Writing About

Both "Sixteen Candles" and "10 Things I Hate About You" dramatize the lives of teenagers by putting the films characters in crazy situations. For example, in "Sixteen Candles" the excitement revolves around sex and partying. Sam Baker, the main teenage character has to deal with the normal struggles of high school. Her parents forget her birthday, she has a weird foreign exchange student living with her named Long Duk Dong, and the guy who she wants to be with has a popular, and beautiful senior girlfriend. The only thing she has to look foward too is turning 16, which actually ends up not being anything she imagined because her parents forget her birthday. "10 Things I Hate About You" pokes fun of teenage life during highschool, but the characters in this movie are all about relationships. The main female characters, Bianca and Kat, have to deal with a strict and controlling father who will not let them date. Both movies put an emphasis on dating/ hooking up in highschool, which is not far off from what most teenagers are concerned about in real life. The ideas and events are all realistic, just overexaggerated for humor. "Sixteen Candles" and "10 Things I hate About You" mimics real teenage life by showing the varieties of social status's, importance of relationships, and the struggles of overbearing or totally distracted parents.

In every high school there are numerous "clicks" or social groups. The friends teenagers choose to associate themselves with determines if they're a nerd, jock, prep, or hipster. Those aren't the only clicks in high school. In "16 Candles" Sam Baker, the main character, is shown as an underclass men girl, who has some potential to be socially acceptable, but her weird tendencies hold her back. The main "geek" also holds Sam back from getting with her upperclassman crush, Jake, almost the entire movie by telling everyone him and Sam hooked up. This part of the movie is not very much like real teenage life because it is rare for a senior boy to end up finding true love with an underclassmen, who  is a bit of an outcast. Some other social groups shown in "16 Candles" are the poplular, upperclassmen, party girls. These are found in every school along with the Sam's, Jake's, and Geeks. Long duk dong, on the other hand, is a rare find. While all the social groups in the two movies are spot on, the way they end up together, and things that go on between the characters are completely unrealistic. In "10 Things I Hate About You", things end up the way they are supposed to be more than in "16 Candles".  Kat and Patrick Verona are the rebels. They go against the rest of the highschool, and do not try to please anyone but themselves, making them the perfect couple in the end. Another predictable match is Cameron and Bianca. The whole movie, both characters are concerned with doing whatever it takes to get what they want. Cameron wants Bianca, and Bianca just wants a date. They end up going to prom together, which is very typical. Both "10 Things I Hate About You" and "16 Candles" present perfect examples of different clicks you see in real teenage life. The only difference between the two is that "10 Things I Hate About You" is more realistic when it comes to relationships forming in the same click, although both movies heavily revolve around relationships in general.

In "10 Things I Hate About You" the characters seem to be chasing after one another not so much for sex, but more for getting the date. On the other hand "16 Candles" is almost opposite. "16 Candles" shows the teens as having one thing on their minds, and that is hooking up. Some examples are the geek wanting to hook up with Sam, and Sam wanting to hook up with Jake. Every scene involves some sort of sexual reference. Even though the sexual content in "16 Candles" is exaggerated for humor, it is it far for what real teenagers constantly think about. Sex is something not many high school students think is wrong. Some students however, like the ones in "10 Things I Hate About You" think going on dates is just as important as the casual hook up. You see Cameron the whole movie scheming his way into just getting a simple date with Bianca. In "16 Candles" you see the geek  trying to scheme his way into Sam's panties. Luckily for the geek, Sam is generous, and gives him her underwear to show his friends. This backfires on her, along with many other things, like her grandparents answering the phone the time Jake finally decides to call. Many bad events could have been avoided for Sam if only she had parents who cared a little more. This brings me to how certain   parenting not only affects the characters in both movies,  but also the outcome of real teenagers lives.

The two types of parenting you see in these movies are over bearing, and totally distracted. Sam Baker's parents are the discracted parents because they forget her birthday, and have to juggle taking care of Sam's older sister for her wedding. This causes Sam to be even mor uspset with how things are turning out for her. In real life, distracted parents can contribute to really harmful attributes for their children. That type of parenting can cause a distant relationship between the child and parent, which then can lead to the child not being able to tell the parent what is going on in their lives, just like Sam in "16 Candles". Teenagers with distracted parents are more likely to hang out with their teenage friends, party, and not take care of responsiblities. Sam may have not been so down the whole movie if her parents would have been aware of what was going on with her mood. However overbearing parenting is not any better. Some parents allow their children to obey strick rules with no exceptions. When teens lack freedom in their household, this usually causes them to strive for freedom inthe outside world. Overbearring parents make the mistake of thinking they are doing their child good by being strict to keep them safe, but actually this causes teens to want to rebel. An example of this would be in "10 Things I Hate About You", Kat and Bianca are not aloud to date. Their father is an OB, and sees many teenage girls find out they're pregnant at his job. This causes him to be overbearing and strict with the "No Dating" rule. Bianca really is the only sister to want to date because Kat could care less what guys think of her. When the rule changes and their father says Bianca can date if Kat gets a date, things change in Bianca's mind. She persuades Kat to get a date, and this causes bickering between the two girls. They both end up happy at prom with dates they both were interested in. The point though is that both overbearring and distratced parenting can lead to harm for teenagers. Being lenient and a bit strict can create for a better relationship, good decision making, and overall less havic in a families life.

"16 Candles" and "10 Things I hate about You" accuratley show what teenagers truely care about: hooking up, the dance, and relationship. Sure, not all teens are this way, but the majority in high school are. When you are a teenager your brain is not fully developed so you are automatically prone to bad decision making. In both movies you see this go down with the partying and hooking up. The movies are a reflection of real teenage life, just a bit over exxagerated for comedy. They say "high school is the best time of a persons life". As a kid watching both "16 Candles" and "10 Things I Hate About You", I would have believed that. But reality is much different than movies meant for laughs.