Movie Case Study: “Akeelah the Bee”

Miriam Larson

EPSY 430

July 6, 2011

“Akeelah the Bee” begins in a classroom in a middle school in inner-city Los

Angeles. An English teacher places a test face down on Akeelah’s desk. “Akeelah, did

you study at all?” the teacher asks. “No” says Akeelah quietly. Then she turns her test

over and we see an A+ circled in red pen. With this introduction, the audience is pulled

into the central conflict of the film: eleven-year old Akeelah is brilliant, and she is

particularly gifted at spelling, but her potential to be a spelling bee champion is

challenged by her own doubts, negative peer pressure and misunderstandings on the part

of her family.

“Akeelah the Bee” accurately and effectively illustrates early adolescent cognitive

and social development, particularly in the area of racial formation, but it is not free from

common media tropes that reinforce societal patterns of racial stereotyping. This paper

will begin by examining research about cognitive and social development and will also

look at the film as a case study of media representation. Akeelah’s development over the

course of the film illustrates a number of ways the brain is developing and influencing

social and cognitive behavior. While Akeelah is accurately represented as a developing

teen, the film does reiterate stereotypes, particularly the stereotypical portrayal of Dylan,

the Asian American champion speller. These elements are part of a film that otherwise

resists trends of negative stereotyping and works towards a new media environment that

has the potential to empower youth from all racial backgrounds to pursue their talents and

value the talents of others.

Research has shown that early adolescence is a “critical period” for brain

development. While Akeelah’s spelling ability is evidently exceptional, her ability to

learn rapidly is also symptomatic of the development in her early adolescent brain. As Dr.

Laramie says in the film, Akeelah’s brain is “like a sponge.” Researchers have found that

during early adolescence, the gray matter in the brain thickens as brain cells over-produce

(Staunch 15). Psychologist Jay Geidd has studied brain scans of teens and observed a

period of overproduction, also called “exuberance,” that happens around the time of

puberty (ctd in Staunch 28). After this period of exuberance, the body begins a process of

“pruning,” or reducing the grey matter to the essential amount. Akeelah’s specific ability

with language is also related to growth in her brain. Geidd’s study has shown growth of

the temporal lobes, which is the area of the brain that is tasked with learning language.

While genes determine some aspects of an individual teen’s brain development,

brain development is also dependent on the frequency of use of particular synapses or

communication routes, i.e. the teen’s experiences (Stuanch 30). Scientists believe that

during periods of exuberance, human brains are especially receptive to new information

and skills (Staunch 29). In Akeelah’s case her brain is particularly receptive to language

and rote memorization. Her experiences working with Dr. Geidd develop her ability to

memorize words and also capitalize on her brain’s receptiveness to experiences. Dr.

Laramie uses a variety of teaching methods that include using flash cards, practicing

using different physical activities like jump roping, and teaching language in the context

of historical texts. These experiences will help her maintain her abilities as her brain

begins to “prune” the grey matter in later adolescence.

Akeelah’s exceptional capacity to learn language is initially inhibited by

Akeelah’s resistance to using her ability. It takes an order from the principal to convince

Akeelah to enter the school spelling bee. Akeelah’s initial resistance to being a part of the

spelling bee appears to be a result of the negative social pressure she receives from peers.

Akeelah’s closest friend is supportive but does not have the same interest or talent in

academic activities. Bernt points out that young people tend to be friends with teens who

have similar academic achievement and attitudes towards school (ctd in Steinberg 181). It

is not surprising therefore that Akeelah’s lack of sympathetic support from peers may

lead to a feeling Akeelah describes at the beginning of the movie; she does not quite fit in

with other teens. Besides her close friend, other peers are openly hostile; not long after

Akeelah receives her A+ on her spelling test, two classmates beat her up in the

schoolyard and taunt her for being a “braniac.” Researchers who study racial formation in

teens have found that among African American teenagers “braniacs” may be negatively

stigmatized because they are “acting white.” Fordham and Ogbu’s groundbreaking study

proposed that African American youth develop an “oppositional identity” as they

recognize the systematic exclusion of Black people in society (ctd in Tatum 60).

Educational achievement is coded as “white” because white teachers, administrators, and

curriculum favor the majority white cultural values and histories in most educational

contexts (61).

