The Film American Teen: Megan Krizmanich

In the movie “Mean Girls”, released in 2004, followed through the life of a girl named Cady, played by Lindsay Lohan. Cady faced a new chapter in her life when she attended in a high school for the first time. Where the “Plastics” rule the school and infested it with drama, the group runs by four teenage girls, Regina, the leader, Gretchen, the pretty princess, Karen, the dummy girl, and later on Cady joined the group as "a pretender". This movie truly shows what a teenage life at a drama infested high school looks like when teenagers that are not familiar with the American ways in socialize with other people and how to survive the potentially threatening lifestyle that could affect a person mental.

It’s a very difficult thing for adults to write accurate and believable teenage characters. Often times, people my age are written to be significantly too stereotypical. Apparently, the middle aged white men who write most of these movies think every single teenager in high school is either an athlete with no passions other than sports or a nerd who has never looked up from a book. As someone who has only been out of high school for 6 months, I feel pretty confident in saying those stereotypes rarely exist in real life.

Erik Erikson has developed the psychosocial theory that proposes eight stages across the life span of human development. Each and every one of the stages has a “crisis”, a significant psychosocial topic that is important in that moment. The theories are deliberately having an impact on by social and cultural influence a process of development of the ego and self. “According to Erikson, the ego develops as it successfully resolves crisis that are distinctly social in nature. These involves establishing a sense of trust in others, developing a sense of identity in society, and helping the next generation prepare for the future. (McLeod 2008, p. 1) In this paper I will be talking about each of the main characters in the movie, “On Golden Pond” and what they all go through to a crisis of psychosocial development using Erikson’s theory.

A new and alarming trend that has been occurring in American society is the increase of violence committed by young women. The documentary Girlhood offers an insight on the emotional, psychological, and social reasoning behind the girl’s actions. Girlhood focuses on the life of two young juveniles, Shanae Owens and Megan Jensen both incarcerated for violent crimes. Shanae and Megan both experienced similar circumstances that yielded different outcomes. They were followed for a period of about three years which allowed viewers to really see what kind of role the justice system, family and peers have on the success of an at risk juvenile.

“Being yourself never goes out of style.” The average person would think that some world changing person said this but nope. Elle Woods said this. Elle Woods as in “Woods comma Elle”, the main character in the movie Legally Blonde. Legally Blonde is my all-time favorite movie. Actually, every day I strive to Elle Woods. She is basically my role model in life. This may seem silly, but really behind all the pink, Elle Woods is actually a character that may people should take notes from. The Elle Woods, in the movie “Legally Blonde”, is so appealing to me because it she shows that women do not have to follow stereotypes and can do and be whatever they want; every woman should have the blonde ambition and independence that Elle Woods has.

Claire Standish is the typical popular, mainstream, and rich prom ruler at her high school. When she decided to ditch school and instead go to the mall she got served a Saturday Detention . Claire’s parents also don't have the best relationship and they mostly use Claire as an excuse to get at each other's throats. Claire is stuck up, snooty, and has clearly stated that she will not hang out with you if your so called not popular at school. In the movie she also states that she her decisions mostly are not based on her own feelings, but her peers and parents feelings or so called, peer pressure.

It has not been too long ago that I still remember my adolescent years. I always remember the unintelligent things I did that I wish could change, but this Psychology class made me realize that all adolescents go through the same things I experienced. Adolescents are known to try to find their identity, go through peer pressure, make mistakes, and try new things. The move I picked that closely represented what adolescents go through was “Mean Girls”. Some of the scenes in the movie seem a little exaggerated, but it has happened in certain high schools even though I had not experienced it personally.

The movie ‘Her’ is the story about Theodore Twombly (Joaquin Phoenix), a man who develops a relationship with Samantha (Scarlett Johansson), an intelligent computer operating system personified through a female voice. At the beginning of the film, Theodore is completely inept when it comes to how to make relationship with person, specifically women. However, after he gets to know Samantha, an OS program, a feeling of true love develops inside of Theodore’s mind. Then he realizes how he was fatuous in his past. Throughout the film, the director (Spike Jonze) uses five distinct color schemes to correspond Theodore’s feeling and situation.

The movie, The DUFF, is a typical high school movie that revolves around a senior girl named Bianca who at the beginning of the movie is completely contented with who she really was. She had two very attractive and popular best friends who were Jess and Casey. The story all began when Madison, aka the mean popular girl who seeks for attention at school invited them to a night party at her house. Well at first, Bianca doesn’t want to come. As she heard that her crush Toby will be there; she was forced to come. During the party, Wesley, who is her childhood friend whom she doesn’t like that much come to talk to her. It was a normal conversation until he suddenly called her the “Duff” which is the abbreviated term for Designated Ugly Fat Friend. After that incident, Bianca’s life was not the same as it was before. She tried to sought for a change and asked Wes’ help for her to transform from a Duff into somebody that actually fit in among the crowd. After going through lots of changes, she was then able to realize things that she never thought of before. At the end, she was able to understand that being a Duff is not actually a bad thing because in reality, we are always going to be somebody’s duff. This movie analysis paper will define, describe and make connections between the three important concepts including self-concept, perception, and self-esteem in relation to the movie, The DUFF.

