Task 1

Analysis of Friday the 13th (2009)

In an attempt to be anti racist, two token minorities have been added to the cast of Friday the 13^th. A black character called (Lawrence) and an Asian character called Chewie.

The character of Lawrence seems to make an attempt to break free from the stereotypes associated with black people, he doesn’t dress like a typical black person and often uses the phrase ‘it it because I’m black’. The phrase connotes that he doesn’t want to be stereotyped because of his skin colour and suggest that his character wants be treated like everyone else. However, later on in the film we find that even though he may want to break free from the stereotypes he is to some extent a stereotypical character. 

Furthermore unlike ‘Token Black Guys’ from the past Lawrence isn’t one of the first characters to be killed off and he dies later on in the film. this shows that black people have more status in society now that they did decades ago.

When asked if the record label he wanted to start would be rap, Lawrence becomes very defensive and accuses the character Bree of assuming that he likes rap just because he is black. Ironically Lawrence admits that his record label will be rap which reinforces the idea that he is a very stereotypical character as rap music is typically associated with black people. The character of Lawrence is therefore shown as a stereotypical, though he tries to break free from stereotypes he still happens to fall back into his racial ‘norms’.

The character of Chewie on the other hand is not shown as a stereotypical character; in fact he is the total opposite. Common stereotypes of Asians are that they are; good in school, sensible and obedient. However the character of Chewie is none of these, he is rebellious, he drinks a lot and he is very unintelligent. Support for this is his simple vocabulary and that fact that in one point of the film he drank alcohol from a shoe. Even though his character isn’t stereotypical it portrays Asians in a negative light. Chewie isn’t shown as very important, he dies early on in the film even before Lawrence; the other characters don’t even seem to notice that he is even gone.  

The dominant race in Friday the 13^th is white. The main characters are white and the majority of all the other characters are also. They are shown as rich and powerful. (they spend the weekend at Trent’s big holiday home). The character of Trent is a negative representation of white people. He is bossy, disrespectful, arrogant and promiscuous. Whereas Clay is the hero, he looks out for others and confronts the villain (Jason).