The movie Matilda (Devito et al, 1996) is about a young girl named Matilda Wormwood who is an exceptionally bright child. She is brought up in an unloving household, verbally abused and not cared for by her parents. She finds a place of peace and comfort in reading books. Her imagination is her only companion, which gives her a sense that she is not completely alone. As Matilda begins her first year of school, her teacher Ms. Honey is in awe, as she discovers Matilda’s brilliant mind, aware of her intellectual gift. Her principle, Ms. Trunchbull, on the other hand, despises Matilda and will do anything to punish her. As Matilda is constantly belittled by her parents and principle, she comes to discover her gift of telekinesis when she’s backlashed with hate. She can no longer take the mistreatment that is put upon on herself, her friends and Ms. Honey, that she uses her new power to her advantage. She comes up with a plan to get her principle back for all the cruel things she has done. Matilda finally finds a parental figure, Ms. Honey, that values her true potential and does not underestimate your intellectual abilities. Ms. Honey adopts Matilda and she finally feels a sense of home, companionship, and unconditional love that she has always longed for. I will be analyzing this film through a developmental lens and exploring the complexities of interactions between children and adults, the importance in believing in children capabilities, and how youth self-regulate in
Tracy, a seventh grade girl in the movie Thirteen, provides a glimpse into the dangers of negative adolescent development. She was an honor student who was content playing with Barbies, but she was also desperate for acceptance and affection. Tracy meets Evie, a popular girl who engages in destructive behavior. Tracy’s only goal becomes emulating Evie, and she embarks on a path of self-destruction. Tracy, who is in early adolescence, is at the peak of her most critical developmental stage (Capuzzi & Gross, 2014), and is willing to do whatever it takes to belong. Throughout the movie, we see her struggle with low self-esteem, anger, dysfunctional relationships, self-harm, and substance abuse. Vernon (2009), discusses Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs, which can be utilized with Tracy. Vernon (2009) notes that when needs of safety, belonging, love, and respect are not met, children respond emotionally, cognitively, physically, and socially, depending on their developmental level. The degree of development also impacts how children react to common developmental difficulties and situational problems. Vernon (2009) adds, “…how children interpret and respond to basic needs, as well as typical and situational problems, can result in various self-defeating behaviors” (p.3). Applying this to Tracy, we see that her basic needs of
Some discoveries may be the result of significant experiences that one undergoes. In moving on from these experiences, the discoveries can be provoked and have the ability to open the eyes of individuals. Gwen Harwood’s “Father and Child” explores the growth and maturation of a child. Harwood shows the juxtaposition between innocence and maturity and the way that discovering this deepens the perception one has of the world. The
The overt neglect of her prodigal intellect experienced by Matilda leaves her feeling misunderstood and an outsider in her family which differs from the perceived neglect which leaves Coraline struggling with her sense of self. Born to parents described as “gormless” (Dahl 4), Matilda is both blessed and cursed with a prodigal intellect. Causing Matilda to crave knowledge, it is her intellect that leads her at the age of “four years and three months” (9), to defy her parents and everyday walk to the library. Matilda admits to this neglect to Mrs. Phelps, the librarian, when she tells her of her mother, “She doesn’t encourage reading books. Nor does my father” (10). With this statement Matilda shows how her parents have neglected to foster her intellect. Matilda’s eagerness to digest information, and the fact that the only book in the Wormwood home is her mother’s cookbook, elaborates how she differs from her parents.
The film begins with Thelma (Geena Davis) and Louise (Susan Sarandon), living repressed lives in Arkansas. Both women have stereotypical roles in this movie. As best friends, they decide to go on an adventure that takes a dramatic turn and ends up being an adventurous police chase to the sudden death. Thelma is an unhappy housewife who despises her husband (Daryl), who is a bumbling, controlling and narcissistic. Her character is somewhat infantile, in that she relies completely on her husband for support. She is too timid to confront him about going on a weekend getaway with her best friend Louise. Her timidity is evident in every act she displays. She is unhappy with her life as a housewife but doesn't blatantly show it. She cooks
Childhood is an important time in a person’s life, a time where one can be carefree and do as they please without having to worry about what others think of them. During this stage of life, children are groomed and prepared for the transition between childhood and adulthood to be as smooth as possible. However, in Heather O’Neil’s novel, Lullabies for Little Criminals, Baby throws herself into the adult world without giving any second thought or even having the proper knowledge to survive or even to manage herself. This causes her to follow the wrong paths and trust the wrong people. Baby grows wise beyond her years, and soon becomes stuck in the middle of the two worlds, as she is too young for the adult world but too old for the child world. This traps her with her having nowhere else to go except continue on the path she is already heading. Baby’s loss of innocence at such a young age showcases that one cannot properly mature and be ready for the future without having a stable childhood. This loss is shown through Jules’ lack of parental ability, her exposure to the adult world at a young age, and her struggle with herself. Adding all three together causes damage to Baby that no one should experience.
As a Learning Assistant, working in Year 3, I worked closely with a seven year old girl who, for the purpose of this case study, I will call Jane. Jane was a confident and happy girl who, despite not being particularly academically gifted, always participated with class discussions and activities enthusiastically.
