This film has as its basis a physical journey ( from home across the United States) to a beauty contest which Olive has entered, trained by her grandfather. On the journey everyone developes a changed sense of belonging:
- Olive is happy and focussed on her fantasy and lives out her fathers principles of success
- Richard finds what he really values in his father and Sheryl, Dwayne and Olive after career failures
- Granpa has a home and a mission through Olive after being rejected by his retirement village for his unacceptable behaviour
- Dwayne comes to terms with his family and his ambitions, becoming a willing participant in his family
- Sheryl has re-established her family by making her family take this journey
- Frank finds meaning to his life after his abortive suicide attempt through a newfound sense of belonging.
It’s an image of a dysfunctional family whose members rediscover what it means to belong:
- the bus that slowly falls apart but brings the family together
- the training of Olive, not fully revealed until the end
- the mishandling of the grandfather’s body that occurs because of the need to respect a father by a son
- the satire on beauty contest: Olive is the real beauty in pageant of plastic Barbi dolls
- the humour that permeates the film.
eruditeHSC 
Hi,
Would you recommend this as a good text related to belonging for the HSC? Can a lot of material be draw from it to write a descriptive essay that would get a relatively good mark? Or should I consider another text, preferably a movie?
Barriers limit a persons sense of belonging, How would i relate this to Little Miss Sunshine
The only person without barriers is Olive. She believes she can be Little Miss Sunshine. The family support her but each has issues, some greater than others. Olive’s brother symbolically refuses to talk ie communicate his thoughts and feelings because he feels alienated. Oliver’s uncle take that feeling to the extreme in a suicide attempt. The journey putting them all together brings them together as they unite to follow Olive’s dream.
Sorry it’s late but hope it helps,
Judy