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During the years preceding the Houseman family's vacation at Kellerman's Mountain Home, Baby gradually had diverged from her father's political opinions. Although still too young to vote (the voting age was 21 in 1963), she now considered herself a Democrat and was disgusted that her father voted Republican.
She did not want to argue with her father about politics. He knew much more about politics and history than she did, and he supported his opinions very intelligently. He sometimes mocked her opinions -- for example, saying that she "wants to save the world". He had discouraged her from enrolling in an all-women's college and from her desire to join the Peace Corps.
He himself thought that he was treating her respectfully as a young adult by challenging her opinions. She, however, thought he was belittling her.
She intended to avoid political arguments with her father during the three-week vacation. After the vacation he would go back to work and she would begin packing to move away to college. She respected her father, but she looked forward to developing her own opinions away from him at college.
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Already on her first day at Kellerman's, Baby became acquainted with three young men
Billy KosteckiAll three of them would influence her political thinking and would spark her rebellion against her father's politics.
Neil Kellerman
Robbie Gould
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Billy Kostecki recruited Baby to serve as the magician's stooge and thus to deceive her family and others. During the magic show in the ballroom, Baby pretended to be randomly selected from the audience by the magician. She got into the magician's box, which the magician then sawed in half. Baby's family had no idea that Baby already had practiced this magic trick with the magician.
Already on Baby's first day at the resort, Billy had brought Baby into a situation where she learned to deceive people -- in particular, her family. Billy Kostecki and the magic show symbolize Baby's secret involvement with some of the resort's employees and symbolizes also Baby's deception of her family.
* Billy brought her into the "dirty dancing" party and thus introduced her to Johnny Castle and Penny Johnson.In general, Billy showed Baby that she could conceal much more of her life. She could break rules, violate social standards, go off onto her own path and lead a more independent life.
* Billy arranged for Penny's illegal abortion and drove Penny to the abortionist.
* Billy occasionally served as Johnny's wingman in seductions of women.
Billy set an example for Baby that encouraged her to lie to her father about the purpose of the $250 that she requested. By telling this lie to her father, Baby took a step toward challenging her father's political opinions.
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Neil was introduced to Baby at their dining-room table, where her family was mocking her for "trying to save the world" and wanting to send her leftover food to starving children abroad.
In these circumstances, Neil assured Baby that he too was committed to social justice. After the hotel's busy season ended, he intended to travel with some Negro employees to Mississippi to participate in a Freedom Ride.
The movie does not mention Neil's Freedom Ride plan further. In the stage musical, however, Neil later tells Baby that his professional responsibilities at the hotel prevent him from going away for several weeks. Neil's decision not to go on the trip disappoints Baby.
For Baby, Neil symbolizes the social unfairness that has been troubling her. Neil exercises authority at the resort because he was born into the family that owns the resort. Just because of his birth, he is able to fire people from their jobs. He is able to order the Johnny Castle, a professional dancer, to feature a pachanga dance instead of a Cuban-Soul dance at the resort's closing ceremony.
Neil's remark that his ownership of two hotels enabled him to attract a girl away from Jamie the lifeguard was for Baby yet another example of unfair advantages in society.
Baby did not think that Neil was a bad person, but her experience with him advanced her opinion that US society is unfair and should be reformed.
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Baby saw Robbie significantly on her first day at the resort. She peeped into the staff meeting where Max Kellerman was explaining to the waiters -- including Robbie -- their rules on how to treat the female guests. She saw Johnny Castle walk through the meeting area and exchange insults with Robbie.
At dinner, later that evening, Robbie was introduced to the Houseman family as their waiter and as a medical student. Later that evening, Robbie danced with Baby's sister Lisa.
In the following days, Robbie and Lisa became a romantic pair. Lisa asked Baby to lie to their parents about Lisa's whereabouts when Lisa was meeting secretly with Robbie at the golf course. That secret meeting caused an argument between Lisa and Robbie, and Baby saw them arguing about their sexual relationship.
Later, Baby learned that Robbie had made Penny Johnson pregnant but refused to help pay for an abortion. Baby confronted Robbie about his refusal, and she angrily rejected his recommendation to read Ayn Rand's book The Fountainhead. Robbie hints to her that the book's theme is that Some people count and some people don't. People are not equally important and valuable.
Subconsciously, Baby sees much of her father in Robbie. Perhaps when her father was a young man, a medical student, he behaved with women then as Robbie behaves now. A medical student's future status and earnings make him attractive to women. A medical student and a doctor feel special, extraordinarily intelligent, insightful and talented.
Baby surely learned from Lisa that Robbie was in bed with Vivian Pressman, a married woman. Robbie had taken Vivian away from her husband just as Neil had taken a girl away from Robbie the lifeguard.
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Johnny Castle and Penny Johnson are struggling artists. They are afraid of getting fired, because they might not be able to hold on in their dance profession. He might have to go back to a house-painting job. She might have to sell wigs full-time.
Johnny and Penny do not express any political opinions. For example, they do not express any objections to anti-abortion laws. If they object to any laws or regulations, they simply violate them secretly.
In the stage musical, Johnny tells Baby that he never has voted in his life.
The political helplessness in Johnny and Penny motivates Baby to act in their support. She gets the money for Penny's abortion and enables herself to substitute for Penny at the Sheldrake Hotel. She encourages Johnny to speak his mind to Neil about the Cuban-Soul dance. She sacrifices herself to give Johnny the alibi he needs to be exonerated from the accusation that he stole the wallet.
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When Baby arrived at Kellerman's with her family, she intended to avoid political arguments with her father. The family vacation would last three weeks. and afterwards she would go to college and develop her own political opinions away from her father. However, her experiences during those three weeks -- with Billy, Neil, Robbie, Johnny, Penny and others -- motivated her to express her political rebellion openly to her father.
The relevant passage of Baby's monologue:
You told me everyone was alike and deserved a fair break. But you meant everyone who is like you. You told me you wanted me to change the world, to make it better, but you meant by becoming a lawyer or an economist and marrying someone from Harvard. ...In my previous article Baby Houseman's Thinking About Social Justice -- Part 2, I analyzed Baby's statement as follows.
There are a lot of things about me that aren't what you thought.
But if you love me, you have to love all the things about me.
You told me everyone was alike and deserved a fair break, but you meant everyone who is like you.======
Superficially, Baby is complaining that her father has not given Johnny Castle a fair break in regard to the abortion. Jake has insinuated, without learning the facts, that Johnny is guilty in the abortion.
More profoundly, however, Baby is complaining that Jake is unconcerned about the 20% of the US population that lives in poverty because they have not received a fair break in their lives. Jake should recognize that all that poverty should not be attribute to laziness and foolishness. Those poor people have not received a fair break!
Baby insinuates that her father is concerned about this social justice because those poor people are not like him. They are racial minorities or are uneducated or are trapped in chaotic living conditions or are suffering from other personal or social disadvantages that are not entirely their own fault.
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You told me you wanted me to change the world, to make it better, but you meant by becoming a lawyer or an economist and marrying someone from Harvard.
Superficially, Baby is complaining that her father has prohibited her from socializing with the dancers and the low-class employees who lead unconventional lives -- who drop out of school, work in occasional, itinerant jobs and get involved in pregnancies out of wedlock.
More profoundly, however, Baby is complaining that Jake has been discouraging her from her intention to join the Peace Corps. Jake will try to keep Baby from involving herself dangerously in poverty's squalor -- especially the squalor abroad. He will argue that she can help the world more by working as a professional expert in a powerful institution rather than helping to dig a water well in one Cambodian village.
This article concludes my series about the Development of Baby's Political Rebellion.
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