Ordinary People Movie Analysis

Conflict Management for the Jarrett’s
The Academy Award winning film Ordinary People follows a family that just endured a tragic loss. The movie is focused around the Jarrett family of Beth, the mother, Calvin, the father, and Conrad the son. The Jarret family has recently lost their son Buck in a boating accident. The other son Conrad was with Buck and witnessed him being pulled away by the current. Conrad is deeply impacted by the death of his brother and even tries to commit suicide. The movie picks up right after Conrad returns from a mental hospital. Each family member is still trying to cope with the loss. However, Conrad, Beth, and Calvin each have hard time communicating their feelings and therefore result to using silence and violence.
Conrad shows signs of silence from the beginning of the movie. He is called down for breakfast by his parents. His father asks him if he’s ok. Conrad resorts to nodding his head yes, but you can see in his eyes he is hurting. He is avoiding the situation. Throughout the movie, Conrad shows more signs of violence. For example, he is discussing with his mother how Buck wanted a dog, but she immediately changes the subject. He starts to
Occasionally he will open up. He portrays silence when he masks his pain by not opening up. The viewer can see he is distraught when he is on the train and has memories of Conrad’s attempted suicide; however, he doesn’t open up about his feelings. His violence is portrayed at the Christmas tree scene when he yells at Beth for yelling at Conrad. Also when he and Beth are on the golf course, he finally opens up and yells at her for not loving Conrad like she loved Buck. In order to fix this, Beth should have shown respect towards Calvin. Maslow states that everyone needs respect. Beth immediately turned Calvin down; therefore, Calvin no longer wanted to share his feelings. Showing respect also means creating safety in the