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Identity Crisis in Little Miss Sunshine Essay

Decent Essays

In the film Little Miss Sunshine many characters have difficulty finding their true identity. Olive, a 7 year old girl wants to win the Little Miss Sunshine beauty pageant and is unsure of her true identity because of this. Richard, her father, is an unsuccessful motivational speaker and businessman and this effects his perception of himself. Another character, Dwayne, loses his sense of identity when he realises he is colour blind. The uncle in the film, Frank has been suicidal due to losing his love and is not happy anymore. Olive is the youngest of the Hoover family, her aspiration to become Little Miss Sunshine’s beauty pageant winner takes her family on the journey. Olives faces many challenges on her way to compete in the pageant …show more content…

But during this film Richard finds seeking his true identity difficult as he tries to publish his own motivational book which he is unsuccessful in doing, this causes Richard to doubt if he is in fact fit to be a motivational speaker on becoming successful if he himself is unable to do so. Dwayne, the brother to Olive, is seeking a career in the Air force; he wishes to become a pilot when he is 18. With this goal in mind he takes inspiration from Friedrich Nietzsche who once said “One no longer loves one’s insight enough once one communicates it.” Dwayne chooses to silence himself in order to commit and focus towards his goal. He is so determined to achieve his goal, and has been silent for over 9 months that when he discovers he is colour blind, from a free eye test Olive took from the hospital, it takes its toll on his emotions and state of wellbeing. He becomes so frustrated and angry that he screams “FUUUUCK!” at the top of his lungs; it is because of this disability that he is faced with a hurdle he wasn’t expecting to run into. He loses his sense of identity as he knows he can no longer become a pilot if he is colour blind. Despite ‘hating’ his family and realizing he is colour blind he puts it behind him so not only can Olive can still get to the pageant but he also puts life into

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