Guess Who's Coming To Dinner Interracial Relationship

In many older pieces of media, there tends to be a theme related to the issue of racial divide. This is true within the novel, To Kill a Mockingbird, written by Harper Lee and the movie, Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner, produced by Stanley Kramer and written by William Rose. Both titles touch upon the idea of interracial relationships in a time when the idea of “race-mixing” was highly frowned upon by the general public, although the novel presumably takes place three decades before the movie’s setting. The novel, taking place in 1930s Alabama, and the movie, taking place in 1960s California, may represent society’s different stances upon interracial relationships throughout the years and locale. Although the two couples are met with varying levels
Just as Christine and Matt had been predominantly trepidatious at first, with Christine eventually embracing the relationship, John’s father had taken a bit longer to accept the romance than his wife. John expressed his frustration with his parents’ lack of support, telling his father that he couldn’t “try to get [him] to live [his] life according to [his outdated] rules.” Pristine denounced his father’s reluctance to shed his old-fashioned aversion to interracial relationships, saying that even if he “tried to explain it for the rest of [his father’s life],” he would never understand, as his father’s generation believed “the way it was for [them] is the way it’s got to be.” John’s protests are comparable to the demonstrations of Dolphus Raymond, a character in To Kill A Mockingbird. Raymond is a white man in an interracial relationship with a black woman, who resorted to perpetuating his reputation as a drunkard as a means to protect his family. Because he lived in the South in the 1930s, a time when racism was alive and well, Raymond found it vital to destroy his own reputation, as it would mean that his family would escape persecution due to the crime he had committed - being in love with a black woman. When explaining to Scout that his facade is necessary to continue his way of life, he states that the people of Maycomb "could never, never understand" that he
Raymond faced a more physical form of the hostility, fearing for the life and safety of himself and his children, whilst Joanna and John were spared the horror, as they lived in a more liberal California. Joanna and John faced a social form of the antagonism, receiving criticism from peers and family. Compared to Raymond’s life in the deep South, the couple, presumably living in the 60s, had a rather simple experience. The 60s were a time when the civil rights movement had begun to pick up momentum, and the Black Panther Party was gaining prominence within society. Despite this, interracial marriage was still illegal in over a quarter of states. No matter the progression of society, the one thing the novel and the movie had in common was the prevalence of racism. In the South during the 1930s, in California during the 60s, and even in some places today, people expressed an aversion to the concept of interracial relationships. This apprehension comes from ignorance and hatred, but even if the masses remain reluctant to accept progression, people will always find a way to love who they want to