Rebel Without a Cause

Rebel Without a Cause

One of the major themes that are presented throughout the whole entire movie is the dysfunctional relationship between one of the characters and their fathers. The movie portrays father figures as problematic which then shape the actions and the characters themselves as the movie progresses. We can see all three dynamics of the father figure presented through Jim, Judy, and Plato. Through Jim, the father figure that he is presented with is a father who is weak allows himself to be walked on by JimЎЇs mother and grandmother. JudyЎЇs father, on the other hand, is quite the opposite of JimЎЇs father in that he is the overbearing, masculine, and insensitive. Lastly, we see the absence of a father figure in the life of Plato which completes the list from all three sides.

We can see throughout the movie that JimЎЇs father is cowardly and afraid to stand up for himself even to his own wife. There are multiple scenes in the movie where this is quite evident, but the scene that stands out the most is when Jim comes back from the Ў°chicken runЎ± and looks for reassurance from his father. Yet, what he gets is not a father giving him guidance and support, but someone who tries to please his son and agrees with everything he says. Instead of standing up for his own beliefs and standing behind what he tells his son at first, he continually switches what he says to find the easy way out of the situation. JimЎЇs father always tries to act like JimЎЇs friend, so in a way, Jim was missing that strong, central, manly figure and was tired of the weakness in his father. Now, Jim sees this in his father and swears to himself that he will never be the Ў°chickenЎ± his father is. This leads to the decisions he makes in the movie, for example, going to the Ў°chickenЎ± run to uphold his honor. He begins to take charge of his own life, being that strong man himself, going to the mansion with Judy to live on their own in order to not become like his father.

The audience is then presented with the complete opposite, through the relationship Judy has with her father. We can see that the father is masculine and insensitive through the way he treats Judy. When Judy tries to show her love to her father by giving him a kiss on the cheek, he goes on to slap her on the face and tells her girls her age are not supposed to do things like that. Then we see the father pick up the son and give him all the attention completely ignoring