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Response to Ellery's Blog

Every Chritsmas, I eagerly record the marathon of Christmas films on the ABC Family network, now knows as Freeform. Home Alone is always one of my favorites because of the family's dynamic, Kevin's deviousness, and the touching ending, which contrasts greatly to the two previous aspects. Although I always found Kevin's actions to be quite drastic, considering his age and the situation he has been placed, I never really thought about the fact that his actions do clearly reflect that of a psychopath. I always found it so interesting and funny how calm Kevin remains throughout the movie and how well prepared he is for the robbery; the first time I watched the film (as a child, mind you), I was extremely impressed that Kevin even realized/prepared for the robbery when he did. If I had been left home alone at such a young age, my top priority would be to get to my parents and family as soon as possible. Although my family dynamic was completely different from Kevin's, it is still amusing to entertain the thought that Kevin handles his situation the way he does. Kevin is extremely intelligent for his age and goes about preparing for the robbery with such grace. While setting up death traps for the two men to run into, Kevin also cleans the house and makes himself dinner, setting the table formally and saying a prayer before his meal (which he never gets to eat- this has always and will always upset me). The overall actions of Kevin bring into play incongruity theory as the audience would not normally associate an eight year old to me so calm and collected during this situation. In contrast, Kevin's mother, who is the only member of the family desperately trying to return to home, is completely frazzled and serves as a foil to her son. While the situation in reality would be terrible for both Kevin and his mother, it is interesting to see Kevin's composure and his mother's fearful and anxious state. One of the scenes that I was never able to appreciate when I was younger but find hilarious now is when John Candy, who ends up giving Kevin's mother a ride to home, discusses about how he once left his son at his mother's grave site all day. He talks about how this affected his son and what it was like but it puts into perspective not only the severity of Kevin's situation, but also how well Kevin is handling being faced with robbery while by himself. Overall, the movie uses incongruity theory the most as this behavior is so unexpected from a seemingly innocent eight year old, and the fact that something (really quite terrible) is occurring on this holiday.

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