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The Blind Side: Analysis of Michael Oher's Development Through Psychological Theories

Table of contents

The character of michael oher, psychological analysis of the character, jean piaget’s theory of cognitive development, erik erickson’s identity theory, lawrence kohlberg's levels of moral reasoning, baumrind’s theory.

• Bandura, A. (1977). Social learning theory. Prentice-Hall.
• Bronfenbrenner, U. (1979). The ecology of human development: Experiments by nature and design. Harvard University Press.
• Buss, D. M. (2019). Evolutionary psychology: The new science of the mind. Psychology Press.
• Kail, R. V., & Cavanaugh, J. C. (2016). Human development: A life-span view. Cengage Learning.
• Piaget, J. (1972). Intellectual evolution from adolescence to adulthood. Human Development, 15(1), 1-12.
• Santrock, J. W. (2016). Life-span development. McGraw-Hill Education.
• Vygotsky, L. S. (1978). Mind in society: The development of higher psychological processes. Harvard University Press.

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The Blind Side

By michael lewis.

• The Blind Side Summary

The story begins with a scene from a game between the New York Giants and the Washington Redskins. Lewis focuses on the fearsome strength of linebacker Lawrence Taylor who consistently brings down quarterbacks. In this particular scene, he comes down hard on Joe Theismann, breaking his leg and effectively ending his football career. Taylor springs up and leaps away from the scene, seeming to feel, as Lewis describes it, sympathetic pain to the injury he just caused. The next chapter describes the work of Tom Lemming, opening with him watching a tape of Michael Oher and being stunned. He goes out to meet him, feeling slightly mystified about the fact that no one seems to know who he is in his hometown. Lewis writes about Lemming's process, as he rose to prominence as one of the premier football recruiting analysts. Lemming traveled constantly to see every top-tier high school football player in the U.S. He compiled this information and began making a profit by creating a valuable list of these prospective college athletes. He meets Michael and is baffled by him, as he refuses to speak much or answer his questionnaire.

The third chapter begins with the story of Big Tony, a man in the impoverished neighborhood known as Hurt Village in East Memphis. To keep a promise he made to his dying mother, he enrolls his son, Steven, in an evangelical Christian school called Briarcrest. At the same time, he asks about the possibility of enrolling Michael, who has been sleeping on their couch, as well. The school is concerned about Michael's academic performance, but agrees to give him a chance. The school's football coach, Hugh Freeze , takes an interest in Michael for his athletic ability. Michael struggles in school, initially seeming unable to work through material but eventually showing some aptitude, just suffering from being behind. Slightly later, Sean Tuohy , a local businessman, sees Michael sitting in the stands at a basketball game and, being somewhat familiar with him, offers to cover his school lunch. Shortly after this first meeting, Sean, now with his wife Leigh Ann, encounters Michael again, en route to the school gym, trying to keep warm. The following day, Leigh Anne takes him shopping for clothes.

The fourth chapter depicts Michael's initial involvement with Briarcrest's sports teams. He shows impressive strength as a shotput thrower, while also being a decent basketball player. Around the same time, Michael becomes increasingly close to Leigh Anne, turning to her when he sustains a hand injury during a basketball game. As Michael's housing situation appears increasingly dire, Leigh Anne takes him in. She begins to learn more about him and his past, taking notice of his various habits that seem like survival tools, like saving extra meals. Michael attends a football match and easily lifts one of the strongest players, astounding the coaches. He is quickly recruited as the team's left tackle. The fifth chapter deals with the contrasting coaching styles of NFL coaches Bill Parcells and Bill Walsh , as a means of explaining the rise in status of the left tackle position. It opens with a game between the Raiders and Bengals, coached by Walsh, in which the Bengals lose due to a blind-side rush. From there, Walsh begins to reconsider his approach to the game, shifting the focus of his plays to short passes, a style he would become known for. Lewis says Parcells' style was more about brute force, while Walsh's was centered around clever plays. Up against Parcells' Giants, and feared linebacker Lawrence Taylor, Walsh employs this new strategy, this time as coach of the 49ers. Using left tackle John Ayers , Walsh is able to protect quarterback Joe Montana from Taylor's forceful tackle. Lewis also describes how Ayers' job is both essential and fairly invisible to a viewing audience.

