Shonnell Frazier
Period 9/10
4/9/2014
In the movie “The Blind Side” Michael went from the bottom to having it all. He went through the troubles of living in poverty, having a dysfunctional family, drug abuse in his family and gangs in his neighborhood. All of those social problems he had to overcome. The problem of poverty is a problem that stood out to me the most. Conflict theorist, functionalist and symbolic interactionist all have different perspectives.
Poverty is a worldwide social problem. This is something many unfortunate people deal with. While some may fall from the top, others had the misfortune of being born into it. I feel as though poverty is not a problem in the neighborhood I live in but I am very familiar with it. Seeing homeless people bag for change is not an out of the ordinary thing, but that don’t change the fact that it is heartbreaking to see. It makes me ask myself where their families and friends are, or what tragic event happen to put them in that circumstance. In the movie “the Blind Side”, Michael’s poverty was a social problem that many conflict theorist would say could have easily been solve. The “rich” where selfish, they knew what they had and what the poor didn’t have. The rich didn’t want to help or improve a town that clearly needed help, many was even ashamed of being seen in that neighborhood. It seems as though they didn’t want to waste their time. For instance, when the coach of the football team wanted Michael to attend the school everyone else disagreed. They thought it was pointless and unethical, they didn’t even want to give him a chance. A functionalist perspective is completely different. They believe that things are the way they are because this is how it’s supposed to be. The theory of “survival of the fittest” is brought up, meaning the most qualified, or best, will succeed. A functionalist might argue that poverty is around because if everyone was wealthy then we would have a shortage of the necessities. Thus,