Surname 1

Name 

Instructor

Course

Date

 In "The Descendants," Matt King undergoes some significant changes. Describe these

and, with reference to 2 other course texts, discuss what these were and whether or not they were

beneficial to him and those he interacted with, especially his daughters, his relatives, and the

environment.

 Change can be a social phenomenon that might be loved by many and hated by few.

Change scares individuals yet embarks on new journeys and fresh starts. The question lies within

the movie and text: do you like significant change? In the movie The Descendants, Matt King

undergoes many changes and crucial decisions he had to make after the death of his wife,

Elizabeth. Change that endures after passing can be challenging and draining. One's mental and

physical health can be detrimental, and grieving periods vary by person. However, as the saying

goes, life must go on. Humans are required to pick up where they left off and move forward.

Whether small or large, it is changed that keep us moving forward. Without the steps in a new

direction, humans would be at a standstill. Nothing would improve, and everyone suffers because

of it.

       Even inner or outer personal changes are reasonable. With the improvement of oneself,

that person can inspire more people to change themselves for the better. I am someone that likes
 Surname 2

to think that everyone has an impact and how you can make that impact is through self-

improvement that catches onto others. Change is good or bad either way; the choice is yours

depends on the change you're talking about. Change in your pocket in a piggy bank, change

clothes, change the channel change on the floor. Change is the movement of the world.

       An example is when King dealt with many problems after his loss, which ultimately led

to his recovery and taught him the overall perception of appreciation. The author enables readers

to have an insight into Matt King's problems. Two additional texts referenced are Their Eyes

Were Watching God by Zora Neale Hurston and The reproduction of mothering by Nancy

Chodorow. These texts will therefore give a deeper insight into the piece and help better

understand the message behind it. The concept of change is projected in the movie and kinds of

literature.

1. Discuss the movie

2. What was the movie about (brief summary)?

3. What were the significant changes Matt King underwent (how did they alter him/make

him the person he is)?

Children are notoriously emotional, especially during their adolescence, and they are

emotionally unstable. It can be challenging to understand them and, at times, even more

challenging to assist them. Your caregiving style must correspond to how the child should be

treated. The movie The Descendants introduces Matt King as a married father of two daughters,

Alexandra King, 17 years old, and Scottie King, ten years old, and a husband of Elizabeth, who

lives in Hawaii. Matt prioritizes more on being a businessman than a husband and father, and he

is emotionally unavailable to his family. Throughout the film, Matt is frequently in the dark
 Surname 3

about his daughter's wellbeing. For instance, Matt and Scottie arrive late at night at his daughter

Alexandra's boarding school only to discover that she is not in her residence (The Descendants).

A school council leads him on a hunt through the school, and they track down Alexandra out past

check-in time drinking with a companion (The Descendants).

Another example is his younger daughter Scottie, who is defiant and bullies other

students at school, and Matt has no idea about it. (The Descendants). It portrays that Matt is

solely concerned with his job and is unaware of what his children are up to. Elizabeth was

involved in a boating accident that put her in a coma. Matthew spends most of his time at the

hospital, but it is still difficult for him because he and his wife have become strangers due to

Matt's intense focus on his job and the lack of affection he showed Elizabeth. Subsequently, Matt

was informed that his wife would not wake up from her coma and was advised to remove her

from life support. He reluctantly agrees. Matt chooses to bring Alex home from boarding school

to assist him with managing Scottie and the remainder of his family as he lets it be known of his

wife's condition. 

Alex was furious and revealed to Matt that Elizabeth had been cheating on him the entire

time and that this was the last argument she had with her mother before leaving for school. To

add to the strain, Matthew's cousins are presently endeavoring to convince him to acknowledge a

proposal for the land left to them by their progenitors, over which Matthew has control. It

portrays that Matt is solely concerned with his job and is unaware of what his children are up to.

Elizabeth was involved in a boating accident that put her in a coma. Matthew spends most of his

time at the hospital, but it is still difficult for him because he and his wife have become strangers

due to Matt's intense focus on his job and the lack of affection he showed Elizabeth.
 Surname 4

Subsequently, Matt was informed that his wife would not wake up from her coma and was

advised to remove her from life support.

The book The Age of Empathy

Sympathy and empathy are words or terms with different but very important distinctions.

Sympathy often comes from empathy but goes ahead and adds a concern about other people and

the need to help them. Empathy can be the capacity to understand what another person is feeling.

