Wednesday, May 23, 2007

Listening Task: Little Miss Sunshine

Summary1: How do parents influence their children's social development? (The Role of Family)

Parents are children's role models. During childhood, children see their parents' lifestyle. They accept it directly and act the same way. That is because it is hard for children to make a distinction between good and bad. Therefore, whatever they do, they ask their parents. In this movie, Olive lives with her grandfather, so she sometimes asks him about things. However, her grandfather teaches her bad words and strange dances. She thinks it is right, so she dances in the contest following her grandfather's directions. It is very embarrassing to all the adult audiences. Nonetheless, Olive goes ahead with this dance until finally the sponsors interrupt her dance. After these kinds of situations continue, people recognize her as the girl with problems. This must be a problem in her social development.

Summary 2: What is your opinion of beauty pageants? What do beauty pageants do to young girls? (The Concept of Beauty)

In beauty pageants, the winner is selected based on the subjective standard of personality, lifestyle, and most importantly beauty, created by a few people. It means that each girl's individuality is ignored. That is why women who do not measure up to this standard of beauty have cosmetic surgery. This regulation applies to children, too. In the movie, all children act the same. For example, the way they walk is almost the same except for Olive. This is like an invisible rule. After all children's performances in the beauty contest, the judging committee decides whose performance is the best. If these standards continue to take over our lives, we will lose our own individual talents, and we will only see the same kinds of people.

No comments: