The 'Constant Rebel': As Seen in Rebel Without a Cause and Office Space

There are numerous common traits associated with being 'American' that are echoed and enforced through American cinema. Most, if not all, of these traits have been embedded in our culture since the colonial era of American history because they have become "belief-behaviors imitated by successive generations" (McElroy, "Culture Formed" 16). One such American characteristic is the trait of 'constant rebel'. In his essay "American Individualism in the Twentieth Century", David M. Potter writes, "the priceless feature of our heritage was the principle of nonconformity, or dissent" (270). The 'constant rebel' legacy can be traced back to those who 'created' America -- the revolutionaries. The revolutionaries are the disaffected and the marginalized, the alienated that become an insurgent towards a higher authority or accepted convention. The Mayflower Pilgrims that first came to America were, in fact, disgruntled rebels even before they landed on Plymouth Rock. They came seeking religious freedom, having been "profoundly dissatisfied with life in England" (McElroy, "Culture Formed" 15). About 150 years later, that same rebellious streak manifested itself in the form of the American Revolution that won our country independence from Britain. In this sense, the characteristic of 'constant rebel' was born with the country itself, and it remains as constant now, as it was then. This notion of the American as the 'constant rebel' is represented and highlighted in Nicholas Ray's Rebel Without A Cause and Mike Judge's Office Space.

The very nature of the plot or text in both films serves to reflect the aspect of 'constant rebel'. The drama Rebel Without A Cause (1955) deals with the story and friendship of three teenagers, each from dysfunctional families, who meet in jail after having brushes with the law. Jim (James Dean) has a shrewish mother (Ann Doran) and spineless father (Jim Backus), leaving him afraid of becoming a 'chicken' like his father. Judy (Natalie Wood) has a father (William Hopper) who is physically repelled by her, making her anxious to find love from a father substitute. Plato (Sal Mineo) is a lonely, sad-faced teen whose parents are absent, leaving him to be raised by a nanny (Marietta Canty). The circumstances surrounding these three angst-ridden youth spur them onto acts of rebellion that include knife fights, 'chickie runs', and parental defiance.

The comedy Office Space (1999) is the story of Peter (Ron Livingston), who works at Initech: a computer company built up of strange, downtrodden employers all looking for a better life. Peter is on his way to a nervous breakdown when a hypnosis mishap opens up a whole new world. He then becomes extremely apathetic to his job, yet his new no-work ethic is mistaken as management potential. As he is promoted to management, his friends and coworkers, Michael Bolton (David Herman) and Samir (Ajay Naidu), are laid off. Frustrated in their lives and work, Peter and his friends decide to rebel against the system and their boss by plotting to embezzle funds from the company using a computer virus.

Though these two films are remarkably different to each other with respect to genre, age, and text, they both serve to highlight the trait of 'constant rebel' similarly by using the concept of alienation as the cause of their rebellion. Alienation, according to Potter, is "the psychological condition, together with the social factors presumably producing that condition, in which an individual cannot form effective personal relationships with the people around him" ("American Alienation" 304). In view of this, alienation inflicts isolation and loneliness. Not only this, but because we gain identity through our relationships, alienation then propels a "sense of loss of identity, and questing for either real identity or a substitute" ("American Alienation" 307).

Unlike what the title of the film suggests, the teen's rebellious juvenile delinquency in Rebel Without A Cause is bred in their disenchanted cry of youths neglected by their dysfunctional parents and alienated from the adult world. All three were confused, as they sought advice and got no answers. This is especially played out during the scene when Jim's father fails to answer his question: "What do you have to do to be a man?" Plato's mismatched blue and red socks near the end of the film symbolized their confusion. Potter would argue that their alienation, and lack of identity and communication with their parents, developed from the erosion and weak structure of the family unit ("American Alienation" 313). Not only were they alienated from their family and father figures, but they also became isolated from their peers and world at large. The result of this is evidenced in three separate disparaging comments they each make near the beginning of the movie. While Judy is talking to Ray (Edward Platt) at the police station, she cries: "I'll never get close to anybody", and while Plato is being interrogated by an officer at the station, he answers a question by saying: "Nobody can help me". Jim also iterates a similar withering comment to Plato when he states: "I don't want to make friends".

