Stand by me

How is family and childhood presented in "stand by me"

The initial overview of the four children is that they are four normal young boys constantly seeking adventure. However you soon find out that each individual boy has there own personal issues to do with themselves and their family's. The film starts of mostly aimed around Gordie Lachance, signifying the fact that his brother died in an accident and his mother has abandoned him in the sense that she doesn't communicate with anyone in her household and the fact his father has no real interest in him, and only cares about the fact one if his son's is dead and what his other son was going to achieve, because of the way he is treated Geordie feels like a stranger in his own home, so he has friends that want to interact with him and make his childhood memorable, due to the fact his family have no intention of making it much fun. Also at the part of the film where Gordies dad says 'why cant you have friends like Chris did' shows the fact that his dad wants Gordie to be someone he is not (his brother) and is trying to be controlling over something good in his youngest sons life. 

Chris is the financially less fortunate of the friendship group, however he is treated equally to the other boys, if not with more respect. You initially see the type of family he comes from due to the way he is dressed and also from meeting his brother. You don't actually meet Chris' parents in the film, however you hear about the family reputation and you meet the older brother but you also know that his dad is a raging alcoholic. Chris' older brother is part of a gang in the town they live in, with a bad reputation of violence; we see his brother as a follower to the leader of the gang (Ace Merrill's gang), which shows that his older brother is not going to make much of his life. We later find out in the film that Chris wants to get out of the town he lives in, and wants to go onto a higher education with his friend Gordie but due to his family's reputation he feels like that is unachievable and that he will not be given the same opportunities as everyone else.

We learn that Teddy is the 'crazy' one out of the group of boys. Like the other boys, all he wants is to be outdoors exploring. His personality comes across at the start of the film as quite insensitive, and the 'funny' one of the group. However further on in the film where they are chased out of the scrap yard, and Milo the owner of the yard starts bad mouthing Teddy's father, he looses his temper and starts to threaten Milo which gives the impression Teddy thinks a lot of his dad, even though he held his ear to a stove and burned it off, but he is very aggressive, which could reflect on the fact he could of had an upbringing were violence was seen as okay. Later on, Teddy becomes emotional when talking about his dad 'He stormed the beaches at Normandy' indicates his father was part of military but now he is in the 'nuthouse in Togus' shows that Teddy's childhood would of been without a constant father figure, so that is why he is so aggressive because he is trying to be the dominant male he never really had in his life and the fact he has forgiven his dad for what he done to him but he is still angry.

Vern is defiantly the character we know least about, however he is shown in the film as the one who is part of the friendship group but he is the one that Teddy tends to taunt the most. He is constantly questioning everything the group of boys do, although he was the one that suggested that the boys go and look and the dead body. We know nothing on Vern's parents, however we know that his brother is part of Ace Merrill's gang, but like Chris's brother is also just a follower, and treats his younger brother terribly. However out of the three boys he is the one who is not seen crying once in the film, this could suggest that he has no problems and has quite a happy childhood.