And so the lessons of the economic meltdown or hurricane Katrina may even not be what most

of us think we as humans, as the writer states, we are not selfish. Nadia did tame a primate that

she named him Yoni; most of her diaries chart his growth and development, not forgetting the

emotion for sympathizing with others. Robert Yerkes, the founder of the Yerkes Primate Center,

where Frans carries out his research, had once visited Nadia in Russia to discuss issues involving

emotion in animals. Being empathetic can be challenging, but we all should always try to be

empathetic when someone shares their problems with us.

Due to De Waals’s effective use of the stylistic devices of rhetoric in his showing of

sympathy, it’s easy for us to understand his work and respect him. His work is not only limited to

academicians but also unlearned as he tries to reach all his audiences. Meaning that his messages

are intended more on the society rather than individuals. Sympathy is known to always come

from empathy; we are told that it goes further and includes the concern of other people and an

urge to improve their issues. In the world, we all believe that humankind is evil. We have a

common belief that everyone is evil, and they would do anything so long as it helped their course

or even if it means others being hurt by our success. but recent events such as the holocaust have

made humans have changed their view (De Waal n.p.).

 Surname 5

The book connects to the movie "the descendants, whereby the writers and movie

directors both worked hard to develop empathy and trust in our society. Matts's wife is cheating

on him, which clearly shows us that it deals with trust, and also, there exist instances of marriage

where one marries. There are also conflicts in the story. While in the book “the age of empathy,”

compassion and empathy have been linked with reconciliation processes in society.

Their Eyes Were Watching god.

The novel does talk about different traditional roles among the people. It talks about the

men and the women. a woman by the Nanny who has a daughter Janie tells or instead wants her

daughter to get married to a man who will protect her and not the one she loves. Janie’s marriage

life isn’t that good as her first two husbands do not want her to talk in the house. Her sound

should not be heard. In this book, we see men viewing females or women as objects that can be

acquired. they manipulate women too. As if that’s not enough, we are made to understand that

the mule, which is an animal, does represent female beings. That same analogy of the mule is

continuously mentioned in the book and mainly used to describe the women. (Hurston n.p.).

Janie is an American black woman who is in her forties. She follows her life beginning

wither a sexual urge. During the time, she did allow another man, who was a boy kiss him, which

was witnessed by her grandmother. We are told that due to her being black, she was raped by a

white man when she was young, leading to the birth of her sweet daughter, who she came to

name Leafy. she wanted a better life for her kid to the extent of escaping her jealous mistress, the

leafy child is also raped by her tutor making her pregnant. Immediately after the birth of the child

Janie, leafy began to drink and stay out most nights.

 
 Surname 6

In the story, we see Janie achieve her independence. In the book, gender differences

require providing the other things that they need but not those that they have. We also see people

or characters in the book want to possess everything in this world. Characters in this book always

believe that they control their destinies. The character Janie marries faster after reaching

adulthood to fulfill her childhood dream of a perfect union. A hurricane comes and destroys

many things, but many survive.

All three books are connected. This is where we see Matts's wife going into a comma.

Here we can say that we sympathize with their children and the patient. In the book” their eyes

were watching god, we get to sympathize with Janie, who is the main character and cannot

choose her own husband, but it already Has been planned on who will be her husband. In the last

book, which is the age of empathy, we get to see as humans sympathize with animals. the writer

goes on to tell us that due to this, we all believe that empathy does exist. The story in this book

can be connected to Matt’s wife in the movie, the (descendants), who has the freedom and even

has the time to go and look for others for her to cheat. The three items in the two books and the

movie are all family talk, and it is all about. We see also get to talk about how women are

oppressed and the problems they go through before they settle in marriage. A good example is

where Janie is not allowed to talk while her first two husbands are present. She is also told by her

mum that a man has already been promised to marry her. This means that she had no say in her

marriage arrangements. 
 Surname 7

Work cited

De Waal, Frans. The age of empathy: Nature's lessons for a kinder society. Broadway Books,

2010. https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=_fWxPwsAAAAJ&hl=en&oi=sra

Hurston, Zora Neale. Their eyes were watching God. Prabhat Prakashan, 2020.

https://books.google.com/books?

hl=en&lr=&id=cmLrDwAAQBAJ&oi=fnd&pg=PP1&dq=Hurston,+Zora+Neale.

+Their+eyes+were+watching+God.+Prabhat+Prakashan,

+2020.+&ots=WtYfciPfSr&sig=CWJ1jYghU9Dk3wLgvgCdYzM37fg

The Descendants movie: https://www.youtube.com/watch?

v=IeTUGEG2PF0&list=PLc0D3n856eTEApnLBZY-PQ3KQyu9jA7mg