Visions Of Childhood

Each of the stories depicted childhood and adolescence in an interesting way. They showed that children are able to learn from their parents, whether it's acting like them or opposite. Most of the stories had the theme of growing up to fast. In Sutton Pie Safe, the father plays an active role in his son's life, and tries to teach him that no money value can pay for the idea of family. Every Little Hurricane, Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been? and For Esme all have the common idea of growing up too fast because of your family life. Bottlecaps was simply a short reflection on what the average child would do, which would be having collections.

A movie that depicts childhood in an interesting way is Little Miss Sunshine. It is a story about a dysfunctional family who drives to New Mexico in a broken down VW bus in order for 8 year old Olive to perform in the "Little Miss Sunshine" beauty pageant. Olive is a pleasantly plump girl who wears large glasses and has a very interesting sense of style. All of the rest of the little girls who perform in the pageant are tiny, airbrushed, and have perfect hair and teeth. Olive definately stands out. Her older brother is very against her doing this pageant because he thinks that it is very corrupt. Olive's mom tells him that this is what she loves and that she should be able to express herself, no matter what it is. Olive performs a very risque rendition of "Superfreak." The pageant officials try to get her off the stage, but the family supports Olive by getting up and dancing ridiculously with her.

Although this doesn't directly relate to any of the stories we read, I think it's parallel with the concepts the stories were getting at. Olive wants to be a pageant girl and be pretty. She's trying to grow up too fast. It also gets at the idea of family. Her father is going bankrupt, her uncle just tried to commit suicide, her brother won't speak, her grandpa snorts heroine, and her mom fails to keep them all happy. Despite all of their problems, they teach Olive to do what she loves, and forget what anyone else thinks.