Dwayne Hoover is the Nietzsche-reading, voluntarily mute, aspiring jet pilot, angsty teenage son from the 2006 film Little Miss Sunshine. My favorite of all time! Is there a movie that did tragicomedy better? Has any character captured the pain of being a teenager better than Dwayne? The movie left me with many questions: Did Dwayne have a valid reason to “hate” his family? How much of it can we attribute to normal teenage angst, feelings everyone has toward their family at one point? This essay will explore Dwayne’s character arc and how he discovered a larger truth about family, resentment, failure, and coming of age.
Dwayne’s character arc largely centers on the perceived disconnect from his family. It’s heartbreaking how little of his true self his family knows about him, with the vow of silence serving as a mental checkout, only widening the gap between them. To exacerbate things, Dwayne already has one foot out the door, making it clear that once he turns eighteen and graduates high school, he will be out of there and likely won’t look back. Undertaking this vow of silence demonstrates Dwayne’s deep commitment and discipline toward becoming a jet pilot.
Dwayne’s silence also acts as a shield he created to protest the family environment he has virtually no control over. He relates so little to his family members, he has all but entirely cut himself off from them. He has given them no access to the most precious and real parts of himself. Engaging with a shallow family dynamic would only leave him more disappointed, further contributing to his unhappiness. For Dwayne, silence became his boundary and survival mechanism. He knows there’s very little he could say to his family that they would understand. There’s a great deal of pain spanning several years that will take the same amount of time to resolve. Saying one thing to them won’t fix it, so why bother?
Although the film doesn’t delve much into it, a significant source of Dwayne’s discontentment could be the split between his biological father and mother, with Dwayne not living with or seeing his father as often as he’d want to. This can be a great source of pain for a child and may help explain Dwayne’s internal conflict. Throw in an unwanted stepfather who likely won’t ever understand him at his core, knowing there’s practically nothing he can do about it being a minor, and that’s how kids like Dwayne are created.
When Dwayne finds out he’s colorblind and, well, “you can’t fly jets if you’re colorblind,” he blows up and says some gut-wrenching things to his family, calling them out on their most egregious errors. “I don’t want to be your family, I hate you people! Divorce, bankrupt, suicide, you’re losers!” It’s a grim scene. He’s devastated over a lost dream, understandably. But where Dwayne redeems himself is moments after the blowup. Despite being a kid, Dwayne had the emotional maturity to apologize to his family, telling them he didn’t really mean the things he said.
Dwayne was beginning to understand the complexities of people. His family did not exactly get to choose their circumstances. Life got to them too. Dwayne experienced an exponential setback similar to how each family member did during the events of the film. He was in the early stages of seeing how this could impact an individual and prevent them from being their best selves.
Funnily enough, this movie did the impossible: it made me feel better about my family. It confirmed that every family is dysfunctional. Embarrassing. Flawed. Dwayne came to realize these are not true reasons to hate your family. He had a reasonably stable home and upbringing. The film certainly did not portray his family as abusive or neglectful. Their worst crime is not being emotionally attuned to Dwayne’s needs. It’s a difficult thing to get right. Despite our parents’ best efforts, they can’t always help us. There almost always seems to be a disconnect between parents and their children.
A teenager doesn’t have as much awareness, emotional development, and sense of self the way an older person might. Young people are often told they know nothing, and I don’t believe this to be entirely untrue. A more accurate description I’ve landed on is this: the knowledge gained with time and experience reframes much of what you thought you knew. Dwayne feels misunderstood, but which young person doesn’t? Who here has never felt alienated from their family’s personalities, expectations, and who they fundamentally are as people?
Dwayne may need to grow a little older to understand his family and their shortcomings better, but he was already on the way. He has strong convictions and is mulish, but he does not know everything, and there is a lot he’s going to learn in life.
Despite referring to his family and home as “hell,” his care for them is evident. He helps steal the grandpa’s body from the hospital, respecting his stepfather’s decision on how to honor his father best. He tells Olive to hug their mom after their grandpa’s death, recognizing that she deserves support, even if he can’t offer this to her himself. He exchanges wisdom with Uncle Frank at the beach. He’s already evolving by being able to take advice from his uncle, reminding us that he’s not the stubborn and closed-off teenager we thought he was. And the grand finale: dancing with his entire family on stage to support Olive, clearly enjoying himself, and happy to be surrounded by an intact family. Despite conflicts, setbacks, and imperfections, they remain united.
The film had me wondering, is this how all families are? Every parent makes mistakes raising their child. We all have families that have messed up in some way. Perhaps, eventually, we realize our parents were human and thus, flawed. We can still accept their love.
It’s easier to hold your parents to unattainable standards when you’re young. You feel resentful towards the mistakes they made that impacted your development. You disagree with many of the choices they made, yearning for a different upbringing. As I got older, I realized my parents did not intentionally cause me harm; most don’t. Simply put, they did the best they could with what they had. I won’t ever know what it was like being in their shoes.
It’s worth noting that not every family is worth coming around to. Some wounds are bigger than others. It’s a decision you make for yourself. This insight did not happen overnight; it occurred alongside growing up, just like Dwayne. It’s how he began to come around to his family, and it’s how I came around to mine.
Emily Writes 
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