Essay plan: We need to talk about Kevin and Juno

Synthesis

Growing up is a struggle for everyone despite the love you do or don’t receive as a child. It’s a struggle being a child to fit in with society and to be classified as a normal teenager. Juno and Kevin are two examples as they both have different types of childhood, one loving the other not so much and yet both find it hard to fit in with society’s expectations of them.

P: Mother stereotypes

E: Kevin and mother bonding: 5 minutes

Juno as a mother: Love she feels towards the baby and the love the adoptive mother feels

A: Kevin is quite a moody child and doesn’t play ball with his mother when she attempts to bond with him. Kevin's personality is developed and shown as bad especially when it comes to his mother, which is strange as mothers are meant to have a natural connection with their children. She does however have a bond with his younger sister showing mothers connect more with their daughters and dads with their sons. This could be because they have more support from role models and have more in common. Lack of common interests with his mother could have led to the distance between them. Kevin doesn’t dress as childish as most children his age, he also tends to wear darker colours. Eva has little tolerance for Kevin as shown in the clip, he deliberately plays up for her and they don’t get along. 

However after she breaks his arm he covers for her. This could be because she is still his mother despite his external feelings for her, he does love her.

Juno had a good connection with both her parents, however, especially father. She also connected with her child and felt love for him before having to give him up. This could lead to the adoptive mother having a lack of a connection for the child as she didn't have him. Juno tends to wear bright childish colours throughout displaying her happy, young personality. The fact that Juno had a happy relationship with her parents and a happy childhood it meant she was able to bond better with her child as she felt the love she received.

S: women tend to connect to their children more than men as they carried them for nine months, however boys tend to bond more with their fathers, daughters with both. Common interests are beneficial within family relationships.

P: responsibility

E: Kevin fitting in with society 

Juno making the decision to abort or adopt: your baby has finger nails 

A: Kevin is responsible for his younger sister; he naturally should look out for her but instead he bully's her and kills her. Not showing much love for his sister. Jealousy? Kevin also faces the problem of fitting in with society, as he isn't like most children. He doesn’t’t play. He misbehaves on a daily bases, and doesn’t act like he should. Instead of trying to fit in, however, he gets worse as he gets older. After Kevin has caused his sister to have a glass eye his mother and father try and talk to him but the conversation is cold and his mother ends up getting irritated as he doesn’t take responsibility or show any sort of emotion towards his sister.

Juno has a lot of responsibility over the baby; she has to decide whether to abort or to put him up for adoption. She had to make this decision on her own showing the extent of her responsibility. She is responsible for her mistakes. Life lessons.

S: When you’re your young, responsibility is hard to deal with. As a young child or even a teen you find being responsible daunting and therefore choose to avoid it at all chances.

P: love

E: lack of love-we need to talk about Kevin


Juno loving family and love for baby

A: Juno grew up receiving a lot of love, care and attention from her family. The atmosphere throughout the film shows a lot of love and is quite a funny happy film. Paulie wears a red top, which can symbolise love, and Juno wears bright colours to symbolise happiness.

In comparison, in We Need To Talk About Kevin, throughout the film the atmosphere is quite cold and not very loving. Especially in scenes with Kevin and his mother. Kevin does have a pretty good bond with his father, he is the only one he shows some compassion to but yet he kills him. Kevin decides to pick on his younger sister throughout the film, killing her at the end, which could be a sign of enviousness because she is the youngest and has a special bond with their mother. This could be because of stereotypes of girls being more emotional and therefore having more emotional support and more of a bond with mothers. Even as a baby his mother showed little tolerance for Kevin as he cried a lot, this shows lack of love right from the start.

This can be justified with Juno as she had a loving childhood and was a happy child, opposite to Kevin. Juno also has a natural connection with her baby, as she is stereotypically more emotional than guys. She does however give him up for adoption despite the connection she has.

S: lack of emotional support – Juno is a girl and Kevin is a boy – stereotype guys don’t have feelings, whereas girls do – challenging gender stereotypes.

P: maturity

E: Kevin: ball scene 2.15-2.50

Juno-agreement on adoption

A: Juno dresses quite immaturely throughout but as the film goes on her maturity develops and she comes up with some mature solutions, also acts mature through the adoption choice. Juno grew up in a loving family were she had a childish childhood. This could be contrasted with Kevin and once again pointing to the girls receiving more love and therefore have a better childhood.

Kevin doesn’t’t act immature like a child should when he is a child. He doesn’t play with his mother, and even as a young child his speech isn't like that of a child his age. This could be related to the not so friendly atmosphere and relationship with his mother. She tried to be loving but couldn't’t tolerate Kevin and his behavior making their relationship colder and Kevin not having as normal a childhood as he should have. His younger sister gets more love from his mother and acts more childish which could show that the lack of love leads to cold maturity.

S: Age doesn’t define maturity. Maturity can be very much dependent on your childhood.

Conclusion

It’s not easy for teenagers to grow up, as there is always something in the way that they will need to overcome. The obstacles are results of their childhoods and their childhood determines how easy adulthood is for them.