Pretty Woman
Pretty Woman research paper due and don't know how to start it? How about like this?
The movie "Pretty Woman" is an excellent illustration of how class (and perception of class) makes a huge difference in how people are treated in our society. The entire plot is centered on how the two protagonists (portrayed by Richard Gere, the male protagonist and Julia Roberts, the female protagonist) meet and form a relationship made very unique by the very diverse backgrounds they come from. The movie uses the characters' "home base" to emphasize class stereotypes and illustrate how "lower social class" people don't "belong" in certain "high social class" places with high class people.
Class and Pretty Women
When Edward (Gere) first brought Vivian (Roberts) "home" with him, it was to a penthouse suite of a very posh Beverly Hills hotel. Of course, Vivian was walking around playing with every little gadget lying around because she had never been surrounded by such opulence. To Edward, that was neither new nor exciting, but simply where he stays on business trips (much like "middle class" folk would stay in a suite at the Days Inn).Still staying within the hotel, there was the scene where the front desk was giving Vivian an extremely hard time when she tried to get to her suite when Edward was working (Edward eventually had to concoct a ruse of sorts with the hotel manager that Vivian was his niece), presumably because someone of "her class" had no business being in a penthouse suite.
"Pretty Woman" shows that there are places where only those in the uppermost crust of society "belong". The movie's conflicts arise from a low-class prostitute being in an environment to which she is not accustomed to (and unwelcome in), showing that indeed there is still segregation of sorts in our society.
Other social topics that can be written about using the movie Pretty Woman as an example include the following:
- The importance of the appearance of clothing in society today
- The role of prostitution in society
- The level of reality the film illustrated regarding the life of a prostitute