White Oleander Assessment

White Oleander goes through an immense, powerful journey with Astrid, young girl growing up through adolescence with trials and tribulations one couldn’t even imagine. The 2002 movie is one that can draw you in very quickly with how numerous relationships form and dissipate from the very beginning. The main characters are: Astrid Magnussen (the leading role of a young girl), Ingrid Magnussen (an artist and mother of Astrid), Barry Kolker (Ingrid’s boyfriend who was poisoned by her), Ray and Starr (the couple who took Astrid in first), Claire and Mark (a couple that later took in Astrid), and Rena Gruschenka (the third person to take Astrid in).

Throughout the movie it’s evident that numerous psychological disorders and concepts are expressed, that’s why the movie was selected. But watching it for myself I saw two disorders/concepts that didn’t necessarily dominate the movie, but headlined certain parts rather. I chose to cover and try to identify Narcissism and Addictive Personality with the correlation to alcoholism.

Throughout the movie, if anyone were to know what narcissism was it would be easy to identify it from the beginning of the movie and make connections with it along the whole film. Narcissism according to The Science of Psychology: An Appreciative View, is when an individual has an unrealistic sense of self-importance and has trouble taking criticism, it also has the effect for the will to manipulate people and have a lack of empathy. In previous courses I would point to Adolf Hitler as a person who suffered from narcissism. He was a very powerful individual and that made it even easier to manipulate a vast amount of people. He believed his race and he was higher than any other and didn’t have an inverse opinion. Ingrid, Astrid’s mother is a very troubling character to the audience. She is a very solemn and reserved woman who is driven to impose her views on Astrid whenever possible. In these few first clips it is easy to spot where Ingrid’s (sometimes troubling) demeanor exhibits narcissism. Try to spot how she manipulates Astrid and how she puts herself on a pedestal compared to other people.

It is recommended that you start around the 4:00 in this first clip where Astrid and Ingrid are sitting on a rooftop over the city. The only part necessary to watch is while they are on the rooftop.



In this scene, Astrid asks her mother about coming to an important parents night where it is obvious that she wants her to go. Ingrid instead simply brushes it off for personnel business suggesting that it isn’t important at all. Ingrid seems to me that she is better than the other parents/teachers in that she knows everything about her child and doesn’t need other input.

The next clip shows more about how she manipulates Ingrid. Begin at the 8:00 minute mark where Astrid makes her first visit to prison to see Ingrid.



And picking up from the beginning of this clip until around the 3:00 minute mark



These two clips show how Ingrid imposes her views and doesn’t even consider the opposing opinions of anyone else. She even compares her foster parents and the church leaders as ‘the enemy,’ this shows how she conveys her self-importance as an artist and how she believes her views are better than any other. In the end, she manipulates Astrid, as she will throughout the movie.

The other concept is addictive personalities, here, the relationship with Starr and Ray screams addictive personalities. Addiction can be on many levels and can associate with various things in this world. Some triggers may require a person to submit to addiction like when a person is stressed they will resort to nicotine. Addictive personalities are extremely dangerous and affect a lot of people. I believe we can all relate to someone or an event that was affected by an addiction. In Wellness class last semester we learned the ‘ins and outs’ of addiction and the thing that stuck with me is the longer you stay addicted the harder it is to break away, this is where withdrawal and other things come into play. We see and experience addictive personalities everyday from walking to class while someone is smoking a cigarette to hearing about a cocaine bust on TV.

In this clip there are two addictive personalities present, Ingrid with alcoholism, and Ray with an addiction to gambling. Begin around the 7:00 minute mark



Here we see Ray and Ingrid’s addictions addressed where he is being accused of wasting money gambling and she is drinking (again). It obviously affects the household as a whole and there are triggers to when these addictions take place.

All in all White Oleander was a fantastic film and a great tool to learn about psychological concepts and disorders. Watching on your own lets your imagination wander and helps you put yourself in Astrid’s shoes whenever possible.