Rushmore- Is Max a stereotypical teenager?

I think that is made clear from watching the montage that Max would not come under the class of what is supposedly your stereotypical teenager. Just from viewing the short montage clip it is obvious the Max does many more extra curricular clubs than what would be expected of the usual stereotypcial teenager. As the years have gone by not the best picture has been created of what would a stereotypical teenager actually be classed as. The image which is tended to be portrayed of a teenager is not necesserily entirely true and most likely does not apply to the majority of teenagers themselves. It is assumed that a teenagers prioritys is to smoke, drink alchohol, take drugs, hang around on street corners, and commit general anti-social behaviour.

At the beginning of the montage we may assume that Max would be classed as your typical teenager. We then begin to see that he appears to be a leader of many unusual and definitely not typical clubs. By taking note of all the types of clubs he is a part of, it becomes much clearer that Max is certainly not your typical teenager and a picture begins to be created that he may even be a social outcast and extremely lacking in friendship. By just looking at the photo above, it shows Max in a mid shot and in the center of two other characters. His postion being central shows that he does like to be the at the main point of attention, and this links back to the way in which he is in control of many clubs and groups. I think that his body language just from this one photo shows that he thinks highly of him self in comparison to others around him. Also from the montage we get to see this more and more throughout every club he is involved in.

I noticed when watching the montage, every type of person that he hangs around with, involved in these groups are allyounger than him. This is not usually typical of a teenager to hang around with people who have a large age gap in comparison to yourself. The reason why Max may be part of all these groups is that it is the only time he may feel he can gain respect from others as they are younger and could possibly look at him as a role model. Once again relating back to the picture, his dress sense is much smarter than a typical teen would be expected. This could be that he thinks of himself superior and once again wants younger age people to follow in his footsteps to show that he has a place in society.

If we were to step back and look at this montage from a completely different perspective, it could seem as if he is very much the typical teenager. For example from his parents view he would seem a very sociable and an outgoing character that seems to want to be involved all the time. He obviously cares a lot about his education and wants to exceed to the very best that he can, which is realistcally what most teenagers would love to do. It would also seem that Max is having a lot of fun doing these activities as it may be the only place he feels comfortable with his social status. In the photo, Max is the Russian Leader of the 'Model United Nations'. This could largely relate to America and Russia being the two largest economies in the world. He feels as if he is not accepted in his own country and does not have a high enough status to take any control, so therefore he then heads to the other option which would be Russia, because he thinks he would have a much more appreciated status. Something to notice is that Max is wearing a stereotypical Russian hat in the photo, which may assume his little knowledge of their culture and countrry. So this could be classed as a very stereotypical teenager thing to do.

Overall, i do not think Max is a stereotypical teenager.