The 1950s was a key point for social and gender changes. Many Americans were exhausted after World War II and desired to return to "normalcy" within their nuclear family. Women's role was beginning to change and there was a rise of another social category and culture: the teenager. Teenagers were challenging authority even if it was as harmless as wearing pink or red with black. Director Nicholas Ray portrays this culture in his 1950s film, Rebel without a Cause. He acknowledges the changes going on within this new social category by giving the audience a psychological look at the internal aspects of teenagers. The three main characters find themselves at the root of change in their households and find themselves lacking something from their families. Judy and Plato both lack fathers and attach their displaced desire upon Jim. Jim himself searches for a father but finds it in himself. Throughout the entire film, there are important symbols that represent and show the psychological quest and desire. Jim's tweed sports jacket and his red jacket represent the displaced desires for a father and classify Jim as the father. The mirror shows the displacement of desires onto an object. They all must at some point enter the fantasy world where they create their new family in order to progress or understand the real world. Plato becomes the key for Judy and Jim to enter into the adult world. Tragically, society does not allow all three of them entrance into that world. Through these symbols and the action of the film, the three of them are at least able to create the fantasy and even if it is for just one second they find the family they never had.
             The film begins with the three major characters in the jailhouse. Jim is there for being drunk, Plato for shooting puppies and Judy for wandering the streets. The scene begins with the representation of the jacket. Plato is sitting on the bench shivering. Everyone is dr...