Trading Places Sociology

521 Words3 Pages
It’s been over thirty-one years since Trading Places was made, and it can still be seen playing on cable channels. Trading Places will probably be remembered as one of the greatest comedies ever produced. Trading Places is a movie about the difference between the rich and poor people in American society. The main characters are Louis Winthorpe III, ,played by Dan Aykroyd, who is rich, and Billy Ray Valentine an African American who is poor, played by Eddie Murphy. Billy Ray is known for using tricks to make money while Louis a respected, educated, with lots of money. Louis works the firm of Duke and Duke whose owners are brothers. The brothers begin a discussion over whether its person heredity or their environment that makes them successful. These two brothers enter in to a bet to decide the outcome of their discussion. When Louis and Billy bump into each other, Louis automatically assumes Billy is trying to rob him, therefore has him arrested. The brothers devise a plan to make Louis be shunned by everyone he know, lose his job, and his home, and then give his job to Billy Ray. The two different social cultures that are portrayed in the film is the upper-class white man and the African American poverty class, create a cultural conflict when Louis and Billy Ray trade living conditions.…show more content…
On the other hand Billy Ray goes from a person with basically nothing to have everything, money and respect. These changes cause many conflicts as they learn how to exist in their new lives. During the movie Billy Ray is living in a huge expensive house, but he became uncomfortable when he found cigarette butts on the floor. Louis was experiencing the same thing as he was trying to sell his expensive watch, but had to end up getting only fifty dollars for
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