In our ongoing effort to offer a variety of resources related to faith and film, we are pleased to feature a regular series focused specifically on adoption in the movies. Addison Cooper, the reviewer you are about to read, is a licensed social worker who cares deeply about helping families navigate the tricky waters of adoption. He also recognizes film’s ability to help people process turbulent emotional situations in life.
If you are pursuing adoption now, we hope this series is is a help. If you know someone else who is adopting, please pass this series on to them. Adoption seems to be very close to the heart of God.
Because this series is meant to be a study guide of sorts for movies featuring adoption, SPOILERS will be included, as dealing critically with thematic issues raised by films generally necessitates discussing plot points from throughout the narrative.
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Beasts of the Southern Wild
The Plot
Hushpuppy lives in “The Bathtub,” a small, forgotten, impoverished community in a mandatory evacuation area below a levee in southern Louisiana. Hushpuppy is very independent for a five-year-old. Her mother left when she was very small. Her father, Wink, looks after her, but Hushpuppy and Wink each live in their own homes.
The citizens of The Bathtub love their home, but it’s threatened by flooding because of the levee. Wink damages the levee to protect The Bathtub, but his action alerts local authorities to the presence of people in the unsafe area. Residents are forcibly taken to a shelter in a safer area. While there, Wink learns that he is very sick. When they have an opportunity, many of the residents of The Bathtub return to their homes. There, Wink dies, and Hushpuppy stands together with the other citizens of The Bathtub, setting his funeral pyre afloat.
The Adoption Connection
Lou Lumenick of The New York Post calls Beasts of the Southern Wild a “challenging but hugely rewarding film.” Its relevance to adoption lies in the challenge. Hushpuppy, Wink, and the citizens of The Bathtub are happy in their lives. Their lives aren’t perfect, though: Wink is always drinking alcohol, and most social workers would probably report him as a negligent – and possibly abusive – parent. The home is in squalor, the education provided at the school seems suspect, the residents are deeply impoverished, and the town they live in isn’t really safe. But yet, for them, this is home. Outsiders who are better-off – in safer physical environment and with more resources, impose their help on residents of The Bathtub, but at the first opportunity, the residents of The Bathtub go back home. The outsiders didn’t understand the importance or the value of the community in The Bathtub.
The difficult (but, rewarding) adoption connection is the point of view that this movie provides. Imposed help isn’t always welcome and might not even be the best choice. Adoptive parents and adoption professionals might not agree with the point-of-view this movie suggests, but should be prepared to show sensitivity by at least understanding it.
From some points of view, many adoptions follow the pattern of imposed help. The child is growing up in (or is about to be born into) an environment that, from an outside point of view, seems underprivileged. In many international adoptions (though also in domestic adoptions) children are often adopted from impoverished families into well-to-do families, from unsafe neighborhoods into safer neighborhoods, and from less normative family circumstances into circumstances that are thought to be more “normal.”
In Beasts of the Southern Wild, the help is forcibly imposed. That shouldn’t be the case in adoptions, but sadly, sometimes, it seems to be. Many birthmothers share stories online of being coerced or emotionally pressured into relinquishing their babies. As a social worker, I’ve heard (not many, but not zero) adoption agencies express that they do put emotional pressure on birth parents to go through with relinquishments. Stories exist of children being unethically freed for international adoption. In the case of foster care adoption, the “help” is forcibly imposed.
Are you uncomfortable yet?
It’s not an easy connection to make, and it’s not an easy viewpoint for some to see, and it also doesn’t apply to every situation. The point of the movie isn’t that imposed help is bad. The point of this review isn’t that “adoption is bad.” Many birth parents enter willingly into adoption. The difficulty inherent in making an adoption plan isn’t in itself evidence of coercion or of a bad decision. As a former foster care social worker, I know that many times, children are brought out of horribly abusive situations and actively desire a safer, more stable family. Adoption isn’t bad. It can be a very positive thing.
But the movie does raise two very powerful questions that every prospective adoptive family, and every adoption professional, should consider: “How will I be sure that the agency with which I join my life is an ethical agency?” and, “Is adoption the form of help that this family needs right now, or would family maintenance or financial support be more in line with what they need?”
If your answer is, “Well, I really just want a child, so I don’t want to think about this,” then you’re probably not ready to approach adoption. Adoption should be driven by a child’s need for parents, rather than parents’ needs for a child. When you do work through those questions, you’ll be ready to be an ethical, child-centered, excellent parent.
Strengths, Challenges, Weaknesses, and Recommendations
Beasts of the Southern Wild is very thought-provoking, and it shows that strengths exist alongside weaknesses. The movie is a bit heavy for most kids, who might see it as boring, confusing, or too frightening. It’s nearly a must-see for prospective adoptive parents and for adoption professionals.
Questions for Discussion
* How can you be sure your adoption is an ethical one?
* Does the family from which you’re adopting need/want that form of help, or would they parent their
child if a different form of help was extended to them?
* Did Wink and Hushpuppy need forcibly-imposed evacuation? If you don’t think they did, how do you
justify letting them stay in such a difficult situation? If you think they did require imposed help, how
do you justify taking adults away from the place they love as “home?”
* If you were a social worker responding to a call about neglect, would you have taken Hushpuppy into
foster care or recommended monitoring her but leaving her with Wink? Why? If you took her into
foster care, what recommendations would you make for Wink in order for him to regain custody of
Hushpuppy?
* Would you be rooting for him to get his life in order and get her back, or would you expect that he
couldn’t have anything more than a surface-level change, and hope that Hushpuppy would be quickly
adopted from foster care?
* How do you see this movie relating to your adoption story?
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Addison Cooper, LCSW, is a licensed clinical social worker in California and Missouri. He has six years of experience in adoption, and has participated in the adoptions of over 90 children who were adopted from foster care. He’s working on a book about adoption in the movies. Visit his website, and follow him on Twitter @AddisonCooper for the most current information about his work.