Shane meadows represents young people in ‘This is England’ to be highly in-printable, this is evident in how Shaun first meets Woody’s gang and is straight away trying his best to look, talk and act like them. This is the same for the takeover of Combo’s gang, where Shaun is now pressured to hate foreigners and act violently and impulsively.

Older people (such as Shaun’s mum) are presented as either ‘wrong’ or ‘right’. What i mean by this, is that Shaun’s mum is constantly protective over Shaun and only wants what’s best for him, whereas older individuals like Combo have gone down a worse path and now resorts to recruiting a gang and acting dangerously and offensively. This is important in remembering what Shane Meadows wants to convey in this depiction of older people, firstly how vulnerable younger people are to their attitudes, and also how easily someone can be manipulated and changed by older people.

The way in which Shane Meadows represents working class individuals in ‘This is England’ considers how boys like Shaun would view this class, and also how society views this class. Although the original gang have fun with Shaun, taking him in and showing him a good time, ultimately the spectator is forced to remember the arguably ‘bad’ sides of being in the working class, like having nothing to do but sit under bridges and smash abandoned houses.

‘This is England’ explores heavily the theme of racism and stereotypes when it comes to people of colour. Milky, the only black supporting character in the film, is subjected to awkward and offensive remarks from Combo, and ultimately is the victim to a hate crime at the end of the movie. This represents how Black people are treated, being the minority in England. They are constantly having to deal with violence and hate speech from privileged white people. It is important to note how Milk does nothing ‘wrong’ to combo in the entirety of the film, he is just targeted because of the colour of his skin, a concept that Shane Meadows explores head-on.

Shane Meadows represents men in a way that exposes the societal expectation of masculinity and its dominance over others, whilst proving the pointlessness of this stereotype and how it is detrimental to how men are scared to look weak or appear inferior to another. The biggest example of this is Combo, he constantly acts as a ‘leader’ amongst his Gang and is personally threatened by any hint of challenge. He preaches pride in being a strong individual but in the end loses control of his anger and ultimately proves the cons of Hubris, and how it plays a part in the downfall of men.

This is England represents women to be much less violent and pent up in rage than men, this is evident as the movie doesn’t depict any women getting involved in Combos passion for nationalism. Most women characters in the movie are conveyed as caring and nice, none violent or irrational – this is because Shane Meadows focuses on the male perspective of growing up in England, and all female characters are their to accompany men, as girlfriend or mother.