Motifs In Juno

In the visual text, Juno directed by Jason Reitman, the motifs develop one or more ideas which include, the purpose - age does not mean maturity and love. The motifs appear throughout the visual text which may seem random but are important along the course of the visual text.

In the visual text Juno, the main character 16 year old Juno decides to experience sex with her best friend Paulie Bleeker, who wasn’t entirely eager to do so. Despite their closeness they are not together for the majority of the visual text. As a consequence of their sexual encounter Juno gets pregnant. Clearly not able to take care of a baby while going to high school she considers an abortion. At the abortion clinic Juno decides otherwise after an encounter with a protester, instead putting it up for adoption. Juno is originally portrayed as a sarcastic, young and humorous
person but during this journey, Juno developed more understanding of life and matured beyond her age.
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The motif of fingernails had impact on the visual text. The fingernails were an important transformation for Juno, influencing an important decision regarding Juno and the future of her baby’s life. The fingernails symbolize life and growth. Before knowing about the baby having fingernails Juno did not care about the “thing” inside her and does not realise it is alive so she wants to get rid of it. Juno did not understand the importance and concept of the “thing” inside her, barely even knowing it was alive. This is due to her age and her young view on the world and life. When contemplating the idea of abortion she is strongly affected by the lonely protester Su-Chin outside the abortion clinic, who is holding a sign that says “NO BABIES LIKE MURDERING” while chanting “All babies want to get borned.” After a brief talk Juno continues her way to the clinic, Su Chin calls out but the camera shot shows Juno does not turn around but stops. Su Chin says, “Your baby probably has a beating heart, you know.” to Juno however she doesn’t react, again Su Chin calls out “It can feel pain” but again Juno
doesn’t react. However when Su Chin calls out ”And it has fingernails.” Juno turns around and says “Really, fingernails?” as she momentarily considers the concept. A mid-shot and a close-up of Juno’s facial/body expressions emphasises her confusion and surprise. This is when Juno has been hit with the reality, there is a living thing inside her body, however Juno does not think much about it and turns around to go into the abortion clinic. Upon entering the clinic, all she can focus on is the fingernails of everyone else in the room after realising the fetus/baby has fingernails. A nearby teen bites her thumbnail, another woman who is waiting scratches her arms with long fake nails, the receptionist clicks her nails on the front desk and another woman blows on her fresh manicure. Everyone seems to be fidgeting with their fingernails. The music intensifies and there are short, sharp shots of the fingernails. This is showing the confusion and surprise in Juno’s head. The reason why Juno only became aware of the baby being alive on the fingernails subject not the heartbeating or pain is because Juno is different and unique and her stepmom Bren owns a nail salon. For the first time she doubts her decision and realises what she is carrying a living human and it's worth. She does not want to kill the baby. She panics and runs out of the clinic, meaning she will not abort the baby - which shows she has matured. When fingernails are chipped/cut they re-grow (hence fingernails symbolize growth) which symbolizes how Juno realises that she is holding something that will grow. The chip/cut of fingernails symbolizes Juno’s pregnancy. This motif powerfully reinforces the fact that Juno has grown more mature and responsible once she finds out the baby is alive.

Another motif which had a huge impact on the visual text was the runners. The runners might be considered random, but is important when considering the impact. Juno is immature and very young at the beginning of the visual text. However as time past we began to see she was maturing and developing responsibility. The runners constantly appear throughout Juno and this shows time is passing and keeps a tab on Juno’s pregnancy journey. The runners and Juno are very similar, the journey lasts a year and at the end they have the big event, for Juno this is her labor and for the runners it is the big race.. The training and running is like Juno’s pregnancy journey - she is developing and training. However this is not the only reason this motif constantly appears. This motif is also a reflection of Juno thoughts. Juno makes many decisions and the runners going past shows that she is getting somewhere with her life. Bleeker is a member of the track team. Bleeker eventually fades away from Juno, during her pregnancy. Juno is denying feelings for him. The runners constantly reappearing (Bleeker one of them) symbolizes Juno’s feelings for Bleeker, despite trying to hide them, shows that Bleeker is still a part of Juno’s life, as if running towards Juno - she pushes the thought, they run to her. This motif cleverly reinforces one of the themes - unconditional love/loss of love without dialogue. The running also shows the life moves on. The runners run in circles and always come back to Juno, this is showing how as much as Juno wants to run away from her responsibility it will always come back to her thus making her be responsible and mature - which is one of the key themes. This motif of running cleverly emphasises two of the themes - love and maturity/responsibility. Even Juno’s carries symbolism - same name as roman goddess who was goddess of marriage, family, fertility and associated with love - being an important theme.

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Another important motif in the visual text was the seasons. The seasons are like timekeepers to show time is passing without showing time or dialogue. The camera shots along with the lighting/colours relate to the seasons - for example in winter the colours/lightning is darker/cooler. Each season represents something different - winter is depression/pain, spring is fresh start, summer is a new beginning/happiness (comes after winter) and autumn is re growth. Autumn was when Juno and Bleeker first had sex - ironically autumn symbolizes re-growth - Juno got pregnant. In winter was when Juno’s pregnancy was the hardest and her experiences of herself and the people around her got worst. In summer there is a shot of the runners preparing for the race juno preparing for labor (showing same experiences) - this shows that summer was the new beginning and that in this season was when things when everything went alright. The seasons not only show time passing but they also symbolize change, Juno is changing with time and this is why constantly the seasons are shown which was very effective as there was no need for dialogue or to physically show her changing. This motif helps to develop the idea of Juno changing into a more mature human being.

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The hamburger phone motif represents Juno’s childish and immature behaviour. Jason Reitman effectively highlights her childish personality/behaviour with the use of the hamburger phone prop only a tennager would use. Her dialogue also focuses on her childish behaviour - “What? - Can you just hold on for a second, I'm on my hamburger phone.” Around the beginning of the movie Juno is seen on her hamburger phone, this shows her childish personality at the start. Juno uses this to call her friends. After a period of time, Juno calls the abortion clinic on this phone. This motif reminds us that Juno is still a young teenager even when she phones the abortion clinic. This shows what type of person she is. She makes an important phone call on this childish phone to show that she is maturing but still is childish. This motif shows us at the start of the visual text that she is immature which is important to show us that later on she changes into being more mature.

Conclusion
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