The sixth chapter shows Michael's slow adjustment to all of the new attention as a major player on Briarcrest's team. Michael learns the team's plays, while Leigh Anne closely watches each of his games. In one particular game, a player keeps calling Michael names. Michael picks him up and carries him off the field, past the bench, and into the fence. Gradually, Leigh Anne notices Michael opening up more and more, as he begins the process of getting a driver's license. During the process, she learns more about his complicated family background, including his large number of half-brothers and sisters. Later, she has a conflict with Coach Freeze about not properly utilizing Michael's talents on the field. Freeze ultimately changes his plays, relying on Michael to clear the way for the quarterback to score. The team wins the season.

The seventh chapter deals with Michael's many college offers and interaction with various coaches. He receives particularly strong interest from the University of Mississippi, Louisiana State University, and the University of Tennessee. Leigh Anne's son, Sean Jr., also takes a strong interest in the matter, asking each coach very specific questions about how involved he can be in Michael's sporting life. Ultimately, he chooses the University of Mississippi because he likes its coach. The eighth chapter depicts an investigation carried out by the NCAA that sought to find out if the Tuohys adopted Michael in an effort to coerce him into playing for the University of Mississippi, their alma mater. At the same time, it also details Michael's effort to raise his GPA before leaving for college, which involves him working relentlessly on academics with his tutor and taking some online classes. The investigation concludes, finding no evidence of wrongdoing on the Tuohys' part. Michael finishes school and begins preparing for his role on his college team.

The ninth chapter describes the rise in the stature and pay of the NFL players who served as left tackles. Concurrently, it depicts the pressure put on left tackle Steve Wallace. Wallace was told the fate of his team, The San Francisco 49ers, largely rested on him that season in 1982. It was expected he would be able to stop Chris Doleman, a renowned linebacker who played for the Vikings. Wallace proves adept at keeping Doleman at bay in a pivotal game. Following this tactical development, demand for left tackles increases significantly, as does their pay. Lewis also describes the career of Jonathan Ogden , a talented left tackle who was such a capable player that he seemed nearly able to fill multiple roles on the team. Chapter ten depicts the complex racial politics at the University of Mississippi, particularly in relation to its treatment of Black athletes. Lewis details how Black football players were often isolated from the largely white social sphere of the school. He then returns to Michael's story, describing his first season at the school as the team suffers some setbacks, leading up to a climactic loss in Starkville. Michael's status in the school remains strong until there is an incident with another player. One of his teammates, Antonio, says something about Leigh Anne and her daughter Collins, causing Michael to beat him. Michael inadvertently injures a young child who is present at the scene and flees.

In the eleventh chapter, Lewis pivots and describes the details of Michael's early life. His mother gives birth to him and his siblings when she is very young. She develops a crippling drug addiction and is rarely around. Michael and his siblings grow increasingly concerned that their family will be broken up, which eventually happens. Michael runs away from a group home multiple times, returning to Hurt Village, the apartment complex where his mother resides. Social Services eventually stops looking for him and he spends his days playing basketball and seeking out both food and shelter. The book then details Michael's early days at Briarcrest, illustrating his fear and wonder about a predominantly white world that remains largely alien to him. The chapter ends with Big Tony warning Michael to be careful of the rules of this other world.

The final chapter depicts Sean getting in touch with Michael and helping him sort out the incident with Antonio. Michael doesn't get any legal or academic penalties, but is reminded to be more mindful in situations like that one. Michael goes on to have a successful season, inspiring hope in many athletes from impoverished neighborhoods hoping to use their talent to push back on generational poverty. At the same time, Leigh Anne seeks to find a way to help other kids who grew up in circumstances like Michael's. The book ends with a description of linebacker Dwight Freeney seeming nervous about facing Michael's prowess and power on the field someday.

The Blind Side Questions and Answers

The Question and Answer section for The Blind Side is a great resource to ask questions, find answers, and discuss the novel.

Study Guide for The Blind Side

The Blind Side study guide contains a biography of Michael Lewis, literature essays, quiz questions, major themes, characters, and a full summary and analysis.

• About The Blind Side
• Character List

Lesson Plan for The Blind Side

• About the Author
• Study Objectives
• Common Core Standards
• Introduction to The Blind Side
• Relationship to Other Books
• Bringing in Technology
• Notes to the Teacher
• Related Links
• The Blind Side Bibliography

The Blind Side: Book and Movie Comparison Essay

About the game, about michael oher, similarities, works cited.

