Coming Of Age Themes In Boyhood Film

Boyhood is a film used to express the struggles of an unstable family, relationships and the experience of growing up through a series of chronological vignettes. Ellar Coltrane plays Mason, whose story was told between ages six and eighteen. The film centers around the young boy's life and his perspective on the world, which mostly consists of drunk stepdads, arguments with the people closest to him and a struggling mother who’s just trying to keep her ever-changing family secure. Richard Linklater, the director, integrates the use of props, arcs and raising the stakes in order to establish the coming of age theme.

The value of props doesn’t go unnoticed throughout the film, in fact, it helps characterize the different father figures in Mason’s

Manohla Dargis wrote, “More practically, it works as an expressive emblem to go along with Mason Sr.’s absences, his careless parenting, on-and-off facial hair and earnest bohemian rhapsodies.” It represented his irresponsible, but caring attitude towards his children. Mason learned most of his morals and life lessons from his father, the most notable one being “Life doesn’t give you bumpers,” when they were bowling together. Although the father was one of the only role models in Mason’s life, he didn’t always have the best influence on Mason. The father was a heavy smoker and he claimed that he quit, but it’s proven that he lied due to the full ashtray in his house. Mason is seen smoking later on in the film, but it’s not clear how frequent he actually smokes. The use of the car as the father's prop was able to characterize him

Bill was starting to show toxic behavior towards the entire family and at the same time, he started drinking. Before, he was only mentally abusive because Olivia once cried in a garage because of him. But one day, they were having dinner and Bill started throwing glasses at the kids and the mother, not caring about who could get hurt. Olivia has never been in this type of situation before because she used to just leave her partners, but now serious injuries could be caused to her children because of the maniac she decided to marry. She had a choice to defend her children from Bill and be harmed or sit back and still have the possibility of being harmed by him. She chose the latter, which showed her cowardice. This scene raised tension between the characters because it was unclear whether or not Olivia would stay with Bill or leave like she did with her past relationships. It was finally Olivia’s turn to mature and realize she needed to prioritize her kid’s safety over anything