thoughts are stifled, or he is directionless. He doesn’t have grit, initiative, or personability. He isn’t taking control of his life, and as he becomes an adult, that lack of responsibility is becoming more of an issue. He doesn’t have any goals that will drive him to work hard every day. In that sense, he is like many people at Paideia – we are pretty good people, but have a lot of trepidation about the future.
ReplyDelete2. I think her behavior is definitely in reaction to the behavior of her second husband and later boyfriend (the prison guard). It may have even been a conscious decision to try to balance out the excessive number of lines those men draw. She believes in treating her kids as adults, and she worries that they will become distant if they are constantly mentally beaten. I would worry that Mason won’t learn how to deal with stricter people in his life, but I think leniency is not a problem. Her lack of involvement, however, may be an issue. He needs someone to make him do things and inspire him to be more than what he is. She can’t let him keep drifting.
3. I’m going to say no. As I’ve mentioned before, I think Mason doesn’t have much direction in his life. That may not be a problem now, but it will be. And being directionless is different than being soft. “Soft” suggests someone can’t deal with adversity, but Mason has dealt with adversity pretty well so far, considering his age.
We see Mason as the son of a mom and dad who've had many troubles trying to start a family. But each of them is trying, the mom goes to college, the dad quits smoking, and it's very clear they each love their children very much so. Mason had to go through the experience of an abusive, drunk father when he was young. This most definitely had to be a traumatizing experience for him. His natural curiosity leads him to ask questions that most of us high schoolers wouldn't feel comfortable asking our parents. His other dads and his photography teacher just see him as any normal kid. We see him as something more special and dear to us because we've seen and lived with him through all the pain and suffering he's had to endure. The outsiders that criticize him don't see any of this though.
ReplyDeleteI think her leniency directly correlates to the leniency and sort of laziness Mason seems to carry with him at all times. We aren't ever given any real sense of how Mason does in school so we can't make any conclusions about that, but we do see him come home late and seem very nonchalant about it. I know in my house, coming home even a minute late is a sign of disrespect, if one of my parents asks me to be home by a certain time, and I make a commitment to be home at that time, I'm getting home not a second after that. I don't think it's necessarily a negative thing that his mom is so lenient, but at the same time it might not be helping much.
I think Mason is a little soft. But it all depends on how we define soft, emotionally, physically, and mentally. I think he's a bit more soft than most males, or less "manly" because he's led most of his life being raised by a single mother, who's been the most dominant parent-figure throughout his life. So far I don't think we're really given a chance to judge him as "soft". I mean you could point to his earrings, or his fingernails being painted, but those aren't things that should be able to define the character of a person.
The audience (we) views Mason as this reserved person who is growing into a man. We see that he struggles and truly has feelings and painfully deals with huge changes in his life. We have sympathy for Mason and we understand who he is as a person. We also see how he makes many mistakes in life and doesn't really care about it. We know what he has dealt with while others do not. We have high hopes for Mason and his future and see him excelling in art.
ReplyDeleteThe other characters in the movie view Mason as a lazy, disrespectful and independent person. Others think of him as kind and mature, but many characters do not think he takes school or really his life seriously. They do not understand what he has gone through so they just believe is a normal lazy and unthankful teenager. They see him as a negative person and do not appreciate him. Many characters see Mason as a shallow person, but the viewer sees how thoughtful and intelligent he is. The people like the photography teacher and the stepfather see do not understand who he is and that is why they judge him and get angry for his poor demeanor and body language.
Mason needs this leniency in his own life. Having step dad after stepdad yelling at him and "getting on his ass", is one reason for all of his stress. Mason doesn't deserve and shouldn't be allowed to go out and smoke and drink, but I can understand why this is tolerated by the mother. This does in some ways form his character. Mason respects his mother more than any father he will ever have so he will listen to her and model after her. So when she tolerates this behavior and has a relaxed attitude about it, it allows Mason to also be relaxed.
Mason is not soft. He has dealt with his parents splitting up multiple times and has shown zero emotion. He is like a brick wall that can't be taken down. He has been bullied, insulted and peer pressured, but never backs down. We haven't seen Mason cry in the whole movie which shows how strong he really is.
We see a boy that has struggled most of his life with family issues. We first saw him looking up to his biological father, hoping that one day the family would be whole again. Then we saw him stuck in a dangerous, abusive situation, where his step father would escape reality by drowning himself in alcohol, taking his frustration out on his kids. Now we see Mason yet again trapped and unable to express himself by a new boyfriend/husband, that wants Mason to be somebody he isn't. We sympathize greatly for Mason and recognize that the only positive male parental figure he has had, that he can look to is his real father and the photography teacher. I say the photography teacher is positive because he is actually trying to help Mason and not himself. They see him as a kid that doesn't care or obey rules. Like showing home way past curfew and not being present in class.
ReplyDeleteFor a 15 year old to be drinking and smoking there is no doubt that this is wrong and the way that the mother handled it is just as wrong. I do believe this plays into Mason's character and has put Mason heading down the wrong path. Her leniency makes Mason feel like he is in charge and can break rules which leads him towards making bad choices. But I also feel like if she was too attached it could be just as detrimental.
