For those of you who haven’t seen the Netflix phenomenon “Stranger Things” yet, 1) why haven’t you?? 2) it’s okay, I was a bit late to the party too, and 3) while I will try to avoid spoilers at all costs, for the sake of this article, I cannot evade them entirely.
There are so many things to be said about “Stranger Things,” but I want to focus on something at the heart of the series. The always aware Winona Ryder plays Joyce Byers, a small-town store clerk whose son Will abruptly disappears under mysterious circumstances.
It is made clear from the very beginning that Joyce isn’t the most stable woman in town, as her son Jonathan reveals to police chief Jim Hopper in an early episode. “She’s had anxiety issues in the past,” says Jonathan in an attempt to discredit his mother’s emotions as mere paranoia.
Jonathan’s and Hopper’s respective turnarounds notwithstanding (they both eventually stand behind Joyce's instincts) the fact that they minimize Joyce's feelings as a bout of hysteria is oversimplifying the issue. It’s much more complicated than that.
Joyce is a single mother raising two kids while also working full time at a minimum wage job; on top of that, she has a very strained relationship with her ex-husband, whom she is heard having screaming matches with over the phone. This makes her seem like the most vulnerable character of the series, but upon deeper investigation, she reveals herself to be one of the sanest people in the entire town.
She pleads with law enforcement and her own family to hear her out, but they cannot see things the way she does. Jonathan comes home one night to find her huddled up in a cabinet clutching a bundle of Christmas lights, which she tells him is her way of speaking to Will. Even when police dig up what is assumed to be Will’s body, she refuses to believe it is her son while everyone else accepts his death. Call it mother’s intuition or a leap of faith, Joyce never loses hope that her son is still alive.
Joyce proves herself to be perhaps the strongest fighter of the show because of her refusal to remain rooted purely in reality. Her persistence in the face of apathy and opposition should act as a model for us all. I’m sure we could all benefit from even a sliver of the strength she has.
