Nathan Brinling
AP Language and Composition
Mr. Lane
22 April 2009
Little Miss Sunshine
Every ten year old American girl dreams of becoming Miss America. Miss America is the perfect
woman and embodies what every girl wishes she could be. She is beautiful, tan, skinny, perfectly
curved, and smart. The opening scene of Little Miss Sunshine shows Olive Hoover, a thirteen year-old
pudgy girl, imitating the surprise of a girl getting crowned as Miss America. Olive wishes that she could
be just like Miss America. Every member of the Hoover family tries to embody the American family
ideal. Whether you consider the struggling supportive father who puts too much pressure on his kids,
the daughter trying to become a beauty queen, the son who one day wants to become a fighter pilot, or
the mother who is trying to keep the dysfunctional family cohesive, everyone in the family seems to
have a problem. Little Miss Sunshine shows a typical modern family trying to meet these American
ideals.
Sheryl is a mother who is trying to keep it all together. She tries to support her husband in a
failing career, her daughter in a beauty pageant, and her son pursuing a career as a pilot. She works a
graveyard shift to support the family and tries to keep everyone happy. It becomes very apparent that
while Sheryl’s goal is to keep the family together, she is not succeeding. Sheryl is being affected by
some sort of depression. Among low-income American mothers, depression is very common. Among
woman, fifteen percent have been diagnosed with a form of depression (Murray, Bob, and Alicia
Fortinberry). Sheryl is trying the best she can to support her family and is not getting much help. She
tries the best she can to be supportive of her family. Sheryl is the typical American mother who needs
to realize she cannot do everything on her own.
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Richard is a father trying to support his family by writing a self-improvement book about a nine
step program to achieve success in life. The irony about the book is that Richard is not a success
himself. Due to Richard’s failure, he also puts a lot of pressure on his kids. Before the family leaves for
the contest, Richard tells Olive, “There is no sense in entering a contest if you don’t think you’re going to
win. So do you think you can win [the pageant]?” (Little Miss Sunshine). He also tells his daughter not
to eat ice cream because it will make her fat for the pageant. Richard, like many American fathers, put
too much pressure on their kids.
Tim Farrey, a senior writer for ESPN the Magazine, wrote a book called “Game On: The AllAmerican Race to Make Champions of our Children.” The book talks about how parents put unfair
pressure on their kids to succeed. Farrey uses examples of this unfair pressure like “college athletes
who are being paid for their sperm by women or couples who want athletic children, a "world
championship" golf tournament for 6-year-olds, and fourth-graders getting letters of interest from
college basketball coaches” (Smith, Craig). These are extreme examples of parents putting pressure on
their kids to succeed, but it is unfair that Richard, like many other American parents, is putting too much
pressure on Olive to succeed.
Dwayne, Olive’s brother, is trying to one day become a fighter pilot. A pilot career is
predominantly male. Women make up only 6 percent of fighter pilots (Women in Aviation,
International). Some males are attracted to or shy away from a career just because it is considered to
be a male or female career. On the way to California for the beauty pageant, Olive shows Dwayne a
color blind test. When Dwayne cannot see the light green number 8 inside of red bubbles, the family
reveals to Dwayne that he is colorblind. One qualification to become a pilot is that you cannot be
colorblind. Dwayne is crushed and does not know where to turn. He cries and yells when he comes to
the realization that his hopes and dreams are demoralized. Dwayne later realizes that he does not have
to work as a pilot. He concludes that he may have been attracted to a career in piloting because it
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would make him “manlier”. There are plenty of other careers for Dwayne to choose that are not
necessarily male careers.
Olive is a typical pre-teen girl who tries to be beautiful. She enters the pageant dressing room
unaware of the lengths other girls take to win beauty contests. The family is concerned that Olive will
be embarrassed about her weight and appearance competing against the other girls. Beauty is an
obsession amongst girls of all ages; over 11.7 million cosmetic surgical and nonsurgical procedures were
performed in 2007. This rate is up five hundred percent in the last ten years (YWCA). Olive is not alone
in trying to lose weight. In a recent study, sixty-seven percent of women between the ages of 25-45 are
trying to lose weight (YWCA). Olive tries to combat her weight problem as best she can. The young girl
does not seem to show much emotion about her weight, but is very enthusiastic about competing in the
pageant. Olive is not overcome with the feeling that beauty is a necessity, unlike many of her peers.
In the pageant, Olive tries the best she can. In the end, Olive gets disqualified and kicked out for
her sensual dance number set to the song “Super Freak” by Rick James. While Olive lost the
competition, the whole family was proud of her. On the road trip to the pageant, each member of the
Hoover family learned a little bit about themselves through their respective gender roles. Sheryl tries to
do the best she can as a mother, but realizes she cannot do it all on her own. Richard realizes that being
the best isn’t necessarily the most important and that he should put less pressure on his kids. Dwayne
comes to the conclusion that he should keep his options open and that there are more careers than just
flying a plane. Olive realizes that beauty pageants are not her true passion. Olive and the family embark
on the trip back home from California with the realization that they should not have to cohere with the
gender roles assigned to them by American culture. Each individual member of the family should do
what they love, no matter what the gender roles may say about them.
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Works Cited
Little Miss Sunshine. Dir. Jonathan Dayton, and Valerie Faris. Perf. Abigail Breslin and Greg Kinnear.
2005. DVD. Twentieth Century Fox Film Corperation, 2006.
Murray, Bob , and Alicia Fortinberry. "Depression Facts and Stats ." Uplift Program 15 Jan. 2005. 19 Apr.
2009 http://www.diigo.com/05l5n
Smith, Craig. "Book reports on pressures kids face in youth sports." The Seattle Times 6 July 2008. 19
Apr. 2009 http://www.diigo.com/05l5w
Women in Aviation, International. Current Statistics of Women in Aviation Careers in U.S. . 2005. 19 Apr.
2009 http://www.diigo.com/05l5u
YWCA. "Beauty at any Cost." Beauty at any Cost. 2008. 1-9. 19 Apr. 2009
<http://www.ywcatriangle.org/pdf/Beauty%20at%20Any%20Cost.pdf>.