FREE ESSAY ON NEGATIVE EXPECTATIONS AND THE FILM WHILE YOU WERE SLEEPING

NEGATIVE EXPECTATIONS AND THE FILM WHILE YOU WERE SLEEPING

Negative Expectations and the film While You Were Sleeping
Everyday people feel the effects of other's and society imposed ways to act or perform in
daily actives. These imposed way are called expectations. Expectations can help people
live up to there potential, act politely, finish projects, spend more time with family,
and many other things that yield a positive outcome. Unfortunately, expectations are not
always positive. Often these imposed expectations lead individuals into unhealthy
stereotypes, sexism, sudden career choices, nonproductive relationships, little
self-esteem and many other adverse results.
The film While You Were Sleeping displays how one self, traditions, societies and others
expectations can all intertwine and become a maze of lies, false hope, self-fulfilling
prophecies and confusion. The film takes place in Chicago during the early nineties. Lucy
Eleanor Moderatz is a lonely, single, Thirty year old orphan who works at the el-train
taking fares. Everyday she "sits in a booth like a veal (While You Were Sleeping)" and
watches the commuters come and go. She soon falls in love with a commuter that she has
never talked to. Peter Callaghan is a stereotypically arrogant businessman who everyone
loves. On Christmas day, Lucy finds herself witnessing Peter being mugged, and then
thrown onto the train tracks of a quickly approaching train. Lucy saves Peter from the
train and he is taken to the hospital in a coma. When Lucy checks up on Peter in the
hospital a nurse assumes Lucy is his fiancee and introduces the family to her under that
pretense. Peter's family has heard of Peter's fiancee, but has never talked to or been
introduced to her, so they welcome her fully into the family unaware that the two have
never met. Lucy is swept away by the idea and the acceptance of the family and does not
reveal that she is not the real fiancee, who happiness to be away in Paris on business. 
Soon Saul, Peter's Godfather, finds out the truth but encourages Lucy to play along to
keep the family moral up. This is all taking place while Jack Callaghan, Peter's
blue-collar brother and Lucy fall in love with each other. By the end of the movie, all
is figured out and Jack and Lucy are married but not before some unhealthy expectations,
awkward situations and conclusions are discovered. 
Negative self-expectations are when a person has an "ideal or predetermined way imposed
on them that is not rational or probably. (Bentley 257)." Negative self-exceptions often
occur when one does not think ahead, but acts suddenly, leading to generalizations and
stereotyping. In addition, these expectations give the person an unreal image of
themselves. People are lead to believe that they are inadequate in comparison to others
because they do not measure up to a self-imposed standard. The standard is so stringent
that no one can fully live up to it. Strict self-expectations cause anxiety, which can
lead to panic attacks, and even hart attracts (Talbot 339). As well, these expectations
are also unjust and thought of without proper justification (Bentley 260). 
Lucy Moderatz has negative self-expectations of herself, which lead her to be shy, and
rarely out going. She seas Peter Callaghan everyday and watches his every move but she
never approaches him. Lucy is a good example of the negative half of the
success-begets-success idea. 
If an individual get off to a successful start in life, they will tend to continue to be
successful; if they start off as a failure, they will tend to be one again and again
(Stotland 66). 
Lucy feels that she has struck out with men before and she will again. This expectation
of failure leads her not to attempt an encounter with Peter. Success and failure in one
area often shows up in other areas. The success-begets-success idea articulates that soon
Lucy will not reach out to any new people whether she wants to procure a romantic
relationship with them or not due to her past rejections (66).
Success-begets-success is closely related to self-fulfilling prophecies. A
self-fulfilling prophecy transpires when "a false definition of the situation evokes a
new behavior which makes the originally false conception come true (Merton 426)." Once an
expectation is held, an individual tends to act in ways that would agree with that
belief. Over time, this expectation would turn into a reality. Lucy believes that she
will never marry. She has had this thought for so long that it becomes a reality and she
does not expect to get any better offers then Joe Jr., the man that owns Lucy's apartment
and hounds her for a date. 
Expectations are also placed on people by the traditions and rituals that they, there
family, and friends abide by. Traditions are so firmly held by people because they give
order and an air of familiarity (Cameron 58). Traditions allow for routine, which give
satisfaction, but when intended meaning is lost, traditions can become hollow and
eventually evolve to the point where they become harmful.
As a Christmas tradition the Callaghan family would attend Mass, a time to reflect upon
the birth of Jesus. Regrettably, for the Callaghan's this is not the case. The Priest is
giving the sermon when Elsie, the grandmother, says to her husband "I like mass better in
Latin. It's nicer when you don't know what they're saying (While You Were Sleeping)."
This statement shows her lack of interest. Also Ox, the father, is sleeping. Mass is a
serious thing, it is a time to praise and reflect on God, but when little meaning and
effort is put into worshiping God, it becomes a harmful thing. If people are not at the
least attentive in mass/church, they are not able to grow in their understanding of God
and his ways. The Callaghan family may believe that church is something that is
unimportant. Perhaps they feel that they are doing their duty by going on the major
holidays. However, the Bible teaches the need for church and the necessity of
fellowshipping with other Christians. The family needs to realize this and then make a
decision to be regular goers or not.
