Writing About

16 Things I Hate About Candles: How Two Characters Compare

             Teenage coming-of-age movies from the era of great change inspire various feelings among the nostalgic, such as thoughts of heartache, social hierarchies, and the desire to both fit in and stand out. Classics like 10 Things I Hate About You and Sixteen Candles illustrate all three desires through the eyes of teens Kat Stratford and Sam Baker, both girls who struggle with social isolation and crushes of those considered ‘above’ them. Despite the films being made fifteen years apart, common traits can be found to compare the girls and their stories. Initially separating themselves from others and erecting psychological walls, both Sam and Kat go through different experiences and, in the end, become more open and confident in their desires.

            In the beginning of 10 Things, the audience is shown a car full of teenage girls who are listening to their up-beat and popular music; then enters Kat, whose music is genres away from theirs and covers it up entirely with her unpopular girl-power tunes. This gives the immediate characterization for what type of person she is; someone who likes her own space, does and likes whatever she wants to, and seemingly doesn’t care what others think of her. Throughout the initial period of the movie, these traits are constant in how she deals with her peers, friends, and family, backed up with sarcastic retorts and condescending smiles. Her conversations with teachers and other students are prime examples of this snide attitude. The viewer, while they could find this behavior unpleasant, possibly finds themselves enjoying her witty commentary on high school cultural and stereotypes as it progresses through the film. At the same time as being intelligent and quick-witted, it’s quickly noted that Kat keeps people at a distance, not allowing them to know what she’s really thinking or feeling. This is clear in her talks with her father, where her biting comments about the situation suggest what she could be feeling, but is hidden behind her sarcastic barrier.

            When Patrick Verona is paid into taking Kat out by Joey Donner, a sense of imbalance appears with her attitude; not wanting to trust him, but also finding him interesting enough to want to. As Verona insistently interacts with Kat, she repeatedly tells him to leave her alone but seems gratified when he doesn’t listen. After coercion from her sister to go to a party, Kat obliges, only to be met with distasteful conversation with the person she hates most, which resulted in over-consumption of alcohol and conspicuously drunk social behavior. Normally very reserved and distant, Kat is influenced by the alcohol to talk about things with him that she wouldn’t have otherwise. Verona, starting to develop feelings, acts concerned and caring towards her, and Kat eventually attempts to kiss him in the car; likely feeling guilt from being paid, he doesn’t kiss her and causes her to revert to being angry and cold. After multiple attempts to try and get her to forgive him, she eventually accepts his public serenade, though hesitantly due to her psychological walls, and ends up going to prom with him. Upon going and discovering that Verona had been paid to date her, Kat re-erected her emotional barriers, the very ones that he had made her question and then let down. In the end, after Verona had realized he loved her and told her so, she read a poem about her feelings towards him and cried, a shocking difference from the originally cynical Kat. This emotional change continued to the end of the movie, when Verona made one more attempt to be with Kat, and she lets go of her inhibitions to let him in.

            Sixteen Candles tells the story of Samantha Baker very differently, opening with her on the morning on her sixteenth birthday. It’s explained through dialogue that this was a very important day for Sam, and with a quietly sarcastic tone she tells her friend on the phone that her family is most likely going to make a big deal of it. Ignoring her disappointment at the lack of physical changes, Sam picks her outfit carefully and goes downstairs to what she expects is a good morning breakfast; what she finds is her large family frantically getting ready for the day and neglecting to even mention her birthday. Unlike Kat from Ten Things, Sam doesn’t respond to this with a witty comment to make people realize their mistake. Instead, noticeably in shock and denial, Sam simply asks her mother if there’s anything she wanted to say to her, but only gets a confused answer in return. This quiet hopefulness and incredulity of ignorance combines to form bitter cynicism in Sam, who vents both with anger and depression to her best friend. Finding respite while thinking about her crush, Jake Ryan, is another behavior clearly noticed in the first part of the movie; when considering possibilities with Jake, Sam briefly loses the frustrated, anxious edge she has about her family forgetting her birthday. Continuously through the movie, Sam lapses into a less sarcastic, more hopeful frame of mind during the times she contemplates Jake and her relationship with him. The audience quickly understands the gist of Samantha’s struggle; awkward, frustrated-at-life teenager who has a crush on someone higher than her on the social hierarchy. This in direct contrast with Kat, the confident, mockingly sarcastic girl that actively avoids a romantic social life.

            Looking at the similarities between the two, however, the trend of distance and barriers is a solid point; rather than confronting her parents or the rest of her family, Sam chooses to close herself off from the problem and avoid her family as much as possible. The scene of the family dinner, in which everyone was expected to show up and stay, Sam makes the snap decision to go to the high school dance, skipping out from the head-shaking ignorance of her relatives; this is despite her discomfort with social outings and her peers. The Geek, a high school outcast, having not learned from his previous attempts to date Sam, used this dance to tell his friends she was his girlfriend. Curious about Sam after finding a note she wrote about him, Jake questioned The Geek about her and what she was like, to which he responded that Jake was all she ever talked about. Sam, separate from this exchange, was completely distraught at how to approach Jake and escaped to the mechanic’s section of the school to hide, only to be found by The Geek minutes later. Getting to know Sam and her dejected, depressed mood seemed to make The Geek respect her as a person more, as he ended up telling her that Jake had asked about her. This fact brought a neurotic flip of Sam’s emotions, going from apathetically upset about her birthday to overwhelmingly excited and confused about the prospect of talking to Jake. As the movie moves forward from here, Jake becomes increasingly interested with Sam and Sam, becoming more nervous, is more open with people about her feelings for him. Adding to her internal angst, Sam’s family eventually realizes that they forgot her birthday, but after her sister’s wedding they forget her again. Jake Ryan, finally sure of his feelings for Sam, decided to take a risk and show up; Sam ends up making the choice to do what she wants, and chooses to leave with Jake on his motorcycle.

            At first glance, Kat Stratford and Sam Baker seem as dissimilar as two people could possibly be, yet when you get into the specifics of their character arcs, a commonality is distinguishable. From two movies fifteen years apart, both girls initially come across as loners who don’t rely on other people to help them decide who to be. While Kat is more vocal with her reactions to situations, both girls struggle through the harsh realities of their lives by keeping other people at arm’s length to avoid drama and upset. When they get the thing they want in the end, whether they admit they want it or not, Sam and Kat both allow themselves to open up and let themselves get what they secretly thought they deserved, regardless of the social repercussions of doing so. So when Kat finds that guitar in the driver’s seat of her car, and when Sam is sitting on that glass table with her cake, it’s clear to the audience that they finally let down the walls that they worked so hard to build.

Works Cited

10 Things I Hate About You. Dir. Gil Junger. Perf. Heath Ledger, Julia Stiles, Joseph Gordon-Levitt. Touchstone, 1999. DVD.

Sixteen Candles. Dir. John Hughes. Perf. Molly Ringwald, Anthony Michael-Hall. Universal Pictures, 1984. DVD.