Five Girls Identity Analysis

Amber “People just don’t care about you. I found that out the hard way. Nobody care about you but you.” - Amber This is one of the first things that Amber, from the movie 5 Girls, tells the audience. The movie is about five different girls, from five very different backgrounds, struggling through the difficult age range of 13 to 19. The girl I specifically chose to analyze and write about, is Amber. I am going to focus on Amber’s identity and parent-child relationship while touching on her sexuality and concept of morality. So many factors contribute to how and why a person becomes what they are and I would like to discuss my theory on why Amber chose the path of living that she did using statistics and information I have acquired through

According to the book (pg. 140) “[African-American women] characteristics include self-reliance, assertiveness, and perseverance.” I found this to ring true to Amber. The self-reliance aspect is reflected in the quote from Amber, that I used in the beginning of my paper. All three aspects are reflected by Amber’s academic achievements. Amber was on the honor role since her freshman year of high school despite the many difficulties she faced outside of school such as moving in with her disabled grandmother leaving her to fend for herself at the age of 16. She also dealt with the very adult issues that come with dating a man four years older than her. Amber struggled with her confidence which I believe to be a result of her mother’s lack of interest and affection toward her. I also feel there are other contributing factors that came from experiences in her life. I am unsure of what may have happened. My only evidence is from a scene in the movie where she has just come from a critique and explanation meeting of why she did not get into the Nation Honors Society ( a goal she had for many years). The main reason for her lack of admission was that her peers felt she is quiet and doesn’t have the outgoing personality that is needed to stand out in an interview like situation needed to qualify for the Nation Honors Society. As she is reflecting on the critique she explains her lack of outgoingness and talkativeness

I felt she understandably stumbled a bit but overall handled things with grace and ease. In the beginning of the movie, she says "Nobody care about you, but you." I loved that she carried that attitude with her but then with the help of her phenomenal teacher, Ms. Barnes, she proved to herself that the theory was wrong. Amber showed that through trials of poverty, leaving home, school, boys, drugs and other temptations, she prevailed and kicked back against stereotypes and statistics. This made for a very interesting person to study with a great outcome contributed with her developmental factors of her parent-child relationship, identity, sexuality, and