Little Miss Sunshine | Accepting the Absurd

in Alber Chu's essay the myth of Copus we find Copus condemned by the gods to an eternity of pushing a rock up a hill only to have it fall back down when he reached the top Alber Kimu described Copus as a quote absurd hero and compares the absurdity and tedious repetition of cop's task to Modern human existence he defines the Absurd as the confrontation with the fact that the world is not reasonable and the quote wild longing for clarity in its murkiness we are all completing ostensibly pointless tasks pushing Boulders up hills our entire lives grasping at straws of meaning in a meaningless World Kimu says that when one begins to dwell on their fate to wallow in their suffering to wish for peace and happiness that is when Melancholy sets in but if Copus is descent towards the foot of the hill and by extension our own absur existence can be performed in sorrow it can also take place in Joy if we accept our circumstances whatever they may be and accept ourselves we can perform our Boulder pushing with joy and contentment rather than resentment and depression in Little Miss Sunshine each character besides Grandpa Edwin begins their journey in a state of denial over the course of the film we see them grieve losses and struggle towards acceptance Richard Grieves the death of his self-help book deal and by extension its contrived winners and losers philosophy Frank Grieves the loss of love to his professional rival Dwayne Grieves his broken dream of being a fighter pilot and Cheryl Grieves the loss of control over her family's troubles Olive however is the exception and she brings out the best in all of her dysfunctional family members she brings them closer through bubbly optimis M and Shameless self-expression and teaches them that it's okay to not be okay that it's okay to lose to fail to accept what you cannot control she guides them quietly through their denial bargaining anger and depression connects them through a shared goal and ultimately each character lands on acceptance much like Copus the moment the Hoovers accept their demons is the moment when they have conquered them they push their van like Copus pushes his Bolt and just the same they find joy in this silly and ultimately meaningless task the film tackles a range of topics from the vapidity of our competition-based society life is one [ __ ] beauty contest after another to embracing yourself to capitalism and to family but for me the power of acceptance is its most striking theme we all suffer at times in our lives and as Frank points out to Dwayne suffering is essential it makes us who we are suffering should not be resisted but accepted a powerful concept to anybody who's gone through a dark time in their life Little Miss Sunshine thrives where so many comedies fall flat in its characters they're a family of eccentrics dysfunctional individuals that somehow form a functional whole in this video I'll break down each character's Journey towards acceptance and how it molds them into a better person I'll explore the way ways in which they accept their circumstances accept themselves and each other and how we can all Leverage The Power of Acceptance in order to conquer whatever Mountain stands in our [Music] way if you're new around here my name is Ryan I am a writer I do video essays on on books and movies and all sorts of other fun stuff so be sure to subscribe click that subscribe button tell a friend about the channel or just give me a like whatever you have the chance to be within the first 100 subscribers on what is sure to be a legendary YouTube channel so don't miss out all right let's get into the [Music] video do Wayne is a rebellious teenager who hates everyone even his family or so he says and commits all his energy towards being an Air Force pilot he's jaded and somewhat nihilistic reads friedi n and has decided to undertake a vow of silence until his goal of becoming a pilot is achieved you don't speak because of friederick n out nich's inclusion is not coincidental you could apply much of nisha's philosophy to Dwayne as a character but the most obvious parallel to the story is his view of suffering n went so far as to wish suffering on people of importance to him quote to those human beings who are of any concern to me I wish suffering desolation sickness ill treatment and dignities I wish that they should not remain unfamiliar with profound self-contempt the torture of self-mistrust and the wretchedness of the vanquished I have no pity for them because I wish them the only thing that can prove today whether one is worth anything or not that one endures what n recognizes here is that suffering offers opportunity for growth we can't control the curveballs life throws but we can adjust our swing to compensate for their unexpected movement Dwayne's Arc climaxes in a heart-wrenching moment when he discovers that he is colorblind and thus can never fly Jets you can't fly Jets if you're color blind his dream collapses in an instant and under the pressure of this implosion he loses himself in a fit of animalistic rage [ __ ] Dwayne's breakdown and subsequent self-overcoming seems inspired by n who says quote you must be ready to burn yourself in your own flame how could you rise a new if you have not first become ashes and what I think is the best scene in Little Miss Sunshine Dwayne says quote I wish I could go to sleep until I was 18 and Skip all this crap high school and everything just skip it but Frank reminds him using Prost as an example if you sleep until you're 18 oh think of the suffering you're going to miss I mean high school high school those are your Prime suffering years suffering makes you who you are suffering teaches you or as n put it quote to live is to suffer and to survive is to find some meaning in suffering I don't know if everyone would agree with this characterization of suffering but it certainly struck home for me I dealt with bad chronic pain for most of my early 20s and it made me miserable but to be honest I wouldn't trade it for the world because it really shaped my identity and made me into who I am today and without that experience of suffering I may still be the bored complacent apathetic teenager that I was before my injury I would take simple things for granted like concerts or hiking or not looking for a chair at every damn venue I go to and this experience while not as serious as Frank's