American Culture

American Culture

Introduction

David Schwimmer's movie “Trust” focuses on the damaging effects of internet chatting on a family where a teen, aged girl is victimized by an adult who meets her in a chat room, gains her trust as a teenager and trap her into a situation that ends in sex (rape). Annie, a 14, year old girl, grows up in a suburb of Chicago and lives with her parents Will and Lynn. The movie represents a common story of a middleclass family where Annie's parents are very loving but her older brother, Peter, is the center of their attention as Peter is heading off to college. The unidirectional attention of Annie's parents for her brother leaves her alone, which takes her away from the family and she becomes addicted to the internet. She meets a guy who poses himself as a16,year old boy and both continue to chat. After three months of communication, Annie and Charlie meet at a mall where she finds out that her boyfriend is not the one he originally claimed to be. However, Charlie compliments her looks and seduces her with an aim to make her love him. Charlie following his plans takes Annie to a hotel and rapes her.

Attention Getter

After this incident Annie discusses about it with her friend, Brittany, who later tells the school counselor about what happened with Annie. In the movie, it can be seen that school counselor calls the police and FBI started investigation and found that Charlie is also involved in raping three other young girls. Police also asks Annie to help them in tracking Charlie, but he was smart enough and breaks off contact with her after discovering that she is helping police to track him. This incident reverberated through whole family leaving them in a situation of life they never imagined for.

Thesis Statement

Trust is a very important ingredient of all relationships and can be described as both the logical and emotional act.

Discussion

The nature of crisis, as shown in the movie, was not just family, but also more of social. It is logical to understand, that every parent want to raise their children with the knowledge of emerging technologies, whether it is mobile phone or internet. In any case, parents aim to introduce their children with technological innovation (Atkinson, 2008). This was the case of Anne, as it can be seen in the movie that Annie's parents presented her a laptop on her 14th birthday. On the other hand, it is not the laptop but, technology itself and, the sense of loneliness that Annie felt due to her parents' full attention on her brother.

The movie shows that, Annie and her family are the center of crisis as she was not just physically tortured by rape but her mental as well as psychological state was also compromised due the crisis that badly damaged her innocent life. After facing crisis, Annie enters therapy as she was unable to convince herself to admit that she has been victimized by the one she ...