Male Role Models In Richard Linklater's Boyhood

The ability to understand male role models and their effects on a young boy creates for a more intelligent understanding as to why boys act the way they do. While examining the movie Boyhood, directed by Richard Linklater, and the entry “Boyhood” by Eric Tribunella, manhood is defined by “the ability to dominate, care for, or exercise power over others”, while “to be a boy means to be flawed, inchoate, or incomplete” (Pg. 22). These two sources together both offer various views on what boyhood is and they both touch on the subject of the male role model, but fail to fully analyze the effect a role model has. Linklater’s Boyhood follows Mason Jr’s life from 6-18 years old. During this time, he had three male role models due to his mother’s three …show more content…
Mason’s Dad represents the ability to care for; even though he was an abusive alcoholic. Throughout the movie, he is shown trying to take care of Mason and Samantha, teaching them lessons, spending time with them, and including them in his life, while in the bowling alley the father repeatedly says, “Listen to me, listen to your father” and proceeds to give them advice on how to survive in the world of adulthood; this scene shows him as a father attempting to give advice to his children and to help them grow up and leave their childhood behind, all the while fighting the other teachers in their lives because he believes that it is his role as a man to care for his children (Boyhood). As hard as he tries to care for Mason and teach him right from wrong he is flawing Mason because he is being told two very different things. His teachers are telling him to behave one way while his father is telling him the opposite. Forcing him to take a side and flaw his personal beliefs. Mason’s imperfect boyhood is reinforced constantly throughout the movie and shows the effect of a role model that Tribunella was