Katie Ralston

Project 1: DVD Analysis

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Sociology Analysis of 500 Days of Summer

The DVD I chose to analyze from a sociological perspective is 500 Days of

Summer, a film by Marc Webb. The film stars Summer (Zooey Dechanel) a young
twenty something who moves from the midwest to Los Angeles where she meets Tom
(Joseph Gordon-Levitt) who falls in love with her. The film is an indie romantic comedy
with a coming of age b-story. Tom studied to be an architect but he writes greeting
cards in an office where he meets Summer. From the first moment Tom sees Summer
he is infatuated with her and believes she is the one. Eventually the company has a
work outing where everyone in the office goes to karaoke. Finally Tom has a chance to
talk to Summer outside of work, they talk about love and relationships. Summer
explains how she believes true love doesnt exist and its just a fantasy. Summer likes to
be free and independent. Tom disagrees, he believes there is such a thing as romantic
love. That night Toms friend drunkenly tells Summer Tom really likes her. The next day
at work Tom and Summer kiss in the copy room. Finally they start dating and having
fun around the city spending a lot of time together. From the beginning Summer is clear
that she doesnt want a boyfriend. Tom reminds himself to take it slow, and that its just
casual fun. He finally builds up the courage to ask Summer what they are doing.
Summer says theyre just having fun, theyre friends. One night at a bar another guy
starts hitting on Summer, laughing at Tom he says, Wow, I cant believe this is your
boyfriend. Tom punches him in the face in the bar. They go back to Summers
apartment, where Summer is obviously upset. From this moment the relationship starts
to go downhill in Summers perspective she tells Tom they are like Sid and Nancy. Sid,
a famous bassist from the Sex Pistols who stabbed his girlfriend, Nancy to death.

Katie Ralston
Project 1: DVD Analysis

Summer says, she is like Sid and Tom is like Nancy. Summer and Tom stop seeing each
other and Summer quits working in the office. Tom becomes super depressed from the
loss of his love. After some time has passed Summer and Tom run into each other at a
friends wedding. Tom still hopes to get Summer back but little does he know she has
already moved on and is engaged. Summer invites him to her engagement party. Tom
wants to be happy and starts applying to jobs to live his dream to become an architect.
He goes on an interview, there he meets Autumn who is also applying for the same
position. Tom invites Autumn to coffee she says yes.
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Emile Durkeim would interrupt 500 Days of Summer from a functionalist view

point. Functionalist view society as a structure and integrated parts created to meet
biological and social needs of the individuals. According to Durkeim, morals, values,
beliefs, and all cultural rules control social life. Perhaps Durkeim would say Summer has
lower morals and values compared to Tom. From the scene where Summer describes
that she doesnt believe in true love, Tom has the opposite values and beliefs on love.
This breaks their cultural structure so Tom and Summer cannot meet each others
biological and social needs individually.
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Karl Marx would use conflict theory to describe how Summer being a woman is in

competition for limited resources. Social structures in place in our society such as
religion, and government automatically place women below men through patriarchy. In
the film, Summer is basically a player towards Tom and ends up married to another
man. Since Summer represents the oppression of the female character she regains
power by using Tom who represents the oppressor (men) in society. Tom is left sad and
alone while Summer moves up in social status by becoming engaged.

Katie Ralston
Project 1: DVD Analysis
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Comte would watch 500 Days of Summer and believe it is a reflection of our

current social life. He would observe the characters while establishing valid knowledge
about how our society is changing through positivism. He would recognize that
Summer represents a new generation of young women who enjoy being single free and
independent.
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There are a couple of paradigms represented in the film. One paradigm is conflict

theory; on a closer analysis, the paradigm that is most represented in the film is
symbolic interaction. Feminist theory is based on conflict theory being that women are
discriminated against because of their gender. In Hollywood most protagonist are male
characters such as Tom. Summer is the girl who is supposed to cheer up Tom and
make everything perfect in his life through love. In the end, Summer makes the final
decision on their relationship. This goes against our social norms and gender
expectations. In our culture symbolic interactionist theory helps to understand the close
relationships of individuals making up society. This is considered a micro level of
sociology analysis that focuses on one-to-one interactions and individuals
communications. Micro levels of analysis examine small scale interactions. Feminist
sociology studies power and its relationship to gender. From a micro level looking at the
interactions between Tom and Summer, the relationship breaks social and gender
expectations. Socially Summer is expected to also fall deeply in love with Tom making
Tom the more powerful character. This kind of love story is what we are used to seeing
from Hollywood. Since Summers character doesnt believe in love, having an exclusive
committed relationship, or monogamy with Tom, she represents how our society is
changing to become more progressive.

Katie Ralston
Project 1: DVD Analysis
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Overall, the major agents of socialization tell us how we should act and be. For

women, we are expected to be submissive and give in to any desire of a man. This
concept is especially present in Hollywood. Rarely ever will the media portray a strong
female character like Summer who not only declares she doesnt want a boyfriend, she
also strings Tom along. The major agents tell us from a young age, there is such thing
as true love and our culture puts the pressure on us to eventually grow up and become
married. Even though Tom uses the dramaturgical approach to try to be what Summer
wants, he cannot win her over.