The human development process is highly complex, multifaceted since any person throughout their life experiences many events, each of which affects the formation of their personality. Therefore, it is sometimes difficult to understand the way of thinking of another character. Fortunately, many psychological theories allow analyzing the behavior of people. In addition, various media, books and films that focus on personal development are other helpful tools. In most cases, the theories of human development can also be applied to the characters of such works. This approach allows one to simultaneously hone the skills of using this knowledge and obtain more information regarding possible features of human development. The purpose of this reflection paper is to evaluate one of the characters in Jodie Foster’s Little Man Tate, Dede Tate, to analyze the character’s life path through the prism of theories of human development.
Little Man Tate is a 1991 American family drama film directed by Jodie Foster, in which she took part on her own as Dede Tate. The plot tells us about the life of a young genius boy, whose cognitive development is significantly ahead of the usual childhood state (Foster, 1991). However, while Fred is the main character, this analysis will focus on his mother, Dede Tate, a young woman with ordinary intelligence and a bright personality. The concept of Fred’s development as a person is complex since it combines the cognitive traits inherent in adults and the emotional characteristics of a child, the development of which has not been studied in detail in this course. Therefore, the purpose of the paper is to analyze the behavior and development of Dede Tate and the correspondence of Jodie Foster’s character display to development theories.
Although Dede is not the main character, her role is quite significant because she is the main character’s mother. Since she has a lot of screen time, it is possible to analyze her personality according to various theories. First of all, since most of Dede’s character is built around interaction with her son, it would be logical to apply the ecological systems theory developed by Urie Bronfenbrenner. In the context of this theory, a person is considered within a complex system of multilevel relationships (Berk, 2018). The mother’s interactions with the outside world, her microsystem, directly affect her son. Fred’s performance in school, his exosystem, impacts the relationship between parent and child.
As practice shows, the use of the ecological system in a family context is quite common. An article by Fivush and Merrill (2016) demonstrates adapting the original version of Bronfenbrenner’s theory to the family narrative. The authors distinguish systems interacting with each other: shared family and communicative family narrative and family history (Fivush & Merrill, 2016). Accordingly, each of these systems corresponds to the Bronfenbrenner micro-, exo- and macrosystems. The entire film is devoted to the interactions between Dede and Fred at various levels of the framework. If we place Dede at the center of this ecological system, then almost all the main events practically fit into the concepts of a microsystem since a woman is directly involved with them. As a mother and as an adult, Dede interacts with the child’s microcosm, forming a shared family value, matching the child’s emotions (Fivush & Merrill, 2016). Dede understands her son’s emotional state like no one else, although she lacks an understanding of the potential of his cognitive abilities (Foster, 1991). The film reflects the close interaction of mother and child at these levels since they are the key elements that shape her personality. In addition, each character is in their place in this theory, providing mutual development and interaction.
Despite Dede’s rigid attachment to her son, Jodie Foster’s acting gives us enough information to understand that a woman has a personality and does not exist only for the protagonist’s development. Moreover, from a particular perspective, she is opposed to her child. Fred shows great intelligence but cannot share his emotions and communicate with other people. On the other hand, Dede has an average intelligence for an adult, which is compensated by emotionality and even some almost childlike spontaneity (Foster, 1991). Following this, the question arises, does the mother’s personality correspond to the character of the adult?
As the analysis using the Erikson theory shows, despite certain childhood traits, Dede does indeed correspond to the stage of early adulthood. Although the viewer does not know her exact age, she is clearly between 20 to 40 years old, which allows viewing her as an early adult. However, this correspondence can be drawn not only because of age but also because Dede’s storyline reflects the conflict between intimacy and isolation (Berk, 2018). One of the most important things for a woman is love, expressed as love for her son. The film does not show Dede’s partner; their family consists only of Fred and his mother, making their relationship even closer. Since it is at the sixth stage of the Erikson model that love is the central concept, one can safely attribute Dede to this particular stage of life. However, it should be noted that at the same time, the woman demonstrates the remnants of the conflict of role identity and the prerequisites for entering the period of middle adulthood, explicitly focused on parenthood.
In this context, in addition to the well-known Erikson model, it is appropriate to use the attachment model since a significant aspect of a woman’s personality is her relationship with her son. The article by Kerpelman and Pittman (2018) focuses on the combination of these two concepts, mixing clear stages in a person’s life with the inner sensations from interactions with the outside world. In this paper, the authors describe how the formation of attachments, especially during childhood, can influence the way adolescents and adults approach self-formation. In other words, Kerpelman and Pittman (2018) draw a parallel between how the formation of attachment relationships can influence human development. Looking at the film and Dede specifically in this context, it can be noted that much of her personality is shaped by her relationship with the child. Because Fred feels a lack of emotion, Dede tries to fill this gap with expressions, such as dancing at home to music. Although such positive traits can undoubtedly also be a sign of optimism and a more open outlook on the world, one cannot deny the mutual influence of the son and mother on each other.
Finally, it can be noted that the development of Dede is not fixed and is continuous. Therefore, the most appropriate approach for analyzing women would probably be one that views development from a lifespan perspective. The concept, created by Paul Baltes, states that human development is multidimensional and often proceeds through gain and losses (Berk, 2018). This approach most accurately explains all aspects of Dede’s personality discussed above. A woman focuses on love, as it should be at the early adulthood stage, but nothing prevents her from retaining the features of a child in emotionality. In addition, the woman is still relatively young and does not understand what exactly her child needs. Finally, this theory explains the changed behavior of the character towards the end of the film. After going through the loss and separation from the child, Dede learned to understand better his needs, which allowed her to combine her emotionality with a rational approach.
This analysis can be confirmed by using additional insights on lifespan development theories. The article by Rudolph (2016) is a literature review and compilation of several similar concepts that, when combined, fill each other’s gaps. This article compares and contrasts the theories of Baltes, Carstensen, Heckhausen, and Brandstadler and Renner, each describing the same process but from slightly different perspectives. Some of the ideas expressed contradict each other, for example, thoughts about increasing control (Rudolph, 2016). Even with these corrections, Dede’s story still fits well with these concepts, as they explain its relationship to various topics in detail. For example, in her attempts to help her son, Dede was guided by the principle “If a little is good, more is better,” manifested in the case of the first birthday celebration in the film (Rudolph, 2016). The woman was trying to increase the amount of emotionality without thinking about what consequences this could have. However, the events strongly influenced her son and herself, forcing her to reconsider her views.
Thus, it can be noted that although Dede is not the main character in the film, she goes through her development. This developmental process can best be described using lifespan development theories. As an adult woman, Dede sometimes demonstrates childish traits in her emotionality, affection, and spontaneity, which can be explained by insufficient development in one of the areas. However, the interaction with the child affects her, forcing her to change to meet better the child’s needs, who remains her priority. The analysis made it possible to study several development theories in detail and apply them in practice in the complex context of the relationship between mother and son and their joint development.
References
Berk, L.E. (2018). Exploring lifespan development (4th ed.). Pearson.
Fivush, R., & Merrill, N. (2016). An ecological systems approach to family narratives. Memory Studies, 9(3), 305–314.
Foster, J. (1991). Little man Tate [Film]. Orion Pictures.
Kerpelman, J. L., & Pittman, J. F. (2018). Erikson and the relational context of identity: Strengthening connections with attachment theory. Identity, 1–9.
Rudolph, C. W. (2016). Lifespan developmental perspectives on working: a literature review of motivational theories. Work, Aging and Retirement, 2(2), 130–158.