The differences and similarities of the book and movie version of The Blind Side can be understood by looking at how the author – Michael Lewis – and the director attempted to inform and entertain their respective audiences. It can also be explained by the strengths and limitations of the medium that they used. There is a big difference in how a writer can talk about the details of a particular subject matter and how a movie director can fit everything and tell a good story in just two hours of film.

But when simplified even further the movie version differs from the book because the author wanted to show the evolution of how American football is played and conducted using the story of Michael Oher the protagonist as some sort of a case study while the movie version wanted to showcase the extraordinary story of Michael Oher and how his life can be used as a model to inspire others to live life and reach one’s potential even if the odds are stack against that person.

The focus of the book was the evolution of the game. The movie’s focus was on the triumph of the human spirit and understandably so because the movie was marketed as an inspirational movie. It was created to make the audience feel good. This does not mean that the movie completely strayed far from the spirit of the author’s work. It is simply about the need to focus on one story.

The author can tackle a major issue and then have enough space to talk about an example of how the game has totally been transformed by including the inspiring and yet true-to-life story of Michael Oher. On the other hand director, John Lee Hancock cannot afford to totally copy the format of the book and adapt everything to the screen because as mentioned it is impossible given the limitations of the medium used.

The book had a lengthy introduction about a football hero named Lawrence Taylor and why he was a terror in the football field (Lewis, p. 16). The author even claimed that Jerry Sizemore, an NFL professional who played for the Philadelphia Eagles quit because of fear as to what Taylor will do to him during an actual game (Lewis, p. 16).

And this framed the introduction as to why the game has evolved – football has always been known for the grace and athleticism of the quarterback working in perfect unity with the receiver and the rest of the team. But Lewis pointed out that when Taylor arrived at the scene, he changed the way football was played because of the strength, speed, agility, and violence he brings with him.

The game had to evolve not because of Taylor’s prowess but due to his effectiveness to disrupt play, intimidate opponents, and most importantly to win games. He was so successful in fact that football coaches began to scout for athletes that have the same profile, height, body weight, etc. Lewis summed it all up by explaining how a defender should play according to Taylor’s point of view and Taylor said: “I’ll drive my helmet into him, or, if I can, I’ll bring my arm up over my head and try to ax the ‘sonuvabitch’ into two.

So long as the guy is holding the ball, I intend to hurt him … If I hit the right, I’ll hit a nerve and he’ll feel electrocuted, he’ll forget for a few seconds that he’s on a football field” (Lewis, p.17) If not for the word football field at the end of that statement one can be forgiven if he or she thought that the author was talking about martial arts, not the game that America loves.

The brutal language appropriately used to describe the heightened violence in American football could never find its way to the movie because the vision of the director with regards to the target audience and what portion of the material to emphasize in the film version was about the miracle of Michael Oher’s rise from extreme poverty to football stardom.

The goal of the author was not only to tell about the inspiring story of Michael Oher but more importantly to tell about the evolution of the game and how it had become one of the most dangerous games in the planet.

While Lewis wrote a great deal about the offense, defense, Lawrence Taylor, and the business side of football in the introductory portion of the book, the movie version spent less time talking about the NFL and even college football, however the director was able to combine everything and provided the backdrop for the story by showing a documentary film about the importance of a good offensive unit because a quarterback can be vulnerable in his blindside.

The short clip provided a much better way to understand what Lewis tried to explain about the so-called blindside. This is one of the few examples why an audio-visual presentation like a movie is much better than reading a book, but in other aspects, the author was able to talk more about the details of football and why Michael Oher was an extraordinary story in the world of American football.

Lewis saw the life of Michael Oher as an example of the best and worst of college football, U.S. athletics, and football as a game and as a business. So the book was not all about Michael Oher but also about football. The author wrote several chapters about the marketing of football players, coaches, and how the game is currently being played.

He wanted to use the story of Oher to show that a football scholarship is something that can be seen as a blessing and sometimes a tool used by schemers who do not really care about the welfare and the future of the athletes they recruited, for they simply wanted the glory that is associated with it.

In the book, Lewis highlighted the fact that Briarcrest Christian School looked the other way when they knew without a doubt that Michael Oher could not maintain the high academic standards that the school requires.

