Discussion with Parents
Talking to my parents about these movies, they agreed that during high school, everyone has to prove themselves. Everyone wants to be popular in high school, but we all learn that as time goes on, high school is what one makes it. They can both attest to facing some challenges throughout high school, but those experiences helped them become who they are today. Even though my parents grew up in Pakistan, there were still the social standings of highschool, popular, average, and nerds. My dad was lucky to be in the popular ranking, but he didn’t care for it as much as most people did. He was focused on his schooling, because for him schooling was his ticket out of Pakistan and into America, where he could find a better job. He watched his parents struggle to raise their family, and he didn’t want to be put in the same position. As for Rebel without a Cause, my dad says that Jim does face some believable problems a new kid could face, but they aren’t as extreme as they are portrayed in the movie. My dad can’t really relate to what Jim faced, but he can understand why Jim felt the need to prove himself.
Central Moral
The central moral I like to live by is “do what’s right.” This seems like a fairly simple motto, but it actually very difficult to carry out. There are so many outside factors affecting every decision, that sometimes it’s hard to do what’s right. Sometimes doing something right results in bad consequences, which no one wants to face. It all comes down to if the person cares about feeling good or not, not reaping the benefits or facing the consequences. Logically, we should all be able to do what’s right. It’s very simple. For example, telling the truth, that’s what’s always right. However, our emotions get involved, and fear for what the consequences will be takes over. Doing what’s right improves the environment around us, as well as improves our self esteem and self worth.
Picture Day
Pictures will never show every personality trait a person has. Pictures, however, do show bits and pieces of how people are. This picture shows how me and my friend Devin are together. We are insanely weird, and I think this picture captures that perfectly. We aren’t afraid to make ugly faces and show them to people, and we are completely confident of ourselves. After all, all we were doing was documenting the moment. We took over 40 hideous (and I really mean hideous) at Best Buy and left them on the computer for everyone to see. What this picture doesn’t show is all the crazy stuff we did after, like dancing on the taco bell hill and talking to random strangers. It also doesn’t show how loud and obnoxious I am, especially that day. I can let my guard down with her and be so crazy and weird, and she’ll just outshine me and do something even crazier. There are only a handful of people I can really be my true self with, and she’s one of them. We both accept each other and when we’re together we don’t care what anyone thinks, which is a feeling I rarely get. This day brings back so many crazy memories, and it was the best day of spring break.
Sleepover
The movie “Sleepover” basically covers everything that a preteen goes through just before going to high school. The main character, Julie Corky, is tired of being treated like a child (even though she’s only 14) by her mom. Therefore, when her mom goes out, she and her 3 friends go on a scavenger hunt to win the “fountain lunch table” in high school. This relates to “Rebel without a cause” because in order to be popular, the girls must prove themselves while not getting caught. Though this movie is not very realistic at all (they illegally drive a car and don’t get caught..) it recognizes the changes a kid from middle school goes through before going to high school. Entering high school is a big step in a persons life and can shape who they are throughout life.
Extra Credit!
Rebel Without a Cause
Rebel without a cause was very dramatic, and in some aspects, is and isn’t an accurate representation of real life teenagers and their problems. Jim Stark, the new kid, was bullied by the “popular” kids when he arrived at school on his first day. That may hold true to some high schools, where the new kids are bullied, but most of the time new kids are just ignored. Then, Jim had to prove himself a man by doing a “chickie run.” It holds true for guys and girls, that they have to “prove” themselves to be popular, but no one goes to that extreme of lengths to prove themselves. The relationship between Plato and Jim, however, was somewhat true. The nerds or unpopular kids usually try to make friends with the new kids, because the new kids aren’t aware of the social standing yet. In addition, the representation of Jim’s parents was extremely unrealistic. No ones parents would let them run around town in the middle of the night. As for Judy’s case, where she was trying to get close to her father, this isn’t true either. At this point in teen’s lives, they are trying to get away from the hold of their parents, not more close. I find that some of the events that Jim and Judy go through are believable, but most of the time their characters lives seem completely false, and only made up for a entertainment purpose. Their lives do not mirror real teens lives nowadays in the slightest. The audience of this movie is most likely kids who feel the same way as Judy and Jim, who are frustrated with their parents and are going through some form of the same problems as Judy and Jim. The purpose is to portray problems of a teen in the 1950s, and to show the struggles teens must go through in their life to accomplish a social standing in the high school society. The speaker is most obviously Jim Stark, whose struggles make up the majority of the movie. Even though “Rebel without a cause” was made over 60 years ago, some of the problems Jim and Judy face can relate to problems kids nowadays must face.
