The film opens with Sam on the phone with her best girlfriend Randy. She is examining herself in her full length mirror and is totally horrified to find that her body didn't' magically transform overnight. She was hoping to wake up with a body just like Caroline's. Caroline is the head cheerleader, prom queen, and girlfriend of the most popular boy in school, Jake Ryan. Sam is hopelessly "in love" with Jake and is convinced that he won't know she exists until she is more developed, more mature, more like Caroline. Little does she know, Jake does notice her. He is intrigued by a certain mispassed note containing some very personal information about Sam's sex life (or lack of

one). In this note, Sam confesses that she is a virgin (she has never done "it") and is saving herself not for marriage, but for

Overall, Sam seems to have a close relationship with her family. She is

Sam in particular is very envious of Caroline's body. I think this is because she isn't very comfortable in her own body and is very self-conscious about the way others look at her. Sam has not yet established her own identity, so she models her identity around the identity of the one person she wouldn't mind being; the girlfriend of Jake Ryan. Popularity and identity go hand in hand in the sense that those who are popular are usually the ones that establish an identity first and then have their peers modeling their identities

after them. This would explain why so many adolescents want to be just like their friends, complete with the same clothes, hairstyles, etc. Sam sees that both girls and guys are attracted to Caroline's looks and personality and wants more than anything to be just like her. Little does she know, the main reason Jack's takes an interest in her is because she seems a little bit different. She isn't just like everyone else, and he actually sees that as an attractive quality. Sam is just a sophomore, while Jake is a senior. He is a little bit more mature and more confident in his own person. After all, he's the one all the other guys want to be like. He can appreciate that Sam is beautiful not in a blonde hair, blue eyes kind of way, but in her own special way.

understandably upset with them for forgetting her birthday, but she is able to forgive them in the end. She seems to have a pretty typical relationship with her siblings. She and her younger brother are constantly at each other's throats, and she and her older sister seem to be close but also somewhat competitive with each other. I got the impression that Sam was closer with her father than with her mother since she ends up turning to him for advice about Jake. I found that somewhat unusual in that I would expect her to go to her

is not like Caroline. By the end of the movie Sam learns a valuable lesson about being her own person and even gets the guy along the way.

Sam's high school is like any stereotypical high school with it's various social crowds. The popular crowd in this movie is composed of mostly jocks and cheerleaders. These adolescents seem to be the most physically attractive and have the wealthiest parents. According to a recent study, the ways boys and girls gain popularity or prestige in school has not changed much over the last couple of decades. Girls and boys typically gain prestige in school through totally different, but very traditional means. Most boys

In conclusion, the film "Sixteen Candles" is a classic example of some of the issues most everyone faces when coming of age. However stereotypical, the portrayal of the adolescent ex

Some common words found in the essay are:
Jake Caroline, Ryan Popularity, Yando Bendell, Jake Ryan's, Immediately Ted, Overall Sam, Molly Ringwald, Sixteen Candles, Caroline Jake, Caroline Caroline, jake ryan, peer relationships, film sixteen candles, blonde hair blue, jake caroline, blue eyes, own person, male friendships, mispassed note, sexual experiences, hair blue eyes, popular boy school, sam friends, throughout movie,
Approximate Word count = 1860
Approximate Pages = 7 (250 words per page double spaced)