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Essay / A Comparative Study of Four Main Characters in the Film Stand by Me
Stand By Me is the coming-of-age adventure film adapted from Stephen King's short story "The Body." The film follows a group of four young friends, all boys, who embark on a journey into the woods in search of the corpse that the brother of one of them constantly talks about. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on “Why Violent Video Games Should Not Be Banned”? Get an original essayIn the small Oregon town named Castle Rock, four boys go on an adventure to discover a lost body. Three days before Labor Day 1959, Gordie Lachance, Vern Tesso, Chris Chambers and Teddy Duchamp decided to reap the glory that would come with the return of the missing body of a child, Ray Brower, to town. Over the course of the journey, the four boys begin to understand how each friend is more different than they imagined. Gordie Lachance is recently a single brother due to a jeep accident which resulted in the death of his older brother Denis. At the start of the film, Gordie struggles to get noticed by his parents and is often on the wrong side of their comparisons to Denis. Often receiving the end of questions such as: "Why don't you have friends like Denis?" and if he plays football like his brother did both by the townspeople and by his father. This is a recurring theme throughout the journey and remains a mystery if solved. He is often comforted by Chris Chambers who is his best friend outside the group. Gordie is also a much quieter and reserved member of the group. This could be a sudden and major change in the mood in the house, as shown in flashbacks of the dinner with his family, including Denis, where he repeats being ignored by both his parents as Denis tries to share the spotlight with the writing of his younger brothers. Only then is he recognized by his mother and quickly arrested by his father. According to Macionis (2014), Gordie could experience a situation of alienation due to isolation and misery due to lack of power. Even more so now than the dinner scene simply because Denis is not there as the main support in the family home. It is possible that he is starting to experience symptoms of depression following Denis' death. He feels guilty for not crying at her funeral and feels that it should be him who died and not his brother. Sadness, apathy, loss of interest, mood swings, unusual restlessness, restless sleep and discontent are shown throughout the film. Little is revealed about Vern Tesso's home life, other than the fact that he has two brothers, his mother cleaned his room, and he desperately tries to find a jar of lost coins under the house's patio. . It was there that he learned of the location of the corpse hidden from his unconscious brothers. At first glance, it's easy to write Vern off as a wimp who, more often than not, makes a mountain out of an anthill. Getting upset at the idea of losing a comb, jumping at the slightest noise and speaking before thinking. On closer inspection, it might be plausible that Vern might have a mild case of panic, which in Macionis' (2014) textbook explains panic as a collective behavior in which people react to a threat with a frenzied or self-destructive behavior. When he encounters the second train on the railroad bridge, Vern clings to the railroad tracks as the train travels at high speed toward Gordie and himself. After Gordie encourages them to go outside amid his panic attack, they run to safety. However, the fact remains that if Gordie wasn't there, Vern would most likely have stayed there anddead. Later in the film, the boys have to stand guard for the animals. Vern is very worried about every sound, whether it is as harmless as an owl or a cricket, which he perceives as a threat. Vern is also considered to be at the bottom of the food chain. His status or the social position he occupies. Often because of his lack of knowledge and cowardice. Seen several scenes but most noticeable in his fight or flight response at the end of the film when his brothers and their gang show up unexpectedly and quickly flee. Chris Chambers is one of the most complex characters in the group. Gordie at the beginning of the film introduces Chris as the leader of the four. He is extraordinarily kind to everyone in the group and cares deeply about each member. It's easy to say that he is the definition of an expressive leader. When the first train interrupts the friends' conversation about food, Teddy decides it's a good time to play dodge the train. As the train rushes towards him, Chris pulls his friend away from danger, risking Teddy's reaction and the others stay by his side. Gordie finds comfort in Chris in the face of his family crisis. Constantly throughout the film he encouraged him to continue writing and for his father not to hate him. It’s clear that Gordie is almost like extended family. He also kisses Teddy after an altercation with Milo from the junkyard. Chambers always takes the initiative to make sure everyone is okay and there are no hard feelings. However, outside the group, he is known as a bad kid from a bad family. After a petty thief over the milk money, which he returned after feeling guilty. Unfortunately, the teacher he stole from decided to use his family's bad reputation against him. Considering that the teacher, and the police, where applicable, had superior authority, thus presenting them as a legitimate and respectable power. Unable to prove his regrets and the money returned, he is branded a thief throughout the city and expresses his wish to go to a place he does not know. Somehow, since Chamber is a victim of the labeling theory, this is how Chris identifies himself as a bad and stupid person, because of how the townspeople have reacted to the act of deviance. This small accident affected and followed throughout his entire residence in Castle Rock. It is fair to say that even though he was in an isolated area, he was the target of discrimination, meaning he was judged and treated unequally by the majority of the population (Macionis, 2014, p.401). Although this is a scene that never showed this directly, there is a conversation between him and Gordie in which Chris is upset about being stuck in a stupid woodshop class and not never get the chance to prove he's smart enough to take fancy classes like Gordie. It is possible that this is a situation he has encountered before. Eventually, with the encouragement of his best friend, he completed his graduate studies under the formal guidance of teachers undertrained to become a lawyer. Finally, there is Teddy Duchamp who was by far the craziest thrill seeker of the group. To the point where we wonder if he's slightly suicidal, trying to see if he can dodge a train. He is the most unstable of the group, oscillating between happy and crazy at the flick of a switch, and sticks to insulting people when things don't go his way. He comes from a home where his father is basically a crazy alcoholic. The anger that erupts causes domestic violence, which is the emotional, physical and even sexual abuse of one family member against another. We.