I have a secret to admit: I love stupid
romantic comedies that have no higher purpose than to make you laugh and smile.
Not to say that I can’t enjoy a serious flick once in a while, but sometimes, I
just want to watch something that will entertain me and not work my already
overworked brain. And one of my personal favorites of these types of movies is
the undeniable classic, “She’s the Man.”
It is about a girl, Viola, disguising as her brother, Sebastian, so she
can attend a new school to play on the boy’s soccer team after the girl’s
soccer team at her old school was cut. Now, it may not have subtle plot twists
or deep, metaphorical dialogue, but it’s sure to make me laugh every time. And
what I realized with my most recent viewing of this movie is that Viola’s story
might be more relevant to our class than first meets the eye. I noticed that
over the course of the movie, there were many borders that Viola faced and
there were parts of her journey were very similar to Arnold’s.
To start,
when Viola first gets to school, she is viewed as “different” and ignored by
her classmates. She doesn’t have the walk or the talk of a cool dude because
she’s, well, a girl. Therefore, the other guys see her as a dorky weirdo. Just
like Viola, Arnold is rejected by his classmates because he is different, being
the only Native American in a white school. Viola doesn’t know how to act like
a boy and Arnold doesn’t know how to act like a white person, which leads to
social rejection for the pair of them.
However,
Viola and Arnold both experience a dramatic turnaround following a social
incident. For Viola, the other guys accept her as “cool” after they witness
beautiful girl after beautiful girl swooning over “him.” You can view this
cinematic excellence below.
For Arnold
this turnaround is the combination of two things. First, punching Roger in the
face stops the taunting and the name-calling. After this, he is accepted into
the popular crowd when he attends the dance with Penelope and they invite him
to go get pancakes afterwards.
What all
this comes down to is that by crossing the more clearly defined boundaries of
different school districts, both Viola and Arnold are forced to cross the much
more abstract border of outsider to insider. High school is tough enough
without having to make the effort everyday to fit in somewhere that you clearly
don’t belong. At some point in each story, each protagonists’ secret is
revealed, Viola’s being that she is actually a girl on the boy’s soccer team,
and Arnold’s being that he is actually dirt poor. Despite these shocking
reveals, the people that have grown to care for Viola and Arnold remain loyal
and don’t judge them. The lesson to be learned here is that decent people will
take you for who you are, even if your way of life or situation is very
different from theirs.
Being a huge fan of the movie, I saw the title of this post and was immediately intrigued. It has been a while since I've seen the film but I knew the general gist. So before viewing your post, I decided to try to compare She's the Man and The Absolutely True Dairy of a Part-Time Indian by myself.
ReplyDeleteI easily noticed how they were both social outcasts at their school, but failed to realize the similarity in the turnaround and the revealing of secrets for them both which surprised me. They are such different stories but they really do share so many similar trait.
Something else that I noticed that you did not mention was the impact that being on a team had on both of them. Basketball really changed Arthur for the better. It gave him confidence, friends, and hope. It bonded him with white classmates enough that whenever his secret was revealed they still cared for him. This was similar to Viola's situation. She became close to her teammates and proved herself to them with her skills that whenever it was revealed that she wasn't a boy, they still accepted her.
Sports, more specifically, teams and teammates are really important when trying to cross borders. Sometimes it is impossible to cross the bigger borders alone. Arthur clearly made moves for Indians going to a white school, but that alone won't help the Indian population cross that race and discrimination border alone. But because he made friends and touched the lives of others, they can may hopefully spread their new found acceptance of their Indian friend with other Indian people they later come in contact with. This is the same with Viola and sexist borders.
I like how you pointed out the presence of an insider-outsider border, which is undeniably evident in "The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian." Once Arnold crosses from being an outsider to an insider, which I would agree occurred during his one-punch fight with Roger, you can tell that his perspective regarding such people completely changed. Prior to Arnold's induction into the "inside" we, the readers, view Roger as an overall jerk. Roger's first conversation with Arnold was a racial slur: "Did you know that Indians are living proof that niggers fuck buffalo?" (Alexie 64). However, soon after Arnold throws his punch, we notice Roger being drastically more timid, which symbolizes Arnold's transitioning into becoming an insider. For instance, the following day at school, Roger has a brief, and somewhat friendly, conversation with Arnold about Gene's bike that he rode. As Arnold becomes more and more of an accepted insider, our view of Roger changes from him being a jerk into him actually being a really nice guy. He pays for Arnold when he can't afford their late night pancake run and drives him home later that night. He keeps Arnold's morale high during basketball tryouts, constantly encouraging him, and also defies a teacher when she reprimands Arnold for missing class. In other words, Arnold isn't just an insider, but he brings the audience with him. The readers go from an outsiders interpretation and slowly transitions to being an insider ourselves.
