Every culture has a unique set of values, traditions, and norms. One thing all cultures do have in common however is the importance of one’s family, which tends to rank above all else. In the movie, McFarland USA, the theme of family plays a significant role on how characters are shaped, develop and interact with each other through the course of the film. Nowhere else is the theme of family more relevant than the contrasting relationship Thomas Valles and coach White have with their families. Throughout the film, you see how Thomas bases his actions and decisions on what’s best for his family. Coach White on the other hand bases his actions and decisions on what’s best for him and just takes his family along for the ride.
In the beginning
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Over the course of the film, couch White is shown to grow fond of his cross-country team as if he was their own father. Towards the end of the movie, couch Whites’ daughter gets hurt from a shootout, which causes white to go for a job interview, where White is offered a full-time position as Palo Alto’s cross country couch. Coach white pulls up to the scene of the crime he looks around shouting what happened and he walks about to the driver of the vehicle his daughter had left in. “I trusted you with my daughter.” The fact that coach White trusted a bunch of teenage boys with his daughter says a lot about for much he has come to see those boys like they were his own family and how much of his trust they have gained. Back at coach Whites house, he is talking with his wife about how if they move to Palo Alto, they can have a big house in a safe neighborhood. “It feels like everything we’ve ever wanted.” Coach White is very conflicted, on one hand if he takes the job he gets to give his family everything they ever wanted on the other hand that means leaving their friends in McFarland who have become just like family. Coach white also doesn’t want to drag his family into something they don’t want to do again. This shows how coach White has grown as a character he has gone from a person who only thinks about themselves to a person who generally cares about those around him. At the end of the film, coach White decides to stay in