GRAN TORINO

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of the guardian in May 2017, deals with false and true heroes and why they can be labeled with such terms. On the one hand, due to Cunnell, false heroes are persons who turn to ,,aggression, hardness, physical power and emotional reticence" (I. 53) in order to not have to deal with the emptiness in their own souls" (l. 9-10). Furthermore, they use these sort of behaviors, which are often seen as masculine values (cf. I. 52) especially in the Western world, to manifest their own power (cf. I. 55) in a system that is driven by domination. This means that they try to secure as many economic and natural resources for themselves as possible, as they try to protect their own privilege by all means possible. Consequently, these false heroes are not even averse to using slavery, imprisonment, violence and the force of arms to achieve their goal. To sum it up, you could say that false heroes are destructive for themselves and society at large as they do not only suppress their own emotions but also make it more difficult for society to have access to natural resources. On the other hand, the author describes true heroes as preachers and doers of non-violent and compassionate principles. They have the goal to establish a peaceful coexistence, mutual tolerance and caretaking of each other and of the planet in all sorts of communities to effect social change. Therefore, they are committed for life to helping others despite the situation around them. In addition to that, true heroes, as Cunnell entitles them, most commonly have experienced great suffering and may have also caused great pain to others. However, despite their past, they dared to face their own emptiness within their soul even in the most unlikely place imaginable. ANALYSIS In summary, you could say that true heroes are constantly on the look out for others and to solve and resolve problems of their own and especially selflessly of their surrounding. Can Walt Kowalski be described as a true hero or a hero at all? At the beginning of the movie, Walt is a bitter war veteran who sees everything in black and white and who confronts, combats and dominates everything and everyone who threatens his world through some sort of otherness". The reason for this sort of behavior lays within his past in the military. During the Korean War, Walt learned, as a soldier to protect everyone who is part of the American troops and therefore part of the good side and to fight everyone and everything that is part of the communist, evil side. Whilst in Korea Walt had to protect his country, in the neighborhood that has, since the downfall of the automobile industry in Detroit, suffered from a lot of change, as most white, blue collar workers left to the suburbs in the look out for a better life and possibly some form of new employment, more immigrants, especially Asian families have moved into the run down houses which were ones home to many factory workers, he has to protect his lawn. His need of protection comes from the fact that he, due to his changing environment, doesn't feel like he belongs anymore to the neighborhood or to anywhere else really since even his wife who was sort of an anchor in his life has passed away just recently. All in all, you could therefore say that Walt handles, due to his traumatic experiences as a soldier fighting in the Korean war and his lack of belonging in the ever changing neighborhood, most situations that he is being confronted with by turning to some sort of aggressive behavior which is dominated by physical power and emotional reticence. One example for him behaving that way is the incidence in which the Hmong gang members try to take Thao away by using violence to make him join the gang. Their attempt to do that ends in a fight that escalates and really quickly moves onto Walts lawn. He reacts by threatening the gang members with a rifle and by shouting at them to get off his lawn. The rifle hereby stands for him manifesting his physical power and hardness through making war. The action itself can be described as aggressive because his voice and the rifle contribute to a threatening atmosphere. All of these techniques which he uses to react to a situation and to deescalate it in the moment characterize a false hero as defined by Cunnell and his article. Walts aggressive character trait which is part of why he can be labeled as a false hero, at least in the beginning of the movie, is also transparent within his choice of words and his language in general. The reason for this is his frequent use of swear words, racial slurs and insults that play a stable role in the way of how he addresses people. In this context he calls Thao a „zipperhead", the priest an „over educated 27-year old virgin", Thaos love interest Yooa ,,Yum - Yum" and all the Hmong people ,gooks" and "barbarians". But Walt is not only destructive for society at large but also for himself. The main point of his self-destruction is thereby his war - trauma that is a result of him having shot at least 13 people during his time as a soldier and his deployment in Korea. The