The Blind Side, Essay Example

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.