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Kaleb Robertson

English 101-13T

Professor Boyd

3/25/19

Giving Credit Where Credit is Not Due

Juno is the movie that takes a bad situation and turns it into a good situation in the end. A

lot of people like to see Juno as a woman that is independent and smart in the character she

portrays. She may have moments where she seems smart, but she also makes most mistakes that

most people her age does not make most of the mistakes she makes in the movie. I think Juno

gets too much credit for being a teen that makes life changing mistakes, when really, she is just

as irresponsible and immature as any other teenager. She makes lots of mistakes that and one big

one that most teens especially in high school don’t make.

Juno may come off as a more mature teen then most teenagers in the movie. In fact, Juno

gives the vibe that she knows exactly what she is doing. When Jeremy Clyman calls Juno wise

and secure beyond her years; I tend to not agree with the statement Clyman visions. Clyman

seems to leave out the fact Juno getting pregnant is not even a big deal and acts like it’s nothing

to worry about. If Juno was so wise and beyond her years, the movie would have not been about

a pregnant teenager. Juno has got to much credit for becoming pregnant. It felt like she got

rewarded for getting pregnant and never faced a real harsh reality, besides that abortion is killing

an undeveloped child. Juno’s lack of maturity lead to her getting pregnant, because she thought

having intercourse was just something that should happen. She never really thought about the
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consequences that came with intercourse. Intercourse is something people need to be safe and

mature about and clearly Juno wasn’t.

Juno was not anymore responsible than the other teens in the movie, because she failed to

see what the consequences were before had intercourse with Bleeker. Yes, people make mistakes

all the time, even the more responsible ones do too. My case is that in the movie Juno having

intercourse was not a mistake, because it wasn’t in heat of the moment. Juno had intercourse

with Bleeker, because she wanted to and planned it. She never gave a thought that this could end

with the possibility of becoming pregnant. The only thing that she saw was a mistake was the

child being grown inside of herself. Which is a sign of selfishness and is another sign of

immaturity because she only cared about what happened to her. One of the things that makes

Juno immature is the failure to recognize when she has made a mistake. She may realize some

things is a mistake like the fact she was pregnant, but I am talking about what most adults would

consider a mistake. For example, when Juno would go and visit mark without his wife being

there. Juno would make an excuse to go an hour away to show them “baby stuff” when she

wanted to see mark. Juno and mark would get friendly and mark eventually told Juno to run

away with him. Juno crossed the line by seeing mark behind his wife’s back. Juno failed to see

the wrong with doing that because they were “friends”. When any responsible person would

know not to get in the personal space of a couple and especially not to sneak around the other

spouse’s back.

In a case like Juno’s it is very irresponsible to be her age and having a kid considering

how unprepared she is. “Hundreds of employers have found their college-graduate hires

“woefully unprepared” a quote from Caitlin Petre makes a lot of sense when you are looking at a

girl like Juno. By reading that quote it may not seem like it pertains to this movie but let me
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explain why. Juno is of course one of those college graduate students that is “woefully

unprepared”. Juno is the movie seems to be more “mature and responsible” than her peers, yet

with all that maturity and responsibility should come with more expectations. She failed to see

the expectations with being more intelligent this should have not happened. The employers play

as Mark and Vanessa which is lucky that Juno is unprepared, so they can get the child that

Vanessa wants. Juno knew that she was unprepared or why else would she go and try to get an

apportion, then give it away to a couple in a newspaper. Juno was trying to take responsibility for

her actions with the baby and just try to get rid of it, so it will not affect anyone, but herself. She

knew that she was irresponsible with her decision of having intercourse, because she was not

prepared to have a child, so she got impulsive and did everything to make the problem go away

or less problematic. She acted like the pregnancy was just a video game and you could just exit

at any moment or just give it up if you didn’t want it, which is just what she did.

Juno acts like just another person by not telling people her true feelings, instead

she just hides it by masking it with humor or lashing out. Not telling people her true feeling

towards them can be considered immature, because you are failing to let them though how you

and that person stand at that moment. With Mark, Juno led him on making him think they had a

more than friendship connection. Juno had interest with most of Mark’s belongings that made

him easy to I would stay put in a trance. Juno made it seem that they could possibly be a couple,

because she failed to tell Mark that they are just good friends. Juno also thinks that it was not her

fault at all either, she thought she was just being friendly. That event sparked the divorce between

Mark and Vanessa. Juno first crossed the line by visiting Mark alone and then did not tell him

they are nothing more than friends until Mark made a move. There was another moment in the

movie were Juno lashed out by yelling at Bleeker for asking a woman to the dance that Juno told
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him to do. If Juno just told Bleeker how she really felt this could have been avoided but she

chose to be immature about the situation.

All previous arguments are about Juno and how she portrays to be immature and

irresponsible I know that Juno does show flashes of maturity and responsibility in the movie.

Juno was smart, but just not smart about the life changing things like pregnancy. People make

mistakes, but the real mistake was she not knowing what she was doing. Even though Juno’s

impulsive move to get rid of the child without talking to anyone that was technically an adult like

her parents, I can see where she was coming from. Juno knew that the pregnancy was a mistake

and did not want to burden her family with the mistake that has happened. Juno just could have

handled it with more maturity. Juno may have talked a though beyond her years, but she still

showed the immaturity that comes with a teenager. From an educational and knowledge stand

point she may have excelled more than most students in that category. Juno was also taking the

pregnancy well and never totally freaked out like most teens would being put in her situation.

Juno also owned up to her mistake and took responsibility to tell her parents that she was

pregnant. Even though Juno is irresponsible and immature she does have her moments in the

movie she shows flashes of being not so immature and irresponsible.

Juno is a controversial conversation when it comes to is she smart and intelligent or is she

irresponsible and immature. The answer to that mystery is both, as you can see Juno shows a

great deal of irresponsibility but does have moments where she seems to be mature and above

others intelligence. Those moments get washed away when she goes and make mistakes like

getting pregnant. I can relate to Juno, because when I was a young teen like her I liked to do

things I should not be doing. When I would do that it ended with something bad happening that

was a mistake. Juno and I knew what we were doing and at first it was not a mistake, just the
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after fact that happened became a mistake. That is what makes Juno not so mature and

responsible after all she does things without recognizing what might happen next. Juno is just

like any other teenager full of immaturity and responsibility, she just so happens to be pregnant

with more educational intelligence then most her peers. In the other hand life is make for you to

make mistakes you just have to adjust and move on.

I honor Parkland’s core values by affirming that I have followed all academic integrity

guidelines for this work.

-Kaleb J Robertson

Work Cited

Clyman, Jeremy. “Why We Love ‘Juno.’” Psychology Today, Sussex Publishers,

www.psychologytoday.com/us/comment/187032.

Petre, Caitlin. “The Lessons I Didn't Learn in College.” Newsweek, Newsweek Staff, 14 Mar.
2010, www.newsweek.com/lessons-i-didnt-learn-college-106671.

Reitman, Jason, director. Juno. 2007.

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like any other teenager full of immaturity and responsibility, she just so happens to be pregnant

with more educational intelligence then most her peers.

I honor Parkland’s core values by affirming that I have followed all academic integrity

guidelines for this work.

-Kaleb J Robertson