The Twisted Concept of Family and Love in Juno

As a child Juno’s mother left her at the age of six, forced to live with her single father at the time. From her experience as a child with a single parent made her realize what the value of a complete family really is. Juno and Mark shared some of the same interests in movies and music which brought them closer throughout the adoption process, however, when she realized that Mark wants to drop the adoption plan; she realizes that her relationship with him was inappropriate and that he is irresponsible and self-centered. When Juno and mark were arguing about marks decision on the divorcing Vanessa, Juno tries to convince him that it’s the wrong thing to do. As Juno has a rough decision to make on whether she should keep the baby or give it to Vanessa, she ends up leaving Vanessa a note, “Vanessa—If you are still in, I am still in. Juno”, because she had some time to think and realized that even if Vanessa ends up being divorced, she still has the ability to give the child proper love and care.

In the textbook in Chapter 9 where the average adolescent has two modes of thinking, “advanced logic in adolescence may be counterbalanced by the increasing power of intuition. Thus, thinking occurs in two ways, called dual processing. The terms and descriptions of these two processes vary, including intuitive/analytic, implicit/explicit, creative/factual, contextualized/decontextualized, unconscious/conscious, gist/quantitative, emotional/intellectual, experiential/rational, hot/cold, systems 1 and 2. Although they interact and can overlap, each mode is independent”. Juno knows that decisions like abortion are neither dangerous nor harmful, but she still fears that she would hurt the fetus since Sue-chin was at the abortion clinic and was protesting that “All babies want to be born”, which made Juno pressured and freak out of the clinic. This fear compels her to investigate a different option such as adoption; while her emotions compels her to find a perfect married couple as parents for the unborn child. When Juno unexpectedly drove to Mark and Vanessa’s house to show the first ultrasound picture of their baby, she was very joyful and considered herself as a companion to Vanessa who is mature enough to bring a baby into her life.

In chapter 11 of the textbook, adolescents that go through a situation such as Juno’s, can turn into a time of loneliness and depression. In this chapter of Psychosocial Development, it states, “If self-doubt, anxiety, depression, and so on are present in childhood and adolescence, they are often still evident years later. Traits strongly present at age 5 or 15 do not disappear by age 25.” Since adolescents are not comfortable in sharing their concerns with others, they try to isolate themselves from friends and family. They are only comfortable sharing those concerns with their close companions. Juno only shares her pregnancy news with only her best friend Leah.

She openly displays her doubts, resentments, and concerns of the pregnancy and also shares her ideas of continuing the pregnancy and giving the baby to adoptive parents. Leah argues about the Juno’s decision and explains her all the pros & cons of the situation but at last Juno continues with her decision. This suggests that even though Juno trust Leah and is close to her, Juno believes in herself and is confident enough to carry forward her decision. Juno’s self-confidence can be related to chapter 11’s article on Rising Self-Esteem, she works up the courage to tell her parents about her pregnancy. At first it takes both Mac and Bren (Juno’s parents) a second to comprehend what Juno has just told them. Of course, they were disappointed but they both supported Juno in her decision of giving the baby to adoption.