SELF ESTEEM

There have been a few essays recently on the undercurrent of most American animated films. The broad subject matter of the main characters has been the road to capturing self-esteem. The character's life is mundane, boring, repetitive and confining in such a pigeon holed way that the character needs to dream his own bigger, brighter future.

I did not realize that the audience, American children, had such self-esteem issues. It may be why animated features on the whole are widely popular.

To be esteemed, one would need to be admired or respected by his or her peers. For self-esteem, it is confidence in one's worth and abilities. In the LOST world, those two concepts clash in the main characters. In order to have self-esteem, the characters need to be admired or respected by their peers.

For example, Locke was a haphazard grinder in real life. He bounced from job to job. He was not particularly good at anything. His boring life led him to fantasy role playing games, even as an adult. None of his supervisors admired or respected him. In turn, Locke always wanted to show other people that he was worth something. That is why he stalked his con-man father, to see why even donating a kidney did not garner him any respect or admiration from Cooper.

Kate was a flippant child. What comes around goes around. She grew up in a stable home, but lashed out for attention by trying to steal a lunchbox at the general store. She was bored with her life. She had little direction. She dreamed of doing something, but no one ever encouraged her to follow her dreams. As a result, she had a very narrow, child like view of the world. Her solution to "save" her mother was the cartoonish blow up the abusive husband. The fall out was severe: her mother reacted negatively toward her. Kate could not understand what went wrong.

Jack was clearly crippled by the lack of respect his father game him. From early childhood, Christian did not pat Jack on the back. Jack struggled to get his father to notice his accomplishments. The lack of acknowledgement from his father led Jack into repressed anger and a single minded will to "fix things." Even if his hospital peers admired his "miracle" results in the OR, Christian never did. It was that cold detachment that was the deep canyon between their father-son relationship.

The island gave the main characters an opportunity to gain some self-esteem. The survivors were given a choice: get along or die. But factions never got along. And a lot of people died.

Locke has a roller coaster ride. He reinvented himself as some outback survivalist. But instead of being admired, he was feared as being a loon. Kate was so obsessed with her past remaining a secret that she came off distant and aloof. Her  tracking and shooting skills came in handy at times, but she was never looked upon as the leader of any group. Jack was an immediate leader in the eyes of the survivors for one simple reason: he was their only doctor. He was needed to help everyone survive. He took charge immediately after the crash, barking out orders like it was an emergency room. People saw and respected his skills. They assumed that Jack meant what he said; that he a plan that would save them. But even when Jack was rewarded with the support of the group, he was quite uncomfortable in taking command. His father always knocked him down a peg when leadership issues arose in their conversations. It may have been a defense mechanism by Christian so his son would surpass his accomplishments. But it held Jack back for a long time in accepting his role as the group's ultimate leader.

It was only after Locke had died did Jack realize what Locke was trying to tell him. At that moment, Locke was finally respected by some one. Only when Kate wrangled Claire onto the Ajira plane did she fulfill her personal goal of helping save someone else instead of running away. She would earn Claire and Aaron's respect. And it was only when Jack accepted his fate to become the island guardian, to defeat MIB and release his friends to leave the island in peace, did Jack find his own self-esteem.