Akeelah And The Bee

At Javier’s birthday Akeelah plays Scrabble with Dylan. After the game, Akeelah unexpectedly heard the conversation between Dylan and his father who strictly asked Dylan to win the first prize. Meanwhile, Akeelah thought she won’t have the chance to win Dylan because it seems impossible to beat the strength of Dylan. However Dr. Larabee told her she is the only cause that pushes Dylan. Besides, Akeelah also started her hard works with Dr. Larabee. They used prefix and etymon to memorize those difficult words, and it was helpful for Akeelah to use rhyme by spelling. During the state bee, Akeelah’s mother suddenly broke the competition because she was so angry that Akeelah sign the consent form by herself. After Dr. Larabee and the principle’s explain, finally got her mother’s agreement that Akeelah could participate the spelling bee. At the same time Javier tried his best to put off the time so that Akeelah would not be disqualified. Dylan, Javier and Akeelah won the qualifications to go to national spelling bee. Then, not only the big pressure and expectation, but also the information that Dr. Larabee won’t teach her anymore made Akeelah depressed and wanted to quit. Her mother used her college experience to encourage Akeelah and told her she had 50,000 coaches around her. With the help of her family and the people in the community, Akeelah prepared as hard as she could. Before the national spelling bee, she also changed the mind of Dr. Larabee so he was willing to accompany her to the competition. After a violent competition, Akeelah and Dylan fought for the first prize. At first Akeelah wanted to yield first prize to Dylan by misspelling. However Dylan wanted a final competition with Akeelah so he also misspelled. In the end both of them are champions in this national spelling bee. I think most of Asian parents put too much emphasis on their children. Sometimes it is only an expectation of parents, but gives the children many pressures. In order to achieve the goal of parents, some children have to give up their dream and spent most of their time doing the thing that they don’t like. Take Dylan as an example, I guess before he wins the national spelling bee, his daily life full of vocabulary. There are no fun and encouragement in the process of preparation. He is like a machine keeps memorizing words. In my opinion, there is a big difference between western cultures and eastern cultures. I remind myself in the future I would give my children freedom to pursue what they are really interested in, instead of my boring request.