Background:
This semester we’ve been looking at texts that connect their characters to much larger social issues: The writers of these text have the main characters face these issues directly to convey what the writers want us to learn or understand from their texts. However, in The Visitor, writer and director Thomas McCarthy character who experiences the issues surrounding the issues of undocumented immigrants secondhand since he is himself an American citizen. In fact, at first Walter Vale doesn’t even realize the severity of the situation for Tarek because his worldview as a privileged, white, upper-class U.S. citizen has never prepared him to be aware of the situation. Also, because he is still mourning the loss of his wife, Walter has shutdown emotionally. So while this film is in many ways about how Walter is brought out of his self-isolation to become an newly engaged person in the world, through the characters of Tarek, Zainab, and Mouna the film is ultimately making a statement about the treatment of immigrants in the U.S. after the 9/11 terrorist attacks.
Multiple POVs
This prompt is a kind of reversal of the previous: here choose a specific worldview and then look at how at least three of the main characters interact with and understand that same worldview. You can use the same questions above: How does the character react to each of these different worldviews? Why might the character be reacting the way that s/he does? What is at stake for the character while dealing with each of the specific worldviews? Does the character change over the course of the film? If yes, how? Why is the film bringing these characters together and asking us to consider them in this fashion? What is the film ultimately asking us to consider or understand by the end of the film?