This is where Warner tells Elle he?s going to Harvard law to start his career and she wasn?t in his future plans. In turn Elle get depressed locks herself in her room for about a week then gets the revelation that she would just attend Harvard Law also. When Elle goes to her parents they don?t really support her, they fall into the gender stereotype that girls should do girly jobs, like fashion which was Elle?s major, be pretty get married and so forth. They don?t believe she should have to go out into the world and be smart. She studies hard to pass the LSAT?s and she sends in her video application to Harvard. This video Elle is mainly in a Bikini, and being very ?girly?, Harvard mainly accepts her application because they need to diversify their accepted applicants. Once at Harvard Elle goes to class unprepared and is excused from the class. Afterwards is when she meets Warner?s new girlfriend and fiancé Vivian who is also the reason Elle had to leave class. This is where the battle between Vivian and Elle .After the meeting Elle does a typical girl thing and goes and gets her nails done. She returns to school has another run-in with Vivian who invited her to a party, telling her it?s a costume party and it obviously wasn?t. As ?typical girl? Elle shows up to the party as a playboy bunny. There is nothing more gender specific then a playboy bunny. For comfort she turns to Warner but instead all Elle got a rude

In a young adult (YA) novel, it is very important for an author to capture the voice of a teenager. This is because a very important characteristic of YA literature is that the author can assume the voice of a teenager, or the voice of the audience of their literature. Laurie Halse Anderson does a good job of this throughout the novel, giving a reasonable summary of what life in high school could be for a freshman. While a freshman in high school may have trouble adjusting to life from eighth grade to ninth grade, Anderson does a good job of including incidents from Melinda’s past to show exactly what she’s trying to say through the novel. This high school feel is exactly what Anderson intended, as it showed just how horrible it could be to be a high school teenager, as they try to develop mentally and physically to find their identity.

The German films The Lost Honor of Katharina Blum, directed by Dir. Volker Schlondorff and Margarethe von Trotta in 1975 and The Marriage of Maria Braun, directed by Dir. Rainer Werner Fassbinder in 1979 both display issues with gender equality. In The Lost Honor of Katharina Blum, Katharina shares a night with a wanted man and she falls in love with him. She is harassed by the police and the press when she tells them that she had no part in helping Ludwig Götten, the wanted terrorist, escape. Katharina is an example of how women were victimized at this time by establishments run by primarily men, like the police. In The Marriage of Maria Braun, Maria’s husband, Herman, is sent off to battle. After hearing the announced death of her husband, and experiencing his arrival soon after, Herman is put into prison and Maria promises Herman a life together once he is released. Against the gender roles present during this time period, Maria works to attain wealth to fulfill her promise. Though each film presents it differently, both display set gender roles which provide expectations and issues that Katharina and Maria effectively overcome. Katharina stands firm, refusing to allow any of the men to control her or to break her through victimization and harassment. And Maria adapts her femininity in order to exceed the social, political and cultural expectations set for women.

The movie Mean Girls is set in a high school setting. The movie starts with a new girl coming to the school as a first time public school student. Cady, the new student, is immediately accepted into a group of friends, but later invited to another. The first clique she joins pushes her to become friends with the second group. This subsequently led to a typical high school drama scene. The ways these high school students go about their normal life seem very alike to the “typical” high school. Even though the movie Mean Girls by Mark Waters, uses humor to portray some questionable realism, it effectively depicts characteristics of ordinary high school life and uses realistic characters.

As many adolescent children continue to grow, a majority of them will experience a time period where they are attempting to figure out who they truly are and what they believe in. During this time, adolescents can also go through periods of identity crisis and confusion. In the teen comedy, American Pie, four high school seniors, Jim, Oz, Finch, and Kevin, attempt to lose their virginities before they all graduate. However, especially for Jim, they all go through struggles when they realize their high school careers are coming to a crashing end. The movie exploits peer pressure regarding sexual beginnings and alcohol along with young adults attempting to find out who they are as they graduate high school (Weitz and Weitz, American Pie).

Compared to concrete thinking in childhood, adolescents’ thinking becomes much more abstract. This enables them to partake in self-conception; differentiating between who they are and who they may become in the future (Arnett, 2013). This developmental milestone is presented in The Breakfast Club when the five teens are sitting on the floor, discussing their insecurities. Andrew asks the group, with a horrified expression, if they are going to be like their parents. Claire answers with certainty that she will not (Hughes, et al., 1985). As they imagine their future selves like their parents, they are conceptualizing their feared selves (Arnett, 2013). Andrew also speaks of the false self he presents to make his father proud. This is shown as he admits that the physical pain and humiliation he caused a peer was not something he wanted to do, though he knew it was an action for which his father would praise him (Hughes et al., 1985). According to Arnett (2013), it is during the period of adolescence that teenagers recognize the false selves they present and that their false selves are contrary to their actual feelings and thoughts.