Authority Figures in Human Traffic

In Human Traffic, Authority figures, the characters parents, are portrayed through how they are viewed by their children- in this instance, Jip and Moff's Mum and Dad respectively.

Firstly, Jip's Mum is portrayed to have two sides. On the first part, she is stereotyped by gender and her role as a parent, she is shown to be loving and caring upon seeing Jip come home, and offers for him to stay for dinner. The audience reaction to this is that she fulfills a typical motherly role and hence are almost shocked when it is revealed her job is a prostitute. This contrasts the typical Mother role and says that the two characters have a strange relationship, that Jip hates the fact a "punter" could be home when he visits. In the shots, she is positioned at the same level as Jip, suggesting that there is no hierarchy there and perhaps that both characters are looking out for each other, Jip looking out for his Mum and his Mum fulfilling her role to Jip.

By contrast, Moff's Dad is perceived very negatively. He is shown to be assertive and a pest to Moff, yelling at him to get a job, quite a stereotypical dominant Father role that isn't as visibly caring as Jip's Mum. Moff argues back at him and swears at him, showing that their relationship is quite turbulent. As an Authoritative figure in the film, Moff's Dad tries to discipline his quite rebellious son, but Moff doesn't comply, quite representative of more modern youth, as the film illustrates throughout. Moff's Dad is stereotyped through his gender as Language Study says that Men use more assertive language and typically assume a dominant role. The audience reacts to this in a way that acknowledges how Moff's Dad is matching his stereotypical role as Father and that Moff is a young adult that wants to do what he wants and not live a monotonous life in job he does not enjoy like the rest of his friends.