The Butterfly Effect

yardgames

Retired Administrator
Isn't it amazing how one little event can change one's entire life? In the course of MITM, the Pilot episode, when Malcolm becomes a krelboyne, changes his life forever. He's always been a bit nerdy, and maybe never the perfect kid, as judged by his peers. But being a Krelboyne will have a huge effect on the rest of his life.

In his three years as a Krelboyne, all he wants is to fit in. Sometimes he acts weirdly, but he usually manages to fit in somehow with the Krelboynes. When he enters high school, he no longer has this protection of a single Krelboyne class. He's forced to associate with the other students, and he wants to show them he's not the geek they think he is. The problem is that he is this geek, and as he fails, he becomes more and more depressed. Life is like a carousel; you go around and around and around, but never actually get anywhere. Malcolm's no longer a Krelboyne, but he's still rejected by his peers, and it will have big effects, whether good or bad, for the rest of his life.

"Life doesn't give you a lot of opportunities to advance." -Lois, S1. Did being a Krelboyne give him an opportunity to advance?
 

admin

Retired Administrator
yardgames said:
Isn't it amazing how one little event can change one's entire life? In the course of MITM, the Pilot episode, when Malcolm becomes a krelboyne, changes his life forever. He's always been a bit nerdy, and maybe never the perfect kid, as judged by his peers. But being a Krelboyne will have a huge effect on the rest of his life.

In his three years as a Krelboyne, all he wants is to fit in. Sometimes he acts weirdly, but he usually manages to fit in somehow with the Krelboynes. When he enters high school, he no longer has this protection of a single Krelboyne class. He's forced to associate with the other students, and he wants to show them he's not the geek they think he is. The problem is that he is this geek, and as he fails, he becomes more and more depressed. Life is like a carousel; you go around and around and around, but never actually get anywhere. Malcolm's no longer a Krelboyne, but he's still rejected by his peers, and it will have big effects, whether good or bad, for the rest of his life.

"Life doesn't give you a lot of opportunities to advance." -Lois, S1. Did being a Krelboyne give him an opportunity to advance?
Well personally think the answer is yes to this, Malcolm maybe a social reject, but he supposedly does have the academic skills - after all he is clever. The Krelboyne class pushed him and enabled him to make more out of his knowledge, and make friends with people of around equal intelligence.

Malcolm adapted his behavoir to the Krelboyne class and has yet to adapt it again.

In the short term Malcolm will be the uncool loser kid, but as soon as he goes to College he will be back again with what will essentially be Krelboyne College - if he goes to a college such as Harvard. He will then go and work a highly paid job with, you guessed it, ex-Krelboynes.

So in the High School years I think he has no social oppurtunies to advance, but he can use this time to advance his knowledge base.

I am sure I answered you quetsion somewhere in there :D
 

yardgames

Retired Administrator
Four years may seem like a snapshot in the overall period of one's life, but living four years takes a long time, well, four years. That's four years of high school. Could you possibly imagine four years of social hell, even if it was meant to get you set for the rest of your life?

The Pilgrims believed that their life here on Earth determined whether they went to heaven or hell, and how good a quality their afterlife was. They believed they lived for thousands of years int eh afterlife, so they created the so-called Puritanical Worth Ethic, which involved working very hard to show god they were worthy during the course of their life here on Earth. This hundred years of unpleasantness, they believed, was just the basis of thousands of years of a great life.

This same idea can be applied to Malcolm's high school years. But he doesn't carry the Puritanical Work Ethic; he wants results now. While he's anxious for childhood to end, he's more anxious to be accepted ASAP.
 

Emrysgirl

New member
I think Malcolm's years in the Krelboyne class changed him in that he was able to develop his mind and that he got access to books and ideas that he otherwise wouldn't have.

But I don't think they changed his standing in the school. Malcolm's most annoynig quality, and the reason he is ostrcized :)D, Francis Escapes)...

finish later:D

Ok, finally finishing this post (after 5 days :eek:).

...is that he critisizes everyone. Even the Krelboyne class dislikes him for it (Bully). This might even have been the quality that got him into the Krelboyne class in the first place. I thinking about Caroline's comment 'You're here b/c some of your teacher's think you're...well,...". If she had wanted to say smart or talented, or anything good, she would have said it. I'm thinking it was something more along the lines of cocky, oversmart.

This wasn't brought on by the Krelboyne class. Malcolm can't even control it (Malcolm Holds His Tounge).
 

