Table of Contents
Adelaide Wilson’s Rundown
| Actress: | Lupita Nyong’o |
| Character Type: | Protagonist |
| Personality: | Leader |
| Motivations: | To Survive and Hide Origins |
Who is Adelaide Wilson?
Adelaide Wilson is a character in Us. She is the one that carries the story of the movie, every choice she makes causing another part of the story to unfold. She is married with two kids and as a child was actually a product of the government. She was considered to be tethered to another, somebody who looks just like her, was just like her. Her journey with her doppelganger is what unfolds, taking her place and living a life she wasn’t meant to have. Adelaide Wilson is the protagonist and catalyst for the story of Us.
The Personality of Adelaide Wilson
Adelaide Wilson is shown as a little girl to feel almost always elsewhere. Drifting off, imagining life another way. She follows along as the rest of the tethered are stuck doing what they’ve always done, follow those they are tethered to in whatever fashion that asks of them. Adelaide, however, is seen to be questioning this life, knowing that there is something better out there and so close to where she was. Adelaide was “different.” Us does a good job of showing this idea through subtle movements and expressions of the young Adelaide. As we know, she is a tethered and finds that her counterpart is right above her. Knowing this, she tracks her down, somehow pulling the real Adelaide to her. Once she gets the opportunity, she chokes her out and swaps places, taking the life that she was never supposed to have.
The Effects of Childhood Trauma
This moment, these events, affected Adelaide for the rest of her life. Being a tethered, she could always feel her connection. She knew that she was a fake and this led to a life of unease and paranoia in a place she was never meant to be. Us starts by trying to make the audience think this is just PTSD from a time with the real Adelaide simply “saw” her doppelganger. Instead, however, these personality traits are extended much deeper into Adelaide. She is a fake and she knows it. She learned how to talk later in life, and she tried her best to fit in.
Adelaide’s Adulthood
Then, Adelaide falls in love and gets married, having two kids. Adelaide is capable of love and of being loved. She has a mother’s instincts and shows to be incredibly protective of her children, especially of her son. The two share something together. Her son shows that he doesn’t fit in and he likes to hide behind a mask. This alludes to Adelaide as well. She was always hiding behind the guise of “Adelaide” and she had a hard time fitting in when she came up to the surface world and started living a real life. Their connection is deep and its something that carries Adelaide forward.
Of course, Adelaide is what is referred to as a “tethered.” Someone who was created to be connected to a real person. Because of this, Adelaide feels empathy for them even after causing such terror to her and her family.
Bringing Out the Leader and Adelaide’s Role
Being the protagonist of the story, Adelaide naturally controls the direction of the story. She is what brings everybody together and connects each part of the ever-growing plot. When the tethered come up to Adelaide’s door and start the events of Us, that is when Adelaide begins to come out of herself. This family of tethered is led by Adelaide’s doppelganger, the real Adelaide now under the guise of “Red.”
Red forces Adelaide to face the reality of what she did and who she has hurt. Through torture and terror, Adelaide discovers the leader within. She takes control just like Red. It is perhaps through their tethered nature that Adelaide’s personality escalates as she watches Red take control, but the change occurs all the same. As the night goes on, survival instincts kick in and Adelaide becomes the one in charge. Something unseen from her previously in the movie. From giving in to her husband’s wants despite her own and her lack of communication with people, she goes to somebody who makes direct commands and makes the decisions.
Adelaide the Tethered
This is what pushes things along. We learn more and more with little trickles and hints that Adelaide is tethered. Her awkwardness at first to the way that she has no remorse when killing. She almost enjoys it from what we can tell; however, she also shows sympathy for the dying tethers of her children. She is the key to connecting the two worlds. Those created as tethers and those that live their lives unbeknownst to their existence. She is the key. The person that pushes these events forward.
When she switched places with the real Adelaide, she put in her place somebody who could take control and think for herself and gave her a motive to come after those above. Adelaide knows this, she’s aware of what she has done, but even so, she doesn’t really show remorse only shows fear.
Adelaide’s choices are what made Us. Without the choices that she made, the movie couldn’t exist. The motivations that she has carry the story forward.
Adelaide’s Growth and Conclusion
Adelaide goes from living a life of paranoia, always looking over her shoulder to one where she’s the one taking control. This is expressed throughout the movie. She starts as awkward and soft spoken, not enjoying the company of others. It isn’t until death and catastrophe rain from above that she is finally able to be who she’s always been, a person to be feared. She gets to let loose and give into her animalistic tendencies. Revisiting her past allows Adelaide to remember who she is. And her interactions with Red allow her to see what she can be.
Adelaide becomes something else on her quest to protect her family and for survival. She accepts who she is and uses it to her advantage, something she hasn’t been able to do before. And
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