Excerpt by:
Internal Analysis: Save the Last Party (2001)
Conserve the Last Dance (2001) delineates the complex relationships of two teenagers who happen to be negotiating a great interracial relationship. Adolescence is known as a time of self-definition for young adults. According to the developing theorist Erik Erikson, “During adolescence (age 12 to eighteen yrs), the transition coming from childhood to adulthood is quite important. Children are becoming more self-employed, and begin to think about the future regarding career, human relationships, families, housing, etc . The consumer wants to belong to a world and fit in” (McLeod 2013). The central leading part of the film, a high college girl named Sara, is attempting to give new meaning to her id as a dancer. She at the same time seeks a sense of security, due to the fact her mother recently passed away, while fashioning an independent personality from her surviving relatives. Sara starts the film uncertain of who she actually is and what her purpose in life is usually and gradually gains a much more secure sense of personal over the course of the film’s progression.
Sara is stuffed with guilt because of her opinion that she indirectly brought on her single mother’s death. Sara is a classically-trained dancer who wanted to go to Julliard nevertheless her mother died within a car crash when she was rushing to see Sara’s audition because Sara begged her to be there. The fact that Sara’s casting was not good further intensifies her guilt and perception of unworthiness. Sara seems that in the event she is not just a dancer, she has no identity. Ballet is an extremely regimented type of dance too and Sara’s life has almost recently been completely methodized by the ought to train and compete.
After her mom’s death, Sara goes to live at her father’s residence where your woman quickly finds herself to become one of the few white-colored students within a largely African-American urban high school graduation. However , Sara is able to make a deal a new id and companionship with Derek, who assists her look for a new feeling of goal through hip-hop dancing. In the end, this slides open up Sara’s dancing and gives her a new perspective onto her art, resulting in her at some point being recognized into Julliard.
Derek encounters his personal identity challenges during the film. As a outstanding African-American scholar, he frequently is ostracized by his fellow classmates because of his focus on university. Derek aspires to be a doctor and desires to go to Georgetown Medical University but practically throws this kind of opportunity aside when he is usually tempted to get involved in team violence, even more due to a misplaced impression of loyalty to his old friends than due to any authentic desire to become involved. African-American learners frequently come with an identity discord, forcing these questions perceived choice between academic success remaining true to their roots. “The identity problems facing middle-class black and Latino teenagers may be a clue as to why they will don’t perform as well academically… The teenagers often are in dual worlds: the provincial one they will live in, and the rougher streets life they see glorified in the media” (Solomon 2009).
Derek obviously feels a need to make a choice between the professional world, which is characterized as white in his senior high school, and the world which will allow him to appreciate his dreams. Studies of how African-American kids perceive themselves, even in relatively affluent areas, suggest that they have internalized stereotypes relating to their professional and personal potential. “Racial stereotypes are so effective that dark children are a lot more limited in how they observe themselves, ” and pupils like Derek who have the to succeed tend not to, unlike light children, “get to pick from this huge assortment of personality types, behaviors, genuine selves that they can put on and take off, inch rather dark-colored children have got a much more limited array of options they can choose and still be regarded as “authentically black” (Solomon 2009).
Even just associating with Sara taints the personality of both Derek wonderful sister Chenille. Chenille provides a kind of advisor to Sara when the light girl moves to her fresh environment, as Chenille instructs Sara how to dress and boogie. Chenille is criticized to get associating which has a white woman and Derek in particular can be ostracized considering that it is assumed he only likes Sara
