The Street Essay

The video the street has a typical stereotype story line. The plot of the story is started with the mum and the dad having a heated argument which already shows who is the dominant one in the relationship, the husband. They argue a lot through out the story not showing a lot of attention to the children until the very end. The mum gets fed up and commits adultrey with the neighbor next door when the husband is probably at work. The neighbor originally came in to fix a broken tap but that soon changed and showed the true colors of the both married people. This causes a big situation in her marriage and shows just how fed up the wife was with the husband so she felt like she needed to cheat. She is proved right that the husband is quite self-centered when instead of looking after the kids which he is equally responsible to do he is once again thinking about him self, watching the football. In this time his daughter runs out the door and gets run over and seriously injured. The mum blames the dad for not doing his job and thinking about himself again and i think maybe that is when he realizes and feels terrible.

The dads character is shown to be an angry short tempered stereotypical man that tries to be masculine and head of the house but does not really do a good job. He doesn't show a lot of respect and is not really well presented as shown when he runs out in a dirty vest, so the family is obviously struggling for money, maybe thats why he's so stressed as he is the provider for the family. He is a self centered man that wants to be in charge of his wife and she lets him. This is because she is a bit of a pushover that lets him walk all over her to save the arguments. She does care about her family a lot but is shown to be un-loyal when cheating on her husband with the neighbor. She would not break up with the husband because she actually does need him. The mum and dads arguments obviously effect the children who don't really say much throughout the video and look very quiet and miserable in a way. Katy the daughter that gets run over and gets seriously injured shows a very good example how the dad, not really paying attention and looking after the children can end very badly. The neighbor is too unfaithful and un-loyal as he was to married, he took advantage of the mother a bit but does show he has feelings when the girl is run over by him and how terrible and upset he felt.

The behavior of each character is shown very clearly in the video and it re-enforces the stereotype that men are superior over women which goes back to before the first world war where the women were meant to stay at home and look after the children and cook and clean and be grateful for the husband who goes to work. Throughout the video it shows the husband pushing around the wife and her being stupid for him and just going along with what he says. She doesn't really have her own say at all and when things go wrong they are blamed on her. There are a lot of issues between the husband and wife and the wife constantly lets the husband mug her off and push her around and doesn't really stand up to him until the very end. The husbands behavior is quite vicious and angry mainly to show his authority that he is head of the house and that he is the leader that tells everyone what to do but only thinks about himself. The children are quiet a lot probably because their mum and dad are arguing all the time. The mum is caring to the children and husband to begin with but i think she gives up and gets fed up of being told what to do that she does behind her husbands back and sleeps with another man, which makes both the man she slept with and her un-loyal and untrustworthy as they are supposed to both be 'happily married'. The dad has a very short temper and has very bad language in front of the children and wife which is disrespectful and does not set a good example for them.

Throughout the video power is used a lot. It shows clearly from the start that the dad holds all of the power over everyone in the house which is very stereotypical. He is the dominant one and wants to be shown a great deal of respect. This shows the typical man being dominate over the female and the female being a push over and not saying anything just doing what she's being told which is not how it should be. It is all to do with he stereotypes like the girl being hit by the car is the mums fault as she is the one that should be looking after the children after work the man just wants to relax, when actually he was in the house so he should be looking after them it is not the mums responsibility all the time.