Juno

The 2007 comedy-drama film Juno, directed by Jason Reitman and written by Diablo Cody, is a great film to use in analyzing the commonly tumultuous and chaotic adolescent years. While my biggest struggles during primary school came prior to age thirteen, I have often wondered at what it must have been like to be a teenaged high school student dealing with the “condition” of teen pregnancy on top of all the pressures teens typically face. Specifically, I remember a girl in my class who became pregnant our senior year by a boy from another school. She was pregnant almost the whole school year, and even walked across stage to receive her diploma at graduation. I remember being simultaneously shocked and impressed by her audacity – it flew in the face of the school’s administration and outraged parents alike.
Tickling the underbelly of controversy, specifically on the pro-life versus pro-choice platforms, is in my opinion one of Juno’s strong points. The purpose of this paper, however, is to explore the developmental psychology topics and theories on which the film I chose touches. Therefore, I must delve into the chaotic world of adolescence. Of course we cannot even begin to discuss the intricacies of Juno without first addressing the main premise of teen pregnancy, which would not have been possible without puberty and maturation – Juno McDuff having matured to the point of menstruation and Paulie Bleeker, at least past the point of his first ejaculation. When the two decide to have sex, Juno describes it as happening because they were bored. This comment implies that the two long-time friends were exploring their sexuality out of curiosity, failing to exercise much in the way of intimacy or foresight. While initially shocking, this behavior in the adolescent makes sense given that their journey into young adulthood has just begun. And now, with their still-developing brains hormonally charged, they are thrown into bodies that are suddenly fully capable of