“Give me a child until he is seven and I will give you the man.” -Jesuit motto, based on a quote by Francis Xavier
I’ve been spending a fair amount of time in the past two days watching the most fascinating documentary films, the Up Series. It’s a series of films set seven years apart. They follow the lives of children of different walks of life in England from age seven, starting in 1964.
Some of the children at 7
While admittedly, the series has some flaws, so far I have loved seeing these children at 7, watching them come into their awkward phase at 14, and on to a more adult–yet still young and fairly idealistic– at 21. It’s amazing to juxtapose the children of wealthy parents who have been groomed to attend the finest schools with the illegitimate child living in a charity home. Even at age seven, you can see the cruel side of class.
But what I think I like best about the series is watching the subjects find their own relative happiness. At 21, Symon, a mixed race child who at seven was living in an orphanage, holds a job working in food service. He likes it. When the interviewer hints that he may be better than this, he shrugs it off, saying that he just must enjoy hard labor, and that he does not give much thought to those kinds of thing. John, on the other hand, has grown up in boarding schools with wealthy parents. His parents resources have made him into a person far different than Symon. He is studying law at 21, and has a bit of a chip on his shoulder (although, the way he speaks about his situation almost makes you feel as if he is the victim.)
The group at 21
The subjects who I find to be the most interesting are the girls. Jackie, Lynn, and Sue grew up together in a working class neighborhood, and from there have each made their own paths into adulthood. Lynn shyly tells us that she wants to work at Woolworth’s, and at 21 is married and working as a librarian. She seems to enjoy her work. For some reason I find it really empowering to watch these girls grow into young women. While married at 19 and working for a bank doesn’t seem to be today’s version of an independent woman, it’s clear that Jackie has made choices in her life that have gotten her to where she is. Lynn remains unmarried until age 24, and works for a travel agency, doing something she truly loves. Looking back using such a small lens (the lives of these three girls) rather than looking at an entire movement, is really interesting. Feminism is at work here, but the angry women we associate with the second wave movement are not in the forefront of this story.
Suzy, on the other hand, was raised by very wealthy parents, and groomed to attend the best schools money can buy. By 16, Suzy drops out of school to travel. In a weird way, I have a bizarre respect for Suzy’s choices to leave school. I wonder if her wealth makes me feel like this is okay for her, where as if I had heard that Jackie, Lynn, or Sue had dropped out at 16, I’d have assumed that they were knocked up, settling, had gotten into trouble. While Suzy is doing well financially (appears to be bankrolled by her parents) she lacks a career as the other, working class, girls do. I don’t know if this is saying anything in particular, but I think it’s fascinating.
Jackie, Lynn, and Sue, age 7
I’m currently watching AMC’s Mad Men, and have realized that these women are the same generation as Sally Draper. What I particularly like about the first film in the series is that it focuses on these girls as main characters. We see what these girls think about things, not what they are told to think, how they are told to behave, how adults react to their actions. All of the subjects are incredibly candid. I’m unsure of the coaxing that they received from the film makers, but the opinions stated by the children seem incredibly honest.
My favorite subject is Neil, from Liverpool (pictured below). He is hilarious, bright. At 7, he wants to be an astronaut or a coach driver. At 14, he is unsure of what he wants to be, but knows that he wants to travel. I’ve done some light reading and learn that Neil at the time of 21 Up is homeless. You have to wonder what went “wrong” between age 14 and 21. Why Neil, a boy from the suburbs, is squatting in London, while Tony, a boy from a poor family in the East End, is doing fine for himself, taking yearly vacations to Spain. Neil, who is the social mean of the group, seems to have made the most drastic jump. I was saddened to hear about Neil’s hard times, but reading further, things do look up for Neil.
Neil, 14
Anyway, this is an amazing series so far. Three films in, I felt moved to write about it. I highly, highly suggest checking this out. I believe that it’s consumable in a long weekend. All episodes are streaming on Netflix.
