analysis of an individual from a human behavior in the social environment perspective

Running head: AN ANALYSIS OF ALLISON HAMILTON

An Analysis of Allison Hamilton: Thoughts From A Human Behavior in the

Social Environment Perspective

Farris Jones

The University of South Carolina

AN ANALYSIS OF ALLISON HAMILTON 2

Abstract

The Notebook is a heart-wrenching tale about a privileged young girl who falls for a young man

that is deemed unsuitable for her due to his lower socioeconomic status. This goal of this

analysis is to analyze the character Allie Hamilton during her adolescent stage through many

lenses of the human behavior in the social environment perspective. First Allies lifespan

development will be analyzed, followed by an analysis of Allie in her environment using systems

theory, then Allies biopsychosocial dimension will be viewed through social learning theory,

followed by a view of Allies sociocultural dimensions through the lens of conflict theory, and

ending with a possible intervention through the social an economic justice perspective. Through

observing Allie from these different lenses we are able to conclude that even though Allie is

privileged, she too suffers from the repercussions of internalized classism that ends up clouding

her decisions about the systems she participates in and what she wants to do with her life.


The film The Notebook is a romantic drama centered on the relationship between Noah

Calhoun and Allie Hamilton. The film opens with an elderly man reading (from a notebook) a

love story to an elderly woman; they both appear to be patients in the same retirement home. The

rest of the movie is composed mostly of what the old man is reading. He tells the story of Allie

and Noah – how they met, fell in love, were forced to part through ill circumstances, and

ultimately wound up together after a long period with no contact with one another since true love

knows no bounds. After the elderly man finishes reading this love story to the woman, she

realizes that he is reading her their own love story; the man is Noah and the woman is Allie. The

audience realizes that the older woman suffers from Alzheimer’s and has almost completely

forgotten her own husband. The older man frequently reads her the tale of how they fell in love

in order to try and trigger her memory of him. They have a romantic time together, and shortly

after the woman looses her memories again and freaks out at the sight of a stranger in her room.

It is a heart wrenching film; it is a passionate story of love and also a sad illustration of

Alzheimer’s.

For this analysis, I have chosen the youngest version of Allie Hamilton to be my

character of focus (the film presents us with three different life stages). I chose the film The

Notebook to write about because, like most women, it triggers a strong emotional response in me

and I have a deep understanding of the film (since I have watched it roughly 300 times in my

life). Allie seems like a worthy candidate to discuss since the audience is exposed to a critical

stage of her life and since she is very impressionable during her younger years. Another reason

why I decided to write about Allie, is because I feel like she is a little bit easier for me to

understand her than the other characters and she goes through a great deal of emotion throughout


the film. I chose to write about Allie in her younger years (as opposed to the young adult or old

woman) because I am at a similar stage in my life; maybe this connection will better help me to

understand some of her circumstances.

Through the perspective of adolescent Allie, this is the story of how she was raised, and

how she fell in love. The main focus for this period in Allies life is her relationship with her

family and her relationship with Noah. In the film, Allie suffers from the conflict that arises from

her families (and societies) expectations of her and what Noah wants from her. She starts out as a

young, confident, accomplished 17 year old with big goals, whose ideas and behaviors are soon

questioned by her newfound love of Noah. Conflict will arise for Allie in determining who she

really is and what she wants out of life. Does she want to behave as her mother, receive an

honorable education and marry a wealthy man as her family expects of her? Or will her love for

Noah challenge her character enough to make her want to give it all up for him?

Allie’s lifespan that is presented to us throughout the movie begins with her late

adolescence; she is described as 17 years old. A main conflict in Allie and Noah’s tale is the fact

that they have fallen in love, but Allie will soon be leaving for college and her parents do not

condone their relationship. Our text book points out that “adolescence is a time when many

decisions must be made, such as whom to date, whether to experiment with drugs and alcohol,

and whether to have inter-course” (Rogers, 2013, p. 267), this certainly plays true in Allie’s life;

she must decide if she wants to date Noah even though she does not have her families approval,

and she also faces the decision of whether or not to have intercourse with him. The text goes on

to say “adolescents’ brains may not be quite ready developmentally to logically handle these

types of decisions or to think through their consequences” (Rogers, 2013, p. 267). Although in

the beginning Allie seems calm and collected, after her encounter with Noah it seems that Allie


cannot handle the pressure from her family about Noah (she begins to become more

argumentative and confused) – ultimately contributing to their relationship ending. Allie also

cannot handle the strain of intercourse for the first time; even though she loves Noah and

believed she could handle it – when this situation is upon her, she panics and falls apart.

One way of interpreting Allies behavior in her environment is to observe her through the

systems theory. Rogers (2013) states that the systems theory “views human behavior as the result

of active interactions between people and their social systems” (p. 32). When specifically

analyzing the adolescent Allie, we can apply systems theory to her in relation to her family.

Allies family is a system; each individual is functioning independently and together they produce

a family system. Allies mother and father have assumed the role of parent (her father being the

head figure), and Allie has assumed the role of compliant daughter. The film begins with Allies

family dynamic functioning as a system with each part maintaining the status quo of the family;

Allie is a well-educated young woman (since her parents have placed a strong emphasis on her

education) and the family system anticipates her departure for a prestigious college in the fall.

