defiance (acid test)

But what is the meaning of the tales told by the central six (his parents share a single plotline) figures in the five storylines of Ferris Bueller? The acid test, after all, of any narrative is its characters. Ferris' parent represent the kindly and protective instincts. Once we leave home, we all must parent ourselves as best we can, and our nurturing insincts allow us to foster a place for freedom and yet their overprotective tendencies must be outwitted or we will be held captive by overzealous love. The story of Ferris, Cameron and Sloan is a classic tale of the trickster, an affirmation of the principle that good will is sufficient to maintain the integrity of the course of freedom. Ed Rooney is a sad story, of the tyranny of small minds, obsession and self-importance. Society carries it's own fear, a complicated fear of loss of respect that hides the reality of a life poorly lived. Rooney is obsessed with catching Ferris because Ferris represents the life he has lost. The loss drives him mad: his eventual disgrace is augered by the way this loss creates a vicious desire to destroy in the only way he knows (a hell of a dent in one's future). His mean streak justifies the revenge fantasy of the consequences of his misadventures. Jean's story is a Prodigal Son variant, a cautionary note on the dangers of jealousy. But it is an uplifting tale, in the end, as her meeting with the, though amusing, equally cautionary Ferris-doppelganger character played by Charlie Sheen. He liberates her to, finally, Save Ferris when he needs it most. And Cameron? Cameron is the tale of how we must depose the dictators of our lives that would destroy us rather than let us disrupt their poisoned world. Cameron must break the back of the legacy of his father. It is not sufficient to merely learn it's measure: he must face it squarely and, as he says, take a stand.

klik if you demand tedious explanations of every little thing.