Rebel Without A Cause Character Sketch

Molly Lorenz

Dr. Venuti

College Prep

September 17^th, 2009

Character Sketch – Judy

            Judy behaves differently, as do most, depending on the crowd that surrounds her.  In the beginning, at the police station, Judy is quiet, until she finally spills how she feels, her fears, and her frustrations with the police officer.  This is one of the only times where Judy seems truly sincere.  When alone with Jim before the planetarium, she is rude and distant, mocking him.  Probably, she was not allowing herself to admit that she actually liked Jim.  After the planetarium, she sits on Jim’s hood, watching him watch her, as she fixed her makeup, laughing as Buzz slashed his tires.  Eventually, she hides out in the abandoned mansion with Jim and Plato, laughing and joking around, saying that she loves Jim.  That happened mere hours after her boyfriend died in a tragic death, an odd thing to hear from her.

Psychologically, Judy seems to be exhibiting some aspects of Freud’s Electra Complex.  It doesn’t really seem like she has penis envy, per se, but she does long for her father’s love, and will do anything to receive it.  Judy does not seem to be that close to her mother, which is understandable, considering the family placement values that that decade held.  Her mother did not stick up for her when Judy and her father would engage in a verbal or physical altercation.  Judy tries to gain her father’s attention by wearing a bright new red dress, wearing makeup (which he rubs off of her face too roughly), going out with the ‘wrong crowd’, etc.  However, she did lean in to give him a kiss, reminding him of their older family tradition, but ends up being smacked.  She tried to act both negatively and positively towards him, but neither benefitted her.

            It does not appear that she really likes Buzz, but rather, is attempting to use him to get her father’s attention.  She is drawn to Jim, for multiple reasons.  To start, he is good looking, admittedly, and he is the new kid, allowing him to have a certain air of mystery about him.  He also shows an interest in him that even her own father does not seem to reciprocate.  This spotlight of attention that Jim provides her with eventually seems to give Judy the intention of being with Jim. Judy is a lonely, scared, and confused teenager, who lacks love from a male figure, and by consequence, will try every way that she can think of, consciously or subconsciously, to attain it.