They decided to ignore this very important aspect of his enrollment because an athletics coach of Briarcrest saw the potential of Oher to dominate the competition (Lewis, p.331). This, of course, an unethical thing to do, a dilemma that the school had to deal with and provided another backdrop to what would happen next to Oher’s life as a football player.

But in the movie version, the ethical problem regarding recruitment was not highlighted, in fact, it can be said that the producer of the movie did not want to get deep into the controversy. What the producer and the director focused on was the struggle that Oher had to face with and deal with as an oversize black student studying in a highly competitive and predominantly white school.

The book also trained the spotlight on how coaches and the staff of some of the most popular college football teams had to employ what can be considered as tactics reserved for the professional leagues. They behaved like pirates in the high seas and treated the recruitment process as if they are on war.

This was also evident in the movie version but it was toned down. The impression of the audience of the selection process was intense but at the same time exhilarating. The movie did not touch on the more controversial aspects of the recruitment process. This is why it is called a feel-good movie.

It has now become clear that the movie version was unable to stay one hundred percent true to the original intent of the writer. Nevertheless, there were many similarities and many times the storyline of the movie and the information that one can come across by reading the book has intersected and most of it has something to do with the extraordinary character of Michael Oher and of course the members of the Tuohy family.

The way these people’s lives were celebrated was obvious in the book and in the movie version. The way the movie portrayed the life of Michael Oher and the way the author wrote about him has the same effect on the reader of the book as well as the audience of the film.

The most important feature of the film and the book was in describing how multiple foster homes and the experience of not having to have stability in life has shaped the worldview of Oher. The book also highlighted the fact that Oher’s talent and even determination would never be enough without the Tuohy family.

As extraordinary as Oher is, his early failures and troubled past could have brought him to the depths of despair where his physical prowess cannot help him. The book and the movie were able to show very clearly that the poverty and gangs related violence found in inner-city Memphis was like a deathtrap that no orphan can ever conquer.

It must be expected that the movie version can only focus on a small part of the book. The producer and director of the movie had to contend with the limitations of film. The author intended to talk about the evolution of the game, both the good and the bad effects, but the movie was content to talk about the triumph of Oher and the Tuohy family. Nevertheless, there were similarities such as the moving story of how Oher was able to overcome against great odds.

Lewis, Michael. The Blind Side (Movie Tie-In Edition). New York: W.W. Norton & Company, 2009.

The Blind Side . Dir. John Lee Hancock. Perf. Sandra Bullock, Tim McGraw, Quinton Aaron and Kathy Bates. Warner Brothers Pictures, 2009. Film.

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IvyPanda. (2020, April 13). The Blind Side: Book and Movie Comparison. https://ivypanda.com/essays/the-blind-side-book-and-movie-comparison/

"The Blind Side: Book and Movie Comparison." IvyPanda , 13 Apr. 2020, ivypanda.com/essays/the-blind-side-book-and-movie-comparison/.

IvyPanda . (2020) 'The Blind Side: Book and Movie Comparison'. 13 April.

IvyPanda . 2020. "The Blind Side: Book and Movie Comparison." April 13, 2020. https://ivypanda.com/essays/the-blind-side-book-and-movie-comparison/.

1. IvyPanda . "The Blind Side: Book and Movie Comparison." April 13, 2020. https://ivypanda.com/essays/the-blind-side-book-and-movie-comparison/.

Bibliography

IvyPanda . "The Blind Side: Book and Movie Comparison." April 13, 2020. https://ivypanda.com/essays/the-blind-side-book-and-movie-comparison/.

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The Blind Side, Essay Example

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Different perspectives and points of view greatly impact how people see each other. The film The Blind Side shows an example of perception affecting one’s impression formation process. The Blind Side tells the story of seventeen year old Michael Oher(played by Quinton Aaron), whom is a very large intimidating black youth, and his life of growing up in the projects of Memphis but makes his way up thanks to the sport of football and with the help of Leigh Anne Tuohy(played by Sandra Bullock). Before receiving help and making his way up though, Oher had been hopping from foster home to foster home constantly running away because of the forced separation between him and his drug addicted mother when he was seven years old.

Thanks to Oher’s friends father though, Oher gets enrolled into Wingate Christian School, which is a very prestigous private school, despite his low 0.6 GPA. The only reason Oher gets into the school is because of Coach Burton, head of the football program at Wingate, wanting to recruit Oher on the football team because of his enormous size. At the school, Oher meets S.J. Tuohy, the son of Leigh Anne Tuohy.

