Introduction
In a learning environment, like a high school, students have different characters adopted from their environments, for instance, there are cool students and “blockheads.” For some learners, high school life is fascinating, educational, and interesting, while other learners find the environment suffocative and a long, infuriating period. The diversities in perceptions of learners can be attributed to the popular culture they subscribe. Popular culture also known as pop culture refers to different perspectives, attitudes, ideas, pictures, or other experiences associated with a particular culture. Different high schools have different cultures and cultures can offer benchmarks learners apply to identify their personalities. In high schools, popular cultures that instantly influence teenagers are bullying, eating disorders, cyber crimes, suicide and others. This paper analyzes popular culture effects on teenagers in high schools as explored in two texts; the play, “Dog Sees God: Confessions of a Teenage Blockhead” by Bert V. Royal and the film “Heathers” directed by Michael Lehmann. The main argument of the paper is that popular culture is trending among the young generation, which should be grabbed more attention; it has been influencing a lot on the teenage life and education. For example, in “Dog Sees God,” pop culture is cruelty and harmful behaviors while in the “Heathers,” the pop culture is based on characters’ behaviors of fear, pretense, and hate.
Popular Cultures in the Texts
Royal’s play is an intelligently written study of contemporary teenage anguish and sorrows as observed by Peanuts characters. The play employs the characters from the Peanuts comic expedition to motivate the audiences; it is an ideal approach of using popular culture to share the perspectives and opinions. In the play, the audiences are taken on an expedition by eight adolescents with cruel and harmful characters. The eight characters exhale a gasp of realism on contemporary social issues faced in high schools such as eating disorders, rebellion, bullying, drug abuse, teen violence, sexual relations and identity, suicide, child sexual abuse, and others. The importance of the play is evident since it makes the teenagers reflect on their challenges and make decisions.
The synopsis of the play revolves around CB grieving his lifeless dog, putting efforts to discover the concept or purpose of life and trying to amend some mistakes he had committed against someone before he was cast into the violently outcast group. The friends are reluctant to mourn or console him, and his reconciliation efforts go extremely wrong. Concisely, the play teaches teenagers about the consequences of choices made and sometimes efforts to make amend fail.
In the play, the characters are identifiable as Peanuts analogs; their identification is from both their names, tendencies, and habits. The reference to characters as peanuts is recognizable and meaningful in all the players even those who are just mentioned like The Little Red-Haired Girl, Franklin, and Freida. However, the only character who needed a little work to make his character make sense is Beethoven. From the characters identification, the play teaches the student that characters or behaviors are always associated with individuals though with small exceptions.
In the play, Matt and Van could be seen as cool teenagers, in fact, Van fits a description of a pothead. He indulges drug abuse and pretends to be a Buddhist so as to feel cool and acceptable (Royal 10). He achieves the philosophy of the religion but compromises on his beliefs. For example, he constantly sought a sexual relationship with Sally and ended up miserable when he fails (Royal 37). This point is important since it teaches audiences that by seeking to please the peers or the world sometimes people end up loose what they value the most. On the other hand, Matt is pathological and sex-obsessed; he harassed Beethoven and endangered the homosexual bond between Beethoven and CB and (Royal 42-43). His actions are the main reason Beethoven decides to commits suicide. The play presents a twofold lesson from this occurrence; one teenager should be cautious of their actions against one another and secondly, one should not harm themselves because of others perceptions or actions.
The play presents a concept of remaining real and authentic. This is seen from the aspect of the play that shows that as long as the players remain in their theater reality by sustaining their identity the action seems to shift from nonfunctional to failure. It is a point of a lesson for teenagers to stick to the right path and everything will work out well in their education and school life. All that could go amiss with youngsters currently, from eating problems to drinking to severe mental breakdown to maltreatment to pretentiousness to lazy habits are pointed in the play. As theater, names are transformed into Peanuts identifications, nonetheless, the stage actions drifts off with excruciating results for all participant and even the darkest of hearts audiences are left in tears after the final scene. It is a confirmation that even the teenagers who think they are untouchable will always answer to their conducts or habits.
What seems to be the major drawback in the play is time or period. The character depictions reflect much of the early 2000's comprehension of teenagers’ habits and conducts and only what individuals consider wrong with today’s teenagers. However, the general review of the play is good and it is an important play to caution contemporary teenagers.
On the other hand, the film “Heathers” also has important lessons that relate to popular culture instantly effects on teenagers in high schools. For example, even though Heather Chandler (Walker), Heather McNamara (Falk), and Heather Duke (Doherty) are seen as the most popular students, they are hated and feared. Teenagers can learn that being popular is not always a sign of love and acceptance. In the film, being popular is referred to as the high school clique- “Heathers”. These three girls are considered the cool students at the high school; however, they are mean and fall into the popular culture of “Heathers” and lifestyles. Like the case of Van in the play, Veronica was fed up with their habits and needed to reconcile to her old life and nice friends; however, she could not. When a newcomer, an insubordinate stranger by the name Jason Dean "J.D" (Slater) fired blankly at the Ram Sweeney (Labyorteaux) and Kurt Kelly (Fenton), the school bullies, he fascinated Veronica. It is evident that trouble attracts trouble so teenagers should avoid trouble to be safe.
In one instant, Veronica attends a party with Walker but refuses to indulge in sex with her and also throws up, Walker promises to damage her status. This is a typical characteristic of peer pressure effects in the current student’s learning and life experiences. On other occasions, J.D. convinces Veronica to falsify a theatrical suicide letter in Walker's writing. It is evident from the statement that student often exploit others. The community and school assessed and evaluated the Heather's perceptible confession note as a catastrophic verdict from a popular but troublesome teen (Lehmann 22:08). Here the community and school are not keen in evaluating the note since the victim is a troublesome teenager. From the statement, teenagers can learn that the people form opinions based on characters, and popular culture instantly influences their study. In another case, Martha Dunnstock, an obese, frequently bullied by other students, attaches a suicide note on her chest and attempts suicide by walking into traffic; she survives with serious injury but is mocked as attempting to "act popular.” It is evident that the things student do unto others affect both the culprit and the victim. Suicide becomes the fad in the high school, it is crazy; JD’s father is a crazy person (parents’ education); drinking and sexual assault is rampant in Westerberg High, life and education in the high school are disasters in this film.
Similarities
In both the text, the authors attempt to caution the audiences (high school teenagers) against bad behaviors against themselves or to others. For instance, both of the selected works play the dark subject among teenagers.
Effects
The popular cultures in high schools influence the creators of the works to produce them in attempts to caution the teenagers against bad habits and popular culture adoptions. The characters are symbolic since they represent most of the students in high schools. The audiences are put into a position to reflect on their deeds and make decisions. Popular culture is influential; therefore, it is a suitable topic to caution teenagers against peer pressure consequences. These texts referred to popular culture as a means of drawing audience attentions to what is happening in the society.
Conclusion
In conclusion, the text confirms that popular culture is a trendy phenomenon in teenagers’ life and should be given serious attention so as to help teenager make right choices for their education and life. The society should discourage popular cultures that are detrimental to teenagers and embrace change. Schools should sensitize the learners against negative popular cultures and teenagers make reflective and analytical decisions concerning their education and life.
Works Cited
Heathers. Dir. Michael Lehmann. Perf. Winona Ryder, Christian Slater, New World Pictures, 1988. DVD.
Royal, Bert V. Dog Sees God: Confessions of a Teenage Blockhead. New York: Dramatists Play Service Inc., 2006. Print.
