Rebel Without a Cause and Suburbia

             

Last week in class we watched scenes from "Rebel Without a Cause" and discussed youth, urbanization, and suburbia. The concept of a suburb seems to be middle to upper class white families desire for a real-life "utopia" of sorts to live in. They want two story houses, green lawns, white picket fences, and groomed yards. They want to live next to similar families of their own, with no minorities and thus no crime or gangs. The problem with this is that most of the time it is the parents who want it more than the kids, so the children tend to rebel against what their parents want and find ways to uproot the perfect setting. As portrayed in the movie, this results in the pretty white teenagers forming gangs of their own and causing trouble around town. James Dean's character Jim Stark is the new kid in town and he quickly learns how stubborn and mean the other kids can be. He tries to get to know a neighbor girl,  Judy, but of course she is dating the leader of the main gang and a real jerk who pushes Jim into a knife fight later on. Judy is dealing with her own troubles in suburbia, with her tension between her and her father and the growing lack of affection she is receiving, causing her to find it elsewhere and in bad places. 

Due to the suburban setting apparently resulting in the parents being less than involved in their children's lives, the teenagers rebel by being generally uncooperative and risk-taking in many aspects of their chosen activities. The teenagers pass the time getting drunk, riding in cars unsafely, intimidating other people, and generally just being delinquents. They have no real reasons to behave like this except that they are bored. This shows the downside to privilege and money. These suburban settings end up breeding teens that are spoiled and rich and seem to not have to answer to anyone. Their parents are too easy on them and almost ignore them in their dream lives in utopia, which leaves the kids with no outlet for their attitudes and aggression. This leads to them spending their time illegally and thinking of new ways to cheat death. 

Buzz, Judy's boyfriend and the leader of the gang, challenges Jim to a game of "chicken," where they will both drive cars toward the edge of a cliff and whoever jumps out of their car first loses. Buzz ends up going over and killing himself when his sleeve catches on the door handle, preventing him from jumping out when he should have. "Games" like this are beyond dangerous and completely pointless and is the result of the so-called suburban environment, where privileged sons and daughters think they are invincible and will do anything to pass the time. They will risk and risk and end up dead. They do not have anything to care about, so they do not put value on anything, even themselves. It becomes about trying to prove how tough you are and how much you can push the envelope. Kids flock to others like themselves and get peer pressured into doing stupid things the fit in.