“Beasts of the Southern Wild” is a film that the focuses on the Louisiana levee as a barrier between two completely different ways of living. Benh Zeitlin uses the community of The Bathtub to shine a different light on poverty. He discusses the idea that not all people share the belief that the higher your quality of life is, the happier you are. In fact, the people of The Bathtub do not have a linear view of socioeconomic circumstance at all.
Zeitlin uses the title of the film to highlight the resemblance between the residents of The Bathtub and the creatures living in the wild. The title, “Beasts of the Southern Wild,” sounds like it could be the title of a wildlife documentary. This is fitting because the people living on the island of The Bathtub are the beasts of the southern wild. The Bathtub is an unrefined community where alcoholism, poverty, and wildlife run rampant. From the very beginning of the movie, the characters and their lifestyles are portrayed as very rough and animalistic. It is immediately apparent that Hushpuppy, the six
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This is similar to their view on gender. It is crucial to Wink that Hushpuppy learns how to be tough and masculine. He has always wanted to protect her and he directly associates masculinity with survival. He stresses that there is no “girl stuff” or crying allowed, and he speaks to her as if she were a little boy. Throughout the movie she really starts developing these traits. It is obvious that she is determined to impress her father. She proudly announces that she can “burp like a man” and works hard to learn how to survive on her own. She also stands on a table piled with crab showing off her muscles after she successfully cracks the shell while everybody chants “Beast it!” All of these instances support Zeitlin’s idea that identity barriers lose their meaning when your life is completely focussed on