Give Me a Child under Seven, and I Will Give You a Man - Essay Example

Comparison of Neil Hughes and Symon Basterfield characters in 42Up "Give me a child until age 7, and Ill give you the man" is the famous adage associated with “Up” Tv series directed by Michael Apted and produced by Granada Television. It was first telecasted on 5th May 1964 in ITV channel. Ever since “Up” series has gained reputation as the greatest nonfictional movie in the history and the most realistic study in anthropology (Schneider, 2008). Characters in the study represent a wide social arena and a diverse cross section of Britain during 1960s. “Up” series provides valuable research opportunities to the social scientists on topics such as human behavior and child cognitive development. Nevertheless these characters were born in 1950s. Therefore some of the experiences of the characters in “Up” movies may not be applicable to the modern society. “Up” series gives an insight as to how childhood predispositions, wealth, parenting and race can provide opportunities for later development of the human life. Further, common societal believes such as positive attitude towards life supporting high goals in life can be assessed using experiences of characters in “Up” Tv series. By looking at different aspects of the lives of these characters such as marriage and profession we can evaluate the linkages between childhood predispositions and adulthood experiences. Neil Hughes and Symon Basterfield are equally interesting characters in “Up” Tv series. They experience explicitly different forms of parenting and socioeconomic provisions during their childhoods (Newbury 2008). In 1964, Neil Hughes first appeared in “Seven Up”, representing the middle class of Liverpool. Neil at age seven looked healthy and cheerful. In early interviews he showed signs of openness. His ambitions were always glorious and at age seven he wished to become an astronaut or a coach driver. Symon Basterfield was introduced in the series as an illegitimate child whose father was unknown and of colored ethnicity. At first he was bought up in a children home. Later in 1964 Symon was living with his mother who suffered from periodic depression. Little Symon is characterized by lack of opportunities to grow in life and victim of poverty. According to Vygotsky et. al., 1962 child’s cognitive process begins in social arena where parents are an important influence. Children first learn by listening, observing and imitating their parents. After knowledge had been internalized child becomes competent in skills such as language. When evaluating Neil Hughes and Symon Basterfield characters the reliability of child cognitive development theory introduced by Vygotsky et. al., 1962 is evident. While young Neil dreamed of exploring the space, latter’s thoughts restricted to London example, “trip to Madame Tussaud’s Wax Museum” (Schneider, 2008). In this study Neil is ranked in the middle class while Symon in the poor class. The gap between two children’s socioeconomic provisions is reflected in their childhood fantasies (Newbury, 2008). Neil who was sufficiently provided with food, cloths, shelter as well as love and caring probably had a wider exposure to the society. He was aware of the wonders in the world at the age of seven. It can be inferred that poor Symon’s exposure to the society had been restricted to the places in London. Childhood inspirations such as the people, places and things adored and venerated by children can influence their latter growth and development. In accordance with 1962 child cognitive development theory by Vygotsky et al., young Neil’s personality was positively confident and outgoing while Symon’s personality was characterized by feelings of frustration, and rejection. General readers might also expect high performance from adult Neil while weak to mediocre performances from Symon in the future. But evidently this was not the case. By the time of “42Up” in July 1998, Symon was the most enthusiastic of the eleven participants in the show despite weakly provided socioeconomic background and being divorced. Symon have had five children with the first wife. In 35Up he voted to remove from the show but reappeared in “42Up” with a cheerful new wife, Vionetta (Smith G, 2011). Difficulties in Symon’s marriage life remarkably resemble the problems in his childhood. In 42Up Symon claimed that he had given up all sorts of skin color related thoughts. He also had given up looking for his farther. Letting go of problems rather than fighting them seems to have strengthen Symon emotionally while leading his life to success. It is commonly advocated that sufficiently providing psychological and physical needs for children is important. Parents believe providing nutritious foods, comfortable cloths and peaceful environment can produce a successful adult. Notions such as building confidence and sense of security in children’s mind have been deeply rooted inside modern day parents’ thoughts (Bichler, 1976). However evidence of adult Neil and Symon characters in infamous 42Up questions such widely held believes. Young Symon’s mother was not married. She clearly showed the signs of possessiveness towards Symon by getting depression when he was at child home. Probably Symon grew up listening to her enormous complains about the society creating a dearth of emotional security in young Symon’s mind. By 42Up after his mother had died and Symon admitted to not sharing his feelings such love, likes and even dislikes with mother as often as he should have despite feeling protective of her. As a child Symon had not exposed to the life of successfully married people. Seemingly Symon had to learn how to succeed in matrimony by experimenting as suggested in 1975 theory, of cognitive development by Piaget. Piaget, 1975, described cognitive development as a process of adaptation and organization. In unfamiliar situations assimilation and accommodation processes occur in human mind. These two processes jointly results in adaptation to the changes. Through the natural process of organization which is occurring in human mind, structures of related and interconnected information are created. Although Piaget’s focus of cognitive development is children, learning from experiences is common throughout the human life. While Symon was struggling with matrimony Neil struggled with financial instability. Neil is considered the least successful among the “Up” characters by the age of twenty one. He was previously noted for having glorious deems in life, wanting to become an astronaut and going to Oxford which later reduced to Aberdeen University. At the age of 21 he dropped out from university after