Staying Positive In Difficult Times

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Daniel Alvarenga

AFRS 2014

Madeline Framer

03-05-2018

Staying Positive in Difficult Times

In the film “The Watsons go to Birmingham” set in 1963 during a time of

segregation and racism, the Watson family decides to take a vacation to Birmingham.

There are some reasons and also a context why the family want to go to Birmingham and

one of the main reasons is to try to straighten up the elder son Byron who not bullies his

own brother Kenny but also is constantly getting into troubles at school. The parents

Daniel Watson and Willona both agree to pay a visit to Grandmother Sands who lives in

the south and whose tough character is suppose to teach Byron some manners. There are

other minor characters in the film like Rufus, a new kid that just moved in town from the

south. Kenny expects Rufus to become the new kid getting bully although his expectation

takes a new turn when Kenny and Rufus actually become good friends. From all the

characters in the film my favorite is Kenny because he is smart, loving and a very

imaginative person.

Kenny is not just a kid with good manners but he is also a very intelligent one.

He does great at every subject and exceeds other students including Byron, his brother

who is actually failing the class. Kenny does exceedingly well at taking tests on top of

being great reader. His professor choose him for his eloquently way of reading for the

class. Kenny is sharp and with a great memory that he even memorizes a whole poem

that he recite for his class, which not only impresses the class but the professor himself.

Besides being a good student, Kenny also possesses an emotional intelligence that gives

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him clues about the dynamics of each member of his family. For example, Kenny knows

that Mom repeats herself every time she gets angry and he knows when Byron is about to

get in troubles and he is usually right. Perhaps because of Kenny’s intelligence, memory

and eloquence, he becomes the viewer’s narrator for the movie and he does such a great

job through out the film.

Another reason why Kenny is my favorite character is because he is a very caring

and patient character through out the film. It is rare to seeing him hating or being

impatient through out the movie. Kenny knows that Byron is always picking up on him

but deep in his heart he just wants Byron and him to get along. It took some big traumatic

events to change Byron’s mind until he starts to care more about his two little siblings.

One of those terrified moment is when Kenny gets caught up in the Whirlpool, which his

brother calls the Wooh Pooh. When Kenny is drowning Byron comes to the rescue. He

hugs Kenny so hard and from that moment on he realizes the preciousness of having a

good little loving brother like Kenny next to him. At the end of the film, Kenny’s

patience and caring pays off cause after they get back home, Byron actually starts to

protect him from other’s bullies. Because of his endurance and loving care, Kenny is one

of dearest character.

Besides being smart and resilient, Kenny is also a very imaginative and creative

person. Kenny’s imagination and creativity manifests through out the movie. We see

Kenny’s imagination in action when Byron’ lips are sticking on the car’s window due to

the cold. When his parent pulls Byron off the window they ask Kenny why has he closes

his eyes? His response shows his great imagination: “ I didn’t see it, but I bet Byron lips

stretched a mile before they finally let go of that mirror, I bet his lips looked like a giant

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rubber band before they snapped away from the glass” (Kenny). Everybody will laugh at

such scene and that is simply because of Kenny’s great creative imagination. Another

example is when they go to the Collin’s Landing Pool. Kenny doesn’t believe about the

“Wooh Pooh” so he jumps by himself to the pool where he gets caught up by an actual

whirl pool, however in his imagination, he sees the mysterious “Wooh Pooh” grabbing

his legs down toward the bottom of the pool. In Kenny’s own words after he was out of

the pool, “he was big and gray with hard square-looking finger. He grabbed my legs and

started pulling me down.”(Kenny). Again, nothing mysterious about a whirlpool but it

shows how great of an imagination he possesses. A world with out imagination is a plain

and boring world, that is why Kenny’s imagination makes him my perfect character.

When picking a character from a movie is hard decide who is your favorite based

on their acting and role. However I could say with assurance the Kenny not rocks his role

but exceeds my expectation as a character because he is intelligent, caring and creative

person. Even in a time when there is so much segregation Kenny knows how behave

according to his instinct and what he learns from his parents who are also very loving and

caring characters as well. For these and more reasons Kenny would stay my favorite

character in “The Watsons go to Birmingham”, a film that in my perspective, does a great

job portraying the pain and struggle of black people living in segregation and domination

in America.

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