Shawshank Redemption and Full Metal Jacket Sociology

We watched two movies to learn about socialization in real life situations. We learned a few terms also. Total institution meaning a setting in which people are isolated from the rest of society and controlled by an administrative staff. Resocialization, which is the learning of new norms and values. Desocialization, which is the unlearning of previous norms and values. Anticipatory socialization is social learning that prepares us for the roles we are likely to assume in the future. The two movies that we watched, Shawshank Redemption and Full Metal Jacket, had many socialization examples throughout the movie.

Shawshank Prison a total institution is the rigorous schedules the inmates are demanded to abide by, such as when you eat, sleep, go to the bathroom, and read a book. The day that the new inmates came to Shawshank, Hadley the guard told them that they use the bathroom when they are told to and eat when they are told to. The boot camp in Full Metal Jacket was a total institution because the cadets had to go to sleep when the drill sergeant said lights out.

Desocialization occurred in Shawshank because when the inmates first came to Shawshank they had to strip, be cleaned, deloused and given a new set of clothes that looked exactly like the other inmate's clothes. Taking away the street clothes and giving them a uniform is like giving them a new identity. It takes away from their social norms. As in the movie Full Metal Jacket when the cadets had to get their hair shaved and given a new set of clothes. They made all the cadets look the same and it strips them of their former identity.