We will make lies for our own benefit By James Ly
Lying is a basic human instinct. It is used to protect ourselves and to make ourselves look better. In Napoleon Dynamite, almost every character lies however, none of them are serious lies. Napoleon happens to lie more than any other character. He has this strange compulsion to lie about his life and make himself appear more “dangerous and cool. One notable example is one of the first scenes of the movie. Napoleon is in the locker room talking to three bullies. One of them asks him what he did during the summer. Napoleon replies with an outlandish story.
Another example is when Napoleon talks to Pedro about the school dance. It is obvious that both of them do not have anyone to take to the dance. Napoleon takes advantage of this knowledge and says to Pedro that his girlfriend was going to fly in from Oklahoma but apparently, she got a modelling job. This lie shows that he wants Pedro to think of him less of a loser and more like a cool person. Another lie to help this idea is when Napoleon gets into a fight with Kip. Napoleon has just gone to Trisha’s house to give her a drawing. Instead, Napoleon finds uncle Rico making a sale with Trisha’s mother. He says to Kip “What the crap was uncle Rico doing at my girlfriend’s house?” This lie also shows that Napoleon wants to look cooler around people.
Kip also lies to protect his pride. Kip says to Napoleon “We both know that I’m training to become a cage fighter. Judging from his initial appearance, he is a scrawny, frail and soft man. We see that when he goes into a “Rex Kwon Do” introductory class, he has does not have any skill and he has a low tolerance for pain. He later says that the class was “a rip off”. This lie shows that Kip wants people to think better of him, even if the lie was somewhat outlandish.
Napoleon’s family also tell little lies. Grandma Sandy goes to the sand dunes with Napoleon’s aunt Caroline and her boyfriend. She tells Napoleon that she and aunt Caroline are going out to visit friends. What she actually meant was that she is doing to the sand dunes with her boyfriend (and aunt Caroline). Uncle Rico says to Kip “She [Tammy] says I live too much in 82. So, I dumped her.” However, uncle Rico is still wearing his wedding ring. He wears this ring through out the whole film. This is evidence of uncle Rico lying to himself to make him feel better about the situation. He tells this lie to Kip so I can convince himself he is over her.
Believe in yourself and your abilities By Thomas May
Believe in yourself and your abilities are made quite clear in the main plot. This is shown first when Pedro decides to run for class president. This revolves around the idea, as he believes in his abilities to become the class president. Napoleon also believes that Pedro can become the class president and this helps Pedro realise that he can do this and it doesn’t matter what every body else thinks about what his ability is and what they think. In the end Pedro starts to question what his abilities are and that he will not get elected as class president. Napoleon is also found in this idea. He believes in his to dance but because of his social awkwardness he doesn't have the confidence toy dance in front of anyone. We know this as he has his door close when he is practicing his dance moves. In the end, Napoleon helps out his friend by dancing in the skit so that Pedro will put up a fight against the popular candidate Summer Wheately. In the end Pedro wins the election and Napoleon gets a standing ovation for his dance. The main plot revolves the idea of the believing in yourself and your abilities and in the end both Napoleon and Pedro both get the abilities noticed for a good thing throughout the skill.
Popularity does not dictate who By David Brauhart you can become and what talents you have
The idea that ‘popularity does not dictate who you can become and what talents you have’ is not only important to the plot of Napoleon Dynamite, but also a big part of the message that the film tries to convey. The director has included multiple scenes that show this idea and advertise it to be true.
The first notable example of this is when Kip starts going out with LaFawnduh. Kip is characterised as a wimpy and unmanly guy and he is not the most popular person. But this did not stop him in being able to win an attractive and beautiful girl like LaFawnduh. It was his personality and committed attitude that got him where he wanted to be, not his social popularity status. Even though Kip is not the most likely person to end up with LaFawnduh he still did and popularity did not dictate where he could go and whom he could end up with.
The first notable example of this is when Kip starts going out with LaFawnduh. Kip is characterised as a wimpy and unmanly guy and he is not the most popular person. But this did not stop him in being able to win an attractive and beautiful girl like LaFawnduh. It was his personality and committed attitude that got him where he wanted to be, not his social popularity status. Even though Kip is not the most likely person to end up with LaFawnduh he still did and popularity did not dictate where he could go and whom he could end up with.
Another example where this idea is shown is the part where Pedro and Summer present their elections speeches and skits. Summer’s dance routine was not bad, however it was not the most amazing or talented performance. Despite this, she still received a large applause and cheer. When Napoleon does his dance routine, it is clearly much better and his talent is far greater than Summer’s, even though he is far less popular. He received a much bigger applause and cheer because of his talent Summer only got what she did because of her popularity status. This shows the difference in how good you can be when relying in talent rather than popularity. Napoleon did not need popularity to be as good as he was and it certainly did not dictate how talented he was.