MOVIE REVIEW

BY
HEENA
RARI
VAMSI
Name of the movie- ‘GIFTED’.
Plot- “The movie follows the life of
child prodigy Mary Adler who is raised
by her uncle Frank and his struggle to
keep her with him after her
grandmother files a claim for
custody”.
Erickson’s stage to be explained -
‘Initiative v/s Guilt’.
• Initiative v/s Guilt is the third stage among
Erickson’s eight psychosocial stages. It
usually occurs during primary school years
(3-5 years) of children when they are
exposed to new surroundings, people and
experience freedom of choice. children
learn new concepts introduced in school
and are expected to practice these lessons
in real life. They know that they can
accomplish these tasks on their own, but if
they fail to do so and end up asking for
assistance from others, they may feel a
sense of guilt.
• According to Bee (1992), it is a “time of vigor
of action and of behaviors that the parents
may see as aggressive." During this period the
primary feature involves the child regularly
interacting with other children at school.
• Central to this stage is play, as it provides
children with the opportunity to explore their
interpersonal skills through initiating
activities. Children begin to plan activities,
make up games, and initiate activities with
others. If given this opportunity, children
develop a sense of initiative and feel secure in
their ability to lead others and make
decisions.
• Conversely, if this tendency is squelched,
either through criticism or control,
children develop a sense of guilt. They
may feel like a nuisance to others and
will, therefore, remain followers, lacking
in self-initiative.
• The child takes initiatives which the
parents will often try to stop in order to
protect the child. The child will often
overstep the mark in his forcefulness, and
the danger is that the parents will tend to
punish the child and restrict his initiatives
too much.
• It is at this stage that the child will begin to ask
many questions as his thirst for knowledge
grows. If the parents treat the child’s questions
as trivial, a nuisance or embarrassing or other
aspects of their behavior as threatening then
the child may have feelings of guilt for “being a
nuisance”.
• Too much guilt can make the child slow to
interact with others and may inhibit their
creativity. Some guilt is, of course, necessary;
otherwise the child would not know how to
exercise self-control or have a conscience.
• A healthy balance between initiative and guilt is
important. Success in this stage will lead to the
virtue of purpose.
• The movie starts with Frank sending Mary to
school for the first time. Mary has been home
schooled until then and reluctantly goes to
school.
• Once in school she is placed in first grade and feels left out. She talks
out of place and gets reprimanded by her teacher. Here we can
observe the Initiative aspect of Erickson’s stage. However she gets
reprimanded by her teacher and experiences guilt.
• Then she yells at the principal showing the lashing out aspect
of this stage where adults try to control children and children
usually go against them. Later Frank does the same telling her
not to show off making her feel wrong. The next day mary
stays silent and compliant in class which shows us the guilt
aspect of erickson’s stage 3.
• Next we see a scene where a child from Marys class is bullied
by a older student. Mary defends her classmate and injures
the bully. She is made to sit in the office and Frank is called.
Instead of scolding Mary, Frank supports her saying she did
the right thing but still hitting people is wrong. Erickson says
that if children are reprimanded frequently they experience
guilt and soon lack self initiative. Frank by supporting her
boosted her morale while making Mary realise that hitting
people is not ideal.
• Later when Mary walks on her teacher leaving after spending
time with frank it causes Frank to scold her telling Mary that
she is interfering with his life. This causes mary to once again
experience guilt
• Half way into the movie Mary goes to stay
with her grandmother for two days where
she is asked to solve a mathematical problem
by a professor. She doesn’t solve and says
nothing. Later she confidesto her
grandmother that the problem itself was
wrong and unsolvable. When asked to why
she didn’t say anything before she recounts
Frank telling her not to correct older people.
We can assume that she did corect older
people in the past and was told not to. Now
she knows it is wrong and exhibits behaviour
related the guilt aspect of erickson’s stage
three.
• During all these incidents Franks reprimands her
rarely. Instead he he supports her and makes
her realize her mistakes and makes her correct
herself without feeling too guilty.Even though
Frank looses his temper and yells at Mary
sometimes he is quick to apologise and make
her understand. Erickson says too much of guilt
can cause a child to loose initiative and become
detached from activities. Thus in the movie we
not only find a good example of initiative vs guilt
but also a good example of how beneficial it is
to balance the amount of initiative and guilt in
children and the way that balance leads to a
sense of purpose.
THE END