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Redound Beach, California, to fulfill the deepest wish of 7-year-old Olive, an ordinary little girl with big dreams. Along the way the family must deal with crushed dreams, heartbreaks, and a broken-down bus, leading up to the surreal Little Miss Sunshine competition itself. Olive’s father, Richard, played by Greg Skinner portrays the archetype of the Apollo, “businessman”. Richard is a very strong willing, self confident, and aggressive character. Richard is striving to build a career as a motivational speaker and life coach who is also trying to sell his self-help seminar about how to be a winner in nine steps.
These nine steps are extremely important to Richard and he does not quit repeating them thought the movie. Richard is very passionate about his occupation, along with the natural businessman archetype. His is constantly thinking about his work even when he is on a road trip to California for his daughter’s pageant show. One the way to California Richard gets the news that he lost an important contract that would have Jump-started his motivational business and saved the family from financial ruin. This incident cause put such great stress and constant arguing between Richard and his wife.
Richard takes the initiative of makes things right and takes a short trip to visit the man who turned down his contact while his family is sleeping in a hotel just 40 miles away. He put aside everything at the moment and had to focus on his occupation. This is a great example of the businessman archetype, by fearing losing his career and having to get a different Job. He loves what he does for a living it is his identity and whole reason for being. On the other hand, His wife Sherry Hoover who is played by Toni Collette is an overworked mother of two.
She believes Emily is first opposed to her husband who considers his Job to his first priority. Sherry is an overprotecting mother who is not afraid to let her children express themselves no matter how unusual they may look. Richard on the other hand, likes “normal” people and is not comfortable to people being out of the norm. The mother in the film Little Miss Sunshine, Sherry, is very similar to the archetype “The Nurturer”. Throughout the film, Sherry is very protective of her children, mostly her 7-year-old daughter Olive. She wants the best for her children and is very supportive of Olive’s tatty pageants.
When they were at the Little Miss Sunshine pageant, Sherry supported Olive with her dance talent routine even though she knew she would go out and embarrass herself. Because Sherry’s husband, Richard, is more similar to “The Businessman” archetype, there are some conflicts in their relationship. While Sherry is only trying to look out and do what is best for her kids, Richard is not very supportive of his family. Their two different archetypes make it harder for them to come together while experiencing a long drive, the grandpa’s death, and Olive’s pageant.
Sherry is always looking out for her family and allowing them to be as unique as they would like to be, no matter what her husband says. Although their archetypes were polar opposites, as the movie progressed, Richard and Sherry’s archetypes clashed at times, but soon enough they both came together for their daughter Olive’s final performance in the Little Miss Sunshine pageant. Richards pathological obsession with winning because he’s never tasted it himself and Sherry’s family values, bring the family closer than they ever could imagine.