one term and was seen working in a construction site. He also showed signs of poor mental health and agitation in twenties. Until 35Up Neil was seen struggling homeless and jobless. Neil’s performances in both social relationships and professional aspects of life were comparatively poor despite good socioeconomic background provided during the early childhood. In 35Up he admitted to most likely being wondering in the streets homeless even seven years after. Nevertheless Neil showed a progressing success by the age of 40 in which he became a Liberal Democrat councilor in Hackney. Grown up Neil looked unreserved and enthusiastic just as he did during the childhood. In 42Up he claimed its apathy that leads to bad governments. He is characterized by wanting to make a difference in the world. Ambitious Neil partially succeeded achieving his goals directing theater by the age 35 and becoming a politician by the age 42 (Newbury, 2008). Neil’s character as a child indicates self confidence, enthusiasm and positive attitude as if he believed “one could do anything they desire in life”. Such high hopes and charisma brings joy to the other people by merely associating with them. The society does not wish to acquaintance with battered men and women who would show the negative picture in this world. Nevertheless who does ultimately succeed in life? Symon on the other hand had a rough start in life. Even as a teenager he was matured, clearly communicated the injustices in the society and showed signs of frustration. He lacked enthusiasm and confidence as critiques viewed however succeeded in life being happy and healthy. Neil also began progressive success only after going through difficult experiences having better understood his strengths, weaknesses and what life really is. He admits to lack of interpersonal skills required in developing long lasting relationships with other people. Neil depicts the typical bewilderment some children undergo as they step into the society with over self confidence. Positive attitude is vastly venerated in the modern society but the truth is human life is full of unforeseen obstacles. People undergo sorrows, joys, disgrace, fame, lose, profit, success and failures at different stages in life. Only those who understand and accept the existence of such obstacles equip themselves with proper willpower towards success. All the characters in “Up” series admitted to have gone through difficult times even the privileged. Loosely defined self confidence and positive attitude overlooks the negative attributes associated with human life and does more harm than it brings insight to living. With time it is evident that Neil learns to accept “thy” and the ways of the society. In 42Up also Neil was seen unmarried despite having exposed to healthy family relationships as a child. In an interview Neil also claimed he would not suggest a woman for presidency in Britain (Laja 2009). How or where did such despise towards women started developing in Neil’s mind, film does not answer. However he always wished not having children because he didn’t want to reproduce such deficiencies he had inside another human being. Does this suggest presence of such deficiencies in Neil’s parents as well which he probably linked with his character? We do not know. Characteristically Neil wanted to serve those who elected him as a district councilor by reducing homelessness and unemployment in the UK while Symon wished to provide best parenting possible for his children. Both admit they would not rather have gone their children through similar bad experiences as they did. This motivation was obvious in other characters of “Up” series as well. In analyzing these two characters the unpredictability of human life is explicit. What are the real determinants of human development? Clearly common societal norms and cognitive development theories fail explaining the unpredictability associated with human development. The objective of any science is to upgrade the wellbeing of the society. Anthropologists and psychologists attempt to fit human development in theoretical models expecting to positively influence human life (Erickson, 1965). Underlying assumption of modeling human development is that “nature of human lives” can be controlled. Even the characters of “Up” series wished controlling at least certain aspects of their children’s life. But how much would they succeed in controlling the fate of another human being when they barely succeeded controlling their own fates? Analysis of charters of “Up” series also shows that a successful life cannot be bought for money, imposed by parents or race. Cognitive behaviors can be partially linked with children’s environment and biological processes but not completely. The choices humans will make given the circumstance we might never predict. Thus development of human life cannot be sufficiently predicted by using socioeconomic parameters or theories in psychology. By daily experiences we know that children of wealthy families have the equal chance of making wrong decisions in life. Further, Leonardo Da Vinci and Jesus Christ were born in poor families. They did not have systematic cognitive support given to the modern day children at schools. Nevertheless it took 300 to 400 years to interpret Da Vinci’s theories by the common scholars. Similarly, analysis of Neil Hughes and Symon Basterfield characters in “Up” series also depicts the limitations of commonly held assumptions regarding human life and cognitive development of children. References Bichler, RP.1976. Child Development an Introduction. USA: Houghton Mifflin Co. Boston Erickson, E. H. 1965. Childhood and society. New York: Penguin. Eshleman, J. R. (1981). An introduction to sociology. Massachusetts: Ally & Bacon. Laja S. 2009. Public Inquiry: Neil Hughes, 52, participant in the TV series Seven Up!. Available: http://www.guardian.co.uk/society/2009/feb/18/neil-hughes-tv-seven-up. Last accessed 27th Sep 2012. Newbury, B. 2008. The Neil Hughes Interview. Available: http://www.documentaryfilms.net/index.php/the-neil-hughes-interview/. Last accessed 27th Sep 2012. Piaget, J. 1975. The childs conception of the world. Totowa, NJ: Littlefield, Adams. (Originally published 1932). Schneider, D. 2008. The Up Series directed by Michael Apted. Available: http://www.hackwriters.com/Upseries.htm. Last accessed 27th Sep 2012. Smith, G. 2011. symon Basterfield. Available: http://georgina-smith-7upseries.blogspot.com/2011/07/symon.html. Last accessed 27th Sep 2012. Vygotsky, Lev Hanfmann, Eugenia (Ed); Vakar, Gertrude (Ed), (1962). Thought and language.Studies in communication.(pp. 82-118). Cambridge, MA, US: MIT Press, xxi, 168 pp. Read More