My Girl

I recently watched the movie, My Girl, filmed in 1991.
The movie is about an 11 year old girl called Vada and her best friend Thomas J.
Thomas J and Vada are very good friends, as they have only each other. The benefits of their relationship are that they are able to support each other when they have problems and help each other sort out their relationships with other characters in the movie. Vada uses her relationship with Thomas J to be more resilient by him always being there to talk to her and to add his point of view. He's always optomistic and helps her realise that her problems aren't as serious as she thinks. Thomas J uses his relationship with Vada to help him develop a stronger social life; so that he can have someone to talk too.

Vada deals with death and grief by trying to pretend she truly understands the idea of death, while in reality, she doesn't. We see this when she's locked in the room with the dead people her father operates on. Vada overreacts completely, to the point of a nervous breakdown. She blames herself for her mother's death. I think this is an appalling reaction to loss, as it makes overcoming it extremely hard. She should try to get someone to explain to her that this is not her fault. When something happens to her best friend, she spends a whole day grieving, but can't seem too overcome the loss. Finally she does overcome the loss, recovers her father's relationship with her and accepts Shelly as her mother.