Little Miss Sunshine Movie Essay

Little Miss Sunshine In the film, “Little Miss Sunshine” an extraordinary family explores many obstacles that troubles their way to their journey to Olive’s (daughter) beauty pageant. Along the way the family learns to love, care and support each other. Little Miss Sunshine illustrated that love can be expressed through different forms. Firstly, the movie illustrated how the value of family is very important. The family uses everyone’s strengths to support each other. During the movie, many challenges such as the unreliable VW bus and sneaking grandpa out of the hospital required the whole family to work together to accomplish a common goal.
The Hoover family valued the family as a whole and would not leave anyone behind. An example is when they left Olive at the gas station and then came back to pick her up. Even though, Sheryl and Richard may have had some arguments,sometimes arguments can be used to strengthen a relationship. In Little Miss Sunshine, grandpa may seem foul-mouthed ,grouchy and rude but he still exhibits a caring side. When his son Richard is at the point of bankruptcy, grandpa goes to the front of the van to give Richard his support. Grandpa says a few words of encouragement and sincerely looks him in the eye.
I believe that even though every family may encounter many problems, we grow stronger because of the bonds we make. I believe that the Hoover family valued their family by providing unconditional love and support, not leaving anyone behind and when Richard chose to trust Olive, when she said she’ll win the pageant. Secondly, in Little Miss Sunshine the family provides many functions for one another. One of the functions they provide for one another is support. An example is, when Olive was about to perform her dance.

When she was just about to go on stage both Dwain and Richard tried to stop Olive because they were afraid she was not good enough against the other girls. However, Sheryl( mother) argued that if Olive wanted to perform on stage,it was up to her and was ultimately her decision whether to perform or not. In the end, Olive decided to perform and made a fool out of herself, However her whole family came up on stage to support her. At that moment, the family did not care about anything else, except for Olive’s happiness. Thirdly, in the movie the family provided love as another function for one another.
An example is when Dwain realized that he might be colorblind when Olive tested his color vision. Dwain was mad, frustrated and out of control because his dream of becoming a fighter pilot was not possible now. In order to become a fighter pilot, Dwain needed good vision, including color vision. Dwain started kicking the van and soon the whole family gave Dwain some time to settle down. After a few minutes, Olive came over to offer her support (hugs) Dwain. He soon calms down and apologized for his actions and rude comments about the family. The family then resumed their journey to Olive’s pageant.
This scene demonstrated love because everyone in the family cared about Dwain’s dream of becoming a fighter pilot, they knew exactly how he felt and how it must have hurt knowing that his dream was crushed, just like that. In the movie, a simple hug from Olive showed how love never fails. Lastly, I believe that a family doesn’t need to be normal to function. It takes love , affection and support in order for a family to function. In the movie, love was present but expressed differently. An example would be when grandpa passed away, Sheryl told the family that no matter what happens she will still love each and everyone in the family.
The father on the other hand, who is obsessed with the “9 steps to winning” program still loves Olive for who she is, even though in the end she didn’t win the pageant. Support strengthens the family bond, love never fails and affection provides a lovable environment. Little Miss Sunshine illustrated how there are different families in society, but it doesn’t necessarily take a normal family to function properly. Throughout this journey, the Hoover family learned to trust each other, to persevere through the difficult times and to always hope for the best.