A Synopsis of the Movie, Blood Diamond

This movie takes place in Sierra Leone, Africa in 1999 and focuses on the illegal trade of conflict diamonds. The diamonds are called conflict diamonds because slave labor is used to mine them, weapons trade is used to acquire them, and armed conflicts and massacres are related to enlisting recruitments of child soldiers and fighting between local governments and rebels. A fisherman named Solomon Vandy has his village massacred and gets separated from his family as he is forced to work as a slave mining for diamonds for a rebel organization known as the Revolutionary United Front (RUF). Solomon finds a large valuable Pink Diamond and successfully hides it from his captors. He luckily is able to escape from his enslavement but it gets out that he is hiding the diamond. Danny Archer an arms dealer and smuggler finds out about this and is looking to leave the continent once and for all with the sale of the diamond to a Diamond company, Van De Kaap Diamonds . Danny and Solomon team up to retrieve the diamond so they can each get what they want most.
In this paper I will focus on 3 sociological concepts that take place in this movie. The first is how coercive organizations transform innocent children into child soldiers using the influence of group conformity and early socialization in a total institution setting. Secondly I will point out some differences and similarities in the values and beliefs of different characters in the movie and how that explains the motivations behind their actions. Lastly deviance is pervasive in this movie, and I will point out the various examples