Ferris Bueller Day Off Essay

Adolescents can be depicted as being rebellious, risk takers, and foolish. Many T.V. shows and movies give these labels to teens, and this is why most people picture adolescents as this way. Movies depict a person’s adolescence years as being out of control and daredevils. For an example the film, Ferris Bueller’s Day Off by John Hughes, portrays the main character, Ferris Bueller, as a troubled teen who skips school all the time without getting caught by the principal or his parents. The film illustrates the typical stereotype of what people believe of adolescents, however that does not mean all adolescents are like that. According to Sarah-Jayne Blakemore, “adolescence is defined as the period of life that starts with the biological, hormonal,

physical changes of puberty and ends at the age at which an individual attains a stable, independent role in society.” Blakemore argues that teens tend to have this rebellious behavior because the human brain is still developing, however this does not explain why all teens are not this way around the world. While Robert Epstein says that “an individual’s genes and environmental history – and even his or her own behavior – mold the brain over time” (58). Epstein argues that teen behavior is caused by the disorder of the world, not because the human brain is not fully developed. David Moshman then argues that adolescents grow and develop as they go through life. Moshman claims that there is no certain point where a teen reaches the right amount of maturity. While Moshman and Epstein agree with each other, Blakemore disagrees and believes that teen behavior is caused by the brain not being fully developed. Hughes’ film shows how a teen, Ferris Bueller, living in the suburbs, with influences of the world all around him may act and how teens develop at different times.
Epstein argues, in “The Myth of the Teen Brain”, that adolescents do not act the way they do because their brains are undeveloped, but because of the world we live in influences them. Epstein explains the chaos of teens all throughout the United States, and he says, “If the turmoil-generating “teen brain” were a universal developmental phenomenon, we would presumably find turmoil of this kind around the world” (58). Epstein makes a great argument here because if adolescents behave the way they do because their brain is still developing, then why isn’t the turmoil happening all around the world like it is in the United States. Epstein also says a study was done in 186 preindustrial societies and in these studies 60% of teens showed no sign of having any rebellious behavior. (58). This proves a great point because if teen behavior only came from the brain then teen turmoil would also have shown in the preindustrial societies as well. Hughes’ film, Ferris Buller’s Day Off, shows how a troubled teen may act, however, it also shows that the teen lives in a suburb area in 1986 who has many things in his life that influence him to be troubled or to cause his behavior. For an example, Ferris, the teen in Hughes’ film, has friends, T.V., music, and many other things to influence his behavior. Hughes’ film does not show that the teen acts this way because of his brain being undeveloped, but because of the worldly things around him to influence his decisions. Also, Ferris never ends up getting caught whenever he skips school; many teenagers will change their behavior and grow from their mistakes whenever a consequence happens to them. This shows that going through life and learning helps teens mature and grow as people.
However, Blakemore argues that teen behavior is caused by the brain still developing in adolescent years.

Blakemore says, “One of the brain regions that changes most dramatically during adolescence is called prefrontal cortex…it is involved in a whole range of high level cognitive functions, things like decision-making, planning.” She explains that the prefrontal cortex is still developing in adolescent years, and that since it is still developing then teens do not know how to make good decisions or stop inappropriate behavior. Blakemore’s argument does not explain why all teens around the world are not acting out of control or rebellious. If Blakemore’s argument is correct then teens all around the world would be in great uproar. Hughes’ film shows teens behavior of course, but it doesn’t show that the behavior is caused by the teen brain. For an example, the film also depicts a character that is somewhat different from Ferris. Jeanie Bueller, Ferris’ sister, is portrayed as a mean teenage girl who is somewhat of an outcast and just worries about getting her brother in trouble. However, throughout the film Jeanie gets in trouble with the police and realizes that she needs to get her priorities right and just worry about herself. Blakemore’s argument that teens are like this is because their brains are still not fully developed, but after an incident happens in the film Jeanie learns from it and matures from it. Blakemore makes great arguments because the teen brain is still developing, but the behavior of teens is not caused by the teen brain

alone.
David Moshman’s idea on why teens behave the way they do is because they are just going through life and learning all about it as they go through it. Moshman says “Adolescents are rational agents interacting with each other and with their environments and constructing their own futures. They cannot do this without their brains, but they are constructing their brains, not simply being driven by them” (173). Moshman is explaining how adolescent behavior is not caused by their brain, but by going through life and learning as they go through it. “Adolescents may indeed develop, but their development is not caused by their brains. Adolescents may become more rational, but there is no universal or biological state of maturity waiting to be reached” (173). Moshman makes a great argument because adolescents are learning things about life as the keep going through life. Teens develop and become more mature as they grow, but this is not caused by their brain; this maturity comes from going through life and learning things about life. In Hughes’ film, as mentioned before, Jeanie Buller tries to get her brother in trouble, but ends up getting herself in trouble with the police. When this incident happens, she realizes that her priority needs to be herself. The film shows that teens may mature at different times, but also that they mature from the things that happen in their life.
While Moshman and Epstein somewhat agree with each other about how teens develop and what is causing their teen behavior Blakemore disagrees and says that teen behavior is from the brain still not being fully developed during adolescent years. However, Hughes film shows that the teens throughout the film have many worldly influences all around them. Futhermore, the film shows that a teen, Jeanie Bueller, changes her behavior after an incident happens in which she learns from it. Blakemore argues that rebellious behavior of adolescent is from the brain, but that does not explain why Jeanie changes and grows after the incident happens. Moshman and Epstein argument does explain this because worldly things influence people and as people or teens grow they learn from the events or incidents that happen in their life and become more mature or developed. Also, Hughes film shows that Ferris never gets caught in skipping school therefore his behavior never changes. Epstein and Moshman explain that this behavior is caused by the influences of the world, in which this makes sense because not every teen in the film is this way.
Moshman and Epstein make great arguments that this “teen turmoil” is from the influences the teens have, and also just because they are immature and are maturing the more they go through life and learn from the trials they face. Blakemore argues that teens are this way because the brain is still not fully developed, but this does not explain why teens all around the world are not like this. Hughes’ film depicts teens differently throughout, and shows that teens mature at different times. Hughes also shows that the teens are living in the suburbs in 1986, where there is now T.V. shows, people all around, and society to influence these teens.