ipl-logo

Mad Max Fury Road Character Analysis

1236 Words5 Pages

More than 15% of the population has some form of disability and yet in pop culture this

demographic is seldom seen or valued in a positive manner. In movies and television for

example, only about an estimated 1% of the characters are portrayed with a disability (World

Report on Disability). In some genres, such as science fiction, disabilities are common trope used

to indicate evil or to draw out a negative emotional response from the audience. Rarely is it ever

assigned to leading roles (Ellis 59). In this paper I will argue that Mad Max: Fury Road does not

follow this prevailing trend, but successfully includes disabled characters as positive and active

participants. Stereotypes are a familiar technique utilized by filmmakers …show more content…

More to the point, while pairing

disability with villains and secondary characters may be the norm, it 's how Miller portrays his

heroes that truly break the tradition.

Along with Joe and his evil followers, prominently displaying problem bodies, Fury Road

also displays both of the primary protagonists in the same manner. Furiosa is an amputee, fitted

with a metal and robotic looking prosthetic for a hand. Even Max, titular hero of the movie, is

mentally ill, suffering from symptoms akin to PTSD and exhibiting very strong antisocial

tendencies. Further to that, Max is himself a partially crippled warrior, sporting a leg brace.

What 's more about the presence of disability in regards to the protagonists, is that they

aren 't used to conjure up a negative response from the audience. In fact, their disabilities aren 't

given a whole lot of focus. When their impairments do become visible, however briefly, they

exist outside of the villain-disability formula mentioned above. For example, Furiosa 's metal arm

is never presented as a weakness and although Max 's haunting hallucinations are a minor

impediment to his fighting, they also help save his life on one occasion. There 's

Show More
Related

  • Censorship In Fahrenheit 451 And Harrison Bergeron

    722 Words  | 3 Pages

    In “Harrison Bergeron” the handicaps make all of the citizens exactly the same. The handicaps do not let people be who they really are and actually holds back the citizens ability to do things. It seems like the handicaps actually make it worse for the advanced people because it makes them suffer. “They weren’t really very good-no better than anybody else would have been anyway.... George was toying with the vague notion that maybe dancers shouldn’t be handicapped.

    Read More

  • A Short Note On Mairs

    818 Words  | 4 Pages

    Imagine you’re a normal person, just living life going through the motions of your average uneventful day. It’s not hard to picture – it’s how most of us live. You’re simply going to school or your job, maybe out for a drink or two – like everyone else – but then unexpectedly someone stops and tells you how brave you are for it, that you’ve inspired them. Weird, right? You haven’t done anything exciting, doing your usual daily routine.

    Read More

  • Sharon M. Draper's Out Of My Mind

    1157 Words  | 5 Pages

    “2.2 million people in the United States depend on a wheelchair for day-to-day tasks and mobility. 6.5 million people use a cane, a walker, or crutches to assist with their mobility”. Every single day, people varying in ages, struggle to live their lives due to conditions out of their control. Whether it be life threatening or not, it can have effects that are both socially and emotionally harming. Although some of them may change appearances on the outside, other people cannot forget that all people, not matter the disability, have brains and personalities of their own that may not be seen to the human eye.

    Read More

  • Waist High In The World Analysis

    1224 Words  | 5 Pages

    Waist High In the World is a novel that focuses on the importance of accepting everyone with dignity and respect despite their disabilities and differences. The author of the book, Nancy Mairs purpose when writing the book was to create awareness and share her experience as a “cripple” in order to create consciousness and understanding of those who are going through the same process. Mairs uses different persuasive strategies to convince readers to want a world with people like her in it, this includes the use of pathos, logos and ethos.

    Read More

  • Dystopian Society In Fahrenheit 451 And Harrison Bergeron

    498 Words  | 2 Pages

    The people in “Harrison Bergeron” that are smart, good looking, strong, etc are categorized as dangerous. It isn't right to judge someone because of their knowledge and looks because they were born with it. In “Harrison Bergeron”, the news reporter says, “He is a genius and an athlete, is under handicapped, and should be regarded as extremely dangerous.” In today's society, handicapped means something totally different. People that are handicapped in this day, are considered disabled.

    Read More

  • Analysis Of Robert Murphy's The Body Silent

    1642 Words  | 7 Pages

    Murphy lacks mobility and sensation in his lower body other than the feeling of occasional muscle spasms, and has limited movement in his upper body below the neck including his arms. Murphy writes the story as it recounts events throughout his entire life, from childhood onwards. He was sixty-two when he wrote the novel. The story provides Murphy’s anthropological commentary on the life of a person with a disability and how society views and treats people with disabilities (Murphy, 1990). Murphy’s performance patterns both support and inhibit his occupational engagement.

