21 Up

Being introduced to the well known British "Up" series, I chose to continue with 21 Up, and follow the lives of ten diverse seven year olds throughout their lives. The third in the series, 21 Up brings Apted's psychologically driven project to life. In Seven Up, Apted poses questions to these young kids about their viewpoint on certain subjects in life such as where the see themselves, having a boyfriend or girlfriend, and racial standpoints. Having not seen Seven plus Seven, it was helpful to have the flashbacks from the previous interviews including in 21 Up. In the first installment of the series, the kids answer as honest 7 year olds would. Although the questions are framed very well in & up, the kids still are able to give their honest opinions on each topic without much sway in their answers. But, in 21 Up I noticed the much more mature versions of these children being asked the same questions. At 21 everyone in their right mind would like to feel proud of themselves and well accomplished and on their way to a bright future, therefore their updates on life I feel are a little less accurate. A good example of this would be Neil. At 21, Neil had dropped out of Aberdeen University and worked in construction in London. Neil talks about how there were more options for him in London. However, he was working a construction job, and acknowledged the fact that he will be at a disadvantage since he gave up his college degree. Apted then plays a clip of how Neil's friend will graduate University in the Spring. Neil had a very middle class background, so I find it interesting that they framed it in such a way that basically said, middle class children have around half of a chance to be successful, it just depends on personal drive.  Also, Charles proved to be framed in an interesting manner as well. Growing up in a very high class family, his other two school friends, John and Andrew went on to Oxford and Trinity College Cambridge, but Charles didn't take the route originally planned. His idea at 7 was to attend Oxford. But, by his attire and his attitude, he greatly contrasted his other two friends at 21. This was interesting because they all grew up in what seemed to be very similar lifestyles. But, Apted definitely emphasized the difference in Charles and his other two friends. This was seemed to be the cause of rebellion as a teenager. Overall, I enjoyed Seven Up more than 21 Up, just because I felt that you were getting more raw, real answers. In 21 Up, many of the children are products of their environment, and that is what this was meant to show. But, I didn't like how many of the questions were posed, as it seemed as though the people were in the wrong when their opinions had changed between seven, fourteen, and twenty-one. Although these people are still very young in life, 21 Up seems to give a pretty good idea of where each of them is headed.