Critical Literacy

Lady Bird

How are children, teenagers, young adults and adults constructed in this text?
Teenagers in this text were depicted to be reckless and stubborn. This was shown through the main character "Lady Bird". She was known to have a strong personality. The way she was styled help with the wild character she had. One of her memorable accessories was her pink cast. The cast she wore was bright and an easy target to the eye. The cast symbolises her and the stupid decisions she made in the past. She was also frequently accessorised with a choker. This trademark of hers can be linked to emos or goths. People who society associate with being trouble makers and often overlooked as something scary, an enigma to avoid.


How does the text construct a version of reality?
Although it is very cliche for adolescence to be painted as people who are clueless and rash in films, this can be compared to in real life. Similar to the main character, many young people are disoriented and often have no sense of direction in life. The awkward stage between an adult and a child can be pressuring. They are expected to have their life planned out. To know what and where they're studying. This can be heavy since this choice of theirs can affect the rest of their lives. Since this can be very hard for people who just graduated the "child life", acting irresponsibly shouldn't surprise people.

What genre does this text belong to?
Although the film has many serious topics and scenes full of tears, the director had also spiced it up by adding a few comedy touches. This genre of comedy-drama perfectly mirrored the character. Although on the surface Lady Bird seemed like an outgoing, do-whatever-makes-her-happy type, on the inside she's facing many trials. The main character had to experience new things and those foreign experiences can come with many struggles.

Why are we/you reading this text?
To be honest I only managed to stumble upon this text by searching "Trailer" on youtube and the only thing that made me click was due to the familiar face of the character. However what made me choose this was because I see myself withing "Lady Bird". Like I explained earlier the main character has many qualities similar to teenagers, like myself. I am also quite pressured and scared of my future. This film made me realised that I'm not the only one going through it and the fact that some scenes have a comedic touch it makes me think that facing this adolescent phase won't be as bad as I expect.