e that it’s a matter of fashion and style and others say that they just want to be different. The fact of the matter is that the phenomenon of peer-pressure is involved one way or another. What teenagers do not realize is that they all end-up dressing the same exact way as the others, because the others want to be different too. On the other hand, the peer-pressure that teens face today is much more fierce and vicious than the one faced by teens in the 50’s. In our every day life peer-pressure induces teenagers to do drugs and alcohol, sex, and even criminal acts such as vandalism and murder. There are scenes in Rebel Without A Cause such as: kids shooting police officers, kids getting into fights with weapons, kids talking back to their parents and getting slapped in the face, kids running away, and kids not understanding that they will be able to look back ten years from now and say, “How stupid of me!” The same types of scenes occur today, but the only difference is that they are being reported more often. Why don’t adults face reality and realize that the main cause of adolescent disturbances is not peer-pressure, it’s parental alienation. The relationship amongst the main characters and their parents epitomizes such a case. Jim wants his father to show him how to be a man, Judy has a father who is physically repelled by her, and Plato lives in despair because his absent, divorced parents have abandoned him. In one humorous scene, Jim, his girlfriend Judy, and his friend Plato pretend they are adults. They use upper class British accents and in their conversations they make it evident that kids are no good and should be ignored. Even though they’re all smiling and having fun, they all suffer from a lack of love and experience difficulties relating to their parents. This lack of parental love and attention causes teens to find it in other people and environments that might not be suitable. Th...
