“Love, Simon” and its connection to psychological theories of development.
By: Aissatou Diallo, Alexis Horton, Emily Greene, Imoni Elliotte, Nyara Simmons, & Rikita Spencer
Love, Simon is a 2018 teen romance drama that focuses on the exploration of sexuality, love, bullying, and friendship all through the eyes of a cis-gender male, white, teen who is struggling with “coming out”. At first glance, the film seems like a basic mainstream romcom that’s on every teen’s watch later list. However, with this groundbreaking coming of age film, the different themes of development are not easily applied to such a diverse, psychological yet common experience that is present in so many LGBTQ+ teen’s lives. In this article, we explore a possible psychological development theory that can be strategically applied to the premise of this film.
Watch the trailer of Love, Simon here:
Synopsis:
(Audio Transcript of Synopsis Below)
The films main character, Simon Spier, is a senior in high school who seems to have a relatively normal life in the present day suburbs of Atlanta, GA. He lives with his loving parents, Jack and Emily, and a little sister Nora, who is an aspiring chef. He has three best friends Leah, Nick, and Abby, and the group of friends does practically everything together.
Despite having a pretty standard existence on the outside, inside he is housing a “huge” burden. He has a “big” secret he has been hiding from his friends and family; he is gay and hasn’t come out the closet to anyone. Although, there is one particular person who knows Simon’s secret. At the beginning of the film, Simon begins an online relationship corresponding with another closeted gay person at his school who goes by the alias Blue. Simon (using the alias Jacques) and Blue anonymously talk about their struggles of being gay and in the closet, all whilst Simon is on the search to find out Blue’s true identity. Throughout the film, Blue gives Simon a lot of hints, but they never explicitly lead him anywhere.
Simon is socializing with this one guy named Bram at a party. They are really enjoying one another and Simon begins to think that Bram may be Blue. Later at the party, he sees Bram kissing a girl. Saddened, he immediately comes to the conclusion that Bram is not Blue, and dismisses the thought from his mind entirely.
One day, Simon is at the library emailing Blue, and accidentally leaves his emails open. An annoying classmate, Martin, sees these emails, screenshots them, and blackmails Simon with them to set him up on a date with his friend Abby. Simon isn’t ready to come out, so he reluctantly agrees to the plan. The literary themes of agency and control is emphasized here because Simon is being stripped of control and agency over his comfortability with everyone knowing his sexuality because of a silly mistake and a vindictive classmate.
Setting Abby and Martin up isn’t easy for Simon because Simon’s other friend Nick likes Abby and Abby has absolutely no interest in Martin. This part of the film establishes the major conflict which is Simon having to manipulate his friends’ love lives all in an effort to maintain his status of being in the closet.
Throughout the beginning of the movie, Martin continuously threatens Simon with leaking the emails if he doesn’t get Abby to like him. At a homecoming game, Martin confesses his love to Abby in a big public display of affection, but of course she declines because she doesn’t like him like that. Martin is angered by this and to get the attention off of his humiliating stunt, leaks Simon’s emails with Blue, outing him to the whole town.
Simon is completely devastated by his outing and stays to himself throughout the entire Christmas Break. He tells his family he is gay on Christmas and they are all fine with it. Unfortunately, his father, Jack, makes a bad joke about it and they don’t speak for couple days. He goes back to school and people are looking at him funny. Here, the literary theme of empathy is explored because you never know about people’s home lives or inner thoughts. Jack eventually apologizes to Simon and scolds himself for not knowing and being more supportive. Now that Simon has been outed, he becomes very eager to find out who Blue is. He asks anyone who he has been suspecting, and they all decline. Subsequently Blue ceases communication with Simon after his outing.
Simon isn’t anonymous to Blue, but Blue is anonymous to Simon which aids in Simon’s vulnerability and urgency to find out who he is. Simon then posts a confession to the same blog where he was outed and accepts himself and his feelings of who he truly is, and also apologizes to those that he hurt (his friends).He also pleads to Blue to meet up with him on the Ferris wheel at the carnival. He confronts Martin on how he was very disgusted by him outing him and how he shouldn’t have done that.