APK

New member
First, to answer the question, I do think it is remarkable how the one event of being put into the gifted class had a pivotal influence on Malcolm's life. I agree it probably has changed him somewhat as a character as well.

I'm deviating from the question slightly, (sorry) but there are some references in this thread of Malcolm's growing ever more weird, uncool, detached from people, a social reject, etc. I may be wrong, but the opinion now seems to be that he's a bit of a strange kid.

It's weird for me, because in what I've seen so far of the show, Malcolm comes across to me as practically the only normal character (bar maybe Francis.) He's certainly more normal than the rest of the Krelboynes he's with. Apart from the fact that he's a genius, he does normal things that a guy his age would do - watches TV, fights with his brothers, gets into a little trouble occasionally, etc.

I don't really think I'm in a position to analyse, since I have a lot of catching up to do where this show is concerned, but I'm going to have a bash anyway. It seems to me that Malcolm's problems could arise from the fact that he views himself as fundamentally a normal person, yet, in the pilot episode, discovers another side of himself, and he has to battle with that throughout the series. The reason he doesn't want to be moved into the Krelboyne class is because he wants to remain a normal, average kid. He already has to deal with a somewhat zany family, and I think he held the view that he was the only ordinary person in his family. So the news that he was to be moved to the gifted class came as a shock to him; he disliked the idea that, in his own way, he might be as strange as he perceives the rest of his family to be. In the "Krelboyne Picnic" episode, it's still there, Malcolm doesn't want to do his act - some of the reason may be because he's embarrassed about looking a freak in front of Francis and the others - but I think another part of it is that he feels he is leaving his "normal" side behind and being indoctrinated, so to speak, into the weird world of the intelligent Krelboynes.

I would say that Malcolm's problems, such as a decreased social life, have arisen from the fact that he is rather like a Jekyll and Hyde character; he seems to have two facets to his personality. On the one hand, he's an ordinary boy, on the other, he has a genius IQ. Both of these facets of his personality have their advantages, and it seems to suit Malcolm to chop and change between them - when it's to his advantage to be normal, he acts normally, when it's better to show and use his intelligence, he shows and uses his intelligence.

I may be wrong, but I should suspect that as he's grown up, he's been unsure of which one to go with - being normal - or being smart and weird. Maybe he thinks he has to choose one or the other; that he can't be both normal and smart. Maybe this leads him to his problems later in the series.

Maybe, if he could find a way of fusing these two facets of his character together - make an amalgamation of them - find a way of being both normal and bright - his problems with trying to fit in would be over. But it seems to me that he can't fit in, because he seems to feel that he must choose one characteristic of himself over the other, and doesn't know which to choose. Therefore, he changes from one to the other, and, as a result, could feel that he doesn't have a proper identity of his own.

Does anyone agree with me, or do you think I've thinking completely on the wrong lines here?
 

Emrysgirl

New member
@Doc Brown. I completely agree with you.

I think Malcolm's insecurities about his family made him believe (correctly) that he barely fit in. His status as a Krelboyne was the final straw.

Back to Malcolm. I think the ultimate battle for him will be compromising b/w his normal and abnormal sides, or, connecting back to my earlier post (which I finally finished today:) ), controlling his sarcasm. If he doesn't do this, Future Malcolm will happen.
 

Wemboy

New member
Overall I agree with what docbrown was saying. Malcolm has to struggle with two aspects of his personality. Just an extra point though, to link this back to what yardgames and admin said, the source of the conflict that Malcolm has to deal with is one we're all influenced by; that of delayed gratification versus instant gratification. Put simply those who choose to stay in education through university/college make certain sacrifices both financially and socially to do so, but on the assumption that at some point their qualifications will allow them greater freedom in their adult lives. On the other hand, many people choose to start working, and hence gain money etc. as soon as possible.

In the show, Malcolm struggles with the knowledge that, theoretically at least, he will be given the chance to be successful and wealthy in his adult life. Yet this is offset by the fact that, as he grows up, his intelligence is to some extent a hindrance. Socially, he is clearly different from "normal" people his age, yet he longs for acceptance by this very group. So in a sense, he searches for instant gratification, through popularity amongst his peers, in the knowledge that this could negatively affect his later life.

We can all appreciate that whilst growing up, acceptance and popularity gain an importance that seems absurd in later life. However, whilst you're growing up, the advantages that can clearly be gained through a good education, and focus on study and learning seem a long way off!
 
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