Analysis Of Family Characteristics And Behaviors In The Movie Stepmom

Movie Setting and Story

Stepmom is a movie surrounding two strong and independent women. In this context, they both required to find out a way that could connect each other in spite the circumstances of diverse that could make them not trust each other. However, the study, discusses about the family and values attached to the family. In the movie, Jackie discovers that she is suffering from a terminal illness whereas the relationship in between Isabelle and Luke grows. However, both Jackie and Isabelle discovers that they are required to put aside their differences for the family, however, at there when they  end both the women develops a mutual understanding as they unveil the significance of celebrating life when they get the opportunity to do so.

Movie Setting and Story

The movie discusses about divorce and about the surroundings in which both the family struggles for ensuring that, their children Benjamin and Anna start adjusting with the situation. Jackie Harrison is a pervious publisher who was previously married to Luke that was a successful businessperson. The couple with passing time gets divorced with each other after having two children. On the contrary, Jackie starts dating Belle, who was a photographer by profession although Belle wanted to take care of the children; Jackie did not have any faith in her. Their children visited thir father mostly on wellness and Jackie did not appreciate Isabel as she should she was not a good role model for her children.

  As a result of this the children was start behaving rude with Isabelle. However, the movie takes a dramatic turnoff, when Jackie was diagnosed with cancer that showed that she was required to face the reality and eventually shed has to die. This was the period, when Luke asks Isabelle to marry him, and the children had to face major challenges of dealing with the loss of their mother at the same time adjusting with their step mom.

Assessment of Movie Family

Family processes

Socio cultural

In the movie, there is an interesting portion, which highlights the class of values and ethics in between the family members. For instance, when Anna begins to date she starts complaining about being made fun of by a boy she admired. In this context, Jackie’s advice to Anna was quite different from that Isabelle suggests, Jackie advises Anna to behave in a matured way and ignore the boy. On the contrary, Isabelle suggests a plan to help Anna to overcome her fears to face it. Isabelle’s plan was to increase self-confidence of Anna that is different in the socio cultural context.

Environment

The movie highlights the criticism of midlife crisis on the various degree of restlessness that generally influenced the specific individuals while sweeping across the city. This is because at the stage of middle life, married couples may experience a shift of rolls to pass through crossover of the test marriage (Smith and Jones, 2016). However, the family environment of the movie shows that parents are divorced where the children had to grapple with realistic issue for coping up with situation.

Assessment of Movie Family

Communication

On the level of communication, the movie goes in to depth for valeting the interpersonal connection in between different characters. In terms of family communication, one standout science portrays an important concept of health in between both sufferer and care providers (Silver, 2015). It is due to the communication, that Jackie feels soothe by the nonverbal cues present in the room.

Power/decision making

The movie has highlighted limited power and limited accessibility to decision-making process for the mother to take care of children. Jackie did not have much power over the children although she carried for them.

Roles

All the roles have been appropriately described in the movie provided with an in depth analysis.

Values

The movie Stepmom starts with looking at each individual, but at the end of the movie they manage to define a family. According to the contemporary sociologist, Luke, Isabel, Jackie, Anna, and Ben defines complete family values as they lived in the same house. The movie more or less portrays a blended family values as the father of the children is most of the time working and for Jackie her Children are her utmost priority (The stepmom, 1998).

Socialising and Child rearing

The movie however, shows that the twelve-year Anna is quite close to her mothers who had to face challenges due to her mother illness (Plant, 2015).  Seven-year old Ben who is not very fond of his mother and is completely relaxed with the adjustments that is needed to be made.

Healthcare beliefs and Practices

The healthcare provider is creating the type of health care setting that in the movie, it helps the patient to feel more helpful by the nonverbal cues in the room. In this movie, it has been often portrayed nonverbal cues implying anxiety and nerve issues (Work, 2017). It has been seen in the movie that When Jackie begins chemotherapy she starts losing her weight that indicates the pattern of elimination.

Adaption

The movie illustrated many challenges faced by Jackie such as divorce, Isabelle becoming a stepmother, the children being acquainted with the new situation. The movie depicts the situation of the biological mother adapting with the children from being influenced in the situation. The children adapts with the unhealthy relationships and connection in between family (Smith and Jones, 2016). 

Eco map

The external family relationship begins with Jackie and Luke who are divorced who are also struggling to support their children for being happy with the changing lifestyle. Luke on the other hand starts living with a new girlfriend.

The internal family relationship is seen when Jackie is diagnosed with lymphoma, she had to face range of negative trauma. This become evident when Ben goes missing under Isabel supervisor that Jackie claims that she would have never lost him. Later she confesses that this is not true (Gultekin and Brush, 2017). Both the women manages to build a family bonding when Isabel reveals admiration for Jackie’s maternal feelings.

Comparison to Beaver system

• Family structure

The family structure of the family shows that parents Jackie and Luke are divorces and Luke is dating a new girlfriend where the children has to adjust with new changes.

• Mythology

The myth that portrays at the backdrop of the movie is that Stepmom are not good, they do not take care of children. However, in this case, Isabelle cares for the children and tries to give her best to deal with the situation.

• Goal-directed negotiations

Goal directed negotiation comes when Jackie falls sick with cancer, and because she will die, they make a negotiation that Isabell will be the children mother. All of them tries to adjust with the negotiation despite their wishes (Greenwood and Long, 2015).

• Autonomy

The movie reveal dual tragedies of getting divorced and illness, which does not leave much scope for autonomy for any family members.

• Family affect

The entire family is affected when Jackie was diagnosed with the illness. The Children had to adjust with the situation of losing their mother and Jackie herself had to adapt with the new members Isabell in the family.

• Global appraisal of the family’s level of development

The global appraisal of the family level of development showed a mid-range competency with social income and social issues disturbing the family. The family at the end was able to manage with each other.

Summary and Conclusion

Therefore, from the movie it is quite evident that Jackie and Isabelle are two independent women who finds a way to make their own position in the family. The family members had to go through the situation. The study therefore, shows the values in between social and environmental relationship in between children and the parents.

Reference list

Silver, A.A., 2015. Wicked, selfish, and cruel: An inquiry into the stepmother narrative (Doctoral dissertation, Dissertação de mestrado). Disponível em https://www. antiochla. edu/wpcontent/uploads/2016/03/Wicked-Selfish-and-Cruel-An-Inquiry-into-the-Stepmother-Narrative. pdf).

Plant, R.J., 2015. Book Review: I Could Not Call Her Mother: The Stepmother in American Popular Culture, 1750-1960.

Work, A., 2017. The Value of Parental Co-Viewing on Children and Families. Cinesthesia, 6(1), p.3.

Gultekin, L. and Brush, B.L., 2017. In their own words: Exploring family pathways to housing instability. Journal of family nursing, 23(1), pp.90-115.

Greenwood, D. and Long, C.R., 2015. When movies matter: Emerging adults recall memorable movies. Journal of Adolescent Research, 30(5), pp.625-650.

Smith, P.S. and Jones, M., 2016, July. Evaluating an Online Family Assessment Activity: A Focus on Diversity and Health Promotion. In Nursing forum (Vol. 51, No. 3, pp. 204-210).

Smith, P.S. and Jones, M., 2016, July. Evaluating an Online Family Assessment Activity: A Focus on Diversity and Health Promotion. In Nursing forum (Vol. 51, No. 3, pp. 204-210).

The stepmom (1998) Retrieved on 8 November 2018. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fQy1yr_K_L4