Easy A – Ethical Film Review: Olive's Ethical Development

Ethical Film Review for Easy A

Pick one of the following four options as the foundation for a 1-2page (typed, double-spaced, 1-inch margins) analysis of the film. Be sure to directly reference authors from the course reader to support your analysis. Due Wednesday, April 11th (15% final course grade).

Option One:

Describe Olive's ethical development. What are her ethical strengths and what are her weaknesses? What are some key turning points in her growth? What pitfalls does she fall in to? How does she overcome these pitfalls? What sort of terminology would some of our authors use to answer these questions?

Consider the fact that despite her best intentions (Kant?) and best efforts to resist allowing her peer group to define her, Olive ends up unhappy toward the end of the film. Why? Is the film suggesting that we cannot be the "authors" of our own lives? (What, if anything, might this say about the value and/or limits of moral imagination as a way of freeing us from the confines of an unethical society?)

Support your explanation with reference to authors we have read so far this semester.

Option Two:

Much of ethical theory pertains to our behavior in public life. Things that are deemed "private" are said to be ethically different than public behavior (see Hardwig). Consider the boundaries between public and private as they are developed in the film. In what ways are these boundaries violated or conflated in this story? What are the consequences of this violation? Ultimately, what are your thoughts on the distinction between public and private? Does the public have a legitimate stake in your private business? (Why? To what extent? Why not?)

Include ethical perspectives from our reader and class discussion. (“Compassionists,” Aristotle, Kant, utilitarianism, Bandura, Zimbardo, and Minnich come to mind as strong perspectives to consider.)

Option Three: Analyze Olive's family to…

1.) Use Damon to identify her parents' parenting style and the way they instill values into their daughter.

2.) Evaluate, the effectiveness of their parenting. What, in your opinion, works well? Why? What, if anything, might be more questionable? Why?

Option Four: Analyze Olive's friendships. Who would you say is her "best" friend? What characterizes that relationship? Who is her "worst" friend? What characterizes that relationship? Can you provide some commentary on the nature of friendship (its value and its limits) based on what you observed in the film?

You are encouraged to bring in any authorial perspective that seems appropriate, but especially consider Aristotle's ideas about ethical people needing ethical friends, as well as Hardwig's ideas about close personal relationships.