trauma makes him not only think of the Hmong people as Koreans and therefore enemies but also makes himself incapable of having a close relationship with his sons as his feeling of guilt is too overwhelming and does not allow him to enjoy himself, making him think he is not worth of leading a happy life after all. Likewise he cannot share his state of mind with anybody and rely on anybody. Consequently, he can't help but continue to struggle to overcome his trauma and his ANALYSIS guilt all by himself. This mindset can very clearly be seen in his rude behavior towards father Janovich who has promised Walts late wife to make him go to confession and therefore to help him come to peace with himself. However, despite father Janovich efforts which are characterized by him showing persistently up on Walts doorstep and later in a bar where Walt hangs out with some old veteran friends, he is not successful. In summary, you could say that Walt is definitely a false hero in the beginning of the movie as he shows very destructive behavior patterns for himself and society at large that are dominated by hardness, aggression, physical power and emotional reticence as well as by the raging need to defend his own lawn and territory against the outside world. However, as time goes by Walt starts changing his attitude and behavior. The first step of him changing into a slightly more likable character is taken when Sue befriends him and starts to integrate him into society and the neighborhood community. Walts relationship with Sue is also the starting point for Walts relationship with Thao who he unwillingly at first takes under his wing and teaches how to become more self-confident and how to take care of, first objects and oneself, and later on of each other and the whole community at large. He does so by getting Thao a job, making him work on houses within the neighborhood in the context of Thao having to pay of his debt for trying to steal Walts Gran Torino and by encouraging him to ask his crush out on a date. Following you could say that Walt starts to take up the role of a fatherly figure regarding Thao and partly Sue which has direct positive effects on the neighborhood as houses are being cleaned up and fixed and the spirit within the community becomes a rather hopeful and uplifting note. One of the biggest changes however actually happens within Walt as a person as he finally eventually starts to confront his own sufferings that are part of his war trauma and him losing his own wife who was the love of his life. That loss as well as his PTSD which has cost him the opportunity to have a close relationship with his sons have made him feel empty throughout his whole life. However, as he goes to confession to fulfill his wife's wish and eventually confesses his war crime of shooting an Asian boy right in his face and what that has done to him as a person to Thao he starts to face that exact inner emptiness that has caused himself and his surroundings such as his sons great pain. At the end, Walt can be labeled as a symbol for non-violent and compassionate principles as well, at least partly. The reason for this is that he teaches these values to Thao by making sure that he does not make the same mistakes as Walt himself as he locks Thao up in his basement to prevent him from going to his cousins house to take revenge for what the Hmong gang has done to his sister Sue. Instead Walt goes by himself and sacrifices his life by being willingly shot to make sure that the gang is being put into prison for good. This act of sacrificing his own life for Sue and Thaos future is not only a means of trying to redeem his sin of the past by but can also be seen as a means to break the vicious cycle of violence to which he has contributed beforehand by beating up and threatening a member of the gang which resulted in the raping of Sue. Walt willingly giving his life teaches Thao that a problem cannot be resolved with violence but only with compassion and non- violent, peaceful mutual resolutions as it might otherwise end with victims and hurting. To sum it up, you could say that Walt who at the beginning of the movie is a clear representative of false heroism which makes use of aggression, physical power ANALYSIS and domination, goes through a development that might not allow him to change his values drastically but to shift his view on life a little bit. Whilst he does not entirely overcome his racism and his values of self-reliance which can be seen by the fact that he tries to resolve the conflict between Thao and the gang all by himself, he does learn that violence is not a solution to anything and only a contribution to more violence and hurting. Walt therefore can partly be seen as a true hero at the end of the movie because he does confront the emptiness of his soul, help others despite his suffering from an terminal illness and teach the principles of a peaceful coexistence, mutual tolerance and compassion by establishing them in Thao and Sue who are as their are part of the young generation now able to ensure a better future without violence for the entire neighborhood. ANALYSIS 4