The Social Psychological Analysis of the Blind Side

The blind side depicts the story of Michael Oher, a homeless black teen, who has drifted in and out of the school system for years. Then, along comes Leigh Anne Tuohy and her husband, Sean taking him in. The Tuohy’s ultimately become Michael's legal guardians, changing both their life’s. Michael's remarkable size and protective instincts make him an intimidating force on the grid, and with help from his new family and enthusiastic tutor, he comprehends his potential as a student and football player.

Michael was raised in an urban housing development with his mother Denise Oher in Memphis, Tennessee appropriately named "Hurt Village," Hurt Village is a run-down federal housing project in Memphis. His story begins with his being homeless and coming from a broken home with a drug abusing mother, and an absentee father. Because of his family environment, Family Services steps in and take control of his life as he was growing up. Unfortunately, he was then pushed from foster home to foster homes, and now as a teenager he finds himself rejected by the family he has been living with. By a stroke of chance, and a coach's wish for a player the size of Michael, he ends up being enrolled in a private Christian school where the Tuohy kids go.

Michael is a quiet person. He is shown to have a childlike personality, because he tries to play with kindergarten children who rejects or ignore him. Michael is befriended by S.J. Tuohy, the youngest Tuohy, whose connection to Michael starts the ball rolling.

The film depicts the struggle of a Black man becoming a part of the White society. Michael's Ohers story begins with him being displaced and coming from a broken home with a drug abusing mother, and an absentee father. Family is a big theme to this film. Often, the character shows the affection and love to the family and this is a story of a person changing through the love of a family. The Tuohy family shows us that Family is not defined by the blood in your veins but by the love in your heart by how they treat Michael. Even though the Tuohy Family is not his biological family Mike still love them unconditionally, and he was trying to fit in by stepping in their footsteps by attending the same college with the Tuohy family by his own will.

Michael Oher displays the audience how a black man experiences maltreatment and discrimination from his white community which is the common trend of American mainstream. For many years, Michael has lived with different foster families, but always ends up leaving them. He feels that he does not belong because of the different family situations, status, and lifestyle. However, Michael is not simply a common individual, he has a distinctive character that leads him to recognition. The film tries to prompt the situation that happens when a Black American becomes part of a White American family. The struggle of the story is, "Will Michael is will he be suitable for his newly establish home?"

The Blind Side dramatizes “The Culture of Poverty Theory” so as to provoke emotion as well. Inconsequentiality to the Type-A, powerful, confident upper-class white woman, we are shown Michael’s mother, who is insensitively an objectively pure stereotype of a poor low class single black mothers. According to the film, she has a dozen children, and whenever she is cited, she is depicted as a drug abuser. In contrast to the white mother who defies stereotypes and employs her individuality by going in contradiction of what her friends expect of her, the black mother is a stereotype. Although the film tries impassively to criticize some of Leigh Anne’s friends for thinking Leigh Anne’s decision to help Michael was not sensible, it still puts the focus on Leigh Anne.

This is what happened to Michael. He faced discrimination inside his classroom. Even his teacher exhibits the differences of how a White teacher interacts with a Black student like him. It is a method of stereotype that the media continues to express towards its audience. But then, Michael is a successful black person gaining sympathy among the white students, who then can verify their own color-blindness, but only insofar as they indirectly distance successful black characters whom they like from blackness as a whole.

In The Blind Side, the social-conflict approach fits extremely good. For example, society is a system of social inequalities based on class and race. It functions to benefit some classes of people and harm others. Everybody shown in the movie who has a powerful status is White Caucasian (except for the NCAA officer, though she was in the larger city). Moreover, powerful people all tend to be wealthy, such as the Tuohy's. The plain contrast between power among races is seen when one compares the Tuohy's and Michael's mother. We are able to see both the extreme wealth of some and the severe poverty of others. In this circumstance, the wealthy are rich, and the poor are predominantly minorities.

Therefore, conflicts do happen when the powerful try to exert their prosperity over the poor. Change isn't covered in this movie but was hypothetically happening at the time. The film describes the struggle within Michael Oher. It shows about the progress from an introverted, unwelcome, unlovable and doesn’t believe there is any good left inside of him to a successful person who is confident, resilient and affectionate person. The story tells us about Michael Oher who has overcome his battle.

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