Simon and his friends go the carnival and he uses all his tickets to remain on the Ferris wheel until Blue shows up. It takes a while and Simon becomes hopeless, but then Blue finally shows up and it is revealed to be Bram from the party. He says that the kiss with the girl was a drunk mistake that didn’t last long. This moment is special and surreal to Simon because he is finally comfortable and embracing his sexuality and confirming his self-identity. He’s always wanted someone to share his hidden love with, and now he is finally face to face with him. When they reach the top of the wheel, they kiss, and everyone below them cheers.
A couple of days later, it is revealed that Simon and Bram are dating. Simon, Bram, and Simon’s friends are in the car and they all go on an adventure as the camera pans out.
Listen to a fun, exuberant, and emotion filled transcript of the synopsis written and narrated by Rikita Spencer here:
Developmental Theory:
Erik Erikson (1904–1994) was a German-American psychologist who developed the psychosocial development theory introduced in the 1950s in California.
Erikson used his developmental theory to expand on Sigmund Freud’s five stages of development. Freud’s development stages focus on psychosexual while Erikson focused on personality as it changes and adjusts through an individual’s lifespan.
The psychosocial development theory is comprised of 8 stages. Those 8 stages are trust vs mistrust, autonomy vs shame and doubt, initiative vs guilt, industry vs. inferiority, identity vs confusion, intimacy vs isolation, generativity vs stagnation, and integrity vs despair.
- Trust vs mistrust: This stage occurs from birth to 18 months. At this stage, the newborn baby is putting their sense of trust in their caregiver. If this type of care is consistent, then the newborn will feel secure and establish the quality of hope. However, inconsistency would lead to mistrust.
2. Autonomy vs shame and doubt: This stage occurs between 18 months to 3 years of age. In this stage, the child is exploring to become more independent and gain personal control. As a result, the child is making choices on their own and being active by playing with toys, etc. This stage leads to will.
3. Initiative vs guilt: This stage occurs from 3 years old to 5 years old where the child is interacting with their environment and having more control over their choices. The child is also developing their social skills with others by playing games and initiating activities with other children. The sense of purpose is gained in this stage, but the sense of guilt comes from criticism from an authority figure that shuts down their ideas. As a result from the sense of guilt, the child doesn’t use their creativity as much and wouldn’t know of self control.
4. Industry vs. inferiority: This stage occurs from 5 years old to 12 years old where the individual is gaining their self esteem from peer groups and learning essential skills in school. Through their peer groups, they are learning how to be proud of the things they accomplished. The encouragement from outside people like teachers, parents, friends, etc causes them to feel confident in themselves and competent in their skills. However, when restricted, it can lead to a lack of confidence and self doubt.
5. Identity vs confusion: From the age of 12 to 18, the individual is transitioning from adolescence to adulthood. As a result, the individual is learning about adult roles and looking into their future as well as trying to fit into society. The individual is diving deeper into their identity while adapting to the changes made from puberty, leading to the virtue of fidelity. The confusion comes into play when the individual feels unsure of their role in society in the future which leads to an identity crisis.
6. Intimacy vs isolation: From the age of 18 through 40, the individual is creating long term relationships with others intimately. One is successful at this stage when a strong, non toxic relationship is formed, meaning that the person has been successful at love. However, those with commitment issues and fears of intimacy and relationships most likely will feel isolated.
7. Generativity vs stagnation: From 40 years old to 65 years old, the individual has raised their kids, participated in their community, and as a result, they feel accomplished of their role in their society. On the other hand, others may feel unproductive and lazy leading to being disconnected from their world. The virtue of care is accomplished in this stage.
8. Integrity vs despair: From 65 years to death, the individual is looking back at their life and seeing what they’ve achieved in their lifetime. Those who feel accomplished and are proud of what they’ve done are in acceptance and aren’t as fearful of death. However, others who feel the opposite way feel despair and are hopeless. The virtue of wisdom allows for the person to reflect on the past, gaining closure.
