Symbolism In Mean Girls

High School is a period in adolescence where identities are found within the self by figuring out where they belong in this world. That can be hard especially for teens like Cady Heron in the 2004 movie Mean Girls directed by Mark Waters based on the book Queen Bees and Wannabes which encompasses females in high school cliques and how damaging it can be for development to girls. Cady Heron is a 16 year old who has just moved back to the states after living in Africa for her parents zoology research. Being home schooled by her mother her whole life, she has never experienced public school but is eager to begin what she calls “a regular teenage life”. Although she is knowledgeably prepared for what is to come academically having a strong side in math, no one could prepare her for the social culture that is deeply but sometimes dramatized rooted in high school. Her struggle is described by Erikson as …show more content…
Onstage she tells all her classmates how wonderful and special everyone is in their own way, without modification. She expresses her confusion toward the crown and how everyone cried, praised, desired that crown. “I mean this...this is just plastic”. She then breaks her crown and passes it to girls victimized by the burn book. In breaking the crown which symbolizes popularity and hierarchy, Cady symbolized the breaking of the Plastics. In sharing the crown with the Plastics, Damian, and Janis, they came to a truce while symbolizing equal status among everyone. The last scene depicts the characters the following year of high school where their identity, ethics, and morals slowly become solidified as they enter the last stage of adolescence. Just as she was seen entering the school unknowing and oblivious, the ending shows how much she has matured growing past her identity crisis. She finds a stable relationship with Aaron, while keeping peace with all her