Driving Miss Daisy to Serious Insights
There are many useful messages in this movie which allow the viewer to seriously consider the realities of the time and place that the movie takes place. In the south at the time portrayed in this film there were many opportunities for messages to be delivered and gleaned. The dichotomy of the black man driving the old Jewish lady allowed for many formidable opportunities for intuitive statements to be made on the prejudicial slant society held at the time. The scene where the police stopped them followed by the one officer commenting on the “Old Nigger and Jew” showed that social standing matters little in the face of pure unabashed bigotry.
Equally, the part where Miss Daisy gives Hoke the primer to help him learn to read rendered a statement that regardless of age, race, or social beliefs that education could and would be the weapon to defeat the ignorance that permeated the general public at the time. This proved especially poignant in the context of Christmas and her seeming break from tradition in giving a gift at that time of year. All in all this film offered numerous and opportunities for the gleaning of serious insights into our society.