Society plays a part in the expectations put upon people as well. Through television,
newspapers, magazines and movies people are simplified and reduced to a few traits. When
people think of a certain type of person they imply the traits seen in society and base
there judgments accordingly (Cooper 17). Men are seen as hard working, unemotional,
savage and dominating. While the stereotypical woman is emotional, refined, detailed and
submissive. In school, 
young women are often limited to domestic training while men study in the areas of math
and science. This perpetuates gender roles and stereotypes rather than allowing young
people to explore new opportunities (Youth Sourcebook 1).
Sexism, gender roles and stereotypes are all reactions to negative social expectations.
In the film, Lucy plays to several stereotypes; her relationship with her cat illustrates
the stereotype that single females turn to pets for companionship. In addition, Lucy
plays the gender role of being the helpless girl that cannot make decisions for her.
Throughout the movie, she asks her co-workers for help. Further, she is told what to do
by Sam, regarding the proper time and way of telling the truth to the family.
The impact of society's expectations expands into different areas other then gender. A
social statute is also an area where society has expectations. Certain occupations
receive praise and are envied, while others that are least equal are looked down upon.
Society would not function without garbage workers, tollbooth operators, sub-way
attendants and many other jobs. Theses jobs are long, boring and require hard work and
skill. Yet, they receive little praise and respect.
In a scene from While You Were Sleeping, Lucy buys a hot dog everyday from the same
vender. The vender, however, never remembers the she condiments she gets, he also forgets
the small talk that they share. Nevertheless, when her boss, Jerry, asks for a "usual"
hot dog the vender knows exactly what he gets. Society holds Jerry up because he is in
charge of more people and has greater responsibility then Lucy even though Jerry works
comfortable hours, has holidays off and is paid better. While both jobs are needed, it is
an unfair and negative expectation that implies that bosses deserve greater respect and
acknowledgement then common workers. 
Perhaps the greatest and most common negative expectations are the ones that are given by
our peers. The expectations from others can be from one person or from a group. People
can form expectations that are to demanding or not demanding enough, that help both,
parities or that are selfish. "Expectations become negative when the person invoking the
expectations forces the idea on the unwilling person (Bently 76)." When a person expects
someone to live up to a certain standard instead of accepting him or her for who they are
is wrong, and can become detrimental to the person being imposed upon.
In the film, Sam expects people to carry out a task for him so that things can run
smoothly. Sam is closely attached to the Callaghan family so he does not want to see them
hurt. When he finds out that Lucy is not really Peter's fiancee, he tells Lucy to play
along. His reasoning is that the family would be hurt severely by the truth so Lucy must
not tell anyone what really happened. By doing this he is asking Lucy to give up her life
and be deceitful by pretending to be something she is not. All this so a family can feel
better for a brief time before the truth is eventually found out. Sam's expectation of
Lucy is negative because he is only concerned with himself and his family's current
wants, not for Lucy's. 
Later in the film, once Peter wakes up form his coma, Sam talks to him about his
expectation for him and Lucy. Sam tells Peter that she is the best thing for him and even
calls him a "putz" if he does not marry her right away. After hearing this talk Peter
proposes to Lucy and they plan a wedding even though neither of them truly want to. Sam's
expectations of others caused lies and hardship and could have yielded a marriage between
to people that never knew or even loved each other.
The expectations of the Callaghan family on Lucy also proved to be strenuous. Lucy is
given a guilt trip to show up at family events. When she explains the situation to her
boss. Her boss says "You don't join them (a family) like you do the Marines (While You
Were Sleeping)." But this is what they wanted. They expected Lucy to become a part of
their family and were intent on making this expectation a reality. The Callaghan family
also rushes the marriage, they do not wait for Lucy and Peter to chose a date but they
decide on having the wedding as soon as possible. 
Negative expectations enclose us everyday. They drive us to react and believe in things
we would normally not. The film While You Were Sleeping displays these expectations in
the story of Lucy Moderatz. Negative expectations are in our traditions, society, our
peers and ourselves. 
Bibliography
Works Cited
Bently, Joseph C. The Counselor's Role. Boston: Houghton Mifflin Company, 1968.
Cameron, John. "An American Tradition." Newsweek 21 Mar. 1992: 57-58.
Cooper, Harris M. and Thomas L. Good. Pygmalion Grows Up: Studies in the Expectation
Communication Process. New York: Longman, 1983.
Merton, R. K. "The Self-fulfilling Prophecy." Antioch Review. 8 (1948) 193-210. 
Stotland, Ezra. The Psychology of Hope. San Francisco, 1969. 
Talbot, Edward and Robert White. "Some Aspects of Self-conception and Role Demand in a
Therapeutic Community." Journal of Abnormal and Social Psychology. 63.2 (1994) 338-345.
While You Were Sleeping. Dir. Jon Turteltaub. With Sandra Bullock, Bill Pullman, Peter
Gallagher and Peter Boyle. Caravan Pictures, 1995. 103 minutes.
Youth Sourcebook on Sustainable Development. Winnipeg: IISD, 1995. Online. Internet.
http://iisd.ca/youth/ysbk058.htm.