Justin Barragan Prof. Madjaroff Aging 100 19 March 2018 Reflection Paper #2 In the film, The Intern, by Nancy Meyers, an older gentleman named Ben, played by Robert De Niro, decides he is bored with retirement. Although Ben has worked his entire career at a phone book company, he feels that he has more to offer in terms of work. He gets a flyer which encourages applying to be an intern via a video message for a senior intern program at an online fashion company. Shockingly he earns an interview and gets the internship. As he arrives for the start of his job, he ironically realizes that the company that he will be interning for is in the same building where he had previously worked for the phone book company. He also discovers that it is …show more content…
Jules depicts the working woman who is trying to juggle her business as well as her personal life. Being a workaholic, she does not have time to nurture either relationship with her own employees or her own family. Offering sage advice and a great sense of humor, Ben provides Jules with way more than she thought she would ever get from an intern. In fact, when Ben first arrives at the company Jules had forgotten she had approved the intern role. Eventually, Jules sees him as more of an asset than a liability to the company. Even other workers at the business start coming to Ben for advice. In fact, Jules also realizes that his wisdom helps her with relationships in her family. Ben helps Jules realize that her business is her life and that she needs to see that no one else but her is responsible for the booming success …show more content…
First is the topic of on the bias of ageism itself. Especially in the area of hiring, the bias against older aged people tends to be strong. The perception is that older people have less energy and may be unable to do a more stressful, demanding job. When Ben is first brought into the company, several employees assume several negative stereotypes. An example includes when Becky constantly made complaints about Ben’s lack of hearing, implying that this must be the result of old age. They also make fun of Ben’s inability to use new technology, relating this to the fact that he is older. The second topic which was also covered in our class would be the idea of life transitions, which all older people go through. As one ages, there is a risk of losing connections to daily life when one retires or loses a spouse or friends to death. At the beginning of the movie, Ben has the risk of losing this connectivity because he has retired from his long-term job at the phone book company. He has also had the funerals of both friends and his wife. However in spite of this, Ben demonstrates our third class topic of positive successful aging. Ben offers a perfect example of how aging well can still have a positive effect on his own life, as well as that of others. Ben appears to proceed through his life experiences with an