Get Out is a horror movie directed by Jordan Peele, that came out in February of 2017. This movie addresses racism in our current world and attempts to give white people an understanding of how racism feels. Peele uses a lot of different symbolism and parallels throughout the movie to tie in his connection to racism.
One of the first big symbols we see is the deer that gets hit by the protagonist car on their way to his girlfriends house. This is the first negative thing that happens in the movie, and is a great introduction to the multi symbolic deer. The deer and the protagonist are seen as parallels of each other multiple times throughout the movie. They are both innocent beings that are taken control of. Near the end of the movie while the protagonist is locked up in the basement we see him stare at a deer head that is mounted in the wall. This ties in another parallel between the two by showing both as a trophy. Deer heads are usually stuffed and hung in a house as trophy and to prove dominance. The protagonist is also seen as a trophy as his body is taken control of by the white family.
This movie is heavily influenced by the movie the Stepford Wives directed by Bryan Forbes, released in 1975. This movie is almost an exact parallel of Get Out in the way that it addresses the suppression of minorities. The Stepford Wives is about the struggle of wives in mothers and the pressures and confinement’s put in them. The protagonist have very similar love styles of being a photographer which symbolizes original perspectives and a free mind. The Stepford Wives also evokes the characters To dolls and robots while Get Out shows slaves.
Slavery itself is a big symbol shown in Get Out. The body transplants that are performed symbolizes slavery and how the whites used African Americans for their bodies and physical labor and strength while still being able to keep control of them.
Get Out’s main purpose was to challenge the idea of the white savior. Peele’s subtle hints throughout the movie show us that he believes that racism both conscious and unconscious need to be addressed. Peele is challenging the idea that white people are unconsciously racist and that that action should not be taken offensive in any way. Peele thinks that their is no innocence when in comes to racism and every person is responsible for their behaviors because of the emotional effects and tolls it can unknowingly have on someone.
In the begging of the movie it is commonly thought that the protagonist is over thinking or is overly paranoid about racism and what others will think of him. Peele’s ability to take tangible fears and turn them into an exaggerated villain or monster figures gives the white audience the ability to connect with the uncomfortable or scary feeling being ostracized can give someone. This debunks our original thought of the protagonist being overly conscious about the situation and shows to the audience that even the most paranoid are still unable to escape this tragic event. This enforces the idea of being causally aware as a good thing.
Lastly, near the end of the movie we can see the symbol of slavery being inverted to be used as a tool to escape. When the protagonist is continually be hypnotized by the noise of a tea cup he is able to pick out the cotton of the chair he is sitting in and put it in his ears in order to be unable to be hypnotized. This has a direct connection to the slave trade and how African American slaves were often used to pick cotton. When the protagonist was able to be free of the chair he was in he took the deer head off the wall and used the antlers to kill the father of the family. This shows us how the suppression and control symbol is directly used against the family in order to escape. We can see the protagonist multiple times in his final escape use his racist past in order to escape. He essentially uses the family’s own weapons against them.
Although this is not nearly all the symbols and true meanings to Get Out, these few have to be some of the most prominent and important to the movie. This movie is packed full with meaning and everything is done with intention. I admire the director to be able to achieve this amount of significance in a movie while expressing a topic that needs more attention.
One of the first big symbols we see is the deer that gets hit by the protagonist car on their way to his girlfriends house. This is the first negative thing that happens in the movie, and is a great introduction to the multi symbolic deer. The deer and the protagonist are seen as parallels of each other multiple times throughout the movie. They are both innocent beings that are taken control of. Near the end of the movie while the protagonist is locked up in the basement we see him stare at a deer head that is mounted in the wall. This ties in another parallel between the two by showing both as a trophy. Deer heads are usually stuffed and hung in a house as trophy and to prove dominance. The protagonist is also seen as a trophy as his body is taken control of by the white family.
This movie is heavily influenced by the movie the Stepford Wives directed by Bryan Forbes, released in 1975. This movie is almost an exact parallel of Get Out in the way that it addresses the suppression of minorities. The Stepford Wives is about the struggle of wives in mothers and the pressures and confinement’s put in them. The protagonist have very similar love styles of being a photographer which symbolizes original perspectives and a free mind. The Stepford Wives also evokes the characters To dolls and robots while Get Out shows slaves.
Slavery itself is a big symbol shown in Get Out. The body transplants that are performed symbolizes slavery and how the whites used African Americans for their bodies and physical labor and strength while still being able to keep control of them.
Get Out’s main purpose was to challenge the idea of the white savior. Peele’s subtle hints throughout the movie show us that he believes that racism both conscious and unconscious need to be addressed. Peele is challenging the idea that white people are unconsciously racist and that that action should not be taken offensive in any way. Peele thinks that their is no innocence when in comes to racism and every person is responsible for their behaviors because of the emotional effects and tolls it can unknowingly have on someone.
In the begging of the movie it is commonly thought that the protagonist is over thinking or is overly paranoid about racism and what others will think of him. Peele’s ability to take tangible fears and turn them into an exaggerated villain or monster figures gives the white audience the ability to connect with the uncomfortable or scary feeling being ostracized can give someone. This debunks our original thought of the protagonist being overly conscious about the situation and shows to the audience that even the most paranoid are still unable to escape this tragic event. This enforces the idea of being causally aware as a good thing.
Lastly, near the end of the movie we can see the symbol of slavery being inverted to be used as a tool to escape. When the protagonist is continually be hypnotized by the noise of a tea cup he is able to pick out the cotton of the chair he is sitting in and put it in his ears in order to be unable to be hypnotized. This has a direct connection to the slave trade and how African American slaves were often used to pick cotton. When the protagonist was able to be free of the chair he was in he took the deer head off the wall and used the antlers to kill the father of the family. This shows us how the suppression and control symbol is directly used against the family in order to escape. We can see the protagonist multiple times in his final escape use his racist past in order to escape. He essentially uses the family’s own weapons against them.
Although this is not nearly all the symbols and true meanings to Get Out, these few have to be some of the most prominent and important to the movie. This movie is packed full with meaning and everything is done with intention. I admire the director to be able to achieve this amount of significance in a movie while expressing a topic that needs more attention.
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