One cold night Leigh Anne see Oher walking alone and after finding out he has no place to sleep she invites the large black youth to stay over for the night, despite her husband not being fond of the idea. After a few nights and a Thanksgiving dinner together, Oher starts to make the Tuohy residence his permanent home. New problems arise for Oher though as he struggles academically in school and with his old family. Trying to find his birth mother in his old ghetto neighborhood, Oher runs into old acquaintances and starts a scuffle with them because of how they treated Leigh Tuohy. Overtime though, Oher is developed both academically with school and athletically with football which paves the way for his acceptance to play football for Ole Miss, and eventually for the NFL.

The first official meeting between the two main characters Leigh Anne Tuohy and Michael Oher in The Blind Side was during the night time when the Tuohy family was driving home. On the drive back, Leigh Anne recognizes the large young black youth from Wingate Christian school as he is walking alone in the cold with only a Tshirt and pants to keep warm.

After asking big Mike, which is what the kids call him at school, if he has any place to stay and after finding out that the school gym was his only option, Leigh Anne begins to feel sorry for Big Mike which is apparent when her husband says, “I’ve seen that look many times before”. Leigh Anne when figuring that Big Mike is all alone, becomes more of a parental figure to him on the spot not asking him to get in the car but instead telling him to.

Big Mike is shown to be intimidated by the white mother as he keeps a very quiet toned voice and keeping his hands folded in front of him, and also is reluctant to go home with the family. Overall their first impressions of each other foreshadow their upcoming relationship, which strengthens overtime as they become more comfortable with each other as they both change each other’s lives.

Leigh Anne Tuohy is shown to have the background of being a white conservative southerner successful women and mother of two. Also living pretty comfortably with an upscale home and a decent amount of income coming in from her job as an interior designer. Michael Oher though, can be seen as being almost the exact opposite of Leigh Anne Tuohy, a black homeless boy from the ghetto with a struggling need for family and education.

Growing up with first a drug addicted mother and then having to constantly run away from several foster homes. Both of these backgrounds can be shown to be influencing each other’s first impressions. The white woman with a background of having a family and settled life, feels sorry for the homeless young black youth and tries to mother the boy. Oher with the background of never having a comfortable life with a loving family, is intimidated by the fact that he is actually being offered a place to stay and almost does not know how to react in that kind of situation.

Throughout the film, Michael Oher and Leigh Anne Tuohy’s relationship gets nothing but stronger. With Leigh Tuohy, she is shown to become more and more of a mother figure to Michael Oher because of the fact that he never really got the chance to be raised by his own mother. What makes her strong affection towards Michael Oher even more apparent is that fact that Leigh Tuohy is not just simply helping the poor black youth, but actually taking him in as if he were one of her own.

One piece of evidence from the film being is that Leigh Tuohy comes up with the idea of wanting to adopt Michael Oher and offically have him as part of the family. And even despite being put down by her sisters and even her husband, Leigh Tuohy still follows through with it. As for Michael Oher’s impression towards Leigh Tuohy, it pretty much follows the same path as a building emotional bond. Oher beings to become more comfortable living with the family in their home, which is shown when he opens up to the family about his past and even takes Leigh Tuohy to his old neighborhood in the ghetto.

Leigh Anne Tuohy uses an uncertainty reduction strategy of interaction and directly communicating with Michael Oher. Leigh Tuohy is more of an uptight woman so it makes sense that she wouldn’t settle for passively trying to get to know Michael Oher but instead brings him into her own home and starts to learn more about him as they live together. The uncertainty reduction strategy that Michael Oher utilizes a more passive approach. Being so shy, Oher is reluctant to directly communicate with others but instead just keeps to himself and learns about others based upon how they act and talk to him.

Overall, the first impressions given to each other between Leigh Anne Tuohy and Michael Oher was at first very fragile with Leigh Tuohy taking in the quiet giant Michael Oher. Overtime though their bond strengthens as they learn more and being to care about each other which leads to Michael Oher’s success in school and in the sport of football.

Works Cited

Berger. Uncertainty Reduction Theory. 2015. June 2015 <http://oregonstate.edu/instruct/theory/ur.html >.

The Blind Side. Dir. Warner Brothers Video. Perf. Warner. 2010.

