Scott Pilgrim’s in Precious Little Life (2004) describes how he fears to grow up. Scott pilgrim is not comfortable when he is becoming an adult because of many responsibilities and high expectations that people have towards him. Scott perceived the existence in the world in a childish manner and by this it can be said that he is refusing to grow up. In another angle, it can be said that Scott looks at the existence in the universe as a child and says that this type of nature is very fragile. The series that Scott has written describes his shaky and weak relationship with his past life when he used to grow up.
Scott believes that he is nostalgic because his past was not very attractive and entertaining. The state of nostalgia is where-by the past is linked with the present so that an individual can discover the unachievable ideal in the past. Scott fear to grow up also arises when look into the society and realizes that a lot of people are not in peace with the past cultural artefacts and this shows that the society was unhappy of the things that were happening to them. Scott pilgrim goes ahead to apply the remediation concept which shows a lot of phobia that surrounds his life. He claims in reaffirmation, specifying that the roles in gender and hetero-normativity were shaped by political cultivations. Scott pilgrim has a problem in reaffirming the facts but says that the society cultural influence affected the gender and sexuality in a variety of ways. The nostalgic generation was not comfortable with the past because of the many forms of mistreatment that had occurred.
The protagonist in the precious little life, Scott pilgrim, seems to remain in this state of nostalgia for a long duration linking the negative occurrences in his life. He fears to grow up because the challenges that his adulthood faces fixes him to the wall. He argues that when one grows, he is discriminated against and he grows to learn the stereotypes that never affected him in his childhood days.
In precious little life, Scott pilgrim is haunted by his past and it seem to affect his present and future. Scott fears to grow up after he left many unresolved relationship issues with his girlfriend. It can be speculated that, pilgrim thinks if he had not come to ages, he could have not be engaged into relationship matters therefore his heart would not have been hurt this much by love. Scott perceives that life was not honest and when one grows up it becomes difficult for them to live a happy life than before. Scott describes how he had been a victim of falling in love and he says that, “I’m in love with this girl but her evil exes have banded together to control her love-life so now I have to fight them all to the death.” When he was a child, he used to live a very happy life and he was not holding much concern about other people affairs. This is because a child mind is concerned only with the basic needs needed for survival and a child does not demand too much.
Scott pilgrim fears to grow up because his adulthood had been surrounded by many relationship challenges and hurdles. A year ago Scott broke up with a mature lady whom he had fallen in love with. This left him feeling so low with much stress and regrets. Because of the desperation, Scott pilgrim decides to go childish by starting to date a high school girl. It can be said that Scott pilgrim refused to grow because he engages himself in a relationship with a teenager and they are surrounded by high levels of immaturity. Their relationship seems to lack true love and the chemistry that attaches lover’s hearts. Scott seems to be a complicated guy because the state of deciding to remain and act like a child is very complicated and hard to understand. There is no any form of emotional attachment in this relationship since his high school girl, Ramona, was not mature and had a habit of exchanging different men as she wishes and this is against Scott expectations.
On the other hand, the garden state, the protagonist is not a victim of the notion that he is afraid to grow up, it is about the state of mind. Andrew Largeman is a young character who is suffering from depression. He feels that his life sterile and he cannot live without prescription drugs. Therefore, due to this condition I think that Andrew was not afraid of life but he was afraid of facing the reality. Thus to let the feeling go, the only thing he could do was to take the anti-depressants to relieve himself. This state of mind made him feel isolated to the extent that he could not talk to his parent for a period of nine years.
It could be argued that factors such childhood, has negatively affected Andrew. This might be due to the factor such as having negative aspect of his life and low esteem which are prone to depression. This has made him abandoned his friends and family to live the life of his own. He had never contacted his friend for almost nine years he departed from his home town. This might due to the reason that he feared to live with the people who could guide and help him straighten up his life. I believe the he had come out and share his grievances with other people; they could have helped him to overcome the depression without using the antidepressant drugs.
It is evident that Andrew life was in a mess because he had not allowed himself to integrate with the other people. This is because after leaving to his home town, he met Sam, and his life started changing for the better. Sam helped Andrew to survive the depression without taking the prescription drugs. This shows that, Andrew was not afraid of living but he had not met somebody to talk to and someone who can help him to overcome depression. He therefore lacked a valuable and important element of life in his young age. This element is the power to socialize and share his problem with the other people hence reducing the depression.
In general, the Garden Estate revels that Andrew suffered from the psychological conflict. The audience is able to capture the interior side of the character’s mind. Largeman never knew that he was supposed to face the world. He was supposed to integrate with other people but not living separate world. He was supposed to come up with the means to overcome the situation and face the psychological conflict. Living alone without even communicating with his parents for years reveals that Andrew had an existential anesthesia. He needed to wake up from the isolated world and find the solution or redemption of such a life.
Once Andrew realized that he had been missing something valuable in his life, he began a soul searching mission after the burial of his mother. He realized the need to reconnect with his old friend so that they can help him to shape up his life. He also went ahead of discovering the new friends. This means that he had gained the desire to integrate and socialize with people. It could be interpreted that being with his friend especially Samantha helped him to regain form and become optimistic about his life. Samantha being a free spirit girl breathes life back to Andrew. The girl advises Andrew to on how to live an appreciated life by encouraging him to open his heart and let the bad and the good emotion free from him. Once he does that he realizes that this emotion has plagued and distorted his life since he was a small child.
It could be observed from the both scenario that the protagonists believe that they were nostalgic because their past ware not very attractive and entertaining. They were both linked with the present so that they can discover the unachievable ideal in the past. They were both not afraid of living but they were tortured by their memories of the past. They were not aware of the thing or measures they could take so that they can live without nostalgia.
Works cited
Moody, Rick. Garden State: A Novel. Wainscott, N.Y: Pushcart Press, 1992. Print.
O'Malley, Bryan L. Scott Pilgrim's Precious Little Life: Vol. 1. Portland, Or: Oni Press, 2004. Print.
