Kaylib McCartney
Whilst reviewing texts I have stumbled in to noticing the effects that death has on youth. It is a frequent arc and a common issue in many movies that often creates the primary issue for the protagonist(s). We have told stories of overcoming the emotional trauma that death brings for as long as we humans have been telling stories as this is just a normal cycle in life. Though unfortunately young people have also had to deal with death while their minds are still developing, this has been proven to alter the growth and maturing that youth face, this leaving them previously uncharacteristic traits, often unpleasant ones. The texts that I am using are: “Baby Driver” directed by Edgar Wright, “The Edge of Seventeen” directed by Kelly Fremon Graig, “Hanna” directed by Joe Wright, and “The Princess Bride” directed by Rob Reiner. These texts depict the effect death has on attachment in youth, the effect death has on hostility in youth, and the effect death has on motivation in youth. Death has a toll on anyone and everyone, but in youth it completely rewires their brain and ultimately develops their personality.
The effect death has on attachment in youth.
These movies demonstrate the effect that death has on the attachment in youth in the various ways. Often when it comes to a youth being effected by a death of a family member at a young age they will block themselves off to the world around them and become quiet and have little social interactions. This still does not always stop them from doing things with their lives and becoming dormant.
In “Baby Driver” Baby’s parents died in a car crash in which he saw as he was in the car, when he was younger than 9 and from that day he was only close to Joseph, his foster dad who was deaf, infant Joseph was his only friend until one day he met someone called Deborah. He confined himself and was stoic to social interactions for many years on end, this may have been because of the trauma of losing someone close and so he may have not emotionally stabilised as he didn’t want to lose someone close to him again or even if it was because he was raised in and out of foster car before he was placed in Joesph’s care and so he was unable to know social cues. This resulted in him often quoting shows and other things that he has heard, remixing his words just like his music. Baby: “You and I are a team, Doc.”
Doc: “Don't feed me any more lines from Monsters Inc. It pisses me off.”
This here shows his inability to make his own original quotes and conversations and instead he quotes a children's movie Also in ‘The Edge of Seventeen”, Nadine who also witnessed her father die was only close to her friend Krista but this happened when Nadine was 13, a teen and was already socially awkward. Though the death of her father made her become very closed off and dependant on herself and Krista, until later on when she can no longer trust nor rely on Krista and she then meets Erwin.
In youth their attachment is affected when someone close to them dies and this eventually makes them often lead a lonely life in where they are close to one person but when that one person gets into a predicament and something drives a wedge between them they are all by themselves. This leads them to find another person to attach themselves too and often these people will do something drastic and amazing to help the one person who has been struggling, even if that means just being themselves.
For instance, in “The Edge of Seventeen”, Erwin was there for Nadine even when Nadine was pushing him away and then one day Nadine decided to actually look at Erwin for what he was doing and she became friends with him. And all he did to help her was introduce her to his friends that were also at a convention that Erwin just performed at. To Erwin this was a small and everyday task but for Nadine this was something new and revolutionary.
Youth who have been effected by death may be deemed as troubled who keep to themselves but they aren’t voluntarily being stubborn and to themselves but they would rather not feel such a harsh pain with losing someone else. They close off the option of being hurt by having less people around them that are important but they are not closed off to the option of being opened up to many people. It may take time or just that one different experience to make them open up but it is plausible if people are warm and welcoming. Death is a temporary setback that has a massive effects especially on youth, but they just need their pairs to welcome them and help them when they hurt.
While Nadine and Baby had a silver lining to their experiences, in the movies “Hanna” and “The Princess Bride” these experiences did not become apparent. After the death of someone in their youth, Buttercup and Hanna went into a darker attachment. Buttercup detached herself from everyone and everything after she lost Weastly, the love of her life and she was ready to die. She didn’t want to live anymore and so she segregated herself from society and hid herself of any help.
Hanna on the other hand had to go into hiding due to her mother being hunted and killed and now they were trying to kill Hanna, her attachment issues were not from something she did but she was kept away from everyone to protect her and so she did not know how to be a member of society. So her attachment was effect for her benefit.
Sometimes under the circumstances of the attachment it is beneficial for youth to be more detached as it protects themselves and even the people around them. Youth being the most susceptible to change and pain makes it a dangerous time when death effects them but when they detach from everyone it allows them to protect their emotions.
The effect death has on motivation in youth.
In “The Edge of Seventeen” there is a contrast between siblings and how the reacted to their dad’s death. Nadine turned into a self-loathing mess while her brother Darian decided to be a support pole for his family. While Nadine wanted to accomplish nothing and go no where, Darian on the other hand decided that it would be great to push himself in everything and he became a top tier student who took advance classes but unfortunately he also decided to burden the death of his father by taking care of his family and protecting them. He sacrificed everything to always be there for his mother and to have a strong and upheld appearance. He was only applying to colleges close to home so he could return when his mother needed him, he limited himself to protect his family. Whilst Nadine still had no intention of going anywhere and doing anything, she was destructive and didn’t excel in classes but instead was just passing them, when she handed in work that was.
When we want to protect something that we have already lost before such as family we limit our future ability, we restrict ourselves. Sometimes it may be because of our lack in motivation to do anything because in the end we all die and its a massive realisation when someone you love died or sometimes it can be that you push yourself so hard so you can be distract others from the pain that you felt. Though the motivation to be a support for someone else can be detrimental and really hinder someones performance and this is devastating to see because they had the drive to be something great but it was never for themselves and so they don’t pursue it in a healthy way.
In “Baby Driver”, Baby had a motivation to pursue cars and learn everything about them, from boosting them and selling them off for a profit or even being “a devil behind the wheel”. This is another motivation that can be seen in many cases when death effects youth. They envelop themselves in which took something from them, becoming possessed with overcoming such a thing. It may be out of fear and wanting to conquer it so it doesn’t take another precious thing from them again or just as a line to remember what they lost. Being possessed by a haunting memory is a powerful drive and boosts motivation but its not normally for the better, in this case Baby was a great person but he did bad things and helped bad people get away.
Buttercup, in “The Princess Bride”, had no motivation. She fell apart as soon as she found out about Weastly and she never recovered or gained any motivation. She even locked herself in her room not even eating most of the time. This is also a very common effect that death has in youth, the effected can often become heavily depressed and talk about wanting to kill themselves as Buttercup often did. As sad as it is, it does happen but there isn’t much we can do to prevent such a thing. We could give them drugs as they did in “The Edge of Seventeen” for Nadine or they just live out their depressed life as Buttercup did and end up doing nothing.
Often the motivation you have when you’re a teen will end up being the motivation you stick with when you grow up. This means that when you do have a traumatic upbringing and you don’t correct your motivation before you grow into an adult you will be riddled with sloth and have no motivation to push you later in life.
These texts had the common theme of following a youth who had to live with death whilst they were younger and how they dealt with such a thing. We see the different effects and coping mechanisms that different youth have to cope or not cope with such a tragedy. In “Baby Driver” and “Hanna”, we see the adaptability to face fear and to live successful and full lives after death has effect a youth. In “The Edge of Seventeen”, we see the two contrasts of coping with what happened and the motivational effect that death has on younger teens when they both live in the same house. In “The Princess Bride”, we see the destructiveness that changes youth when they’re around death. In this world youth are exposed to death and thats only a natural way of life. We as a society can make an attempt to make their lives easier and help them persevere through their hardships but not everyone can be helped. We have to also let them grieve and stumble across a new bridge and opportunity that allows for them to overcome the grief and allows them to continue to live a contributing life. Youth are susceptible to emotional trauma but they’re also are adaptable and strong.