Unit 1 - Drama Exploration of the theme Peer Pressure - Documentary Response

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Unit 1 - Drama Exploration of the theme ‘Peer Pressure’ - Documentary Response

To present the theme of Peer Pressure, I’ve used the stimuli of the 1953’s Case of Derek Bentley. He was a 19-year-old with a mentality of a 11-year-old, due to the bad injury he experienced during the Blitz in WWII. This lack of mentality gives him the innocence of a child with the physical features of a man. He was unable to think as an adult and often gets aid from his sister to go through his daily life. Due to his parent’s very strong will for him to go out and explore the outside world, Derek often kept himself in and sat around in his room, smoke and read comics, isolating himself from the outside world because he was afraid of it, showing the amount of stress he receives from his parents and peer pressure in such ways. When Derek met Chris Craig, this is when the true form of peer pressure truly emerge. Derek was introduced to Chris’ gang and was forcefully pushed to take his first cigarette and to change his appearance to gangster-styled clothing, a trend that was very popular of that time. This strongly depicts how Derek was frail, afraid and helpless, he only did this to fulfil his father’s wants of him to get along with children of his age, even though this crowd would be the type his father disagrees in. His lack of knowledge allows him to do things he thought it would be ‘cool’ and to be accepted in the group because his ‘friends’ told him to, a clear representation of peer pressure. By having him being clueless and unaware of what was going on, this enchants his vulnerability to Peer Pressure. His parents whom Derek was very fond of disapproved Chris very much, but Derek chose to ignore the fact and kept going with Chris, dominating his life. Chris would make Derek do things he didn’t want to, such as drinking, smoking and sneaking out at night, only to do things that he later on regrets. We can also see how his innocence and childlikeness responds to the theme of peer pressure from the events in the courtroom. On his trial, Derek was called up to stage and asked questions, in which he responded with his heads ducking down, to avoid eye contact, and a low, shaky and shattered voice. Indirectly, he was gesturing for help, like a child who’s in trouble and needs his mother for protection. He was also indicating that he wanted aid from Chris to defend him, thinking that he would help Derek because he already helped Chris with the shooting, but Chris stayed silent instead, conveying the peer pressure given off by Derek to Chris.

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A read-through of articles of teenage life in the 1950s and news articles of the case, provided from the internet helped us to give an idea of how Peer Pressure relates closely to Derek’s case. Through this activity, it helped me with in-depth definition and understanding the terms of Peer Pressure.

The first task we did was exploring how Derek and Bentley could have become friends. We got into groups of three; I played the role as Derek Bentley and Amber and Iman as Chris Craig. We had a five-minute discussion of what happened and planned the forms of drama ...

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