Paper Sample on Elderly Couple Reunites with Daughter & Fiance at Golden Pond

The On Golden Pond is a drama film directed by Mark Rydell, which was released theatrically on December 4, 1981. The film revolves around an aging couple who are the main characters, Ethel (Katharine Hepburn) and Norman Thayer Jr. (Henry Fonda). The couple has a daughter Chelsea (Jane Fonda), who is 42 years and is dating a 45-years old man who is a dentist. Chelsea has a 14 years old boy, Billy. She brings her fiancée to visit her parents in the Golden Pond in England, where they have relocated to their new home to spend summer. Billy has been left to stay with the old couple for a while; his parents have gone for a voyage in Europe. Generally, this film illustrates how Norman Thayer struggles with his advanced age as he nears to his death while Billy is trying to cope with life after separating from the parents.

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Norman has several ailments such as joint pains and palpitations, which are common to individuals of his age. However, he has a serious problem with his mental development and functioning. He is aware that he is not at the highest point of his diversion any more, so he becomes cantankerous as well as sharp tongue to conceal his tantrums. Norman has decided to pull back socially and keep people who are close to him under control with his strange state of mind. Ethel has to deal with her husband’s casual behaviors creatively so as not to allow him to become a loner. She seems to cherish her husband’s way of life and understands his ailments and memory loss. She challenges Norman’s negative behaviors in a positive way hence making her family rely on her in shaping Norman’s life. Generally, Ethel does not want Norman to fall in casualty or loner; that is why she tries to protect him and maintain an ideal relationship with the family and the neighbors. She is nonjudgmental, pleasing as she starts to experience her “dusk” years (Armstrong, 2005).

The film uses sensational sentimentality by illustrating the different stages that people go through. According to Erik Erickson’s eight stages of Psychosocial development, every individual’s primary characters can be set inside a phase, and their age-related emergencies dissected. Norman is a case in point; he represents an old irritable individual who sometimes may show up not to be totally equipped in handling his behaviors, although he seems to be very intelligent. Norman is undoubtedly in the last stage of psychosocial development; late adulthood. According to (Elkind, 1980), at every stage of psychosocial development, individuals experience a crisis or task that needs to be resolved. Erick categorized the last stage as integrity vs. despair and starts in the mid-60s.

In this stage, an individual is usually worried more about his or her ultimate future, especially death than a young individual with an organized life. From the beginning of the film, Ethel claims that Norman only thinks of his death. Erick also argues that individuals in this stage also reflect on their past lives, and in case they had accomplished their goals and lived a happy life, they feel a sense of respectability and integrity. They have nothing or a few things to regret about their past. However, if an individual had an unsuccessful life, they feel wasted, disappointed, and become hopeless. They end having feelings of bitterness, depression, and despair (Gilbert, 1981). As we can see from the film, Norman is not happy with his past life; he regularly goes through the daily papers looking for a vocation. He frequently seems frantic at anyone around him, although he tries to coordinate this outrageous behavior. At the fire scene, for example, Norman shouts at Billy then becomes worried about himself. Ethel designates to Billy that his grandpa is yelling to “remind himself notwithstanding he can.” Norman is seen to be feeling feeble as his old body continues to betray him.

Ethel, who is also in the last stage of Erick Erickson’s psychosocial development, seems to be happy with her life and has maintained her trustworthiness. At some point, Ethel can be figured to be in the stage of adulthood as she seems to be an exceptionally composed and established woman. She seems to enjoy being outdoors collecting strawberries or seeing the nut cases. She struggles to ensure her family, as well as friends, are having happy lives. She experiences hard times trying to understand why her husband and daughter; Chelsea cannot be satisfied and tries to criticize them. During the a  dramatic encounter, Ethel tells Chelsea that lamenting about your youthful life "don't need to demolish your life." Despite that she may not be as grumpy as her husband, Ethel stresses over death stick as he does. Norman and Ethel concede that they have short valuable time left together following Norman's heart attack (Hughston et al. 2013).

The couple’s life and their relationship remind me of my paternal grandparents. After watching this film, I feel that I need to cherish my grandmother more and spend a lot of time with her, similar to how Ethel desires to stay close to her daughter and grandson.

Billy is in the stage of identity vs. role confusion. He experiences character vs. perplexity as he heads to adulthood. He is getting himself being an offspring of separation. He is looking for his identity in his friends and the public as he desires an autonomous life. He should learn from his grandparents, especially Ethel. Billy communicates his liberation when he takes the boat to go for a moonlight trip. Norman telling Billy to explore Purgatory Cove gives him the confidence that a man in the personality versus perplexity crisis needs to have. Furthermore, Billy has issues with feeling loved; he feels isolated and hated when his dad takes off to Europe and thinks that his grandparents do not want to be around them. However, within no time, they develop a good relationship and realizes that they actually need him hence boosting his confidence.

