Stereotypes In Doctor Strange

Discuss the portrayal of 2 secondary / supplementary characters considered good / harmless / neutral in the film, and explain their impact on the main character? The choices that Doctor Strange makes throughout the movie are greatly influenced by the presence of America Chavez and Christine Palmer. Their portrayal and impact on Strange and his decisions can be best analyzed through the feminist lens. America is first introduced as a confused child cursed with a gift that she can not control. When she and Strange first meet, America is attacked by a large creature and requires Strange’s assistance to help save her. This heroic act plays upon the literary stereotype that a young woman in danger needs to be saved by a powerful man. America fits

Despite her potential for power, she is portrayed as “the good girl” for most of the film, opting to flee from the problem rather than face it herself. Strange sees her as an innocent girl as the victim of an unwarranted attack, which leads him to adopt the traditional male roles in order to protect her. On the other hand, the Christine Palmer in the latter half of the film is shown to contradict these stereotypes. She has made a living for herself as “a senior fellow with the Baxter Foundation, and [she] specializes in Multiversal research”(Raimi, 2022). Christine has worked her way to being a very established doctor working with the elites of the 838-universe, a position of power that is not typically held by a woman. Even Strange is impressed by her role, his assumption that she will be a liability is quickly disproven as she presents herself as extremely knowledgeable in both the magical arts and multiversal travel. During the dream walk sequence, Christine is left alone to fight off the “souls of the damned”. She takes on a masculine role, being strong and protective of Strange when he is at his most vulnerable. These bold actions are what ultimately convinces Strange to move on without her, trusting that she can care for herself. Although Christine’s and America’s characters

Given the extensive amount of timelines visited, the existence of technoculture and its impacts are evident in the societies that Strange and America visit. They stumble across Memory Lane, a device that “replays your significant memories, now at a discounted price. We remember so you don’t forget” (Raimi, 2022). Strange is pulled back to a time when he and Christine were with one another, before his accident and before he became busy with saving the world. For America, the device takes her back to a time she was happy with her moms, before being lost to the multiverse. Both scenes allowed the protagonists to take a pleasant detour to their journeys, but having a powerful device so publically accessible could prove dangerous. It exposes the past to the user’s present self, to relive happier moments of a better time. The possibility for addiction and paranoia using technology that is found in this universe is clear, the often negative impacts of technology can be overwhelming. To be able to recreate settings that are familiar to the user, a core memory that is meant to evoke a specific emotion, one could live their entire lives out of the machine and possibly others littered around the multiverse. With such an expansive world to explore, there is a strong possibility of more postmodernist societies that have been