Kick the Can story
The dispirited residents of a nursing home are urged by one of their number to believe that they can recapture their youth by playing a children's game. Directed by: Lamont Johnson. Story by: George Clayton Johnson.
11 total · 2 choice · 3 major · 6 minor
| Theme | Level | Motivation |
|---|---|---|
| coping with aging | choice | Ben felt his age, and tried in vain to make Charles realize that there was nothing he could do to regain his youth. |
| reminiscence about one's youth | choice | After stealing the children's can, Charles began thinking about the children's games he had played himself and he convinced the other old folks home residents to play them with him once more. |
| friendship | major | Charles and Ben had been friends since childhood. |
| optimist vs. pessimist | major | Charles was jovial and believed in magic, while Ben was negative about the whole thing. |
| what if I had a second childhood | major | Charles, a nursing home resident, was convinced that being young at heart was the key to regaining his youth. Indeed, the story concluded with Charles being magically transformed into his boyhood self. |
| coping with a grumpy old coot | minor | Ben was a grumpy old coot who didn't want to partake in silly games. |
| coping with senility | minor | Charles was said to have turned senile, after he started acting weird. |
| cruelty | minor | Charles walked into the middle of a game of kick-the-can and ruthlessly appropriated the can. |
| doctor and patient | minor | We saw the rather frosty and strained relationship between medical personal and inmates in a retirement home. |
| father and son | minor | Charles was looking forward to moving out from the old folks home and into his son's house. But Charles was left feeling disappointed when his son broke the news that they had no room for him. |