Juno: Navigating the Teenage Journey with Wit, Heart, and Unconventional Charm

The movie Juno is about a sixteen-year-old Juno MacGuff who gets pregnant by her longtime friend and admirer Paulie Bleeker. Juno contemplates an abortion at first but she changes her mind after encountering her schoolmate holding a protest for a pro-life vigil. She decides to give birth to her baby and give it up for adoption. Through the help of her friend Leah, they look for a couple that will be suitable for the adoption and she speaks about it to her dad, Mac, and her stepmother, Bren. Together with Mac, Juno sets to meet with the couple-Mark and Vanessa Loring- whom they find suitable and signed in to a closed adoption. Juno late makes a few visits to Mark and Vanessa before giving birth.

During her pregnancy, Juno struggles with the emotional feelings she has for Paulie who clearly loves her. Juno keeps up an ostensibly aloof attitude toward him, however when she learns he has asked another young lady to the forthcoming prom, she resentfully faces him. Paulie reminds Juno that it is at her demand they stay far off and reveals to her she made him extremely upset. Juno visits Mark when their interaction becomes emotional and Mark at that point reveals to her he will leave Vanessa to make sense of his life. Juno is frightened by this disclosure, with Mark asking her how she felt about him, uncovering he is beginning to create affections for her. Vanessa arrives home, and Mark tells her he doesn’t feel prepared to be a dad and there are still things he needs to do first. Juno watches the Loring marriage come apart and she becomes terrified. After some time, Juno gives birth to a baby boy and Vanessa adopts the baby as a single mother.

Concepts of Adolescence development Stage portrayed in the Movie

The movie Juno isn’t just a brilliant portrayal of film and the imaginative procedure meeting up to make characters and a story that attracts the audience and enables them to put themselves in the lives of the characters, but it is likewise a magnificent illustration of a developmental stage. The movie reflects not just the physical development of its hero Juno but also her emotional all through her pregnancy.

Effects of the social world in development: Bronfenbrenner’s Ecological Systems Theory

The theory revolves around the development of a child through adolescence in conditions of the types of relationships within the environment. The factors that facilitate maturity included the family and societal setting. Juno is brought up by her stepmother whom they are not so close with and this makes her independent and rebellious and her father’s interests in other women affect her look towards relationships. She considers sex as just entertainment and she is not willing to openly disclose her feelings for Paulie and this is a reflection of a family environment that is not conventional.

Additionally, it is observable that Juno is stressed when Mark and Vanessa’s marriage come crumbling. Mark confronts Vanessa on his unwillingness to become a father, their relationship with Juno comes from an outer-circle but she is worried about her baby being brought up by a single parent. This is a clear inhibition because of her past experiences of broken marriages and unstable relationships. Due to her mother’s death, her understanding of biological changes in women is vague, he feels insecure and she does not understand that some things come with maturity. When the theory is related to the film, it very well may be corresponded that developing adulthood are subjective to different components in the environment (Eccles, Midgley, Wigfield, Buchanan, Reuman, Flanagan, & Mac Iver, 2013).

Cognitive development during adolescence

The cognitive development of a person depends on his/her awareness of their surrounding and they start conceptualizing moral values and principles. Juno’s mother left when she was six and she experienced the life of being brought up by a single parent seeing as they were not close with the stepmother. The experience makes her understand the value of a complete family. She even gets into conversations about marriage and divorce before adulthood when she tries to convince Mark that their marriage should not break. The concern she shows is a clear indication of how the experience made her understand the importance of a conventional family and how she would want that for her baby. Regardless of the fact that the marriage could not work out, Juno writes a note to Vanessa about the adoption plan, she is determined to have her baby cared for by someone who is capable in every way. This is a clear indication of her ability to make sound decisions even when she was torn by their divorce (Eccles et al., 2013).

Emotional aspects of development

At the adolescent stage of development, teenagers go through multiple emotional experiences like love, fear, anger, anxiety and even affection and all these have been portrayed in the movie Juno. Even though she knows that abortion can be safe, she can’t help but get worried about the fact that it might not end well or the baby might get hurt. She is scared of having a baby but her compassion and affection led to her looking for a nice couple that would be perfect parents for the baby. When sharing the USG photo with Vanessa, it is clear that she is happy and knows that sharing the experience with a nice couple like them would be worth for her baby.

Juno is sixteen and in a period adolescence, but different conditions like pregnancy and the sort of choices she needs to take for raising the infant are couples of things which she requires to do over her age and development level. This is the stage which brings her into emerging adulthood regardless of her age. She has been raised by single parents and comprehends the outcomes one needs to experience. So when the adoptive spouse decided to divorce, she is crushed. She feels anger and fears that things will not turn out as she hoped and the only thing which she considers is essentially other than money is a stable family for her child. Nonetheless, she is relieved later when Vanessa proceeds with the plan and adopts the baby as a single adoptive parent.

Conclusion

The movie Juno gives a broader understanding of the psychological and physiological issues that teenagers go through in the process of development. It portrays how upbringing and life experiences influence one’s view of life and moral values and principles towards issues like marriage and sex. The movie had so much focus on family and the development process was only depicted on teen pregnancy which became so sporting. I would focus more on the life of a teen and everything she has to go through even during her pregnancy. I would put more effort into her relationship with her friends and her peers in school and social gatherings. The issue of adoption and the divorce of her baby’s adoptive parents were crucial because it enhanced her maturity and portrayed various psychological aspects of development, however, I would have put less focus on her relationship with Mark which did not change her situation but brought about the aspect of boundaries. I believe that the chosen concepts- the social world in development, cognitive development and emotional involvement in adolescence- have been clearly depicted in the film and every aspect of the concepts have been analyzed.

References

Eccles, J. S., Midgley, C., Wigfield, A., Buchanan, C. M., Reuman, D., Flanagan, C., & Mac Iver, D. (2013). Development during adolescence: The impact of stage-environment fit on young adolescents’ experiences in schools and in families. American psychologist, 48(2), 90.

Juno 2007 FULL MOVIE. (2017, June 5). Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xIpLbe69fkE