Examples of Stereotypes
There are many stereotypes in movies, especially ones that portray high school and teenagers. There are always the head girls, most of the time blonde, but sometimes brunette. There is the hot guy (who is usually some sort of jock or musician) and then the nerdy girl who is pining for him. For example, in Mean Girls, the head girl is Regina, who is the blonde brat. Then there is Aaron, Cady’s love interest, is a popular jock. Cady is the new weird girl from Africa. Other movies also model this structure in characters. In the movie Sleepover, the “head blonde bitch” Staci challenges Julie for a spot at the popular lunch table in high school. Julie’s love interest is the popular boy, Steve. The purpose of portraying the characters as such is to show some twisted form of reality. In real high schools, there are the popular girls and boys who think their privileged, and the nerdy kids who want to be them. It’s also possible that these characters are portrayed as such to be satirical, because no one is really this dramatic. High school is a difficult place for some kids, and these movies portray these movies to make fun of the social classes that emerge in high school.
Take Care: Self Awakening →
Perched on a bench adjacent to the hotel window, I’m hovering over the streets of Chicago. Carefully, I watch the tiny figures walk in a rhythmic pattern, avoiding the numerous cars sweeping in and out the painted guidelines. Below, a particular figure catches my eye. I watch a woman fumble…
I can relate with this post because it’s the same situation for me. There isn’t really a significant event in my life that changed me forever. I feel like self-realization is a process, not one whole event. That’s not to say people can’t discover a big part of them through an event, but knowing oneself comes with time and experiences. I’ve come to little realizations about myself over the past few years, and I hope that as time goes on, I can figure out who I am.
Changes
Religion: A controversial topic. We all believe in some form of it, and not necessarily believing in a higher power, but believing in a certain way to live one’s life. For me, that religion is Islam. I was never an intensely religious person, but I believed in Islam enough to follow the basic guidelines of the religion. Then, September 11th happened, and that entirely changed my perspective on Islam, my own religion.
It all started off when I was young. I was only in 1st grade when September 11th happened, and at the time I honestly didn’t understand what was going on and what difficulties this event would bring to me in the future. I always knew I was slightly different than the other kids. I didn’t know what the difference was, but as I started to grow up I realized these differences more and more. First, it started with the way the other kids dressed as opposed to me. They would wear tank tops and shorts, something I stopped wearing in third grade. They would ask me why I wasn’t wearing the same, and I could only stammer back the lame response, “My mom won’t let me.” I was never really made fun of, but the annoyance of having to answer these kids of questions over and over and them still not fully believing me was growing. I became to know little by little how my religion was affecting me. Not only was it setting me apart from other kids, but it was creating a dangerous barrier. I didn’t really tell people I was Muslim, unless they asked. I was never really scared for my security, until I saw what was happening to other Muslims around the U.S. I heard of people getting “randomly” checked by airport security, getting kicked out of restaurants and being murdered for simply believing in Islam. Even now, whenever I go to the mosque, my mom tells me not to wear a hijab in the car because police would be more likely to pull me over. It even came to a point that when I was asked what nationality I was, I would avoid the question because I knew the other person would judge me if he or she knew I was Pakistani or Muslim. The worst part about 9/11 was the fact that Islam was contorted into such gruesome lies. The ignorance that spread with 9/11 was devastating. With that also came the ability for me to educate others on what Islam is really about, and I can know take that ignorance and convert it into understanding, so people can understand Islam and more importantly, understand me.
This is a universal image of peace between all religions, and I wish people could wake up and see that Islam is not that different from other religions.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ib9rofXQl6w
This link shows the similarities between other religions and Islam and things people usually don’t know about Islam.
Voice inside of us
The voice inside of us. We all have it, and it all speaks different things to us. The voice inside my head always tells me right from wrong, yet sometimes I choose to ignore it. In society, I fit in with the “normal” kids in school, and outside of school I fit in with the “brown” kids. Honestly, I don’t really consider myself to be a certain label, I’m just me. I get along with everyone, and I don’t single myself out to hang out with a certain “type” of people. Sometimes though, I do wish I belonged to a certain “group” of people, but then I wouldn’t have met all the people I did by not labeling myself. I enjoy being myself, and I don’t want to limit the relationships I have to a certain type of people. I feel like my purpose in life is just to be me. Cliche as that sounds, I just want to succeed in life, while being me. I want to do the things I dream of, traveling, becoming a dentist, getting married. That’s my purpose. My purpose is to be happy, for me and not for anyone else.
Assertion on the Conclusion
I agree with the assertion in the concluding paragraph because personally, some days at school I just want to wear sweats, no make up and tie up my hair. I won’t let myself though, because I don’t want people to think I’m a bum or lazy. The rare days I do dress like this is when I’m sick or tired, where I don’t care what anyone thinks. Those are actually the rare days I enjoy, because I feel completely comfortable and confident with myself. Everyday I have to decide what to wear, and what will people think of me. I dislike that I’m judged everyday for what I’m wearing. Sometimes being marked though can be a favor. I can convey who I am through my clothing, whereas all boys dress generically. It’s true, women will always be marked, every second of everyday. If one knows how to use that to their advantage, being marked all the time could be a good thing.
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