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Sandy's personal insecurities in the film Grease

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Sandy's personal insecurities in the film Grease
Grease Is the Word On June 16, 1978, Randal Kleiser's Grease was released in the United States and exploded as a teenage phenomenon in the thriving movie industry. Nominated for an Oscar, four Golden Globes, and winning the People's Choice Award, Grease was an immediate success. Taking America by storm, Grease was and has remained one the largest grossing movie musicals of all time. John Travolta plays greaser Danny Zuko who falls in love the preppy and very proper Sandy Olsen during a summer fling at the beach. Grease explores the transformation of Sandy Olsen from an American Girl to a Pink Lady to portray her personal insecurities and think for herself.

At the beginning of the movie, Sandy is the stereotypical 1950's all American girl. Wholesome, pure, and conservative she is the epitome of high morality. However, after hanging around the social misfits, her personal integrity declines. Her moral deterioration begins with a girl's night with the Pink Ladies. Dressed in a floor length white night gown, Sandy symbolizes her upright standards, whereas the other ladies are scantily clad. Feeling like an outcast, wanting to fit in, Sandy begins to crumble underneath peer pressure. Agreeing to drink, pierce her ears, and smoke, Sandy finds the experiences unfulfilling but takes pleasure in the acceptance. Her willingness to change her standards within one night expresses to the audience Sandy's need for her peers approval, depicting the confusion she feels as a teenager trying to discover herself as an adult.

Her transformation continues by changing her physical appearance. By striving to fit in among her peers and hungering for the chance to wear a Pink Ladies jacket, she dramatically changes her appearance. An example of this change is that same night at Rizzo's house she lets the Pink Ladies do her makeup. Her easy compliance to change her image and conform to this lifestyle shows her insecurities as a young woman. While Sandy may appear to be firmly set in her
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