Stand By Me

"Stand By Me" is a coming of age story of four 12-year-old boys: Gordie, Chris, Teddy, and Vern. The best friends go on a journey to find the dead body of a young boy that went missing in their town, in order to become town heroes. Along the way, they have a run-in with a man and his dog, the local gang of delinquent boys, leeches, and trains. On the way there, they discover more about themselves and each other, that alters their perspective forever.

One stereotype that was heavily dramatized was the insults that middle school boys throw at one another. In the film, the boys are always trying to one-up each other in the insults they hurl at one another, particularly about their mothers. In fact, the narrator, Gordie makes it a point to tell the audience, that as middle schoolers, they had to find cool new insults about their mothers. Another stereotype the film builds on is the idea that in middle school you can't back down from a challenge because your pride is the be all, end all of your identity at the time. As Gordie and Chris go to meet Teddy and Vern, they run into the local gang. When Ace, the head of the gang, takes Gordie's hat it's Chris that stands up for him, to the point that he was practically pummelled to the ground. The third stereotype that this movie embodied was the mentality of 'the pack': a group of boys that are best friends. This was so exaggerated with this group of friends. Chris was the tough guy from the wrong side of town, with a good heart who wanted to do better for himself and also happened to be the leader of the pack, always protecting everyone else. Gordie, the kid that has everything going for him is, actually trying to throw it all away because he has a chip on his shoulder, oh, and he's also just lost his brother that was more like his father than his actual father. Then there is Teddy who is the loose-cannon of the group; he's got a had in the psychiatric hospital and seems to like in an alternate reality. Lastly, there is Vern, who is the chubby friend, and no surprise is afraid of everything. This was the typical 'group' of friends the directors came up with.

As we know, though stereotypes are based on truth, they are not always correct. In actuality, no matter how great of a friend you might have, it's never okay to insult one's mother. Especially in middle school, when kids are super sensitive, boys would only take for one maybe two jokes. After that, it would be a brawl. The second stereotype that this movie projects is that of the mindset of a typical middle schooler thinking they are indestructible. But as we know, that is not the case, in fact, they show that in the film itself, with the dead kid the friends are searching for. Thirdly, the typical pack doesn't exist, especially in middle school when all the kids just want to hang out with the other kids that are the same as them.

In this film, I think I most resonated with Gordie when I was in middle school. I had the same sort of mindset. I didn't think that school was really going to get me very far. I so badly wanted to be in the same classes as my friends that I never signed up for honors classes.