ReplyDeleteThe comparisons between the book and the movie are excellent! I saw this movie a long time ago, so I only partly remember what happens. Even so, your descriptions have clearly reminded me what it is about. The two plots defintiely do have many similarities. As you have said, they both do have to cross a large border because they are the outcast in the school, and high school is difficult enough without even having to stand out. I think that these two characters also share another important lesson with us. They should us to stand up for what we believe in and what we want to do. Everyone would have told Viola not to pretend to be a boy for numerous reasons and may have talked her out of it. Also, Arnolds parents were the only ones who truly supported his decision to go to a white school, but the neighborhood despised him for his decision. Either way, they both followed through with their actions even though not many people would have agreed or acted in the same manner. In the end, they are both successful as you have pointed out. Viola is still accepted and Arnold actually becomes somewhat popular in school. This can teach us to follow our dreams and do what we want to do no matter what other people would say about it. One easy example is women still being somewhat discriminated again for certain types of occupations. Being that there has never been a female president, some may put down the idea and tell women not to even try. From what we have learned from both Arnold and Viola, we should still try to accomplish the task because anything is possible and chances are worth taking. Not saying that I want to be the first female president, but no matter what the situation, we should never fear reaching for our dreams and desires even if they do seem somewhat impossible.
ReplyDeleteI love this parallel! She's the Man is a movie I too enjoyed back in the day. This also reminds me that She's the Man is based on the Shakespeare play Twelfth Night. Duke Orsino in She's the Man parallels the Duke of Illyria as Sebastian in the movie parallels Cesario in Shakespeare's Twelfth Night. It is interesting to compare the ways that this also applies to the Young Adult novel "The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-time Indian". Although there is no cross-dressing or switching gender roles in this book, I do notice the similarities that you have pointed out. There is a high emphasis on sports both in She's the Man and the Absolutely True Diary. Two schools duel fiercely in She's the Man, as Arnold playing for Reardon battles Welpinit. Furthermore, the typical occurrences of high school are present in both of these: including bullying and love. Both of these works relay the important message of striving to be one's individual best no matter what the cost. Viola and Arnold both defy odds to pursue their respective dream of excelling in sports and leaving the vicious cycle of the reservation. The message of following dreams is a common theme in popular literature and film, however each of these specific works successfully portray this message in different ways.
ReplyDeleteFirst, let me just point out how amazing this movie is. I actually just watched it last week! But anyways, you drew such an interesting comparison between two very different characters' experiences at a new school. However, another interesting parallel between these two stories is the double personality that both Viola and Arnold embody. At various times throughout the movie, Viola finds herself simultaneously playing the role of herself and her brother. Meanwhile, certain situations such as the basketball games place Arnold in a situation where he finds himself identifying with both groups of people present.
ReplyDeleteWhile these two characters obviously undergo similar identity crises, their resolutions are completely different. While Viola puts rumors to rest by flashing her breasts at a soccer game and declaring that she is in fact female, Arnold doesn't have such a distinct means of showing his true colors to his family on the reservation or to his friends at school. While Viola's story ends with her termination of her identity crisis, Arnold's resolution is not so simple. Although he ultimately enjoys the same athletic greatness as Viola, he eventually comes to terms with the battling personalities within him. However, this isn't done by proving himself to the masses; rather it occurs when Rowdy is willing to shoot some hoops together. While it is important to consider the similarities between Arnold and Viola's stories, I find it equally interesting to focus on the differences in their conclusions. One is wacky and unrealistic, the other is simple and subtle, but both are incredibly meaningful and gratifying to their respective protagonists.
I completely agree with this blog post and everyone's comments on it! I think that the story line and plot are very relatable to many teenagers around the country. We all have experienced something like this to some degree in our lives. Many coming of age novels and movies focus on this similar concept. True Grit also deals with a similar issue when Mattie tries to do male like things. Other good movies that focus on a similar concept of adjusting and fitting into new surroundings are White Chicks when two police guys attempt to go undercover as women for a job and Cruel Intentions when the two siblings feel like outcasts and attempt to ruin other people's lives with rumors and sex. Every situation ends differently but the same basic border described in this post in present.
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