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The Blind Side

96 pages • 3 hours read

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Summary and Study Guide

The Blind Side tells the intersecting stories of Michael Oher (who, after the book’s timeline, went on to have a long career as an NFL left tackle) and how the NFL’s passing game evolved. Folded into these two stories is that of Tom Lemming , who became the first person to evaluate high school football players both independently and on a national scale. His player evaluations impacted college recruiting, shifting it from a regional to a national focus. This change enabled an under-the-radar player like Oher, who played for a small Evangelical Christian high school, to be noticed. 

Lewis begins the book by describing the 1985 play that ended the career of Washing Redskins quarterback Joe Theismann: New York Giants defender Lawrence Taylor sacked Theismann, breaking his leg in two places. Theismann’s regular left tackle was on the sidelines with an injury for that game, and the result was costly both for Theismann and the Redskins.

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The fast, aggressive play of Taylor, and defensive players who followed in his footsteps, transformed passing strategy and created the need for a left tackle with a unique physique and skill set. It took several years for talent evaluators to define these qualities and recognize the importance of left tackles, but by the 2000s, when Oher came on the scene, their value was well understood. Oher, in turn, became one of the most sought-after draft prospects.

Lewis weaves back and forth through time to tell Michael’s story. Lewis introduces Michael when he is 15 years old and temporarily staying with Tony (“Big Tony”) Henderson. Like Michael, Big Tony grew up in Hurt Village, one of Memphis, Tennessee’s most notorious housing projects. To fulfill his mother’s last wish, Big Tony takes his son to a Christian Evangelical school, Briarcrest, and brings Michael with him. Michael’s athletic abilities impress the school’s coaches. He becomes a student at the school, where he meets Sean and Leigh Anne Tuohy , wealthy white Evangelical Christians whose children also attend Briarcrest. Leigh Anne grows close with Michael, and Michael moves in with the Tuohys. Michael slowly assimilates into the school environment, making friends and growing especially close the Tuohys’ children, Collins and Sean Junior. The Tuohys hire a tutor for Michael to ensure he maintains the grades he needs to play sports, and Leigh Anne educates him in the ways of white, upper-class Memphis.

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After football scout Lemming brings Michael to national attention, Michael is heavily recruited by almost all of the top college programs. Michael chooses to play at the University of Mississippi (“Ole Miss”), the Tuohys’ alma mater. The NCAA receives a complaint that the Tuohys compensated Michael with gifts to convince him to play at Old Miss and opens an investigation into the Tuohys’ motives. Michael is eventually cleared to play at the school, and the Tuohys ensure he will meet NCAA academic eligibility requirements. Michael plays as a freshman, which raises his profile with NFL recruiters. Though the Ole Miss team he plays on is not successful, Michael’s individual play impresses, and he receives accolades and awards.

At the end of a successful season for Michael, a teammate confronts him, making a lewd reference to Leigh Anne and her daughter, Collins, and Michael beats him up. When he realizes he accidentally injured a young child in the vicinity, he flees the scene. Lewis shifts focus to Michael’s mother, showing how she fell victim to a cycle of poverty and drugs. Shortly before Michael turned eight, Children’s Services removed him from her care and placed him in a foster home. He ran away three times, eventually ending up in a hospital for psychiatric evaluation. After he ran away from the hospital, authorities gave up looking for him. For the next five years, he was in and out of school for long stretches, though school authorities continued to pass him from grade to grade. His family was homeless for a time, and Michael camped out in the homes of a string of friends, including Big Tony. Lewis then returns to the moment where The Blind Side begins: with Michael arriving at Briarcrest. Lewis discusses Michael’s early challenges at the school, relating to the students and adapting to the school culture.

The final chapter returns to the day Michael ran away from the scene where he got in a fight with a teammate. Sean communicates with him by text while consulting with his various contacts at Ole Miss and devising a plan to keep the story low profile. Michael returns, and the situation is resolved with no lasting impact on Michael’s character or player profile. Lewis notes that Michael’s support network helped to ensure that the incident remained under the radar.

At the end of the book, applications from inner-city high school athletes flood Briarcrest, but the school is ambivalent about accepting students who are not academically prepared for the school’s curriculum. Sean offers to pay for tutoring, and Leigh Anne wants to start a foundation to help other athletes. Michael plays well in college, continuing to draw honors and attention. 