    Read More

  • Intellectual Disability In The Novel 'Of Mice And Men'

    1355 Words  | 6 Pages

    “Only 50 years ago persons with intellectual disabilities were scorned, isolated and neglected. Today, they are able to attend school, become employed and assimilate into their local community” (Nelson Mandela). Prior to the later part of the 20th century people with intellectual disabilities were often ridiculed, treated unfairly, feared, and locked away in institutions. According to Rhonda Nauhaus and Cindy Smith in their article Disability Rights through the Mid-20th Century, The laws of any nation reflect its societal values. The real life issue of discrimination towards people with intellectual disabilities in the United States and Australia is demonstrated in the novel, Of Mice and Men by showing how this issue affects one of the main characters, Lennie Smalls.

    Read More

  • Nancy Mairs On Being A Cripple Essay

    807 Words  | 4 Pages

    In the essay, “On Being a Cripple,” Nancy Mairs uses humorous diction and a positive tone to educate people about life as a cripple and struggles of people with disabilities. She does this to show how hard it is to be disabled and how it differs from the life of someone without a disability. She talks about the struggles and the fears that disabled people must deal with on a daily basis. Mairs use of rhetoric creates a strong sense of connection and understanding for the reader. Nancy Mairs is successful in using detailed imagery, diction, and tone to educate her readers about the difficulties of living with a disability.

    Read More

  • What Eating Gilbert Grape Analysis

    1415 Words  | 6 Pages

    Furthermore, public acknowledgment of people with a disability is either ignored or spotlighted so significantly that the person feels like they stand out in the crowd unnecessarily. DiCaprio’s character, Arnie who has autism portrays stereotypical behavioural traits of a person with the disability. Throughout the film, it can be analysed that Arnie constantly fidgets with his hands, cannot sit still and has difficulty following basic instructions which can all be examined as stereotypical characteristics of a person with autism. Obviously Hallstrom had a bias and stereotypically view on the behaviour of those with autism as Arnie behaved like a child, no clear independence as his brother, Gilbert had to wash him and put him to bed every night. Socially, Arnie was in need of constant supervision as he had a tendency to perform acts that were previously recognised as inappropriate.

    Read More

  • In Living Color: Race And American Culture

    1000 Words  | 4 Pages

    Consequently, people would think about the next generation and believe in equality for every races and skin colors. In Hollywood, movie directors and writers should remove stereotypes, ensure justify for the minority, and teach the younger about equality. 
 Last but not least, the director hurt minority audiences because of the movie they make. Economically, using racial stereotypes in the film helps increase the views and profit.

    Read More

  • The Role Of Disabilities In John Steinbeck's Of Mice And Men

    705 Words  | 3 Pages

    Scott Hamilton once stated, “The only disability in life is a bad attitude.” Disability is only an obstacle in a person's life, but it does not set the identity of that person. John Steinbeck's novel shows how disabled people are treated differently by writing about their heartbreak and sorrow. Many individuals with disabilities feel that a disability is a wall blocking them from achieving their goals. In our society, people are told what to be and what to do with their disability, but one should have the choice to carve their pathway to success.

    Read More

  • Nancy Mairs Disability Analysis

    233 Words  | 1 Pages

    n Nancy Mairs essay, “Disability”, she illustrates the lack of representation of people with disabilities in the media. While disability plays a major role in Mairs’ life, she points out the various ways her everyday life is ordinary and even mundane. Despite the normalcy of the lives of citizens with disabilities Mairs argues the media’s effacement of this population, is fear driven. She claims, “To depict disabled people in the ordinary activities of daily life is to admit that there is something ordinary about the disability itself, that it may enter anybody’s life” (Mairs 14). Able bodied people worry about the prospect of eventually becoming physically impaired.

    Read More

  • The Lame Shall Enter First Analysis

    945 Words  | 4 Pages

    The Religion of Disability: How Flannery O’Connor Uses the Concept of Disability in “The Lame Shall Enter First” In her short story, “The Lame Shall Enter First” Flannery O’Connor shares the tale of a self-righteous reformatory counselor, Sheppard, who forgoes the raising of his own son to embark on a quest to improve the life of a young miscreant, Rufus Johnson, who has a clubbed foot. Eventually after devoting all his time and effort to the saving of this young boy, Sheppard realizes the selfish nature of his actions, but it is too late to save to save his own son. O’Connor employs disability perceptions through the contrasting ideas of confinement and freedom as well as the idea of moral superiority.

    Read More

  • Persuasive Speech On Dyslexia

    896 Words  | 4 Pages

    PURPOSE The audience will gain a deeper understanding about the disability and how it affects the people who are afflicted by it. INTRODUCTION Take a few seconds to read the following paragraph. It does not make much sense. The photo illustrates one variation of how people with dyslexia read and in most cases, how they write, too.

    Read More

  • The Intouchables Movie Analysis

    1723 Words  | 7 Pages

    Adversity in “The Intouchables” “My true disability is not having to be in a wheel chair. It’s having to be without her.” (The Intouchables). Lines like that are just a piece of the great undertaking directors Olivier Nakache and Eric Toledano took when they decided to be part of The Intouchables.

    Read More

More about Mad Max Fury Road Character Analysis

Open Document