Cole’s Mother’s Parenting: Lynn-adequateIn The Sixth Sense, screenwriter M. Night Shyamalan shares the story of Cole Sear--a boy who claims to “see dead people.” Throughout the film, Cole’s mother, Lynn Sear, struggles with how to sustain a relationship with her son. At times, she cannot find useful ways to communicate with Cole. Other times, she simply cannot be in his presence due to his troubling behavior. Some might contend she is a bad mother. I contend Lynn is a poor parent because she is oblivious, angry, and neglectful when dealing with Cole and his issues.
First, despite Cole’s hardships Lynn seems fairly oblivious to the problematic things happening in her son’s life. Due to his abnormal visions and behavior, Cole is a lonely child without much interaction with his peers outside of conflict. Granted, Lynn seems to have taken notice of Cole’s lack of friends at some point, because she arranged for Cole to walk to school with another boy in their neighborhood. However, she fails to notice that the boy actually bullies Cole and steals food from him, showing that her knowledge of Cole and his inner conflicts does not delve very far below the surface. Furthermore, Cole is deeply hurt emotionally, and at times physically, by his interactions with ghosts. Lynn barely seems aware of her son’s trauma until it is pointed out by others, such as when a doctor suspects that Cole’s injuries were caused by abuse. Additionally, Cole does potentially dangerous things in the film that a nine-year-old boy with proper parental supervision would not typically be allowed to do. He spends much of his time wandering around the city by himself, and even rides the bus alone across town to go to a stranger’s funeral. Based on what was shown in the film, Lynn seems mainly focused on her two jobs, which while important to support her family, take too much of her attention away from fulfilling her son’s needs. Secondly, Lynn’s temper is shown to negatively affect Cole. In the film, ghosts are shown to be able to have a physical affect on the world around them even though they can’t be seen, being able to open doors, move objects, and even cause bodily harm to people. Because many ghosts tend to gravitate towards Cole due to his ability to see and interact with them, there are times when Cole takes the blame for ghosts’ actions. A specific instance in the film concerns when the bumblebee pin Lynn inherited from her mother is repeatedly moved, and it seems the only person who could be the culprit is Cole. Instead of calmly asking her son if and why he moved the pin, Lynn angrily confronts Cole about the pin and accuses him of taking it. Then, when Cole sincerely denies that he had anything to do with moving the pin, Lynn becomes enraged and harshly yells at Cole, sending him to his room without dinner as punishment without listening to his side of the story. Cole is obviously hurt by this. While the pin was important to Lynn as a symbol of the memory of her deceased mother, I don’t think that moving the pin required such an intense reaction. I also think the incident illustrated Lynn’s inability to empathize with her son. Instead of attempting to listen to Cole and understand his issues, she instead instinctively reacts with anger to something she doesn’t understand. This harms Cole by not allowing him to have a proper outlet of self-disclosure. Thirdly, Lynn is routinely neglectful of Cole throughout the film. Lynn is a single mother who works two jobs to support herself and Cole, so it cannot be expected that she would have enough time to do everything for her son. However, Lynn barely tries to help Cole or find time for him. Despite the fact that her son is obviously suffering from severe emotional issues, at no point does Lynn even consider finding a therapist for Cole. She might not be able to afford a child psychologist, but even so there are avenues she could go through that wouldn’t involve paying out of pocket. Cole’s improvement due to his relationship with Malcolm shows that Cole would have greatly benefitted from seeing a therapist sooner. Additionally, Lynn does not go out of her way to protect Cole. While Cole is bullied by the other children at a birthday party and locked in a closet, Lynn spends time socializing with the other parents even though Cole had been acting out at school having emotional issues that warranted better supervision. Finally, at the end of the film, when Cole has a lead role in the school play that symbolizes the acceptance of his peers, Lynn does not attend the play. When she tells Cole that she could not attend because she was working, she does not sound sorry or empathetic--rather, her casual tone implies that her missing important events in Cole’s life is common. Lynn is a poor mother because of her general carelessness towards her son and her tendency to react with anger to his cries for help. Although I believe that Lynn Sear loves her son, I don’t think that she is capable of being as supportive as a child like Cole needs her to be. Were it not for Malcolm, Cole may never have gotten the help that he needed.
1 Comment
Charlotte
3/23/2017 07:39:50 pm
Hi people :) My questions:
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