Exemplar Paragraph Little Miss Sunshine

A technique used in Little Miss Sunshine to make the idea interesting is symbolism. The
yellow van that takes the family from New Mexico to California is big and bright and yellow
representing sunshine. Sunshine makes you think of fun and happiness. The van is what
brings the family literally together and allows them to have fun as a family. The journey is
taken in this yellow van which is worn out and falling to pieces but it is still working. It is
determined just like the family. The journey to California is long and frustrating, it seems to
take forever. Much like their lives at the moment. But the van (and Olive) is their sunshine
on this dark path they seem to be following. The beat-up yellow van represents the family as
the film goes on. It breaks, the door falls off, the clutch breaks, the horn wont stop making
a noise. But as the movie goes on and they get closer to their goal of making it to the Little
Miss Sunshine pageant things start to get better. And at the end there is hope for that
battered up van, and the family. The van also makes the family laugh, despite all its issues it
is the family push starting it makes them laugh for the first time. The director uses the
symbolism of the van to show the audience that working together and being on the journey
together is more important than the pageant, or the goal, itself. It represents family, fun,
working together, all the things this family needs to learn to become a functioning, happy
group by the end of the film because they are so unhappy at the beginning.