Little Miss Sunshine
Film Analysis Paper
A system is a set of interrelated parts. Systems theory assumes that a system must be understood as a whole, rather than in component parts. It is a way of looking at the world where all the objects are interrelated with one another. Many family systems are addressed in the movie Little Miss Sunshine.
Wholeness is a system in which the individual parts of the system can not be isolated from one another in order to comprehend the system as a whole. An example would be if a father is an alcoholic, it becomes the family’s problem rather then just the father’s. In Little Miss Sunshine, the father has a winning attitude about everything in his life. His overbearing attitude about winning is displayed throughout everything in his life. It eventually rubs off on his entire family, especially his daughter Olive who is scared of becoming a loser because her father hates losers.
Another system used in the making of Little Miss Sunshine is Interdependence, where a change in one part of the system creates change in the other parts of the systems. For example, the dad in the movie lost out on a book deal promoting his nine steps to winning therefore affecting the income of the entire family. Also, the mother and father fight explicitly throughout the majority of the film which affects their fifteen year old son Dwain and other members of the family. One of the better ‘chain reactions’ of the film however would be the grandfather’s used of heroine. He became addicted to snorting it which got him kicked out of his nursing home, Sunset Manor. The move from the nursing home to his son’s house disrupted the routine of the whole family. His continuous use of the drug killed him right before Olive’s Little Miss Sunshine pageant deeply affecting the entire family.
Boundaries define what is in a system and what is not. Systems can be more “open” and some can be more “closed”. The son, Dwain, takes a vow of silence...
Please login to view the full essay...