When a white person enters into a relationship with a person of color, their relationship is often met with tension from friends and family. In the South, interracial couples face discrimination and racist insults. Problems with race relations have long been recorded in the United States and show how people react to white-black relationships. Loving someone across the color line was illegal, but since the end of segregation, more and more people are in mixed relationships. In the movie Monsters Ball, the theme is interracial relationships. The film takes place in the Deep South, where Hank Grotowski and his son Sonny are correctional officers at a Georgia state penitentiary. They both live with Hank's father, who was also a retired prison officer, a racist whose wife committed suicide. Hank's father is abusive towards him and Sonny. His father being racist, Hank also became racist. It was not uncommon for children raised in racist families to grow up to become racists themselves. Some claim that we are born with racist tendencies, but it has been shown that when we are children we have no sense of race or color. Color has always been an issue in relationships, and even between mother and child. In her article In Strangers' Glances at Family, Tensions Linger, Susan Saulny states: "Mrs. Greenwood was shopping when the woman behind her, who was white, asked her once she realized, in the manner that they were talking about, that they were mother and child. . “It’s simply not possible,” she said indignantly. "You're so...dark!" » (Saulny, 2 years old). This is common among interracial couples. People are confused when they see a mixed race child, Saulny gives a good example with this passage. The older white...... middle of paper ...... essential film; it contained elements of love and racial themes. The use of the camera in the film made the whole shot spectacular, especially during the love scene, very poetic. Leticia was devastated when she found out that Hank had a hand in her husband's execution, but she didn't let it ruin their love. At the end of the film, after finding the drawing of Hank that her husband made, she hears Hank coming down the driveway and puts the drawing away. Even though she was hurt, she never said anything to him about the drawing and they both continued their love. South: a changing image. 2011. Class Readings 2014Monsters Ball. Real. Mark Forster. Act. Billy Bob Thornton, Haley Barry.2001. Paramount Pictures