The Conflict Between The Protagonist And Antagonist In The Movie 'Mean Girls'

Like Stephen R. Covey once said, “most people do not listen with the intent to understand; they listen with the intent to reply” (Stephen Covey). Most people do not try to see things in the point pf view of others, they like to jump to conclusion. Conflict is an interaction between interdependent people who perceive that they have contradictory goals or scare resources. The more important the relationship is, the more important the conflict is.

During the opening scenes of the movie Cady’s dad is shown handing her a brown paper sack lunch and telling her that there is a dollar inside so that she will be able to buy milk during lunch, he then tells her that she can ask “one of the big kids” where to buy the milk at. This sounds more like a dad talking to his kindergartner on the first day of school, not a sixteen year old on her first day of high school. This is showing the relationship between Cady and her parents. You always see that even though they are not directly controlling her they are still babying her, which is a part of balancing freedom and control (Santrock 395). A big part of adolescent develop is their need to become independent and their aversion to authority figures because of the mind set that are always right and they know best because they are now growing up. One thing that parents have to strive to achieve is the balance of supporting the child’s newfound independence and their desire to still have control over what is best for their child. Another time that you see Cady’s relationship with her parents is when she asks if she can stay home one weekend without them because they have tickets to a show but she wants to go to Janis’ art show. They protest telling her that she always comes, but then change their minds because they think she is responsible enough to stay home by

Mean Girls is about a girl named Cady who joins an elite social group at her new school known as the Plastics. While socializing with the Plastics, Cady develops a new, mean girl, personality and ends up sabotaging the group’s leader, Regina, and becomes the new leader of the Plastics. Regina retaliates by spreading the burn book, a book the Plastics filled with insults and gossip about other students, around the school leading to a riot and Cady takes the blame. Cady realizes that her new personality is wrong and apologizes to the school, makes amends with her old friends, and forms a truce with Plastics who disband and become regular students (Mean Girls, 2004).

Regina George’s friend group is comprised of Karen and Gretchen. Their friendship is difficult at times. They share secrets among each other, for example the burn book is a secret between the girls. When Cady is included into the friend group she is then entrusted with the group’s secrets. This group of “Plastics” are friends by choice and always ask for each other’s

Romeo and Juliet is a story based on conflict. The conflict in the story is Capulet against Montague. From ancient times, the two families have held grudges against each other. As the book states. “Two households, alike in dignity...from ancient grudge break to new mutiny. Where civil blood makes civil hands unclean (1.Prologue.1-4).” The grudge between the two families has led to fighting and even death.

The movie Mean Girls shows examples of many social-psychological principals. Three of the major social-psychological principals depicted in Mean Girls are prejudice, discrimination, and conformity. According to Social Psychology and Human Nature textbook, written by Baumeister and Bushman, prejudice is a negative feeling toward an individual bases solely on his or her membership in a particular group. Discrimination is unequal treatment of different people based on the groups or categories to which they belong. Lastly, conformity is defined as getting along with the crowd.

The story begins when Cady meets two friends, Janis and Damien, who show Cady the ways of high school. This is a very normal way in reality and most would not think much of it. Unconsciously, Freud would say, that there is some sort of motive behind this behavior and that there is no possible way that there doing it just to be nice. But as the story goes on we do find out that Janis used to be best friends with Regina (queen bee of “the plastics”) and that their friendship ended due to Regina spreading a rumor that Janis was a lesbian. When Cady is asked by Regina to hang out she is very hesitant to do so and tells Janis what is happening. Janis gets overly excited and instantly her id, the pleasure seeking principle, of her behavior jumps into play causing her to completely ignore

Cady is used to living in a society, or a group of people that share the same beliefs and values as her, where adults trusted her, and she had the freedom to do almost anything she wanted. When she switched from homeschool to public high school, she was met with a new set of norms, or the behaviors that are expected by teachers and peers. Cady could not go to the restroom whenever she want; she

Starting with the easiest to loom, judgment is used from beginning to end, being the base of the picture. The first to befriend Cady at her new school are Janis and Damien, the "unique art freaks", as others describe. They kindly show her around, and inform her of what is cool and what isn't. The Lunchroom is the most important, in that being where you sit is your social status, or your clique – they have the nerds, Asian nerds, jocks, varsity jocks, burn-outs, girls who eat their feelings, girls who eat nothing, sexually active band geeks, the Plastics, art freaks, and more. Just by reading the names of the different cliques, you can see emphases toward judgment and criticism that was used. If you are not in a certain clique, then you are not liked by or spoken to by that clique. Janis informs all of this to Cady the same day that the gorgeous Plastics, consisting of Regina- the Bratty Queen Bee- and the two princesses Gretchen and Karen, confront Cady and is asked by them to join them for lunch, because she is really pretty. Cady says that eating lunch with them is like leaving the real world and entering girl world, for example she is given a set of rules like only wearing jeans once a week, your hair can only be put back once a week, every Wednesday you have to wear pink, and so on. After lunch, when reunited with Janis and Damien, Janis insists that Cady keeps hanging