depression or as angsty as Dwayne's breakdown taught me that resistance to suffering is feudal it was only once I accepted my suffering and my pain that I was able to move on friederick N is known for his concept of amor Fati or loving one's fate n takes the concept of acceptance a step further claiming that we must not only accept but love ourselves and our fate in totality in Little Miss Sunshine Dwayne takes a tumultuous path towards loving his fate rif with suffering and setback but in the end he accepts and loves his circumstances he accepts that he will never be an Air Force pilot but he resolves to do whatever he can to fly regardless he accepts his present suffering and hopes it will shape his future he accepts and loves his family despite giving voice to his shame and hatred towards them during his breakdown he accepts the vapidity of society the shallow competitions we all play with ourselves and sums up his newf found wisdom in my favorite line from the film a line that embodies nich's Amor Fati yeah you do what you love and [ __ ] the [Music] rest perhaps the most poignant example of acceptance is Steve Carell's character Frank Frank's Journey towards self-acceptance begins on a pretty rough note when we meet him in the hospital having just attempted suicide he'd been in a depressive spiral originating from unrequited love and a subsequent defeat from his professional rival a fellow scholar of Marcel PR who coincidentally is the same man that his unrequited lover is involved with Frank Begins the film apathetic towards life his family and himself but it is the family's imperfect and dysfunctional love that allows him to to accept himself he may still feel depressed he may still feel worthless he may still feel desolate and destroyed but he can at least reach out to help Olive achieve her goal of winning the Little Miss Sunshine pageant he may not have realized it but the family's mission was exactly what Frank needed we see him smile for the first time after the family gets the broken van started we see him run very much how the number one PR scholar would run to register Olive for her for competition we see him Comfort Dwayne with prian wisdom about suffering which in turn sheds light on the value of his own present suffering Marcel PR said in his magnum opus In Search of Lost Time damn boy he thick boy that's a thick ass boy damn that the real Voyage of Discovery consists not in seeking new Landscapes but in having new eyes towards the end of the film Frank sees with these new eyes an ad in the newspaper claiming his rival the number one PR scholar in the world a title Frank had proudly and sometimes sarcastically claimed for himself I just want everyone here to know that I am the preeminent true scholar in the United States rather than wallow in self-pity of this Injustice he simply tosses aside the paper without a second thought through the family who he has not seen in at least a year Frank accepts himself and the cruelty of his situation this represents his final acceptance of lost love and the first step in a painful Journey Of A Thousand Miles towards a new life Richard is the family's archetypal patriarch and philosophical antagonist of the film clinging to the dying breath of his contrived nine step refused to lose program towards success his perceived reputation respect and position of authority within the family come under attack when a supposed lock of a book deal is ripped out from under him there's no step in this program for dealing with failure other than never giving up and this is what he tries to do but because of the inherent shallowness in his philosophy that there are two types of people in this world winners and losers he has no clue how to react when it becomes clear that it's time to move on Richard Mourns the death of what ostensibly was a massive risk financially and personally and he even exhibits each of the five stages of grief denial when his many calls to Walter White oh no Stan Grossman go unanswered bargaining when he insists that Grossman not give up and try harder depression while driving anger while fighting with Cheryl and finally acceptance of his failure an acceptance that is diametrically opposed to his winner loser philosophy ironically it takes the actual death of his father to make him realize the error in his ways when all of this loss comes crashing down Richard clings harder onto the silly little mission of getting Olive to the peauty pageant at all costs Richard never says it explicitly but in my viewing it becomes clear that he abandons his obsession with winning in the final scene scene where the family Comforts Olive after she loses AKA gets kicked out of the Little Miss Sunshine pageant Olive your Grandpa would have been really proud of you while earlier in the film Richard chastised Olive for eating ice cream ask you this those women in Miss America are they skinny or are they that and gave her a pep talk that basically said there's no point in doing anything unless the object is to win his final conversation with her strikes a much different tone in this he sets aside his simplistic shackles of the winner loser philosophy that leaves no room for nuance and his words Echo his own father's Comfort when Richard learned that he had lost his book deal whatever happens you tried to do something on your own which is more than most people ever do and I include myself in that category he took a big chance and it took guts and I'm proud of it Richard learns to accept his circumstances to accept the fact that sometimes your best simply isn't good enough and to accept the fact that it's okay to [Music] [Applause] lose Cheryl's introduction is a perfect encapsulation of her energy through the beginning of the film she's smoking a cigarette lying about smoking a cigarette and arguing on the phone with Richard she is visibly stressed living with her foulmouthed perverted drug addict of a father-in-law every night it's the [ __ ] chicken holy God Almighty is it possible just once we could get something to eat for dinner around here that's not the goddamn [ __ ] chicken her unspeaking son her frustrating husband and now her suicidal brother she just wants everyone to be okay but becomes frustrated when they don't care to change Sher learns to accept that she cannot control what other people do or how they feel she can only be there for them when they reach out there is a particularly excellent