Monday, October 1, 2007

Napoleon Dynamite

If Napoleon has to be classified, he is a dork, among all other class epithets within American schools: geeks, dorks, nerds, jocks, etc. By definition, dorks such as Napoleon and his best friend Pedro, are socially inept. They only hangout with each other but not with other classes. They even rarely communicate with others. Napoleon is constantly bullied pushed against the locker by other kids like John or this big dude whose character name I cannot remember. He loves drawing exotic animals like unicorns or ligers. His actions or thought process are way beyond others' comprehension.
Kids from "upper classes" like Summer and John constantly look down on Napoleon. I don't see what's really different about them than Napoleon, they believe they're of different species and can never mingle with each other. Class system obviously exists.
Also there is a "class struggle": asking hot chicks out for Dance Night. Pedro asks Summer only to be miserably rejected, and ends up with Deb, another dork from school. Napoleon asks Trisha by drawing her a portrait which is despised by Trisha, but Trisha must accept because of her mom's pressure. When they eventually arrive at Dance Hall, Trisha ditches Napoleon, and joins the dork group, Pedro and Deb. Unable to mingle, they can only look on others dancing.
President election is coming. Pedro decides to run for it, and initiates campaigns against another candidate, Summer. On candidate speech day, Summer's speech and performance are successful. Pedro gives very deficient and dull speech, and is unprepared for a performance. Napoleon, who's been practicing aerobic dancing, improvises and volunteers to dance. His performance is fantastic. The crowd applauds way louder than when they did on Summer, to suggest Pedro's victory. This is the moment, I believe, that they move up the class system and become popular.

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