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In "The Descendants," Matt King undergoes some significant changes. Describe these
and, with reference to 2 other course texts, discuss what these were and whether or not they were
beneficial to him and those he interacted with, especially his daughters, his relatives, and the
environment.
Change can be a social phenomenon that might be loved by many and hated by few.
Change scares individuals yet embarks on new journeys and fresh starts. The question lies within
the movie and text: do you like significant change? In the movie The Descendants, Matt King
undergoes many changes and crucial decisions he had to make after the death of his wife,
Elizabeth. Change that endures after passing can be challenging and draining. One's mental and
physical health can be detrimental, and grieving periods vary by person. However, as the saying
goes, life must go on. Humans are required to pick up where they left off and move forward.
Whether small or large, it is changed that keep us moving forward. Without the steps in a new
direction, humans would be at a standstill. Nothing would improve, and everyone suffers because
of it.
Even inner or outer personal changes are reasonable. With the improvement of oneself,
that person can inspire more people to change themselves for the better. I am someone that likes
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to think that everyone has an impact and how you can make that impact is through self-
improvement that catches onto others. Change is good or bad either way; the choice is yours
depends on the change you're talking about. Change in your pocket in a piggy bank, change
clothes, change the channel change on the floor. Change is the movement of the world.
An example is when King dealt with many problems after his loss, which ultimately led
to his recovery and taught him the overall perception of appreciation. The author enables readers
to have an insight into Matt King's problems. Two additional texts referenced are Their Eyes
Were Watching God by Zora Neale Hurston and The reproduction of mothering by Nancy
Chodorow. These texts will therefore give a deeper insight into the piece and help better
understand the message behind it. The concept of change is projected in the movie and kinds of
literature.
3. What were the significant changes Matt King underwent (how did they alter him/make
Children are notoriously emotional, especially during their adolescence, and they are
emotionally unstable. It can be challenging to understand them and, at times, even more
challenging to assist them. Your caregiving style must correspond to how the child should be
treated. The movie The Descendants introduces Matt King as a married father of two daughters,
Alexandra King, 17 years old, and Scottie King, ten years old, and a husband of Elizabeth, who
lives in Hawaii. Matt prioritizes more on being a businessman than a husband and father, and he
is emotionally unavailable to his family. Throughout the film, Matt is frequently in the dark
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about his daughter's wellbeing. For instance, Matt and Scottie arrive late at night at his daughter
Alexandra's boarding school only to discover that she is not in her residence (The Descendants).
A school council leads him on a hunt through the school, and they track down Alexandra out past
Another example is his younger daughter Scottie, who is defiant and bullies other
students at school, and Matt has no idea about it. (The Descendants). It portrays that Matt is
solely concerned with his job and is unaware of what his children are up to. Elizabeth was
involved in a boating accident that put her in a coma. Matthew spends most of his time at the
hospital, but it is still difficult for him because he and his wife have become strangers due to
Matt's intense focus on his job and the lack of affection he showed Elizabeth. Subsequently, Matt
was informed that his wife would not wake up from her coma and was advised to remove her
from life support. He reluctantly agrees. Matt chooses to bring Alex home from boarding school
to assist him with managing Scottie and the remainder of his family as he lets it be known of his
wife's condition.
Alex was furious and revealed to Matt that Elizabeth had been cheating on him the entire
time and that this was the last argument she had with her mother before leaving for school. To
add to the strain, Matthew's cousins are presently endeavoring to convince him to acknowledge a
proposal for the land left to them by their progenitors, over which Matthew has control. It
portrays that Matt is solely concerned with his job and is unaware of what his children are up to.
Elizabeth was involved in a boating accident that put her in a coma. Matthew spends most of his
time at the hospital, but it is still difficult for him because he and his wife have become strangers
due to Matt's intense focus on his job and the lack of affection he showed Elizabeth.
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Subsequently, Matt was informed that his wife would not wake up from her coma and was
Sympathy and empathy are words or terms with different but very important distinctions.
Sympathy often comes from empathy but goes ahead and adds a concern about other people and
the need to help them. Empathy can be the capacity to understand what another person is feeling.
