Platoon: A Sociological Analysis Of Persuasion

Platoon
The first sociological topic to discuss is multiculturalism. In the movie, the platoon is made up of a diverse group of men, they are from different places throughout the country and different races. When I speak of the culture of the blacks and whites within the movie, I am not referring to the culture of Africans embodied in the behaviors of the black men; rather, the black culture within America during the 1960’s. At the beginning of the movie, it shows the platoon marching. The very first thing that stood out to me in this scene was the ethnic grouping, the black men grouped together in the platoon. The next scene that depicted racism within the platoon was when there was a white infantryman digging a trench. Two black men, Hal

I believe that this is best depicted in the scene where the American soldier beats in the skull of the Vietnamese man in front of what appears to be his mother. In this scene, there were two American soldiers in the room with the Vietnamese man and woman trying to communicate with them when another, very agitated and enraged, American solder comes in and starts yelling at the Vietnamese man. This yelling quickly escalates to physical violence when he starts beating the Vietnamese man with the butt of his shotgun. This violence is so extreme and aggressive that the skull of the man eventually breaks open and what is described as his “brains” spread over the ground. The other two American soldiers in the room obviously disagree with what is occurring in front of them. However, at no point during the murder do they make any attempt to stop the enraged soldier from breaking open the head of the Vietnamese man with his

I believe that America has progressed very far away from what is depicted in the movie. I know for a from my experience that racism in the United States is almost nonexistent. Though there are some individuals that might disagree with this statement, for the most part racism is dead. For example, if a Caucasian man were to refer to an African-American man as “boy”, as seen in the movie, it would be very much looked down upon. Perhaps, even met with aggression. I will not deny that racism still happens in small, isolated instances, but; I am instead arguing that American culture looks down upon racism. As far as the relationship between Americans and people living in war-torn countries, I also believe the movie’s depiction to be inaccurate. In the Middle East, our soldiers treat the native population with great respect. If Americans were to set fire to a village in the Middle East, it would not go without a great deal of punishment. Also, execution of innocent civilians would never be