Stand By Me Essay, Research Paper

A story of friends who are on their way into adolescence, the movie Stand by Me shows the friends growing up to become an adult in a civilized world. In the present day, Gordie Lachance, a profession writer, reminisces back into the past of his childhood memories and how it leads to the death of his best friend Chris. When the boys are thirteen, Gordie Lachance, Chris Chambers, Teddy Duchamp and Vern Tessio were very good friends. They shared a tree house together with a secret knock to get in, have long and pointless arguments and have no interest in girls, the boys seem to be happy hanging out together. When they find out about the dead body of Ray Brower, the boys take a step closer to adolescence. Throughout the movie, the viewer can see the boys growing into maturity through symbolism and its significance to the story.

In the beginning of the movie, the names of Gordie Lachance and Chris Chambers do not show the viewer any significance until the end. Their last names show what their personalities are like. Gordie s last name Lachance, has the word chance in it. In the movie, Gordie is given a chance to steer his life into the right path and he does by going to college. Eventually Gordie becomes a successful writer and father. Chris is the one who encourages him to keep writing and bring his life into the right direction. He is like a father Gordie never had. His dad did not care about Gordie. Chris last name, Chamber, signifies the heart or chest. Chris is a father figure who watches over Gordie and protects him from harm.

While on the journey, the boys walk along the train tracks. The tracks itself has much symbolism. It can symbolize the road to life. While on their way, the boys face many obstacles like the train coming towards Gordie and Vern. They both run and dodge it before it hits them. It is as if they are running away from the problems in their life but we have to face them one day or another. The road to life is not short and easy but long and full of challenges. The same goes with the train tracks. While on their way, the boys decide to take a shortcut through a forest and end up in a swamp full of leeches. It shows how there are no shortcuts to life, and if there are, expect the unexpected.

The leeches in the swamp represent innocence. Gordie is the one who did not want to play in the water and eventually is pushed in by Chris. When they come out, Gordie is the one with the most leeches and one of them ended up being in his pants. The leeches show the life being sucked out of the boys. They innocently play in a swamp and come out full of blood sucking leeches. Gordie realizes that life is not that easy and things can happen suddenly, so he becomes more careful in making his decisions. In the scene where both the young and older boys find the body, Gordie is the one holding the gun. He makes the choice of not shooting the older ones but only to scare them.

Vern always has bad luck in his life and he hates it. He is scared of it as well. When they boys flip coins, all of them end up being heads. It scared Vern a lot because of his bad luck and rumours he had heard about such incidents. Bad luck could be a reason why Very is so afraid of things. During that period of time, he could be considered a girl and what not. When the boys arrive back into town, Very picks up a penny. The penny could symbolize good luck. At the end of the movie, Gordie explains what happens to his friends. Vern ended up being a construction worker. To have that kind of job, one has to be strong in mind and body. The penny could have influenced in a way to remove his bad luck and his fears. Being a construction worker is not bad of a job. The penny must have influenced a lot because Vern would not have been strong enough to have that job. He could not even walk on the train tracks but crawl across them.

In the movie Stand by Me, the four boys who were troublemakers, have grown up to be adults in the civilized world. Gordie, a professional writer, Vern, a construction worker, Teddy, an inmate at a jail and Chris who unfortunately died from a bank robbery. Every summer, they grow more and more together by doing unthinkable things like Teddy trying to dodge a train. Throughout the movie, the viewer can see the boys growing into maturity through symbolism and its significance to the story. Maturity is a part of life and not everyone can reach to that point.