The classic hit Ferris Bueller’s Day Off was watched by several rambunctious young men in the 80s, including my Dad, who admired Ferris’ charisma, and got a laugh at his manipulative ways. The epitome of Ferris Bueller is the care free clown that everyone loves. Ferris’ best friend is Cameron, the mere opposite of him. Cameron is a type A rule follower, with anxiety and depression. Although he is referred to as a protagonist, I believe Ferris is just the comedic relief in Cameron’s journey towards happiness and self acceptance. The day he skips school with his best friend and his best friend’s girlfriend, teaches Cameron a lesson that he could never have learned in school, which we should take note upon.
Society is full of anxiety driven children just like Cameron. Students are pushed to have stellar grades in the most amount of AP courses they may take, be the star of two sports teams, be the president of seven clubs and do volunteer work outside of school. This pressure is not only put on children by parents, but also school districts hoping to receive more government funding if their students have higher test scores and better college admittance rates. As society has become more materialistic, we enjoy not only the best brands, but by name dropping the best colleges. I believe this is one of the many factors that contributes to the approximate 4.4 million children with diagnosed anxiety in the United States between the ages of 3 and 17. Several children with severe anxiety are never diagnosed because they do not have the resources or their parents deny their problem. This indicates that the number might be higher, and thus an even larger problem to society.
In Ferris Bueller’s Day Off, Cameron’s anxiety is a result of the hostile environment in their home. His Dad, although never makes an appearance in the movie, seems to be a very cold, angry man. His father nitpicks everything Cameron does, so he lives in constant fear of his wrath. This anxiety causes him to overthink every single decision, as he is always fearfully trying to please his father. His overthinking is shown when he contemplates even attending the day in the city with his best friend:
After fearfully weighing the outcomes of each decision, Cameron eventually decides to drive to Ferris’ house and see what his best friend has in store for the day. Little did he know, that this decision would forever change his life.
Ferris’ plan is to drive Mr. Fyre’s Ferrari around the city all day. Cameron’s father loves his 1961 Ferrari so much that he, ironically, rarely drives it and even memorizes the mileage on the car to ensure that no one else touches it. If anyone so much as breathes on the car, he loses his temper. However, since Cameron is incapable of making a decision, what Ferris decides, goes, and they take the car into the city for a day of adventure. They end up at the Cubs game, and Cameron for once in his life time is not worrying about pleasing his father:
Cameron genuinely enjoys himself, as he realizes he could have been in classes. Since Cameron had the best day of his life while he was living free of worry of pleasing his father, he realized that everyday could, and should, be like that.
However, Cameron has an anxiety attack when he sees how many miles their adventure put on the car. Cameron fears not the miles, but his father’s reaction to the miles. After trying to turn back the miles on the car, Ferris wishes to hide the trace of Cameron’s rebellion as he does not want his best friend to be reamed at by his father. Ferris is prepared to manually change the miles in the odometer, until Cameron he remembers how much fun he had all day and stops him:
For the first time in Cameron Fyre’s life he is going to stand up to his father, rather than to take the brunt of his anger issues. This is a huge moment for Cameron. He is finally confronting the source of his anxiety, his father, rather than treating the symptoms, by trying to please his father with every decision he makes.
This lesson is not only applicable to anxiety, but to general unhappiness. If you are unhappy with your weight: lose it, rather than finding clothes to make you look thinner. If we confront the source of our problems we can be so much happier as shown through Cameron Fyre. For Ferris it was just another day off, but if Cameron went to school, or even just stayed in bed, he might not ever be able to the find the happiness and self acceptance we all seek.
