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During the Dirty Dancing story, seventeen-year-old Baby Houseman has to deal with the anger of three older men.
1) Johnny CastleJohnny's acted on his anger violently. whereas Jake and Max acted by asserting their authority as father and boss, respectively.
2) Jake Houseman
3) Max Kellerman
Johnny became angry because of the actual situation, whereas Jake and Max became angry because of mistaken assumptions.
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Johnny
In a previous post, titled Johnny's Initial Hostility Toward Baby, I pointed out that during the movie's first part he expressed hostility and anger when ....
* Baby appeared at the "dirty dancing" party in the bunkhouseOn none of those occasions did Johnny act violently. He asserted his authority, but only briefly and unsuccessfully.
* Robbie sweet-talked Lisa during Penny's demonstration of wigs
* Baby followed Johnny and Billy on their way to the kitchen to help Penny
* Baby asked questions after Penny was brought from the kitchen to the bunkhouse
* Baby offered Penny the money for the abortion.
When Baby became Johnny's dance student, he treated her rather politely. When only two days remained until the Sheldrake performance, however, his anxiety about Baby's inadequate preparation caused him to yell at her and then to violently break a window of his own car.
Later, he became angry at Baby for her hesitation to inform her father about her relationship with Johnny. This anger exploded violently when he attacked and beat Robbie.
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Jake
Jake is a relatively rare Jew who votes Republican, because he is a successful doctor who opposes government interference in the free-market medical business. Until recently, he had persuaded Baby to accept his political opinions. This year, however, she has become concerned about poor people and so has begun to challenge and even oppose his political opinions.
Soon after the movie begins, Jake (along with his wife Marge) mocks Baby's supposed intention "to save the world". Although Jake does so in a joking manner, he is angry inwardly about Baby's new politics.
Jake agrees to give Baby $250 because he does preach private charity and assumes mistakenly that she will lend the money to Neil, who is not poor but is in some temporary trouble.
When Jake realizes, however, that Baby has donated the money for an illegal abortion, he becomes furious. The illegal abortion itself is not his main focus. Rather, he does not want his college-bound daughter to involve herself with a bunch of under-educated trouble-makers.
Jake reflexively forbids Baby to socialize with them any more, and later declares that they are "bad and mean".
In the movie's Jewish subtext, Jake is bothered also by the future possibility that Baby might marry a Gentile. Keep in mind that the story takes place a mere 18 years after the Holocaust. Even liberal Jews felt that Jews needed now to replenish their population in the world.
The sharpest point of Jake's anger is his assumption that Johnny has impregnated Penny out of wedlock. Jake's worst nightmare is that Johnny -- or some other man like Johnny -- eventually might impregnate Baby or Lisa out of wedlock. Especially Baby has the potential to follow in Jake's footsteps to become a doctor like himself.
Jake's anger is directed at Baby and separately at Johnny and is not resolved until the movie's very end.
Jake does not become angry, but he attempts to isolate his anger's targets. In particular, he orders Baby to stay away from her new friends. Baby comes to feel even that he is isolating her from the family.
Jake is angry mainly about a mistaken assumption -- that Johnny was the culprit in Penny's out-of-wedlock pregnancy.
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Max
Although Max employs Johnny, he is hostile toward him.
As Max is encouraging his Jewish employees in the restaurant to romance the young female guests, he mocks Johnny, who is walking casually through the restaurant. He reminds Johnny to not become involved romantically with those guests.
Max feels that Jews should marry only other Jews -- especially during this generation that is following the Holocaust.
Later that evening, Max becomes angry that Johnny continues dancing a mambo with Penny too long. He motions angrily across his throat, signalling to Johnny to begin helping the guests to dance.
In general, Max has created a hostile atmosphere in which Johnny and the other dancers fear constantly that they might be fired for even some trivial violation of rules.
Max feels that he must be punitive so that he can maintain control over his employees.
When Max assumes mistakenly that a guest's wallet was stolen by Johnny, Max angrily decides to fire Johnny. Jake's anger is mitigated by his glee in demonstrating his firing technique to his grandson Neil.
Max does not direct his anger toward Baby, but he does not care that his firing of Johnny will upset Baby. Perhaps Max is inwardly angry that Baby has dumped his grandson Neil in order to become romantically, even sexually, involved with Johnny.
Max is angry about a mistaken assumption -- that Johnny was the culprit in the theft of the wallet.
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Ironically, violent Johnny's anger is much more correct than the anger of self-controlled Jake and Max.
Johnny's assumptions and concerns are generally correct. He is angry about actual facts.
Johnny sometimes becomes violent, but his relatively low social status has taught him to be rather careful about his anger.
Because Jake and Max enjoy high social status and authority, however, they are too rarely contradicted about their assumptions. Few people ever dare to tell the surgeon Jake or the hotel owner Max that they are wrong. Therefore Jake and Max sometimes become angry and vindictive about assumptions that are factually wrong.
When angry, Jake and Max do not have to become violent, because they can simply get rid of people they do not like. They can get rid of troublesome other people by firing them or by calling the police on them.
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Baby, a seventeen-year-old girl, finds herself surrounded by three older, larger, stronger men who are angry. She has to deal with them and with their anger.
Baby is subordinate to all three men. Johnny is her dance teacher. Jake is her father. Max is the owner of the hotel where her family is staying.
Baby expresses her own anger toward each of them.
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She yells at Johnny because he still has not begun to teach her the lift.
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| Baby yelling at Johnny |
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She chews out her father for his hypocrisy.
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| Baby chewing out her father |
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She objects to Max's decision to fire Johnny.
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| Baby objecting to Max |
By standing up bravely to each of three angry older men, young Baby wins their respect and mollifies their anger in the movie's happy ending.
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This series will conclude in my future Part 8.
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