Film, television and other forms of media are often seen primarily as entertainment with little relevance to real life situations, but I have always found these media to be a reflection and analysis of important issues . The story of a working-class protagonist who enters an elite college prep school on a scholarship and faces the attitudes of upper-class students, is common in Hollywood films. School Ties and Finding Forrester both tell these stories from the point of view of the working-class student who earned his place through hard work and dedication to academic excellence. David Greene and Jamal Wallace are both sympathetic characters who face opposition in their school environments. They are also both minority characters in a predominantly white upper-class Christian culture: David is Jewish and Jamal is black. David and Jamal represent the ideal heroes of a meritocracy. Their positions are earned through their individual abilities, not having been born into wealth and privilege. Both must overcome adversity, in the form of antagonists who do not respect them due to their status as a working-class minority. These stories reinforce a narrative that anyone can break into the upper class through hard work and dedication, and therefore fosters meritocracy. The Three Miles podcast, however, presents a counter-narrative that challenges Hollywood's portrayal of the working-class student at the elite school and examines the reality that these types of students face. Melanie and Jonathan, both teenagers from the Bronx, participate in an exchange program that allows students from a poor public school to visit an elite private school located just three miles away. Both boys face challenges when confronted with the stark differences between their lives and those of private school students. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on "Why Violent Video Games Shouldn't Be Banned"? Get an Original Essay In Finding Forrester, Jamal Wallace is a black teenager who is invited to attend a prestigious prep school based on his athletic and academic abilities. Jamal faces adversity in the form of Crawford, a teacher who doubts his abilities and assumes he is plagiarizing his essays. Crawford's stereotype of Jamal as unworthy and unwilling to adhere to the rules of academia is consistent with common racist stereotypes that black men are "criminals" and of lower intelligence. Finding Forrester is an example of Hollywood's attempt to provide a counter-narrative that tells the story of a black teenager who overcomes adversity and succeeds on his own merits. In School Ties, David Greene is a famous football player in his senior year at St. Matthew's. . He is there on a scholarship for his athletic ability and comes from a working-class Jewish family. His classmates are extremely anti-Semitic and he goes from being universally well-liked to being socially marginalized and harassed. Students who find themselves there based on their families' wealth have a collective negative response to David's religious background, which reinforces the narrative that wealthy people are often morally undeserving of their opportunities and can be cruel and prejudiced. However, David perseveres despite their prejudices and manages to succeed academically while his main tormentor, Charlie, is defeated and exposed as a fraud by the end of the film. In “Hollywood Goes to High School,” Robert Bulman argues that through thisnarration, “Hollywood is expressing another middle-class fantasy: that deserving individuals can enter the upper class and that the undeserving rich will suffer the consequences of their unethical behavior. ” (Bulman, 2015, p. 121). Bulman is clear in defining this Hollywood narrative as a “fantasy,” and this fantasy is marketed towards middle-class people who still hold out hope of achieving upward mobility. This hope is what keeps middle class audiences consuming media like School Ties, where the hero is relatable and the villains are rich and privileged, people they would normally be jealous of However, this narrative is also problematic because it still glorifies the elite and upper class brand of success as the highest level of success and as accessible to anyone who is intelligent, morally upright and a hard worker. This elite definition of success is, of course, not the only way to be successful and is often inaccessible to working class people who, despite working hard, do not have the opportunities or resources to achieve this level of upward mobility glorification of this The narrative of meritocracy indirectly leads students to believe that if they have not achieved the level of success elite, such as getting into a top university, they have no hope of any kind of success and are condemned to a minimum wage job and a working-class lifestyle for the rest of their lives. This is evident in Melanie, the Bronx woman protagonist of Three Miles who ran away from high school after failing to receive a coveted full scholarship to Middlebury College. Melanie was an exceptional student who did well in school; because of this, she and the teachers and counselors around her believed in a meritocratic system that would give her a full scholarship to a top college because she deserved it. However, when she didn't receive the scholarship, Melanie was so deeply disappointed that she completely gave up on the idea of ​​college and the belief that she could ever escape her life in the Bronx. Melanie's story resonated with me because of the clear influence Hollywood's meritocratic narrative had on her expectations for scholarship. He believed that Middlebury, an elite college, was his only hope of escape; later, when interviewed for Three Miles, she reflects and acknowledges that if she had reached out, things might have been different. She didn't reach out because she was disillusioned and believed nothing would change. This sense of helplessness is addressed in “Why the Myth of Meritocracy Hurts Kids of Color,” in which Melinda Anderson examines the effect that a cultural belief in meritocracy will have on kids who are victims of systemic discrimination. Anderson argues that “for those who are marginalized by the system – economically, racially, and ethnically – believing that the system is just puts them in conflict with themselves and can have negative consequences” (Anderson, 2017). Just as members of the privileged classes cling to meritocracy to believe that they have achieved their position through hard work, disadvantaged members of society are forced to believe that their position is due to their innate inferiority. People will use stereotypes to cast kids from urban working-class neighborhoods as criminals, which will lead these kids to engage in criminal activity because they believe the same system that perpetuates these stereotypes is also “fair” and meritocratic. Please note: this is just an example. Get a custom article from our expert writers now. Get a Custom Essay Overall, I think movies like School Ties and Alla, 38(3), 1040-1074.