Gentleman’s Agreement is a movie that tells a story about a journalist’s experience of pretending to be a Jew to write an article about anti-Semitism.
What is problematic?
Anti-Semitism was thriving at that time. Jewish people could not even have a job because of their racial identity. Dominant white Christian culture did not tolerant Jewish culture. Therefore, Jewish people were suffering from discrimination in every aspect of their lives. For instance, Jewish people had to conceal their Jewish identity in order to get a job. In the movie, the Jewish secretary Wales had to change her name in order to get the job. And when Tommy’s classmates knew that Tommy was a Jew, they teased him and isolated him because of his Jewish identity. The dominant White Christian culture took control of the society at that time. The social environment at that time was full of discrimination and attacks to Jewish people. The ignorance to other culture made there was no room for other cultures. The dominant position of white Christian culture over Jewish culture resulted in the misunderstanding and lacking of knowledge about minor culture in the society. The Jewish people could not speak out their voices because they were suppressed by the dominant white culture, which led to the miscommunication between Christian people and Jewish people even though they had no intention to do so. For instance, Kathy as a typical “nice” Christian, thought that being silent and feeling guilty when someone told a joke depreciating Jews was an action to against anti-Semitism. She did not know that this was not enough, actions to against those anti-Semitism in her group was the most effective way to alleviate the situation of Jews.
Also, the journalist Philip also experienced ups and downs in his relationship with his fiancée Kathy because of Philip’s experiment of pretending to be a Jew. Philip tried to act and think like a Jew and experienced what a Jew might suffer at that time in person. While Kathy’s acts did not meet his criteria for a soul mate who can take the right side towards anti-Semitism. However, Kathy thought that she was against anti-Semitism and was on the same side as Philip. The way they perceive anti-Semitism is different because they have different personalities. Therefore, this miscommunication caused conflicts between them.
What are the power relations?
Dominant white culture was absolutely over the Jewish culture at that time. Dave is a real Jew and he grew up with Philip. Although Philip is not a Jew, he has strong empathy to what Jewish people feel because his relationship with Dave. However, Philip still had social power identity over Dave. However, Philip’s acts to call for rights for Jews were embedded in his dominant cultural identity. White Christians have totally right of speech at that time. They determined the social realities. No one would like to listen to a Jew’s opinion. Dominant culture would not treat them seriously. However, white Christian guy Philip’s experience and opinions about anti-Semitism became a hot topic at that time because it made people started to rethink the Jewish culture.
What I also noticed was that the masculinity was also over feminity . In their relationship, Philip’s masculinity is obvious. Kathy did not express what she really felt straightforwardly. She haven’t spoken her heart until when Philip criticized her that she has an inherent superiority feeling towards Jewish people and their relationship almost broke down. At that very moment, Kathy cried and argued to Philip that, “You are what you are for the on life you have”. She explained that she has no choice to choose born as a Christian. For Kathy, she thought she was no wrong because she born with her Christian identity. She insisted that she was in the “nice people” group. However, for Philip, Kathy’s inactive action towards anti-Semitism also supported anti-Semitism in some way. Besides, people have different expectation towards Kathy and Philip. In the ending part of the movie, Anne invited Philip for dinner and persuaded Philip that it was not Kathy’s duty to fight for the Jewish people. Kathy was not supposed to do that because of her gender.
How do you see people negotiating?
We can tell the difference between how women and men faces conflicts in a relationship in this movie. When facing conflict, different gender has different negotiation method towards it. When Philip and Kathy had conflict, Philip told Kathy directly how he felt and argued with Kathy angrily. While for Kathy, she tended to hide her feelings and find the third party for help. We can tell that Philip was using low context to deal with the conflict, while Kathy responded to it in relatively high context. In the ending of the movie, when Philip was angry about Kathy because he thought she has superiority over Jews and she did nothing about it. Kathy found the third party, Philip and Kathy’s common friend Dave, to help analyzing the relationship. Therefore, Kathy has very interdependent personality while Philip is very independent. Philip told Kathy how he feels directly while Kathy hadn’t spoken out her idea until she thought they were going to break up. And then, Kathy turned to the third party for help to mend this relationship. That is very interdependent characteristic. In the society, women usually are expected to be submissive and supportive to their partner, even though they may not agree to them. However, a man is encouraged to act direct and controlling in a relationship, especially in a romantic relationship. Especially, Kathy is a divorced woman, so she acted even more careful and doubtful in the relationship.
Also, in the movie, the real Jew Dave and Ms. Wales seemed to be inactive in the anti-Semitism cause. They got used to hide their identity to blend in the society that controlled by the dominant culture. They tended to be silent. They had to rely on their dominant friends to speak out their needs for equality and rights. In contrast, Philip as a white Christian man who was educated and encouraged to speak, acted agitatedly when he was treated unfairly in the hotel and the post office because of his fake Jewish identity. Philip was sensitive and expressed all of his feelings of being sick of anti-Semitism when he pretended to be a Jew. This interesting contrast indicates that how social environment can affect people’s way to negotiate when facing with conflicts.
P.S. Kathy argued with Phil: "You are what you are for the one life you have, you can't help being born Christian instead of Jewish, it doesn't mean you glad you were, but I am glad, There, I said it, I'd be terrible, I'm glad I'm not. I could never make you understand that, You could never understand that it is a fact like being glad you are good-looking instead of ugly, rich instead of poor, young instead of old, healthy instead of sick. You could never understand that. It's just a practical fact,not judgement that I'm superior, but I could never make you see that. You twisted something into horrible, a conniving, an aiding and abetting a thing that I loathe as much as you do. "
When Kathy told Dave that a man said a joke about disgrace on Jewish, Kathy said that she hated it and wanted to tell everyone that this was not good, however, what she actually did was just sat there and felt ashamed.
"If you don't stop that joke, where do you stop?"
HD
