Everyone knows or at least have heard of a person like the character Walt Kowalski in the beginning of the movie, Gran Torino. Walt is the typical ‘had a rough life and doesn’t know how to deal so blames it on others’ racist. Unfortunately, little aspects of that Walt remind me of my grandfather. My grandpa grew up in Germany and left right as the holocaust was starting. Many could say that he is lucky. However, I know how scarred he is from that experience. He watched his whole town burn up while in hiding in the forest. He had to quickly leave his home and lifestyle. He didn’t get to say good-bye to most of his family and friends, the majority whom eventually died in the war. Much of the information I know of the pain and trouble of my grandfather’s life does not come from him. Rather, it comes from old family and friends. Just like Walt, my grandpa does not easily share anything about the past or anything that has the potential to show emotion.

            Walt and my grandfather also share similar racist values. However, what is surprising about my grandfather is that his hatred is more towards, ironically, the Jews. When comparing my grandfather to Walt, I can make sense of his self-hatred. To me, Walt was not an all around racist, but really just against Koreans. So although the majority of his comments were racist, I never viewed Walt as a racist. I just viewed him as a man, who was trying to justify his past in the Korean War by saying that those people were less than him. My grandfather does a similar thing. He doesn’t want to believe that fighting for religion is noble or that being a faithful Jew can bring upon happiness and not only death. That would bring him regret or trauma, and my grandpa is not one to deal with his past emotions. Walt is the same. I never saw the movie as Walt being the racist one, rather I saw a stubborn man trying to deal with the past.

            When Walt does deal with his past, his racist values not only change but also his values on gender roles. From the beginning of the movie he criticized Tao for not being a real man- for gardening, and cooking, and work that Walt views as ‘woman’s work.’ Throughout the whole movie he is pushing Tao to always stand up for himself and to be a man. However, when Walt’s eyes are opened his perspectives on his gender roles change. When Sue, Tao’s sister, is raped, Tao steps up to plate. The ‘old’ Walt would give him respect for fighting for his family. However, the ‘new’ Walt locks him up and refuses to let Tao fight. I understood this as Walt accepting individuality. If one has strict beliefs on gender roles, than they do not understand how each person can be so different. For example, they couldn’t understand why a guy, who’s role ‘should be’ to support the family, would want to be homemaker. Walt clearly struggled with this as well. But by the end, him not letting Tao fight was representative of Walt’s acceptance of Tao. Walt finally understood how gender roles and ignorant assumptions on people set boundaries and obstacles that are difficult to overcome.