And so the lessons of the economic meltdown or hurricane Katrina may even not be what most
of us think we as humans, as the writer states, we are not selfish. Nadia did tame a primate that
she named him Yoni; most of her diaries chart his growth and development, not forgetting the
emotion for sympathizing with others. Robert Yerkes, the founder of the Yerkes Primate Center,
where Frans carries out his research, had once visited Nadia in Russia to discuss issues involving
emotion in animals. Being empathetic can be challenging, but we all should always try to be
Due to De Waals’s effective use of the stylistic devices of rhetoric in his showing of
sympathy, it’s easy for us to understand his work and respect him. His work is not only limited to
academicians but also unlearned as he tries to reach all his audiences. Meaning that his messages
are intended more on the society rather than individuals. Sympathy is known to always come
from empathy; we are told that it goes further and includes the concern of other people and an
urge to improve their issues. In the world, we all believe that humankind is evil. We have a
common belief that everyone is evil, and they would do anything so long as it helped their course
or even if it means others being hurt by our success. but recent events such as the holocaust have
The book connects to the movie "the descendants, whereby the writers and movie
directors both worked hard to develop empathy and trust in our society. Matts's wife is cheating
on him, which clearly shows us that it deals with trust, and also, there exist instances of marriage
where one marries. There are also conflicts in the story. While in the book “the age of empathy,”
compassion and empathy have been linked with reconciliation processes in society.
The novel does talk about different traditional roles among the people. It talks about the
men and the women. a woman by the Nanny who has a daughter Janie tells or instead wants her
daughter to get married to a man who will protect her and not the one she loves. Janie’s marriage
life isn’t that good as her first two husbands do not want her to talk in the house. Her sound
should not be heard. In this book, we see men viewing females or women as objects that can be
acquired. they manipulate women too. As if that’s not enough, we are made to understand that
the mule, which is an animal, does represent female beings. That same analogy of the mule is
continuously mentioned in the book and mainly used to describe the women. (Hurston n.p.).
Janie is an American black woman who is in her forties. She follows her life beginning
wither a sexual urge. During the time, she did allow another man, who was a boy kiss him, which
was witnessed by her grandmother. We are told that due to her being black, she was raped by a
white man when she was young, leading to the birth of her sweet daughter, who she came to
name Leafy. she wanted a better life for her kid to the extent of escaping her jealous mistress, the
leafy child is also raped by her tutor making her pregnant. Immediately after the birth of the child
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In the story, we see Janie achieve her independence. In the book, gender differences
require providing the other things that they need but not those that they have. We also see people
or characters in the book want to possess everything in this world. Characters in this book always
believe that they control their destinies. The character Janie marries faster after reaching
adulthood to fulfill her childhood dream of a perfect union. A hurricane comes and destroys
All three books are connected. This is where we see Matts's wife going into a comma.
Here we can say that we sympathize with their children and the patient. In the book” their eyes
were watching god, we get to sympathize with Janie, who is the main character and cannot
choose her own husband, but it already Has been planned on who will be her husband. In the last
book, which is the age of empathy, we get to see as humans sympathize with animals. the writer
goes on to tell us that due to this, we all believe that empathy does exist. The story in this book
can be connected to Matt’s wife in the movie, the (descendants), who has the freedom and even
has the time to go and look for others for her to cheat. The three items in the two books and the
movie are all family talk, and it is all about. We see also get to talk about how women are
oppressed and the problems they go through before they settle in marriage. A good example is
where Janie is not allowed to talk while her first two husbands are present. She is also told by her
mum that a man has already been promised to marry her. This means that she had no say in her
marriage arrangements.
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Work cited
De Waal, Frans. The age of empathy: Nature's lessons for a kinder society. Broadway Books,
2010. https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=_fWxPwsAAAAJ&hl=en&oi=sra
Hurston, Zora Neale. Their eyes were watching God. Prabhat Prakashan, 2020.
https://books.google.com/books?
hl=en&lr=&id=cmLrDwAAQBAJ&oi=fnd&pg=PP1&dq=Hurston,+Zora+Neale.
+Their+eyes+were+watching+God.+Prabhat+Prakashan,
+2020.+&ots=WtYfciPfSr&sig=CWJ1jYghU9Dk3wLgvgCdYzM37fg
v=IeTUGEG2PF0&list=PLc0D3n856eTEApnLBZY-PQ3KQyu9jA7mg