Jungle Fever Analysis

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Spike Lee defines "jungle fever" as sexual attraction between members of two races. In his film Jungle Fever, he examines the repercussions of an interracial affair upon two very distinct communities. Wesley Snipes is Flipper, a happily married and successful architect, and Annabella Sciorra is Angie, an office temp. When she starts working in Flipper's Manhattan office, one day they look at each other and are soon having sex over a blueprint-strewn desk. Their liaison causes an explosion on both homefronts. Flipper's family consists of his father Doctor Purify (Ossie Davis), a former preacher; his mother Lucinda (Ruby Dee); his violent, crackhead brother Gator (Samuel L. Jackson); and his wife Drew (Lonette McKee), whom he loves, despite his…show more content…
Low self-esteem not only influences dangerous activities such as alcohol consumption and domestic abuse, but also causes negative emotional reactions such as depression and shyness. Increasing the patient’s self-esteem seems a logical solution. However, Leary disagrees with this hypothesis. He argues that self-esteem merely measures and evaluates social interaction. He calls self-esteem, "the sociometer model." Poor interaction symptoms result from a person’s fear of societal rejection. According to Leary, increasing the person’s sense of belonging to a social group solves the problem. The group need not regard the person highly, they must simply include the person. Once this occurs, the patient’s symptoms begin to disappear and his self-esteem…show more content…
Why? Well, Spike did only consider the perspective that interracial couples are about curiousity. Sciorra didn't see the character this way. She felt her character was genuinely attracted to this man, not because she was "curious" about his race or some racial stereotypes but because he was smart, professional, attractive, etc. Spike Lee fought her on this--which adds to my opinion that he has a very negative and limited view on this issue. This is all I can think of about Jungle Fever for now. If you have any opinions about this, or other films representing interracial romance please share! "Jungle Fever," Spike Lee's new film, opens with a still photograph of Yusuf K. Hawkins, the black teen-ager killed by a white mob in the Bensonhurst section of Brooklyn two summers ago. But if the screen had remained blank, the memory of that murder would have suffused "Jungle Fever" just as palpably, for it explores the nexus of race, sex and place that in one instance cost a 16-year-old innocent his life and in a broader historical scheme has tormented America for centuries. After touching these issues to both serious and comic effect in his earlier work, Mr. Lee with this latest film has driven to their
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