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Aw man and I was going to write one on HA as a metaphor for the awakening of critical consciousness, but if the winner's been decided I don't think I want to put forth the effort
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Jan 18, 2011 05:30
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A Conscientization of McAllister Though Home Alone is one of many in writer-director John Hughes’ oeuvre about upper-middle-class angst in today’s uncertain world, a closer study reveals far more. Indeed, Kevin McAllister, the film’s adolescent protagonist, is not only a suburban boy, but the modern-day übermensch whose exploits illuminate the true nature of modern society. Kevin!, as his family refers to him, as illustrated by the film’s opening scenes, is oppressed by the bourgeois trappings of his suburban Chicago lifestyle—one of the countless numbers of those socially dispossessed masses who have internalized the negative things said about them by the more powerful, viz his family members. His “family members” constantly tell him that he cannot accomplish the tasks to which those in his station in life are assigned: “You're completely helpless. Everyone has to do everything for you”, says one, while another refers to him as a “disease” upon the family. Furthermore, they sow the seeds of distrust in him of his own class, filling his mind with visions of the shoveling old man next door as “South Bend Shovel Slayer”. We too learn in the film’s exposition that Kevin! internalizes many of his fears, represented by the heater in the basement. Yet no on in his bourgeois family comforts him, only offering him cold pizza as a scrap and sending him to his cold room. Kevin!, of course, protests his harsh treatment as the only one “getting dumped on”, but to no avail. He curses his station, lamenting, “I don't want a new family. I don't want any family. Families suck!” and wishes they would all disappear. A power failure plunges Kevin into a literal world of darkness, and in the morning light he emerges to find that his wish has been fulfilled: his family has indeed vanished. This sets Kevin! on a path of self-discovery and learning that enables him to transcend his status. As the film progresses, we observe as Kevin! breaks free of those mental shackles which his family has saddled him. His first break comes when he finally confronts his nemesis, the furnace. As he sets out without other interfering in his duties, he realizes that the furnace is not a threat, but provides warmth in the cold world, culminating when he tells the threatening voices in his head to “shut up”. He finds that society is out to stop him from living his life; the best example comes when a police officer, the enforcer of social mores, chases Kevin because he did not pay his share of capital for a necessary article, a tooth brush. We see him as he flees, and as he realizes that forces outside of his immediate family, but which are nevertheless supplied indirectly by them, are out there stymie his journey of self-actualization. He too gradually learns to trust the old man next door, seeing him not as a monster, but as a compatriot in his struggle. The culminating moment appropriately occurs in a church (which alludes to liberation theology), when he learns that the scary old man next door is not a monster, but, like Kevin! himself, is alone and afraid in this world, alienated from the ones he loves by a cold, uncaring world. In this crucial moment Kevin finally realizes the contradiction between what has been said about himself and those like him. The essential moment of Kevin!’s transcendence comes with his confrontation of the two thieves. “But wait”, some may say, “those thieves are like Kevin! They too have been relegated to the fringes of society by its bourgeois elements!” That cannot be the case, for while they have indeed been alienated, they differ in that their concern is with the naked aggregation of capital regardless of the effects upon the less fortunate. In the critical climax of the film, we watch as Kevin! stymies the efforts of the two thieves to oppress him through his own efforts, his own labor. Using his understanding of life provided by his newfound independence, he uses the everyday means at his disposal to thwart the pursuit of capital, and with the help of his own class (the old man), he fights back directly against the oppressive elements in his life. This final confrontation produces a new, fully actualized creature. What was once Kevin! has become the proud and fully-independent Kevin McAllister. As his family returns, we see that this nubile Kevin McAllister ready to confront his familiar oppressors, and we see their shock as he informs them of his newfound independence. One of the final shots shows Kevin McAllister waving to the old man, whose own self-discovery has reunited him with the ones he loves. Bathed in the sunlight of a new dawn, Kevin McAllister is ready to confront the world without fear.
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Jan 18, 2011 06:49
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