piece of physical acting by Tony Colette during Dwayne's breakdown when her character wants to reach out and touch him hold him comfort him but he insists on being left alone she feels powerless she only wants him to be okay but she realizes that there is simply nothing she can do this is such a universal feeling that we all at times want to help the people in our life or to stop them from making a mistake or simply to be there for them but we all must learn to accept that this is sometimes impossible people are going to do what they do behave how they want to and at a certain point you just have to let them live their [Music] lives Olive is a ray of sunshine amidst the chaos depression angst dysfunction addiction and perfectionism of her family she is a Bastion of impressionable innocence but her mind is being polluted by her father's obsession with winning power and competition we see this constantly throughout the film like when he describes to Olive that Frank's attempted suicide was because he gave up on himself he lost he's a loser it's not a stretch to assume that her beauty pageant obsession is caused by her father's toxic insistence that she'd be a winner is he always like this ol why don't you tell us how you how can you stand it what I love about Little Miss Sunshine is that each character has serious flaws but olive brings out the best in each of them she shows her father how damaging his worldview is she gives Frank a reason to live if only for a little while she wordlessly consoles Dwayne during his emotional breakdown she gives her Grandpa energy and passion in his late life and she gives Cheryl a break from her constant worrying about the people she loves Olive's acceptance is one of self-acceptance she Embraces who she is and does so passionately in the twisted and sexualized world of child Beauty passions Olive's runchy performance ironically disgusts the attendants and judges who were perfectly comfortable watching spray tanned children in bikinis perform equally provocatively the family watches on as the crowd heckles her and the MC tries to Usher her off stage but one by one we see the family Rush on to support her Richard having shed his win at all cost mentality Frank having accepted his suffering and his family's love Dwayne having realized that even Shattered Dreams cannot destroy life's value and Cheryl understanding that the people she loves have conquered their demons and have done so not needing her constant attention the film concludes with olive being disqualified from any further pageantry an outcome the family is all too happy to accept and each character in the words of n having burned themselves in their own flames and risen a new From the Ashes their growth is not complete it never is but the barbell of expectations weighing them down has been lifted and they are ready to conquer whatever life throws at them [Music] next in Al aramu the myth of Copus he describes with great interest the moment that Copus sees the rock tumble back to the foot of the hill and Begins the walk back down quote a face that toils so close to Stones is already Stone itself I see that man going back down with a heavy yet measured step toward the torment of which he will never know the end that hour like a breathing space which returns as surely as his suffering that is the hour of Consciousness at each of these moments when he leaves the Heights and gradually sinks towards the layer of the Gods he is superior to his fate he is stronger than his Rock kamu uses Copus his task as an allegory for Humanity's feudal search for meaning and Truth in an indifferent Universe the Workman of today works every day in his life at the same tasks and his fate is no less absurd but it is tragic at only the rare moments when it becomes conscious what kamu is saying here is that when one's Consciousness lingers on their fate their suffering and wishes for happiness that is when they fall into hopelessness and misery quote this is The Rock's Victory this is the rock itself the boundless grief is too heavy to Bear but crushing truths perish from being acknowledged Little Miss Sunshine represents the acceptance of of Our Fate we see Dwayne grapple with his fate when he discovers that he can no longer be a fighter pilot he dwells on his fate and in cmu's words his boundless grief is too heavy to Bear but with the help of Frank a man who knows suffering well he comes to peace and acceptance of his conditions and in this he finds joy quote there is no sun without Shadow and it is essential to know the night the Hoover family have quelled their burdens for now but something sinister always lurks around the corner in life quote one always finds one's burden again the family will continue on pushing their Boulders much like the minivan in which they traveled and driving off into the unknown Dwayne will discover new troubles when he graduates high school Richard will need a new philosophy to live by Olive will need a new passion Frank will have to rebuild his life from the ground up Cheryl will likely lapse back into anxieties and Grandpa Edwin well perhaps he will find his own rock in the afterlife the Hoovers will struggle onward but quote the struggle in itself is enough to fill a man's heart and in this struggle one must imagine the Hoover [Music] happy thank you so much everybody who stuck around to the end of the video um I'm doing a new thing where if you stick around to the end I tell you what my favorite word is or phrase at the moment and right now I'm reading Crime and Punishment and my favorite phrase from that book is p devil take it or devil take him I think I'm going to start working that into just normal conversation if there's somebody's annoying me I'll just be like P devil take you so we'll see if this catches on please if you enjoyed this video give it a thumbs up I hope you stick around check out my other videos and just subscribe what are you waiting for you can be within the first 100 subscribers as I said earlier and that is a feat in itself I think I have another video in the works that is sort of a secret it's a little something new a little something spicy so um that's coming your way shortly and in the meantime peace in love and I'll see you next time

Channel: The Stories We Tell

Views: 3,234

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Id: OzqZOPxcIfc

Length: 23min 30sec (1410 seconds)

Published: Mon Jul 08 2024