MovieChat Forums > Cedar Rapids (2011) Discussion > Small Town is Unrelated to Naivete

Small Town is Unrelated to Naivete

posted 14 years ago by Bowler-6
12 replies | jump to latest

His being a small Wisconsin town had nothing to do with his innocence/naivete. He had been self-sheltered his whole life. Small towns have prostitutes and drugs, too! I know! I'm from a small town!

He insists that he is in a relationship with his former teacher, even though she repeatedly tells him otherwise! There's a nearby airport, and he knows the people who work there, but he's never been on a plane. He's considered a joke by his own colleagues at the insurance firm, all of whom are from the same town!

This film isn't making a point about small towns, it's just showcasing one specific individual who is a freak EVEN IN HIS SMALL TOWN!!

A very likable freak, though.

[–] ravingmouse 14 years ago

Hi,
This is a movie and a comedy. Based on big-city stereotypes of small towns and certain people in them exaggerated to ridiculous proportions. This is how a good amount of comedy works.

[–] sam-810 14 years ago

Playing devils advocate here but what you say is true of the guy in this movie but that doesn't prove your point that small town is unrelated to naivete.
Small towns naturally are more naive because they are exposed to less interactions with folk who are "other".
In small town memes can more easily totally dominate because those who have different ideas/ways have less/none supporters to back them so figure its easier to get along by pretending to agree with the dominant factions.
Compared to New York City for example where no matter what fringe stuff you are into there's a heap of like minded people.

The more people you are exposed to the more different ideas and the less naive you will be.

The small town had something to do with his naivete. He'd be a less believable character if he was from the suburbs.
You have to suspend disbelief a lot to imagine a small town guy this naive but it would strain credibility too far if they'd had him grow up in a major city!

[–] TunerAddict 14 years ago

Internet kind of makes your points moot. Someone from a town of 12 can interact with millions of different people online.

[–] madsic 14 years ago

oh come on, it might slightly alter the situation but what he said is pretty much spot on.

[–] smitty_cregger52 14 years ago

The problem with your assesment of a "Small Town" is the assumption that everyone in a small town, absolutely never ever leaves it, and thus doesn't know what happens outside of said town. Now that might be true in many area's, but isn't necessarily true of all small towns.

Not to mention that being from the city may make you naive to everything else around you as well. Your mention of a small town sort of being in a bubble works the same for larger cities as well, sure you may meet more people...if you're outgoing (which again, isn't always the case), or you may just meet more big city people your entire life. This could lead you to believe that everyone in a bit city must be like that as well....in the end, people are who they are, which is different. I'm from a small town, i've been on the other side of the planet a few times, and virtually every metro city in the US, and i'm not alone in that regard.

[–] sam-810 13 years ago

True indeed. I was playing devil's advocate and generally agree with the polite and insightful rebuttals.

I've read that city types actually experience less sense of community and of course the point about the internet was accurate. I don't know any of my immediate neighbours names (I live in suburbia).

He was indeed an unbelievably naive character.

[–] Mudkips14 13 years ago

Well...I understand what you are saying, but I suspect there are plenty of people from NYC or San Francisco who would seem completely "naive" if they were dropped from a plane in to rural Alaska or Mississippi.

Small towns tend to be traditional and conservative. Big cities tend to be diverse and liberal. Someone from a small town dropped in to NYC would be clueless...but someone from NYC dropped in to Simplefolks, Arkansas would also be clueless. It works both ways.

[–] billnadsley 13 years ago

Oh, if only I could agree more.

I lived in New York City a few years back, for a number of years. I once had to go to a town in Oklahoma (won't say where, but it was around 2-3 hours from the nearest airport). I was consistently asked how scary it was to live in the city by the people I met there. I replied I had been there for over a decade, and never had a single problem of a "scary" nature.

Want to know where was the scariest place I had been? That town, at that moment - these people knew each other so well (they had most literally never moved from the town), that if something bad went down - no one would ever know. That can be scary. And I knew, as I had also grown up in a small area.

The funny thing is, people all have different opinions of what people are like, or what places are like, depending on their own life experiences. But yeah, VERY small towns can be creepy, but some can be quite awesome, too.

[–] Mudkips14 13 years ago

I've had bad experiences in both settings, and good experiences in both settings. I will say that small towns tend to be rather boring for younger people, while large cities may not be the ideal place to raise a family (unless you earn a very high income).

[–] rabbitzef 12 years ago

Well said tp someone who is so well-read. There are small towns of various sorts. At what amount of population do we designate small or not? Are we not assuming too much about anybody when we place some ident label & think that then plants them as so similar to someone else with the same label?

[–] nutsberryfarm 13 years ago

prostitutes & drugs? that wasn't in the john mellencamp song.

Oh, and remember, next Friday is Hawaiian shirt day.

[–] 13 years ago

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