Ordinary People Movie Essay

In the movie, Ordinary People, the Jarrett family face quite intense conflicts throughout their everyday lives after a son, and brother, of the family dies in a boating incident. The family’s overall dysfunction results from each person’s unhealthy way of grieving and not letting out their emotions and sorrow. Instances in which the family’s dysfunction was shown include: at the breakfast table, in the family’s backyard, when putting up the Christmas tree, at the mall, and when the mother, Beth, and the dad, Calvin, were on vacation. Beth Jarrett, especially, does not practice supplying Conrad, her son, with needs, such as those of Maslow’s Hierarchy of human needs, like love and belonging. She does this by examples like refusing to have a conversation about the death of Buck, the one who drowned in a boating incident. The father, Calvin, is quite distant and tries to reconnect with his depressed and suicidal son, but struggles to do so. Conrad, himself, copes with the help of his psychiatrist, Dr. Berger. The ways each member of the family uses fight and/or flight mode are a myriad, and this, along with possible conflict management strategies, which they could have utilized and have helped the Jarretts, will be expounded upon.

First, Conrad engages in acts of “silence” and “violence” in the scene where he and his father are putting up a
Thus, he sort of does use the 3 forms of silence, as listed before. Moreover, he could work on praising his wife’s good points when they were on vacation and at the mall and praising his son’s good points when talking to him in his room, along with reassuring the value of their friendship. He also needs to step back into the content, and he could clarify that he was not trying to embarrass his wife. Lastly, he could find something valued by both Beth and Conrad’s sides---thus, showing he cares about both