Winners and Losers Essay Example

perfectly groomed elegant women on TV. The viewers can see by looking at Olive she is completely inexperienced when it comes to beauty pageants, but can also see how motivated Olive is to become apart of that world.

A voice over leads into the next scene of a man giving a motivational speech, to a half empty classroom, on nine steps to becoming a winner. The man’s name is Richard Hoover, Olive’s father, speaking about the nine step program he created to turn losers into winners. The viewers can tell by the man’s hopeful, energetic voice that he truly believes in the program: “There are two kinds of people in this world, winners and losers”(Richard). When the speech ends and the lights turn on almost no one applauds Richard’s presentation.

Richard is overly confident in the nine steps, and seems to push them on everyone in his life. Now the viewers are introduced to Dwayne, grandpa, Sheryl and Frank all, which illustrate distinctive characteristics of winners and losers. Dwayne shows determination as he works out generously in his bedroom. A non-typical grandfather is shown in the bathroom dressed in leather, and snorting cocaine. A tense Sheryl is shown while driving to the hospital she is arguing on the phone, and smoking at the same time.

Finally when Sheryl arrives at the hospital Frank, a depressed middle-aged man, is presented to the audience. Frank is shown in a wheelchair in a hospital room looking out a window. The audience later learns the reason Frank was in the hospital was because of an attempted suicide. Dwayne shows characteristics of a winner because of his

determination to work towards his goal of becoming a jet pilot. Sheryl, Frank and grandpa all show more characteristics losers then winners.

Sheryl is overly stressed, Frank is a depressed suicidal man, and grandpa feels isolated in his life and uses drugs to deal with it. Throughout the journey to the ‘Little Miss Sunshine’ pageant each character experiences many different struggles along the way, ultimately bringing the family closer together and highlighting the true meaning of being a winner. Richard tries to encourage people about his nine-step program, but no one is interested. Sheryl struggles to make enough money for the family, while Dwayne finds out that he is colorblind and cannot live out his dream of becoming a jet pilot.

Finding out that he is colorblind brings Dwayne closer then ever before to his family. Frank and grandpa struggle with life in general and don’t know how to deal with their problems in positive ways. Olive struggles to fit in with the beauty pageant world, but is hopeful about the ‘Little Miss Sunshine’ pageant. Throughout the film the family supports Olive in her beauty pageant dreams. While at the pageant Dwayne says: “I don’t want Olive doing this. Mom, look around! This place is fucked! I don’t want these people judging Olive!”(Dwayne, 99)

The family realizes Olive is going to embarrass herself in front of everyone, so they go up on stage with her. When Olive goes up on stage her family joins her to prevent her from being embarrassed, and ends up getting kicked out and disqualified because of it. Even though Olive ultimately loses the pageant, the family “wins”

because of the bond they made. The theme of winners and losers throughout the movie is used in many different ways. Even though throughout the entire film the family appears to be losing they actually win by becoming closer as a family.