Sex, sex, sex, and more sex. We're so egotistic in this country. I remember my adolescent issues teacher in high school raising a question to the class that still resonates with me: "Does the media dictate the people in society, or do people in society dictate the media?" Sitting in her classroom at first, I knew that the answer she would want sided with her blatant liberal bias. I didn't want the answer to the question to be her answer; I thought it was too easy to blame Fox, Ted Turner, Disney, and Viacom for telling me what's cool and what isn't, what's good for you, what's bad for you, what's truth and what's truth. Sadly enough, the answer's the former. To live in the Western world means our culture follows the philosophy of achievement (money, love, success, happiness). Indeed, we must continue blaming the CEOs, Halliburton, and advertisers for influencing our deep consciousnesses into thinking our lives should be run a certain way to do anything great. Men'll keep drinking beer to meet women and party, and women'll keep drinking Slim-Fast so they can have a self-esteem. We're a quick-fix nation, a "now" nation. But our "now" is the now of yearning, the now of what we think we should have in the future. Americans keep seeking external desires that will make us happy...that will make us "feel good." That's what we all want deep down. To feel good. G-d bless the USA.
[...] It's one word after all. It comes with baggage in traditions, and forms, and selfishness, cultural mindsets. It's simpler than that. Juno wasn't sick because she embraced her sickness. Juno wasn't emotional because she embraced her mood-swings. Juno is giving, and she gives into what she's stuck with. That doesn't make for good drama, so they don't need to show it on the screen. We just learn to love out of the even larger issues. The love in relationships. Pure. [...]
[...] makes me feel like I'm coming into the world for the first time because it doesn't hope to be analyzed. It doesn't even teach me that much. I just appreciate it for showing me the lives of other people who are truthful to themselves. Vanessa wants a kid, Mark wants a life. It's not a divorce, it's a liberation. Juno and Paulie love each other. It's brilliant. Can't we ever just get out of our heads? Can't we ever just fulfill our role in society by seeing and appreciating fully? [...]
[...] There is a teen pregnancy, there is a once-divorced father, and eventually there is later divorce for Mark and Vanessa. There's no shame. There's just truth, no tragedy. These events aren't played out as sad, they just happen. The mood of the film remains optimistic and flowing. As Lao Tzu said, Can you take whatever comes? Though judgment calls it bad and good Seeing is acceptance And nothing to be understood (Poem 5). This film has moved beyond the attention given to realistic life situations in suburbia because it accepts imperfection as the perfection that's inherent in life, and in the Eastern tradition, life is perfect already. [...]
[...] This is good drama, where we can connect to one of the characters in such a way that our plight becomes their plight. Reitman focuses his visual telling of Diablo Cody's screenplay on the characters, and since Juno is in almost every scene, we are connecting with her the most. In our Western world, sometimes we value people only when we know what exactly they can do for us. Who are they, where do they belong, why do I care? [...]
[...] She looks for a set of parents who might want to adopt it, and she finds a couple that seems normal in the beginning. However, we slowly learn that the husband's personal interests are blocked out by his wife's ideals of having the perfect rich suburban life with a new baby. The husband and wife eventually split to pursue their own interests, and Juno feels that if the wife is still deeply committed to having a kid, she'll follow through and let the wife adopt her baby. [...]
APA Style reference
For your bibliographyOnline reading
with our online readerContent validated
by our reading committee