Stereotypically, men and women have very different roles in the eyes of society. Gender roles and stereotypes have a history in religious, political, legal and economic systems. In reality, men and women are more alike than most people assume. Throughout the world there are struggles with identity, power, and violence occurring everyday between both men and women. The film Mean Girls, directed by Mark Walters, follows a young girl, Cady’s, transition from being home schooled to public high school. Cady enters the school’s group of mean girls, otherwise known as “the plastics”, which consists of Regina George, Gretchen Wieners, and Karen Smith. Throughout the film each character struggles with their true identity.

In our world today, there are many different types of cultures. In America especially, there is so much diversity within culture that it's what makes America what it is today. What is culture you may ask? Culture is basically a human’s way of living life through values, beliefs, behavior, and material objects. In the well-known movie, Mean Girls, there are a lot of different types and aspects of culture throughout the movie. The movie Mean Girls is about a girl named Cady Heron who lived in Africa and was homeschooled for most of her life, has to attend a public high school called North Shore. She is clueless at first and after a while she makes friends with a group of popular girls known as the Plastics. She fits in quickly and tries to adapt through high school. There are different types of cultures and subcultures at North Shore such as the Plastics, the Jocks, the Nerds, the Cool African Americans, the Cool Asians, the Foreigners, and the Losers. Everyone at North Shore high wants to be like the Plastics so some of the girls like to copy everything the Plastics do such as the way they speak and dress. In addition to that all the students are desperate to fit in so in order for them to do that they have to value sex, drinking, partying, makeup, and other typical teenage stuff. Mean Girls did in fact have a lot of different types of cultural aspects to it and there are strong examples to prove this.

The film that I chose to do was the movie Mean Girls. This movie is filled with many funny characters and an amusing plot, but even though this movie has earned the crown of being the official “chick flick” it has a lot of psychological concepts that people really do not realize. However, when you really think about it, the movie has a lot to relate with when it comes to teenagers going into a new school because every teen that enters high school goes though the emotional and social stages of development. In this paper we will be looking at parts of the movie that focus on Cady and her stages of development as she goes through high school and deals with the Plastics, and then the Plastics themselves as well as certain aspects and things that revolve around them throughout the movie.

This offense, along with the new level of morally acceptable behavior Cady formed once fully ingrained within The Plastics, finds revenge against Regina as reasonable. According to social identity theory, an individuals' behaviors are organized in terms of the social categories with which they identify, so that they are motivated to establish and maintain a positive self-image by viewing these categories as positive and distinct from alternative categories (Seta, Seta, & Hundt, 2001, p.19). As a Plastic, positive self-image is the ultimate goal, so an act of revenge as the result of an offense is considered rational and even expected within that social setting. Once Cady identifies herself as a Plastic, the idea of revenge no longer holds the stigma it once did when Cady could not follow through with Janice’s plan for revenge. Cady then follows through with an act of revenge, something she had previously found to be morally reprehensible in her previous social

The last psychological perspective of psychology to compare “Mean Girls” to is the behaviorist approach. This approach emphasizes the importance of environmental and situational determinants of behavior. Simply because of the new environment that Cady is thrust into her entire behavior is changed. She acts completely unlike her normal self, adapting and becoming an expert at backstabbing and manipulating. Through her manipulation she learns to control everyone around her, because according to this theory people and situations influence each other

The message of a film is what it revolves around, and what the filmmaker is trying to portray; a strong message makes for a successful film. Mean Girls and Bully have that in common. They correlate the message of not fitting in with a crowd, therefore the characters modify themselves in an attempt to please others. The Plastics initiate a conversation with Cady, where first they offer her an invite, followed by listing all the rules she needs to follow to be allowed to join the group. She goes along because it is for the purpose of the hoax that Janis plots (Waters 13:40). Cady is confined with how she dresses, who she is seen with and how she interacts, otherwise she is seen less as. It is unlike her personality to act so feminine and mean because she has a different taste. Even Gretchen is unhappy in the group, “She knew that it was better to be in The