Stand by Me Essay

Coming of Age – “Stand By Me”

Coming of age is one of the main themes in the film “Stand By Me” directed by Rob Riener in 1986, based on the novel “The Body” written by Stephen King. “Stand By Me” is the story of four twelve year olds living in a small town in America, Castle Rock 1959 whose lives were changed by a journey taken at the end of a normal summer to find a boys dead body who is around their age. The four boys Gordie Lachance, Chris Chambers, Teddy Duchamp and Vern Tessio seem to be like brothers towards each other, the mask each of the boys show to the world shows they are fearless, young and naïve, underneath that mask each of the boys have problems at home to deal with.
Gordie is one of the main characters who I think came of age the most out of the four boys. Gordie’s older brother Denny was recently killed in a car accident and his parents haven’t handled it very well. Gordie was the black sheep of the family, not getting much attention because it was all about Denny the popular athlete in town whereas Gordie wasn’t very sporty and loved to write. Denny believed in Gordie and tried to engage him in family discussions. Gordie came of age when he found the body of Ray Brower, he finally could let go of the pain of Denny’s death. Gordie also stood up to Ace and Eyeball who used to pick on him; he showed courage, bravery and determination.
Gordie’s best friend, Chris, who is the natural leader of the group. Chris comes from a bad family which is stereotyped by the time; he has an alcoholic father who beats him, and an older brother who is a delinquent. Everyone in town thinks Chris is the same as his father and brother where he is the total opposite he is intelligent and brave. Chris and Gordie are the brightest of the four boys. Chris acts like a father figure to Gordie being supportive and telling him to follow his dreams to become a writer, in the scene when the boys are walking on the train tracks Gordie and Chris are having a mature conversation about futures whereas Teddy and Vern are speaking about their favourite cartoon characters.
Teddy is quite peculiar, the son of an emotionally disturbed man who has abused him throughout his life. Teddy finds it hard to admit to this situation so he pretends his father is different and it doesn’t affect him. Teddy thrives on adrenaline rushes and gets worked up easily like in the junk yard when Teddy and the old man have a fight and Teddy ends up getting very offended and realises reality – how his father isn’t perfect and isn’t mentally stable, he then apologises to the boys for ruining their adventure and then came of age maturing by thinking not all about himself.
Vern is young, immature and a little bit ditzy usually on the end of most of the jokes. Vern’s older brother often irritates and creates conflict between them both when he is there, so Vern spends quite an amount of time hiding out. Vern found out about Ray Brower over hearing his older brother discuss about the place the dead body of a missing boy, straight away Vern shares this information with the other boys.
This summer holiday adventure had a dramatic effect on all of the boys the significant discoveries they shared, changed their lives forever. They learned so much more about themselves and their families than they ever realised. Not all families are perfect and have some flaws but it doesn’t impact who or what you are going to achieve in life. These boys discovered just how tough life can be much younger then some but this didn’t effect how they turned out, in fact it may have helped them.