Elephant:

Stampeding teens

Abstract

We will address the film Elephant by Gus Van Sant, whose title alludes to the phrase “the elephant in the room”, a reference to the denial of enormous and obvious problems. We find in the film the problems of legal orphanhood that future American generations endure, and for this the director reconstructs the Columbine massacre starting from the daily lives of the protagonists, from their respective points of view. We understand that legal orphanhood refers to the preeminence at the time
1 El autor escribe en el marco de las instituciones referidas en la portada y desde su pertenencia a la cátedra de Semiología Social de la Facultad de Psicología de la Universidad Nacional de Tucumán of a cynical social discourse regarding the prohibition of incest and patricide, which is evident in the trivialization of homicide and the exaltation of “having fun. ”These coordinations allow us to address the drama of current adolescence: How do they cope with the adult world that trivializes homicide?
What place is there in the social Other for differences? Is another option possible besides the ticket to the event? And finally, what about the time favors these tragic processes? Will we be able to stop the wave of massacres? It is the responsibility of asking these questions that can find an alternative path to violence.