Powerpoint presentation by Hayden, Ollie and Michael on the representation of working class in Love + Hate (Dominic Savage, 2005)

2. Representation of working class,
English family http://www.youtube.com/wa
Characters
 Derek (Michelle’s Dad)
In the film Derek is represented as a working class father, who
works a manual labour job in a factory to support his family. He
works with Naseema’s father, and often has racist digs, for
example he suggests that Naseema’s brother is in an arranged
marriage.
He seems a tolerant character, but is more misunderstood
than racist. It takes Youssef to sleep with Michelle for his “inner
racist” to come out

3. Representation of working class,
English family http://www.youtube.com
Characters
 Shane (Adam’s brother)
In the film, Shane is shown as a bully, with
very extremist views. In the film we see him in
the pub, and part of the group that smashes
the window, and attacks Naseema’s elderly
father. In this scene, we see him throw his
friend out of the “group” because he doesn’t
agree with his views.

4. Representation of working class,
English family
Characters http://www.youtube.com/
 Tracy (Adam’s Mom)
Tracy is represented as a tough working class
mother, with racist views on asian citizens. In
the clips she says: “I wouldn’t mind if they
lived in their own country”. She works in a
tanning shop. In the film, there is a scene
where her sons attack an Asian newsagent
and she reacts by laughing.

5. Representation of working class,
English family
Characters http://www.youtube.com/wat
 Adam
Adam is one of the main characters in the film.
He comes from a working class background,
but his views are very different to his families.
He resents his mother and brothers attitude
towards Asian people.

6. In Love + Hate, Adam and his family are portrayed as a working class family.
Throughout the film, we get to see certain clip of his family life and what he does
out side of work.
We see how Adam and his family appear to be fairly well-off and appear to work hard for
what they have. In reality we know that Adam works at a wallpaper store, his mother
works at a tanning booth, and his brother works somewhere he needs to wear a suit for.
This appearance makes the family seem appear to have a comfortable life-style and so
you should imagine that they are well respected and respectable.
Although Adam’s family is technically ‘working class’, they live quite a leisurely lifestyle
and have luxuries that others don’t. In the shot above, Adam and his brother are just
lounging around on comfy looking sofas watching TV. This suggests that they have
decent lives but are still filled with hate which is taken out on other races.

7. The main group of friends Adam has are dominated by racists and look down on those
who are even associated with Pakistanis.
We also get to see how they get along in their social life. There is a scene
where the boys are in the pub having a good time. This shows that like
working class citizens, they enjoy going to have a drink and relax after work.
However once again, the scene is dominated by Adam and his brother with
their racism, and how they kick out one of their friends because he doesn’t
agree with their opinions.

8. The mother of the family is concerned that Adam and his brother will get caught for
bricking the shop but just laughs at the situation, indicating she is also prejudiced
towards Pakistanis.
However, throughout the film are given examples of how racist the family are towards
Asian people. There is one scene in the film concerning the mother and the two sons,
where they confess to throwing a brick into an Asians shop window. At this point, a
normal working class family would be disgraced at such an idea of vandalism. However,
in this family, the mother is more concerned about if they got caught on CCTV in the
company car, as opposed to being disappointed in what her sons have done.

9. Summary
 We see that these various characters have
different view on race etc, but at the end
of the day, they are a normal family and
function in an everyday environment. So
they both do and don’t represent the
working class.