Empire of the Sun: Family Values

Judith Dye
5/8/08



Family Values

What would you do without your family? What is family even for? Is it love, support, and survival? What if, in an instant, all of this was snatched away from you? You were given the world now you have nothing. You’re alone. You’re scared. You are lost. This is how Jamie felt in the movie “Empire of the Sun”.


Young Jamie was separated from his family because of war. When he tried to go back to all he knew, like his home, it was taken over by war. His once servant family betrayed him by stealing his family’s most precious things. Now he knows he is definitely on his own. He was taken by the Japanese and put into a sort of camp/prison. Here he had nothing but a suitcase, even than a family between him and a character by the name of Baise began to form. But once again, he was abandoned by Baise and left by himself. Also a women that tried to act in the place of his mother, died leaving him alone and helpless. He had no love and care; Jamie even stated that he had forgotten what his parents had looked like. Going so long without a stable family and home made Jamie a little out of his right state of mind.

Abandonment was what Jamie was feeling through most of the movie. He was helpless and alone, he was just a young boy with no guidance. I would remind you that Jamie went through a great deal of change he was sort, of a brat. So being in his position was helpful to his character. All the families he encountered showed him how good his was and how better they treated him, from all the others he had during his capture.