In Office Space, the stimulus for Peter and his friends' rebellion is also alienation, but of a different form that Potter talks about as well. Due to modern technology and greater industrialization, the large organization of a work place (like Initech) makes it necessary that its workers operate "as if they were indistinguishable units and not human personalities" ("American Alienation" 319). Potter describes this as the depersonalization of the interactions in an institutional structure, which contributes to the alienation and 'robot'-ization of American workers ("American Alienation" 319). The Office Space workers can be seen in this type of light. The compartments they all work in are like miniature prison cells where they are subjected to the continuous torture of listening to a woman two cubicles away chirp: "corporate accounts payable, Nina speaking" at least a dozen times. It is an office world of Lumbergh's (Gary Cole) cold demands and the dehumanization of soft-spoken workers, like Milton (Stephen Root), who are perpetually stepped-on and completely ignored. As Andrew O'hehir wrote in his review, "the point of Office Space is that none of us actually want to spend our time in anonymous, soul-crushing environments, constantly being told we put the wrong cover sheets on our reports or chided for having 'a bad case of the Mondays'" (par. 4).

"The fundamental alienation of the individual from his/her activities, the mystifying roles of social relationships...all combine to create a frustrating and fundamentally unsatisfying environment, which leaves him with vaguely defined impulses to rebel" ("Brave New World" par. 10). This statement holds true in the case of both films, as the response elicited by the character's alienation is rebellion. The teens in Rebel Without A Cause tended to rebel against their parents and society by participating in events that -- during the Post-War era of the 1950's -- were considered to be major acts of juvenile delinquency. The actions that found them at the police station that night -- Jim and his lonely-and-roaming drunkenness, Judy wandering around past curfew in the streets wearing bright red lipstick and clothing, and Plato's disturbing shooting of puppies -- were all motivated by insurgency. The color red comes to symbolize rebellion in the movie after Judy is seen wearing it at the station, and later, when Jim dons the infamous red windbreaker/jacket.

The rebellion of Peter and his friends in Office Space tended to be much lower key and calculated than that of Rebel Without A Cause. After deeming having had enough corporate life, Peter, Michael, and Samir quietly conjure up a plan to embezzle money from their dissatisfying job and rebel against their boss and the system. Other passive ways in which Peter rebels, is in his very casual dress and mannerisms while at work, parking in his boss' reserved parking spot, knocking down his cubicle 'cell' walls, and managing to play 'Tetris' on the job all day. Another amusing act of rebellion was during the scene where they get drunk and beat the copy machine to bits armed with bats. Perhaps 'borrowing' on Rebel Without A Cause's 'red equals rebel' theme, Milton's guarded Swingline stapler -- his last vestige of respect -- is red.

As mere angst-ridden youth in the '50s, Jim, Judy, and Plato were rebelling 'inside' -- wanting the 'system' (their parents) to become more sensitive to their needs, to apologize for being careless, and to make them a part of their existing order. As disgruntled and defrauded employees in the '90s, Peter, Michael, and Samir were rebelling 'outside' -- out to destroy 'the system' that seemed to have destroyed their essence of being. Even though Rebel Without A Cause and Office Space seem to have nothing in common at first glance, they both embody the American theme of the 'constant rebel' when looked at closely. Furthermore, these two distinct films exemplify the idea that in detecting for what is common in a very diverse America, "one should think of the metal from which Americans are forged, no matter into how many shapes this metal may be cast" ("National Character" 247).

Works Cited

Brave New World, Inc. 5 June 2003 http://www.intheheart.net/rebel.html>.

McElroy, John Harmon. "How American Culture Was Formed." American Beliefs. Chicago: Ivan R. Dee, 1999.

O'Hehir, Andrew. Salon Entertainment. 19 Feb. 1999. 5 June 2003 .

Potter, David M. "American Individualism in the Twentieth Century." Texas Quarterly Summer 1963: 256-276.

---. "The Quest for National Character." The Reconstruction of American History. Hutchinson & Co., 1962.

---. "The Roots of American Alienation." EmoryUniversity Quarterly 19 (1963): 304-333.