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English

Instructor

March 21, 2013

Skin: Never Give Up

If the film Skin (2008) revolved around one theme it would be most advantageous to

choose this one: Never Give Up. For Sandra, the protagonist in the movie was destined to come

on the scene in the African Apartheid where white and black and white segregation was

prominent. Time after time Sandra was trying to change the color of her skin, because she was

being looked upon with disdain. For example at (Skin 1h: 44m) she arrives at a white school, but

just a few days later 1h: 32m the principal throws her out of the school. The principal beats her

in front of all of her classmates, shows contempt for her because she cannot read loud enough,

then continues to beat her until he draws blood; finally, he has the audacity to say to Sandra that

is disgusting as he watches the blood he just drew by his beating to fall to the floor. This

incident would have caused most students to give up, (Skin 1h: 32m) but Sandra simply asks the

principal as he and the police officer drive her home to expel her from school what did I do

wrong.

These kinds of reactions by Sandra happen throughout the film. For example, when

Sandra experiences the coldness of the re-classification board that judges her by her looks rather

than her heredity, she take sit in stride. (Skin 1h: 20m) When her Father begins to lose his temper

over the re-classification issue he continues to give Sandra a living example of never give up.

Despite the fact that the classification board still classifies Sandra as a Black the board

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Parliament changes its way it re-classifies persons (Skin 1h: 16m) according to heredity rather

than looks. This is a great moment of triumph for Sandra and the Laings. Things get worse for

Sandra because she dates a white boys (skin 1h: 10m); after another white boy date that tries to

rape her (Skin 1h:03m) she just runs away. She cannot seem to fall in love, but she keeps on

living her life. She finally falls in love with an African man (Skin 59m) and has a baby (Skin

47m). At this point, she is not letting go of love, so she leaves home and goes to live with her

boyfriend (Skin 45). Peters tries to build a home for Sandra and the baby, but at this point, her

Father does not want to see her anymore. Sandra does not give up on her family; she just wants

to be loved, deeper than her skin. (Skin 33m) Mr. Laing tells his wife that if Sandra tries to return

once more, he will kill her and the baby and then himself, (Skin 34m) but later Mr. Laing, on his

deathbed wants to see Sandra again and reconcile with her. (Skin 18m) After she is beat by

Peters (Skin 24m) she leaves with the kids and goes to live in Johannesburg (Skin 17m), but still

wanting to find her Mother and be reconciled (Skin 10m). The closing images are of Sandra and

her Mother holding one another. Sandra never gives up, as her Father taught her and all she

wanted to do was love and be loved, despite being judged by others as something she was not. It

seemed that when she tried to be something she was not to please others; she had to ultimately

accept herself, a white girl with black skin. (Skin 4m) The last image is Sandra opening Sandras

Tuck and the film closes showing she is happy giving her life to others and sharing what she has.

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Works Cited

IMDB. Skin (2008). 19 MARCH 2013.

Fabian, Anthony, dir. Skin. Prod. Anthony Fabian, Writ. Helen Crawley, Jessie Keyt, and Helena

Kriel. 2008. Film. 19 Mar 2013. .

In the film Skin I have indicated from which scene the citations come from in the

following manner: the opening scene starts at 1 hour and 46 minutes (Skin 1h:46m). .

For example (Skin 1h:32m) represents the one hour and thirty-two minutes in the movie.

As the movie progresses there is less of the movie to be seen . This is a chronologcal

listing of citations, from beginning to end.

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