While this expression of oppositional identity inhibits Black students’ academic

achievement, Tatum makes an important point that the problem is not the fault of the

students. Instead, “what is problematic is that young people are operating with a very

limited definition of what it means to be Black, based largely on cultural stereotypes”

(62). For Akeelah, Dr. Laramie is a role model who counteracts those stereotypes. He

provides a positive example of a successful Black man who not only has accomplished

the task that Akeelah is setting out to accomplish – winning the National Spelling Bee

Championship – but he has also built a successful career in academia. Furthermore, Dr.

Laramie is purposeful in utilizing essays and reading material that teach Akeelah about

significant figures in Black American history. Dr. Laramie’s teaching works against the

prominence of Anglo-American curricular material that Tatum identified. Additionally,

Dr. Laramie helps educate Akeelah to be culturally aware. Berry explains that teens that

have supportive family, school, and peer experiences are better able to “place culturally

distorted and marginalized television portrayals” and be less affected by their

discouraging affects (59). Akeelah’s educational experiences as depicted in the film help

teach Akeelah to resist negative stereotypes and understand herself in a more nuanced

way.

Now that I have examined some elements of the content of the film, I will consider

the effects the story might have on viewers, particularly the target audience: young teens.

I argue that this film presents a strong and nuanced model of an early adolescent girl that

would be a positive influence on teen viewers, particularly African American teens. In his

article, Gordon Berry explains the significant impact that television can have on teens.

Teens change their attitudes about people and activities based on what they see on

television, according to research cited by Berry (Leifer ctd in Berry 58). Therefore it is

important to create a body of what Berry describes as “new socializing forces,” new

media that positively represents youth of color and helps them establish positive attitudes

about themselves and others in a multi-racial society (57). The development of “new

socializing forces” may be seen as one way to respond to Tatum’s call for more culturally

sensitive pedagogy. Tatum specifically talks about positive identity development for

teens of color as a process of developing an “emissary identity, ” or youth who can be

culturally aware advocates for their racial group. Akeelah’s educational experience with

Dr. Laramie and in the spelling bee competitions seems to represent a step towards her

development as an “emissary.” She is taught about role models who have been emissaries

in the past and she also becomes a representative of her school and her community as she

progresses in the spelling bee competitions.

The film seems to intentionally counter common racial stereotypes about African

Americans but it is not consistent in resisting racial stereotyping. The Asian American

character Dylan is the most obvious example of racial stereotyping. Hamamoto identifies

one common media stereotype of Asian Americans as “evil geniuses” and Dylan,

particularly in the beginning, is portrayed in this light (ctd in Berry 59). When Akeelah

first visits the school that two other spelling bee contestants attend, she runs into Dylan.

He challenges her to spell a word that she has never heard before and smirks when she is

unable to spell it. Later in the film, Akeelah and Dylan face off over a game of Scrabble

and Dylan beats Akeelah and once again scoffs at her aspirations to be a spelling bee

champion. Often, shots of Dylan are accompanied by intense music with gongs that

remind viewers of Dylan’s Asian identity and distract from any character development.

While Dylan’s character reiterates stereotypes, Javier, whose name and features

suggest that he is Hispanic, are not highlighted. He is a well-developed character who is

likeable and nuanced and his fancy birthday party and large house indicate that he comes

from a middle-class background. In contrast to Dylan, Javier’s character does seem to

resist racial stereotyping. Colsant and Subervi-Velez observe that Hispanic characters are

almost absent from commercial entertainment television and middle-class Hispanic

families are especially rare (ctd in Berry 59). It is gratifying to see a representation of a

Hispanic character that resists this trend. It offers teens who watch the film the chance to

be affected by media that portrays Hispanics as individuals for whom racial identity is

only one part of their identity.

Both because of its inadequacies and its strengths, this film highlights the need for

more movies and other media that will help youth resist stereotypes and envision

themselves as a good kind of “different.” The incentive to make more films that portray

strong and nuanced youth of color is strong. Citing Chisman, Berry argues for the need

for diversity in media because of the fact that the U.S. population is changing; by the

middle of the 21st century, the majority of the population will be people of color. The

success of youth development is therefore tied to the successful creation of new films and

other media. These films and other media will improve upon what “Akeelah the Bee”

presents by helping teens imagine a multi-racial society that does not inhibit young

people’s success by bombarding them with racial stereotypes but rather celebrates young

people’s growth and potential during this critical period.