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How Does John Coffey Relate To Sociology

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How Does John Coffey Relate To Sociology
John Coffey (Michael Clark Duncan), an immense black man wandering the backwoods of the South in the 1930s is found sobbing and holding the naked bodies of two young, Caucasian girls. “I couldn’t help it,” John Coffey says, holding the girls in his arms. They had been raped and then murdered. As he lay there, bloody, with two violated girls on his lap, tears begin to stream down his face. “I tried to take it back, but it was too late,” he says. Coffey’s words trace with unsavory imagery of the act he supposedly committed, but it is only in a much vaster context that the significations of his words will redefine their meaning.
Sociology explains the reasons why people act the way they act, do the things they do, and say the things they say.
…show more content…
This particular story took place in Alabama during the year of 1932. During this time, segregation and racism were conspicuous …show more content…
The, Functionalist Perspective Theory, a theory developed by sociologist Emile Durkheim, profoundly applies throughout the film. From issues discussed, the film seems to have marked the depraved leaders and unjust justice systems that supplied to selfishness as people subverted social expectations that summon for respect of rights and needs of others. People in this society only seem to obey their natural state of selfishness and greed, a condition that has gradually helped grow the abrasion of society values and eventually led to total disregard for order and amity. In other words, this is considered to be an anomie, a social condition in which norms are weak, absent, or inconsistent. As seen through the characters in the film who only have a desire to destroy and kill, this is dangerous and harmful to all. The authority of collective conscience, social norms and values in this society have been weakened through external shocks. However, through religion and education, collective consciousness and society values could be restored to reciprocate the shared norms, values and social order. Social systems are to maintain equilibrium and to return to that balance even after such external shocks that have disturbed the stability among the members of this society. Determined enforcement put on socialization of

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