Case Study of Child Rights: Matilda Film Case

Introduction

This assignment is going to be about human rights their origins and development regarding young people and children. One media source has to be chosen to allow me to explore a current issue related to the rights of children and I have chosen (Matilda 1996) and I will provide a debate or argument which assesses how the theme of my media source can be seen. I will look at the policies related to rights of children in the care and analyse the media source alongside some of the theories and I should think how these ideas play out in reality. My media source Matilda I will be looking at power and powerlessness and the notion of advocacy and at the end of the essay I will summarise and pull together all the arguments.

Rights and Participation

According to Ehall (2016) in Article 12 of the convention on the rights of the child it says every child has the right to participate in decision making which is relevant to their lives. The concept of children's involvement of decision making is embodied within The United Nations Convention on the Rights of the child (UNCRC) (UNICEF 1989),which regards  children and young people as being citizens in their own right and having some level of autonomy over their lives (willow,2005,Lancaster and Broadbent,2003)

Get Help With Your Essay

If you need assistance with writing your essay, our professional essay writing service is here to help!
Find out more about our Essay Writing Service

The movie is about a 6 year old girl who lives with her mean parents and her brother. They ignored her and never listened to what she said or asked for. Matilda taught herself how to read and used to go to the library every time her mother left her home alone while she went for bingo. Mrs Phelps from the library helped with an advanced reading list and took some books home to read every day.

Matilda was a very intelligent girl she developed telekinetic powers according to Benjamin (2013) telekinetic powers make a person move objects through the mind. Matilda got sent off to a school headed by a cruel principal Trunchbull. Matilda was put in a class where she met her wonderful teacher Miss Honey who was very different from her mean parents and cruel principal. On the first day of school her teacher Miss Honey realised how smart Matilda is then she went to ask Trunchbull if Matilda could go to a higher class but Trunchbull was mean and cruel to Miss honey.

Miss Honey invited Matilda at her house for tea after Trunchbull blames Matilda for putting a newt in glass she was drinking water from. Miss Honey tells Matilda about her past her mother died and how her mean aunt Trunchbull ruined her life and Miss Honey suspects that her aunt might have killed her father and stolen all her money. Matilda puts her telekinetic powers to practise to help Miss honey to get her stuff back from her aunt Trunchbull. Trunchbull visits miss Honey's class and she was being abusive to the children till she was interrupted by a piece of chalk that was writing on it on, on the chalk board. It wrote Trunchbull needs to give back everything she stole from Miss Honey then she passed out and this was all Matilda's telekinetic powers and Trunchbull though it was Miss Honey's father who passed away.

Trunchbull obeyed all the instructions. Miss honey moved back to her father's house and starts living a happy and decent life again. Matilda who visits Miss Honey everyday get moved up to the schools highest class. One day she finds out that her parents are planning to move to Spain because they were running away from the police because her father used to sell bad car parts to customers.

 Matilda refused to go with them and she took out some adoption papers so her parents can sign them then Miss Honey can adopt her. The parents signed the papers then Miss Honey and Matilda lived happy ever after together.

Later on in the movie Miss Honey became a good advocate for Matilda. Miss Honey supported and helped Matilda to develop her skills and she also tried to speak to Matilda's parents who did not care about what she said at all so that she could gain their support but they were not interested which made Miss honey and Matilda's connection strong. She helped Matilda by giving her the voice and confidence she encouraged her to continue with her reading so she can reach her maximum potential

Matilda's powers where first seen when her father stopped her from reading and book and forced her to watch television. Matilda became very angry when her father was holding her head still forcing her to watch television she glanced at the television till it exploded her powers seem to show up when she feels she is powerless. When her father took away what matters to her, powers took what matters to her father. Matilda was angered by her principal she blamed her for putting a newt in her glass of water she felt powerless whenever she felt powerlessness her powers reveal and tipped over the glass and tossed the newt onto the principal using her powers.

This is what's happening to Matilda and her rights, Matilda's parents ignored and mistreated her when she spoke about school because they did not see how intelligent she is. Matilda asked for a book from her father and the whole family laughed at her then she discovered a local library at the age of four she walked there every day to read while she was left alone at home. At the age of six and the half she lost patience with her parents expressing a desire to go to school her father continued to criticise her angrily then she thought of punishing her father. Every child has the right to education Harry her father ended up enrolling Matilda into school, Matilda's rights where put in to consideration.

Matilda was discriminated by her principal Trunchbull who treated her unfairly from other children because her vehicle barely made it into the school yard and she took out her frustration on Matilda because her father sold Trunchbull a faulty car she was locked up in the chokey ,a tall narrow closet lined with nails and broken glass. Miss Honey came to rescue Matilda because no child is mean to be treated that way and took Matilda back to class.