Tangled is a fascinating childhood movie about a teenage girl named Rapunzel, who has been trapped inside the tower of a castle her whole life. She was dying to experience the outside world, and isn’t going to let anyone or anything stop her. Everyone knows the story of Rapunzel, but this paper will give you a better overview of how it relates to child development. This childhood movie relates to child development in the fact that she is cut off from socialization, and she is very unsocial and oblivious to the world outside of the tower she has been trapped in. Although she does interact with her mother every day that is the only personal interaction she ever has experience with making it hard on her when she finally ventures out to
“I jolted awake. My sheets were soaked through with sweat, blood, and the foul-smelling black substance that marked a victim of yellow fever. Yellow fever,” despite her desperate cries for mercy, yellow fever struck young Matilda Cook with its evil hand, along with thousands of other unfortunate victims. An unpredictable future haunted the families of Philadelphia as this unbearable sickness slithered in between their homes. In the novel Fever, Laurie Halse Anderson described the fictional epidemic that occurred in 1793 to the citizens of Pennsylvania. She passionately painted the picture with blended colors of pain, perseverance, and hope. Despite unbearable pain, the protagonist pressed on with strength and hope. While her character certainly deserves admiration, Matilda Cook is not the only strong character in this story, her friends Eliza and Nathaniel share some of her inspiring traits as well as some of their own.
Childhood is the most sensitive period of human development. A well-structured academic enabling environment allows children to flourish, learning 15-20 new words every week all while adapting to and learning specific motor functions of all sorts. The correct environment carries an extremely important role and promotes learning under the proper circumstances, however a poor learning environment with constant conflict and poor role models can actually inhibit or slow the growth of a child. By no means does the perfect learning scenario exist, but psychologist can often identify a scenario where parents and/or guardians foster a variety of developmental issues from a psychological, physical, and mental perspective. The authoritative figure's unique and condescending style of teaching the girl in "Girl" by Jamaica Kincaid, directly leads to harsh social and developmental consequences short term, with diminished long term social and developmental effects including troubled relationships, attachment issues, and a poor understanding of basic social scenarios.
Miss Caroline is a brand new teacher and has been trained to teach in a certain way. When she finds that Scout’s premature reading ability disrupts her teaching plan she has no idea what to do with her, and tells Scout not to read at home anymore. ‘Miss Caroline told me to tell my father not to teach me anymore, it would interfere with my reading.’ This shows how society is oblivious to individual situations and this can cause achievements to be frowned upon.
The film Matilda, created by Raold Dahl, tells the story of a gifted young lady named Matilda Wormwood, played by Mara Wilson, who was born into a very unaccepting and unsupportive community. She began her life in a very close-minded family. Her family did not support her thirst for knowledge and learning but rather were constantly pressuring her to be more like them; dishonest and unmotivated. When Matilda was of school age, she was overwhelmed with excitement at the prospect of beginning school until she met Agatha Trunchbull, the school’s principal. Even from their first meeting, their relationship was a difficult one and this tension tainted Matilda’s school experience. As Matilda continued to grow and learn, she realized that her power of telekinesis could be used to negate the effects of Mrs. Trunchbull’s behaviour on both herself and all of her friends. Throughout the movie, Matilda continues to realize the power within her and the love she has for learning. This film analysis will be reflecting on three different developmental lenses including John Bowlby’s attachment theory, Lev Vygotsky’s zone of proximal development and Jean Piaget’s stages of cognitive development and considering how each of these lenses relate to the film Matilda.
Matilda is a movie about a young girl named Matilda Wormwood. Matilda had been neglected as a young child and then forced by her parents to learn how to take care of herself. A major part of the story is based at the school where all the students who attended the school were not treated very nicely by their principle Miss Trunchball. Matilda is based on the Roald Dahl novel ‘Matilda’. The film director is Danny DeVito who believed did a great job. This film did a great job displaying a few themes in this film some of those themes are… family, friendship, rules, bully, fear, talent and sibling rivalry. This movie was realized in 1996 and was a big hit there and still is a big hit to this day. There were many film techniques used in this film and here are some examples.
This paper explores the development of Riley Andersen, the 11-year old protagonist in the Walt Disney Studios film Inside Out. When Riley is forced to move to San Francisco with her family, viewers witness her struggle to work though her developmental tasks and her psychosocial crisis. Although she had once been successful in her stages of development, her transition to a new home and a new school negatively impacts her emotions and causes a regression in her developmental tasks. With the support of her family and increased emotional maturity, she is able to successfully overcome her developmental obstacles. Throughout this paper, the principles and concepts of the psychosocial theory are discussed in relation to Riley’s
The child I observed was a seven-year-old girl in Year 2 who sat on the second highest ability table in a mixed class. While not in school, she lived a substantial distance away meaning she travelled to and from school by car and was often the first child to arrive in the morning and the last to leave in the afternoon. I will focus on the social and emotional development of this child who, from now onwards, will be referred to as C.
Little Miss Sunshine is a comedy movie about a seven year old girl named Olive who aspires to win the Little Miss Sunshine pageant. To help make her wish come true, her six-member family takes a road trip from Albuquerque to Redondo Beach, California. At the conclusion of the film, Olive and her family learned to trust and support each other, no matter the situation. Olive is the youngest member of her family who is entering middle childhood and adolescence just like her older brother Dwayne. Olive is the type of girl that is cheerful, most of the time and not particularly the kind you would see in a pageant. Olive’s brother, Dwayne, could be described as “emo”. Although he claims that he hates his family, he loves his sister, Olive. Their parents, Richard and Sheryl, and their Uncle Frank are in the process of entering middle adulthood. Throughout most of the film, Richard is considered selfish because he does not want his family to be seen as “losers”. Richard is obnoxious to his family, but he still means well and wants them to succeed. Sheryl is the normal member of the family who does not tolerate anyone's antics. Uncle Frank is very sarcastic and failed at his attempt to commit suicide. He used to be a college professor, so he is considered the smart guy. The sixth member of Olive’s family, her grandpa, dies during the movie due to an overdose, but was entering the late adulthood stage. The members of Olive’s family share some similarities and differences, but since they all vary in age, developmental concepts will be different in a way for each family member.