REBEL WITHOUT A CAUSE AND THE CURRENT CRISIS OF FATHERLESSNESS, SEXUAL INDENTITY CRISIS AND CRIMINAL REBELLION

James Dean's next to the last movie in the mid 1950's was "Rebel without a Cause."  It is a commentary on youth of that period and the angst they go through. It deals in an implied way with what happens to boys in general when they grow up without a strong father figure. Implied too is latent homosexuality because of this and there is also flirtation with incest or disordered affections in this regard with the female lead and her relationship with her father.

Let's start with the female, Natalie Wood's character, going through her teenage angst transitioning from a child to a beautiful adult woman. She wants the flirtatious childhood relationship with her father but he slaps her in the face when she gets too affectionate with him as a blossoming young teenager. Implied, of course, is that the dad finds his daughter sexually attractive and he wants to avoid acting on any disordered affections and thus comes across to his daughter as no longer loving her which leads to her teenage angst.

James Dean's character is going through angst on many levels and much of his rebellion has to do with his father who is weak, female-like and henpecked. He is not a masculine role model for his son, so Dean creates that model within himself and his courageous attempts to deal with bullies in a gang and a car scene that turns out to be deadly for his rival whom he comes to like.

Sal Mineo's part is that of a bit younger teenage boy grappling with same sex attraction but based upon his father leaving the family, his mother absent most of the time and his black maid who becomes his surrogate mother who loves him and he her. He sees in the James Dean figure the father he hasn't had, the masculinity he exudes which is Dean's character  overcompensating for his fathe'sr lack of  masculinity and courage.

There is certainly an implied hero worship in their relationship. Dean's character loves the younger teenager's affection and adulation, but dean's character is no homosexual.  He is a father-like character for Mineo's character.

Nonetheless the fatherlessness of these characters leads to the tragic conclusion of this motion picture.

While the main stream media focuses in on racial inequality in this country and how some in law enforcement have over-reacted to blacks they come into contact with, there is no concern about black on black crime in this country and our larger cities like Chicago.

Some influential black men are speaking out, thanks be to God. They diagnose the crime rate in the black community which is primarily black on black crime and murders, as a result of young men who have no strong father figures or absent fathers. Strong women take their place, but this is not effective in a boy's life, a teenager's life, or a young adult's life.

This leads to drug abuse, belonging to gangs where courage and masculinity is measure by crime and illicit sex and fathering of children only to become an absent father too.

The Church has much to say and teach on this subject but is now marginalized and must focus on other issues that the main stream media desires to do, that of racism in the white community.

But there is no focus on the root cause of problems in black community which began to escalate in the late 1950's and well into the 70's, the break down of the once strong black family in the USA and in the south which has nothing to do with racism but everything to do with the media's promotion of sexual immorality, a neglect on those who promote the drug culture and a welfare system that enables immoral behavior to get more money.

Blacks have to solve this problem and they have the wherewithal to do it. They don't need whites telling them what to do or how to do it.