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• Essay on Cinema

The Blind Side Essay Samples

Type of paper: Essay

Topic: Cinema , Movies , Michael , Communication , People , Behaviour , Literature , Belief

Published: 11/03/2020

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“The Blind Side” is an excellent movie that shows story of a black boy. The movie is directed by John L. Hancock, and was released in the year 2009. The movie is primarily based on the real life of Michael Oher and also portrays sports and drama significantly. The movie portrays a real life story in a realistic manner. Audiences feel very familiar with the story while watching the movie. The movie shows viewers that embracing the blind side can also be very good time. This paper proposes to discuss the first impression of lead characters that they had about each other and further analyses how that impression is changed throughout the movie. In the movie, Michael Oher is an offensive football player in Baltimore Ravens. The movie starts with the opening scene when Joe Theismann was sacked by the Taylor and Michael decided to follow the footsteps of Taylor. Michael decides to become a professional football player. The movie shows how Michael adoption by Tuohy family helped him in achieving his dream of becoming a football player. The two leading characters, shown in the movie, are Leigh Anne Tuohy, played by Sandra Bullock and Michael, played by Quinton Aaron (Aaron, Quinton and Bullock, Sandra). The first interaction between two characters occurred when Anne sees Michael walking on the street in rain, aimlessly looking here and there and shivering due to cold in the night. Anne asks Michael to spend night at her home after she came to know that Michael is going to spend his night outside the school gym. Anne asks Michael to spend thanksgiving holiday when he was quietly leaving her house next morning. In their first meeting, Michael thinks that she is a crazy lady who is inviting a stranger into her home. On the other hand, Anne thinks that Michael is a homeless, poor but good teenager who needs and deserves her help. Certainly the first impression that both characters had on each other was governed by the beliefs, perceptions, values, experiences, and attitude. Anne is a wealthy white woman while Michael is a young black boy. Presence of a strange black boy in Anne’s society was not less than peculiar. Michael was unable to understand why Anne is helping him. The moviemaker suggests that when people communicate and interact first time with any person they have certain perception. They also have some preformed beliefs that are generally associated with race, religion, culture, economic background, gender and lifestyle. The same was displayed in the movie. Anne Tuohy, being a wealthy white woman, should not have invited Michael in her house. The movie describes the importance of human behaviour and communication. It suggests how communication and interaction affects the behaviour of human beings in significant manner. When people do not know each other, they have certain reservations about them. These reservations may be positive or negative but they are clear only when people interact and communicate with each other. Communication among people helps each party to understand their behaviour, attitude towards different things, their feelings about different races, religions and other demographical characteristics. The movie is an excellent example that shows how relationships change due to communications between people. In the movie, both lead characters had impression about each other that change throughout the movie. Communication between Anne and Michael helped them in understanding each other’s feelings and their attitude towards life. It also changed the way they used to think, their aspirations and what they want to achieve. Anne extends all her support to Michael and he soon becomes a member of her family when Anne adopted him. The movie portrayed the importance of communication in a realistic way. Two people, who were not only strangers but also belonged to different races, became very close due to communication and interaction between them. When Anne Tuohy comes to know about life and sufferings of Michael, she develops a sense of compassion for him. A number of things work as uncertainty reduction strategy in the movie. All these factors including the emotions, sympathy, circumstances, behaviour and humanity play significant role in the changing perceptions of the leading characters of the movie. Usually there are a lot of misconceptions about black people among whites and such perceptions create a gap between these two communities. However, when people of these two communities interact with each other and come to know about them, their negative perception changed considerably. Considering various aspects of the movie, characters and their behaviour, it can be concluded that the movie presents the story in a well organised manner. The movie scores well in every aspect of film making on the basis of story, acting and messages. Certain ideas and basic traits of human behaviour, that affect human life, are portrayed in a realistic manner. The film provides a good opportunity for people who are interested in studying the communication. Due to its realistic portrayal, the movie has an emotional appeal on audiences and gives some significant messages to them.

The Blind Side. Dir. John Lee Hancock. Aaron, Quinton and Bullock, Sandra. 2009.

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Home / Essay Samples / Entertainment / The Blind Side / Film Reaction Paper: The Blind Side

Film Reaction Paper: The Blind Side

• Category: Sports , Social Issues , Entertainment
• Topic: Football , Social Problems , The Blind Side

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