I feel like Mason is pretty soft but hard when he needs to be. It's almost like an adaption he has gained over the years of always being pushed a round and bullied. Because Mason did stand up for him self when being scolded by his mother boyfriend. Or it might be Mason is hard but just not aggressive and has learned to keep his mouth shut after dealing with his abusive step father.
We see an independent teenager who has gone through a lot of change and not so great circumstances and has retained his sense of self. He's gone through multiple moves and now two drunken stepfathers, one of whom was physically abusive and both of whom were at least to some degree emotionally abusive. Mason still knows what he's interested in doing, and does it. For example, when he gets sent to shoot the football game, he shoots at the football game, but shoots what he wants. This sort of thing can be annoying to people who feel he's wasting his talent. Because he's ready to focus on what he wants to do, regardless of what others think of that, people judge him, and think he'll fail. For example, his second stepfather tells him how it was cool to have a job when he was a kid.
ReplyDeleteI think she's more understanding of his peculiarities. She contrasts the stricter stepdads in a similar way to how Lily is very much the opposite of Bull in The Great Santini. This leniency allows him to have someone to be more open with about his interests and problems. He speaks to her much more frankly than with either of the stepdads, sometimes angrily. It's important for him to have someone in the house who is willing to listen to him.
Though he doesn't have the controlling, stereotypically masculine traits, Mason is not "soft." He is a very observant person, and listens to others, even when they are yelling at him, but that doesn't mean he just bends to their will. He keeps his own opinions and his own identity. He stays true to himself in a way that Ben Meechum, a jock, doesn't do until the very end of The Great Santini. When people yell at him and he "just takes it," he's not being just plain weak, but he's hearing the opinions of others, deciding for himself what he thinks of them, and moving on with that in mind rather than responding aggressively. Another point people have used to say Mason is soft is when his dad tells him that he sold the car. However, his response wasn't about just the car. The car was a symbol for Samantha and his relationship with their dad. When the dad sells the car to buy a minivan, it's that he's moving on from his old relationship with them, forgetting his promises, and building a new life around a new baby. I'd say thats a fair excuse to cry, and even then he doesn't. Mason may not be aggressively "hard," but he is certainly far from soft.
I wouldn't say that Mason's soft but he is a very weird person. He's having to grow up with out a male figure in his life which is obviously a struggle for him in learning to deal with things like "a man". There's a difference between his lack of desire to be physically superior to his desire to be mentally superior. He still has that stereotypical desire to be better that all men really do tend to have. He has to grow up with women that he looks up to just like his mother and his sister at times. He hasn't had time to really develop the same attributes other young men do at this time since he's still trying to deal with the immense troubles or trauma that occurs because his biological dad is not present in his life. He builds these walls while he should be building himself as a person in society. His mother is an interesting case because she has had to act as a mother and a father at times. So it's incredibly difficult to be the stern one and the lenient one at the same time. She has been battered by life and her poor decisions. Her marriages have drained her and at this point in Mason's life I don't think she has the will power to push herself out of this exhausted state and actually teach Mason what it's like to be a proper member of society. This is what leads to mason pulling away from being a conventional teen.
ReplyDelete1. We (the viewers) see a boy who has gone through some hardships in life, hardships he doesn't understand at times. We see a boy who has lived a life that looks authentic (for those who can relate), and a boy boy who continues to stay true to himself. He has gone through parents divorcing, a drunken stepfather, a drunken boyfriend, having to consistently move, not having many friends, and other things. We sympathize with the boy because he undergoes some things we can relate to, but also we have the benefit of actually going through his life, seeing what has happened. Jim and the teacher? They don't have the "fortune" of seeing his past. They see what is in front of them, and what they see is an unmotivated young boy who doesn't exactly conform to societal rules and doesn't know what he is doing. The photography teacher sees it as an opportunity to call Mason out and help him realize what he wants to be, or at least help him start down on any path. Jim isn't so kind. His drunken stupor makes him make insensitive remarks towards Mason and his father, and he sees a boy who doesn't respect him and the rules he has set for his own household.
ReplyDelete2. I think a big part of the reason she is lenient is because she is throwing some sort of party/mixer. Another reason is maybe she realizes what kids do and lets him have his night of fun. It is a big part of what contributes to Mason's complacency, but I do not think it is as big as some may make it out to be. I think it makes Mason complacent, and passionless. It definitely somehow plays into his lack of urgency and motivation, as if there aren't really any penalties for not doing things. It also makes him feel "babied". Even this act of his mother condoning him makes Jim's desire to have Mason follow the rules seem like he is on Mason's ass, which is wrong.
3. Mason is soft. He constantly takes it from surrounding characters in the movie, and never makes a stand for himself, especially in his later years. He also doesn't do anything to better his plight, whatever it may be at the time. He philosophizes and everything, but doesn't apply any of it to make the most of his life. He just pondesr the most useless things, and doesn't really potray the characteristics of masculinity.