Special Awesome: Cameron Frye

The following was written for a composition class back in 2007.

Cameron Frye is, of course, awesome. I relate to him more than any other film character.

So here's my tribute to this character, one of my favorite (if not my favorite) character of all time.

Cameron Frye is perhaps the most realistic character in John Hughes’s 1986 teen classic Ferris Bueller’s Day Off. Although the movie is a comedy, Cameron serves as one of the only doses of reality in an otherwise surrealistic movie; he is a hypochondriac and social outcast with trust issues, parental problems, and a negative outlook on life. Without a doubt, the anxiety-ridden Cameron is much more than just a foil to the care-free Ferris; he represents all teenagers dealing with the same feelings he has, and he is the only one of the film’s three protagonists (the other two being Ferris and his girlfriend Sloane) that undergoes a major change in thinking in the film.

Cameron’s view on life can be explained by two basic factors: his relationship with his father and his social life. First, let’s consider his social standing in high school. Cameron is first mentioned during roll call, but it is not even shown if anyone knows where Cameron is. Compare this to Ferris, whose absence from class was immediately noticed; by first period it was common knowledge that Ferris was extremely “sick.” Since it wasn’t even shown if anybody cared that Cameron was missing, it’s likely that no one did. This is further corroborated by the rest of the scenes in the high school, where Cameron’s name is never mentioned. It really does seem like Ferris and Sloane are his only two friends; to everyone else he doesn’t exist.

Cameron’s first appearance comes shortly after roll call. This scene perhaps more than any other allows us to understand who he really is. He appears to be deathly ill, but we soon learn that his disease is psychological more than physical. Ferris, who presumably had not talked to Cameron that day, immediately asks him over the phone how he is feeling, giving the impression that it is a common occurrence for Cameron to be “sick.” Ferris is so convinced that Cameron’s dismal attitude is causing his illness that he tells Cameron, “You’re not dying, you just can’t think of anything good to do.”

Cameron’s hopelessness and his weakness as a person are further emphasized when Ferris threatens to end their friendship if he doesn’t come over; Cameron replies, “You’ve been saying that since the fifth grade.” There’s much more to this statement than meets the eye. Indirectly, Cameron recognizes his own difficulty in finding friends with that reply. He keeps coming back to Ferris and certainly values their friendship, but perhaps only because he has no one else to go to. Later, while visiting the Art Institute of Chicago, we see Cameron’s longing for additional human connection as he looks at the pointillist painting A Sunday Afternoon on La Grande Jatte. He stares at this painting for several minutes, his focus on a little girl in the center, the only person in the painting looking back at the viewer. It appears that this little girl is the closest thing he can find to friends outside of Ferris and Sloane, and this may be why he has attached himself to Ferris “since the fifth grade.” Ferris, a much stronger person than Cameron, is a stabilizing force in Cameron’s life, and though never actually stated, it appears that Cameron definitely admires or at the very least envies Ferris’s spontaneity, worry-free nature, and determination to have a good time. During the parade, Cameron reveals to Sloane,

“As long as I’ve known him (Ferris) everything works for him. There’s
nothing he can’t handle. I can’t handle anything… school, parents,
future.”

It is seeing Ferris succeed where he has failed that causes much of Cameron’s unhappiness. He is just looking to break away from his inhibitions, and a day off to enjoy himself is perhaps just the thing that can help him do that.
The other reason why Cameron acts the way he does is his relationship with his parents, in particular his father. Cameron’s father is not exactly a family man, and Cameron’s pessimistic view of marriage stems from seeing his parents interact. Cameron goes so far as to say that his father “loves the car, hates his wife,” and it seems like his father has a similar attitude with him. In addition to his father’s contemptuous view of his own family, he also exhibits untrusting and anxious behavior that seemingly knows no bounds; Cameron mentions that his father never has trusted him and never will, and the license plate of his father’s beloved Ferrari is “NRVOUS.”

It is obvious Cameron inherited his father’s trust issues and nervousness. For example, when they are going to park the car in the garage, some of Cameron’s concerns are legitimate (“It (the car) could be wrecked, stolen, . . .”) but others are ridiculous (“ . . . breathed on wrong, a bird could shit on it).” This statement is a prime example of just how much Cameron worries, and also demonstrates his insecurity and lack of proper reasoning. He always assumes the worst in a situation, and he only starts to enjoy his day once they are taking the car home, once he is certain that something terrible didn’t happen. However, when he sees the mileage on the car, it proves to be the breaking point of his previous outlook on life. He later explains:

“…I was just thinking things over….I was like…I was like meditating….then I
sorta watched myself from inside…I realized it was ridiculous, being afraid,
worrying about everything, wishing I was dead, all that shit, I’m tired of
it. This is the best day of my life.”

In the movie’s climax, Cameron’s inner struggle to break free of his nervousness becomes manifest in his destruction of the car. He only intends to go so far, just damaging the hood. However, he and Ferris accidentally cause the car to be completely destroyed. The complete destruction of the car is representative of the day off- Cameron would have loved to go on his own willpower, but Ferris had to help him. Cameron continues:

“ . . .I put up with everything . . .my old man pushes me around….. I never
say anything! Well he’s not the problem, I’m the problem . . . . I gotta
take a stand against him. I’m not gonna sit on my ass as the events that
affect me unfold to determine the course of my life. I’m gonna take a
stand. And I’m gonna defend it. Right or wrong, I’m gonna defend it.”

In his final minutes of the film, Cameron is seen smiling as he awaits the confrontation with his father. It’s obvious that he has wanted this for a long time but was too weak a person to do it. Ferris would later say of the situation, “For the first time in his life, he’s gonna be okay.”

Cameron is by far the most realistic character in the movie. No one expects to be as carefree as Ferris is, but everyone can relate to Cameron in some way. His transformation in the movie gives hope to all those struggling to better themselves, and when we start to worry about trivial things, we can remember Cameron and realize what’s truly worth worrying about.