The status quo of Allies family system begins to be disrupted as Allie begins to engage in

a new system in her life; the system that exists between Allie and Noah. The homeostasis of

Allies family system, which Rogers (2013) defines as the way systems function in order to

maintain stability (p. 33), is thrown off as Allie tries to maintain stability in her relationship

system. Since Allie’s new love with Noah has given her doubts about if and where she will be

attending college in the fall (the status quo of her family system) it appears that maintaining the

status quo of the two roles of girlfriend and daughter will not be possible since they are

conflicting. In order to function properly as the girlfriend in her relationship system, Allie must

stay with Noah; however, in order to function properly as the daughter in her family system,


Allie must attend college far away. By analyzing Allie through systems theory, we can see where

she may be experiencing stress due to the conflict between her systems roles. Both systems begin

to suffer since one of its parts is not functioning properly – Allies family, Allie, and Noah all

become argumentative during this point in the film.

I have decided to analyze Allie’s biopsychosocial dimension through the lens of the

social learning theory. With this theory, Rogers (2013) defines self-efficacy “peoples

expectations that they can perform a task successfully” (p. 94) as an important part of learning.

Allie has been conditioned to believe that if she performs tasks successfully in her parent’s eyes

then she will be rewarded for being efficient. This could be a possible explanation for why she is

such a good student and plans to attend college – she benefits from the accomplishments. This

could also explain why Allies character is so driven, confident and competent in the beginning;

Rogers (2013) states that “the more successful experiences that people have, the more likely they

are to seek other opportunities that lend themselves to successful outcomes, which helps to

further build a sense of competence” (p. 94). So far in Allies life (at the beginning of the movie)

she has earned her parents favor, and societies favor, and she has learned who she is socially by

experiencing success and being efficient.

Another important portion of the social learning theory is modeling. Modeling is the idea

that “we can learn behaviors by watching how others do things and then imitate those behaviors”

(Rogers, 2013, p. 94). This is precisely what Allie does. Allie’s behaviors have been modeled

after her mother’s behaviors; she is proper and compliant like her mother, she lives up to

societies standards like her mother, and she chooses what is socially expected of her over true

love just like her mother did (initially). One could even say that Allie has been conditioned to

behave as her mother does (although that gets into classical and operant conditioning). Allies


behaviors and decisions to pursue her academic goals and comply with her parent’s wishes can

be understood and explained through social learning theory.

In regards to Allies sociocultural dimensions, we will observe her circumstances through

conflict theory. Conflict theory is defined as “an approach that views social behavior from the

perspective of conflict or tension among two or more groups” (Rogers, 2013, p. 106). When

looking at Allies family, we see an “institution that both reflects and perpetuates the unequal

distribution of power and resources within the larger society” (Rogers, 2013, p. 106). Allie has

inherited wealth, health, an education and prominent social standing from her parents, giving her

the advantage in society. This is a display of the advantages that the wealthy are privileged with

in society – it will reflect Allies ways of thinking about society for the rest of her life.

In Allies prominent, Southern family system, she has also learned the role of men in

society. Allies father is the head of the house and her mother relies on him for her stability,

wealth, and social standing; this makes the female role that Allie has learned to be one that is

very compliant towards males that possess power. Allies role in society is one that is advantaged;

however, she has also learned that she should pursue (or want) a male figure that can offer her

stability in return for compliance. This could potentially cause problems for Allie in determining

if Noah is what she really wants, since he is not exactly the model she has learned to look for in a

mate (and it eventually does cause her problems, later in life, when she is deciding if she should

choose Noah or Lon – the wealthy Southern gentleman who is similar to her father).

Throughout the adolescent stage in Allies life, she is suffering from making the decision

between continuing to blossom in her learned behaviors and socioeconomic standing in life or to

give up what she thought she wanted for a poor man that she has fallen in love with. From a

social and economic justice perspective, we should try and promote a comfortable environment


for Allie to make her life altering decisions in. Rogers (2013) states that the main idea behind

social justice is that “all humans have a right to live fulfilling lives, which requires access to

appropriate resources (economic and otherwise), decision-making opportunities, and freedom

from fear of persecution” (p. 147). Allie fears prosecutions from her parents and the culture of

being upper class that inhibits her decision-making ability to choose what she thinks will

ultimately make her happy. Allies family and social standing has deemed Noah as “not good

enough for her” which perpetuates classist oppression.

When possibly intervening in Allies life, a beneficial approach would be to promote the

concepts of equality and distributive justice in Allies community. Rogers (2013) states “though

these activities tend to be macro focused, they have compelling implications for the lives of

individuals” (p. 149). Noah was raised in a different world from Allies world; it is the difference

between being working class and being upper class. Promoting the disruption of classism,

although a macro idea, would benefit Allie and her situation in the pressure from her wealthy

family and society to perceive Noah as less than her. A more direct social justice approach could

be to try and disrupt the ideas that Allie has internalized about systems, the roles of males and

females, and classism.

Although Allie is a very privileged young lady, she too suffers from the woes of

adolescence, a conflict within her roles in different systems, not knowing who she is out of what

she has socially learned to be, and the conflicts of society. All of these ways of perceiving what

Allie is going through help us to better understand the conflict that she is experiencing and the

environment that she has grown in. Allie’s world is rocked by falling in love; this disrupts her

whole identity and place in society which leads to the task of making one of the biggest decisions

of her life. By approaching Allies situation from a social and economic justice perspective, we


can conclude that social workers should continue to work to disrupt classism and promote

healthy decision making environments for everyone.


References

Rogers, A. (2013). Human behavior in the social environment (3rd ed.). New York:

Routledge.

analysis of an individual from a human behavior in the social environment perspective

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