“Get Out” a movie written by Jordan Peele has been in the movie theatres since February 24, 2017. In the article, “Get Out’ Sprang From an Effort to Master Fear, Says Director Jordan Peele” conducted by Fresh Air it is shown that Get Out is a movie connected to many social issues in the world. He says he wants people to be able to see the ‘subtle racism’ still going on in America today. He uses the main character Chris to show the racism of America through a first person’s eyes.
In this film, there is a feeling of self-awareness shown throughout the film. Self-Awareness is a self-conscious state in which attention focuses on oneself and makes people more sensitive to their own attitudes and disposition. Peele allows everyone watching the film to gain a sense of self-awareness about each position and role played in the film. In the beginning of the film, Chris starts out as a a normal young black man who has plans to visit is white girlfriend’s parents. He is very nervous about meeting them because his girlfriend Rose tells him that they do not know he is black. As the film, continues and Chris first meets Rose’s parents he becomes very aware of the way her family acts and what they say around and towards him. Off the bat, Rose’s father automatically mentions Barack Obama two minutes after meeting Chris (F, 14). This is an example of Rose’s father trying to make a connection with Chris, but Chris’s self-conscious begins to go off because of his circumstances and the odd vibe given off my Rose’s parents. This is Peele’s idea for people who are watching the film to be able to relate to the protagonists feelings. When you first meet you they try to make a connection with you, but it ends up making you feel uncomfortable. It makes you self-aware of your actions and words around and person and the persona that you should give off because of their assumption of your preferences.
As the film continues on, Chris continues to be put in a hypnosis by Rose’s mother called “the sunken place”. Each time he visits the sunken place he becomes very self-aware of the past events from his life such as his mother dying. According to the article, “Attitude Change in Face-to-face and Computer-mediated Communication: Private Self-awareness as Mediator and Moderator”, the interpersonal influence that happens each time he returns to the “sunken place” causes his private self-awareness to increase (Sassenburg, 12). As he describes such events to his girlfriend, Rose the enormity of this situation is downplayed and this causes his self-awareness to be decreased because of Rose’s social influence. As the film hits it’s climax, the true intentions of the antagonists is revealed and it lands Chris in a difficult position where he is forced to become self-aware. According to “Attitude Change in Face-to-face and Computer-mediated Communication: Private Self-awareness as Mediator and Moderator”, this increase of his own self awareness and his ability to control what his actions and what he said in cetain scenes of the movie is what saved his life (Sassenburg,8). Chris was able to be aware of not just others in his environment, but he was able to be self aware about his wellbeing and his attitude about it was able reflect that he was under a hypnosis. In the article, it also states that self-awareness can come from self conscious in this term it can be related to Get Out because Chris began to rely on the persona
that was given of him so it enable him to have even more self awareness to behave in which a manner that was expected from oneself. He was able to have a handle on his emotions and behaviors and this gave off the impression that Chris was still hypnotized in the “sunken place”.
F. (2017, March 15). ‘Get Out’ Sprang From An Effort To Master Fear, Says Director Jordan Peele. Retrieved March 28, 2017, from
Sassenberg, K., Boos, M., & Rabung, S. (2005). Attitude change in face-to-face and computer mediated communication: Private self-awareness as mediator and moderator. European Journal Of Social Psychology, 35(3), 361-374. doi:10.1002/ejsp.254