Running head: CHARACTER ANALYSIS

Character Analysis: Reality Theory

Amanda Eagan
Virginia Tech

CHARACTER ANALYSIS

Gracie Hart is the leading character of a major motion picture released in 2000, Miss
Congeniality. Gracie is an FBI agent who makes a mistake while serving as an undercover agent
in a case involving members of the Russian mob at the beginning of the movie that seems to
follow her throughout the duration of the story. Gracie and her team confront the subjects in a
standoff and are about to make arrests when the head mobster begins to choke. He is unable to
breathe and turns purple so Gracie defies orders to save him. Gracies actions cause just enough
of a distraction to provide an opportunity for some of the other Russian gangsters to draw their
weapons and get into a shooting match with the FBI agents. This results in one FBI agent being
seriously injured. After this point, Gracie is ostracized by her department for her actions. She
becomes the subject of a review board hearing and is not allowed to do field work pending their
decision. She is also told that she is not allowed to do deciphering or profiling work, and instead
will be responsible for completing a mountain of grunt work which includes administrative
paperwork and getting coffee for meetings. Personally, Gracie spends most of her time alone.
When she is not at work, she is seen making single TV dinners or exercising in her living room,
and even eats a pint of ice cream by herself in a bar filled with people. However, when
information suddenly breaks that a major FBI case, known as the citizen case, revolves around
the Miss America Pageant, Gracie is called upon to go undercover as a contestant to investigate
(Bullock & Petrie, 2000).
There are several places during the movie where Gracie makes it known that she is not
entirely happy with the way her life is going. The most obvious instance is found towards the
front end of the film when she boxes frantically and then hugs the punching bag as she cries.
This is the point of the movie where I imagine Gracie would either seek or be mandated to
counseling as it occurs directly after her mistake in the field injures another agent. Either way, as

CHARACTER ANALYSIS

a counselor, it would be extremely important for me to establish a connection with Gracie

because reality theory places a large emphasis on the relationship between counselor and client.
With this theory, if the counselor is unable to make a connection there is no possibility of
providing significant help; however, if a connection can be made, the goal of teaching the
client how to fulfill his or her own needs can slowly begin (Corey, 2013, p. 340). In order for
me to make an impact, I would need to build rapport first.
I imagine that Gracies first couple of interactions with me as her counselor would be
very focused how she doesnt think it is fair that she is initially unable to utilize her skills for the
betterment of the bureau. Although Gracie seems to be pretty understanding about the fact that
she cannot do field work until her board review concludes, she is extremely disheartened when
she is told that she cannot even do any behind the scenes work on the citizen case even though
she has experience profiling and deciphering similar codes (Bullock & Petrie, 2000). I also
foresee that Gracie would complain a lot about Eric, another agent, getting to take lead on the
case because, even though she is told not to, Gracie still investigates the citizen case, breaks the
code, and is actually the one to come up with the plan for how to approach the case. She is the
one who knows who the FBI need to collaborate with to be successful but not step on any toes,
and she is also the one to initially think of how beneficial it would be to have an undercover
agent participate in the pageant (Bullock & Petrie, 2000). I imagine that it has to be frustrating
to be the brains of an operation and get none of the credit, but there is not a place for
complaining, blaming, or criticizing in reality theory as they are seen as completely unproductive
(Corey, 2013). It would be important for me as the counselor to quickly refocus the conversation
towards Gracies choices and how she can make productive changes moving forward.

CHARACTER ANALYSIS

Additionally, although Gracie did have a rather unfortunate encounter with the Russian
mob, reality theory is very focused on the present, not the past. In fact, according to this theory,
whatever mistakes were made in the past are not pertinent now, and we can only satisfy our
needs in the present (Corey, 2013, p. 339). Therefore, it would be important for me to listen to
Gracies story about her past if it is something that she wants to talk about in order to build
rapport, but not allow her to dwell on the things that she cannot change. We must move forward
collectively and focus our efforts on the here and now.
This idea is especially important when one considers that Gracie still is not happy with
her situation even after being approved to serve as the key component of the undercover
operation. Here is where reality theorys heavy focus on unsatisfactory relationships as the
source of clients problems would be beneficial for Gracies development (Corey, 2013). At
several points throughout the movie, Gracie mentions that she is all about the job, and she
constantly struggles to make connections with people (Bullock & Petrie, 2000). When
confronted by her stylist for being an incomplete person with sarcasm and a gun in the place of
friends and relationships, she even says that she doesnt have relationships because [she
doesnt] want them, and [she doesnt] have friends because she works 24/7 (Bullock & Petrie,
2000). However, immediately after this interaction she goes to find Eric to ask him what is
wrong with her and tell him that she is quitting. She believes that the only reason she was picked
for the job was because she looked good in a bikini and wasnt on maternity leave like the other
agents Eric originally wanted to work with (Bullock & Petrie, 2000).
In these interactions, Gracie makes it clear that she is not fulfilling all of her needs as a
person. Not only does she question her effectiveness in her position, but she also questions
whether the job is enough. As a counselor, I would encourage Gracie to consider whether her

CHARACTER ANALYSIS

lack of connection with others both on and off the job could be impacting both her personal and
professional lives and also give her the space to self-assess how pervasive the problem may be.
A means of approaching this topic would be to explore with Gracie why she thinks her reaction
to the interactions with her stylist and Eric were so strong. By asking Gracie to examine her own
life, I believe I could help her make the connection that her tendency to only make decisions that,
on the surface, promote her professional career is not helping her get connected or reconnected
with people [she] has chosen to put in [her] quality world (Corey, 2013, p. 340). I would need
to confront Gracie in order to help her make choices that more effectively meet her holistic
needs.
Throughout the entirety of our counseling relationship, it would be important for me to
consider Gracies identities and how they impact the way she experiences the world. As a female
in a male dominated field, Gracies gender influences her greatly. Her particular struggle,
however, does not necessarily revolve around gaining the respect of the male agents as one might
assume, but, instead, around not being associated with societys definition of a traditional female.
Gracie struggles to see herself within the binary model of gender expression as she makes
several comments regarding the expected behavior of a Miss America contestant in relation to
her own priorities. For example, Gracie is not happy that she will have to wear a bathing suit
and do the big hair and the twirling because she doesnt own a dress, [and she doesnt] even
own a brush (Bullock & Petrie, 2000). On the surface, the Miss America pageant seems to
promote an ideal that Gracie does not aspire to and she struggles to make sense of her role as
both an FBI agent and a female within this context. However, racially, Gracie is a member of the
white majority, so her skin color would most likely not be a large consideration for her as she
wrestles with herself in relation to societys common unconsciously accepted predispositions

CHARACTER ANALYSIS

toward beauty. The discrepancies between how Gracie sees the world and how the world sees
her could prolong the counseling process and impact the amount of time it would take me to
build a relationship with her, but it would be my role as a counselor to help her navigate this
process.

CHARACTER ANALYSIS

7
References

Bullock, S. (Producer), & Petrie, D. (Director). (2000). Miss Congeniality [Motion picture].
United States of America: Castle Rock Entertainment.
Corey, G. (2013). Theory and practice of counseling and psychotherapy (9th ed.).
Belmont, CA: Thomson Brooks/Cole.