FEATURE
TO CLOSE THE
GENERATION GAP
ANTED
PEACE
BY ELIZA TAN
Barry is an ordinary bee. He makes honey in Honex Industries, follows a daily routine, and is a dutiful, obedient son. But his life takes a dramatic turn when he realizes that humans are stealing honeys from the beehive, and he quickly engineers a creative plan to fix this problem.
The only people against his mission are— his parents. Barry’ s parents are nagging, closed-minded individuals opposed to anything and everything that challenges their conventional way of thought.
In order for Barry to discover his true identity, he has to reject the advice of his parents and define his own life purpose. The only person constantly by his side is his newfound friend Vanessa. His parents would eventually follow and realise the
fallacy of their ways.
As Bee Movie illustrates, the mainstream media seems to be fascinated with portraying parents as fumbling adults and teenagers as the enlightened ones. This shift to rebellion against authority and the rejection of traditional values, evident in today’ s society, is summed up in the term“ generation gap,” which stands for the differences in outlook and opinion between people of different generations.
Youth are told to keep their“ private” lives out from the scrutiny of parents. Societal norms encourage us to make our friends our main rock of support because, well, our parents are still living in another generation and just“ won’ t understand.”
Now, I don’ t mean to diminish the importance of peer friendships at all! But I urge you to ponder this question: Is the“ generation gap” something that
22 ASIAN BEACON 48 # 1 December 2016- January 2017