It is also clear that Chelsea is not also happy with her life. She is in the mid-adulthood stage, yet she has issues with her youthful life. She tells her mother that being in the Golden Pond is similar to be a young individual. Since she did not have an ideal relationship with her father, she has substantial problems in knowing and deciding who she needs to stay with. She resolves this by wedding Bill who is not confused about his character. Chelsea reminds me about myself, especially when I am away at school, I am confident of myself; however, when I go back home now and again, I have a difficult time co-existing with my dad. I frequently need to transform him as well as his activities. My grandmother, who assists me in remembering Ethel, reveals to me that piece of growing up is appreciating other people's identity and adoring them in any case. This acknowledgment helps, nonetheless I and my dad's relationship is as yet a work in advance.

Apart from being recorded in 1981, viewing "On Golden Pond" was an impressive affair. I cherished Norman's humor, and the connections enabled me to remember those in my life. Every character helped me to remember no less than one individual noteworthy in my life. The film featured the way that these hypotheses canvassed in the class are, in reality, exceptionally reasonable. Likewise, the film made these speculations relatable, delivering a more prominent comprehension. The film opened my eyes and helped me comprehend those individuals who I hold close. It influenced me to understand that I have to chip away at my association with my folks. Utilizing this newly discovered comprehension, I can take a shot at how I associate with individuals along these lines, fortifying my connections (Widick et al, 1981).

It is difficult being made of Teflon, and that is the thing that you need to end up when the time comes to go up against the part of the guardian of the Normans of this world. Your adored one would not like to talk generally to you, call you mean names they could never utilize on the off chance that they were their pre-ailment self, keep you alert around evening time, or demand that you be available to their no matter what day in and day out, yet the sickness desolating their bodies does. It's difficult for a guardian to be lucid when you have such a great amount of work on your plate, however, consider this for a minute, when you have a minute to do as such, it is the infection living in their body that is doing the talking, not them.

The pre-illness individual would become flushed in disgrace, asking what they need to ask of you now so they can have personal satisfaction. Yet, their ailment blended with fear, uneasiness, sadness, disavowal, or outrage is guiding their ship now as they are encountering dis-ease. Teflon, the trick and a diary, keeps a diary, regardless of whether you need to hold it safely guarded, spill it out in there so "all that stuff" has someplace to go and does not develop to make dis-ease in you.

A word about blame and giving up your wellbeing is similarly as essential as the soundness of the individual you are providing care, so it is okay to state, “I can't do this any longer, I require help(On Golden Pond, 2016).”Lessening your part as guardian and giving the experts access the providing care field venture up to the plate and take a portion of this off your shoulders is a choice that you ought to keep open dependably. You don't need to be anybody's Superman; at times, it's alright to be Lois Lane or Jimmy.

Conclusion

In conclusion, the topics explored by the film, for instance, aging, generational fractures, and enthusiastic closeness, are fixated on characters other than Ethel. Norman's dread of death devours his considerations, and Chelsea's sentiments of insufficiency around her dad cause masochist, capricious conduct; both Norman's and Chelsea's crises are 'oversaw' by Ethel, who remains a joyful, uncomplicated soul all through the film. Ethel's dramaturgical capacity in On Golden Pond is, to a great extent, one of discretion amongst Norman and Chelsea. Besides, Hepburn had risen out of Hollywood's past generation of 'free ladies' and was noted by the movie's executive, Mark Rydell, as an excellent authentic example for Jane. Although their issues are extraordinary, Katharine must perceive a comparable sort of independence in Jane that more likely than not been debilitating.

References

Armstrong, Linda, (2005). "On Golden Pond Shimmers with Spectacular Performances," in the New York Amsterdam News, Vol. 96, No. 16 , pp. 22-23.

Hughston, G., Christopherson, V., & Bojean, M. (2013). Aging and family therapy: Practitioner perspectives on Golden Pond. Routledge.

Widick, C., Parker, C. A., & Knefelkamp, L. (1978). Erik Erikson and psychosocial development. New directions for student services, 1978(4), 1-17.

Elkind, D. (1970). Erik Erikson’s eight ages of man. New York Times Magazine, 5, 25-27.

Gilbert, B., Rydell, M., & Thompson, E. (1981). On golden pond [Motion picture]. United States: Universal Pictures.