Erikson believed that completing the 8 stages would lead to a healthy personality and the individual would acquire important values. Erikson’s theory focused more on social relationships and its impacts on personality development, separate from Freud’s idea that personality was set in stone at birth.
How the theory is applied?
In the movie “Love, Simon” the main character Simon went through 6 of Erikson’s stages of development but not in chronological order:
Stage 1: Trust vs. Mistrust→ Simon struggles with trusting which of his friends and family to tell about his sexuality but eventually gets the courage to tell his friend Abby. Erikson would say that Simon’s lack of trust in those around him would mean that he doesn’t feel safe and secure in his environment and that he fears that his world is unpredictable.
Stage 2: Autonomy vs. Shame and Doubt→ After Simon’s sexuality is exposed against his will he becomes outcast by his community and, as Erikson theorizes, feels a lack of personal control.
Stage 3: Initiative vs. Guilt→ Simon lacks control in his life when being blackmailed by Martin to get him a date with Abby. According to Erikson’s theory the result develops a sense of guilt which showed in how he later felt about lying to his friends about each other’s feelings.
Stage 5: Identity vs. Confusion→ Simon goes through the confusion of figuring out his identity/sexuality alone and feels alone in his life because no one knows and those around him couldn’t relate. Though by the end of the movie he gets out of this goes on to be happy and according to Erikson’s theory he will now have a strong sense of self and feel in control of his life and future.
Stage 6:Intimacy vs. Isolation→ Simon has a close relationship with his friends and family but has never experienced a romantic relationship when his sexuality is outed he feels isolated from his peers and goes through a bout of loneliness thus following Erikson’s theory of development.
Stage 8:Integrity vs. Despair→ Simon’s integrity is put into question when it becomes known that he was lying and manipulating his friends thus causing him to look back on his actions in regret. But later overcomes this when he apologizes to his friends and goes on to live and love openly after learning from his actions.
By the end of the film Erikson would think that though Simon endured some hardships throughout his psychosocial development he completed most of the stages successfully by the end which makes him a partially formed adult.
Effectiveness of the theory:
The Erik Erikson Psychological Stages of Development theory does a fantastic job explaining Simon’s character development throughout the movie. In the beginning, Simon has yet to come out to anyone. He feels like he is living two separate lives; his gay life and his straight one. The theory helps walk us through the steps that Simon takes before he’s finally ready to open up to his friends. Throughout the movie, he takes on the secret persona of Jacques through email. Emailing the other closeted gay at his school helps Simon become more comfortable with the idea of coming out. He’s able to explore different aspects of his identity. Stage 5 of the theory explores the confusion that Simon goes through in figuring out his sexuality. Since he hasn’t told anyone about his sexuality he goes through this time of confusion alone. As a whole, the theory does a good job of explaining the steps that Simon has to go through to show who he is, and not just what he wants to portray to the outside.
Erikson’s theory was more than capable of explaining all the experiences Simon endured throughout the movie. Since this theory focuses more on how personalities develop over time, it’s easier to understand why Simon acts different ways throughout the movie and why he’s struggling to find himself. For example, Stage 5 occurs around the age Simon is and is about struggling to find yourself as well as fit into society. This is exactly what Simon is going through and this stage as well as Stage 1, Trust vs. Mistrust, makes it easier to understand why he feels so alone as well as why Simon doesn’t come out to his family and friends right away. Overall, Erikson’s theory helps break down the complex, ever-changing human personality and, in this case, it easily explains the different stages Simon’s personality goes through as he tries to find his true self.
Erikson’s theory is a good “fit” when making a psycho-developmental assessment of Simon because he went through different experiences throughout the entirety of the movie. Simon has experienced 6/8 of the stages of Erikson’s theory. So, it is safe to say that Erikson’s stages of development can be used to conduct a through assessment on Simon. I believe that the theories are valid when looking at identity. Simon was a gay teenager that didn’t really know exactly how to express it in the beginning. He didn’t feel comfortable with talking to friends or family about his sexuality and was no really confident with himself. Considering all of that, Erikson’s theory is great to use.
