The Counter Culture
One of the main themes of the film is the counter culture and the way in which the hippie lifestyle was portrayed in the media versus the way that it actually was. Dennie expresses the belief that it is not all that it is cracked up to be. The media portrays hippie life essentially as the ultimate freedom, with girls wearing flowers in their long hair, and men wearing jeans and making out with one gorgeous female after another. The belief behind the hippie movement - that of love, freedom and peace - is not translating to the actuality of the day to day lifestyle that Dennie has been enduring. She is dirty, lacks basic necessities like food, water and clean clothes, and she is always exhausted. She is also abusing drugs, and having to beg on the street for money so that she can eat. She is absolutely miserable and finds that this is not the life that was described to her in the media.
The fillm also shows the differences between the older generation and the hippie generation who basically do not understand each other.
Teenage Rebellion
Would Susie have rebelled anyway? Probably, yes. It was not just her use of drugs or her need to get out and see the world just like her sister did that drove her out of her home. Susie feels that she is treated too harshly and that even though she is a young woman, she is treated like a child. When her bedroom is turned upside down by her parents she knows that she has no privacy or any right to any and this makes her feel angry and trapped.
Susie also feels that her sister's arrival home again is making her parents treat them differently. There is one rule for Dennie and one for Susie, and this is also making her rebel against the unfairnesses of home.
Suburbia
The Millers are a suburban family and the film gently digs at this. Never outwardly unkind, the theme of Suburbia knocks softly at the veneer of propriety that the Millers manage to portray whilst everything about their family is falling apart behind closed doors. They are constantly stressed and these stress levels are elevating. They are trapped in a gender stereotype that they are trying to enforce on their daughters, but they do not understand how to empower them to look for more out of their lives. They are also anxious to appear proper to their neighbors and friends. There is also a veneer of propriety that is universal within the entire neighborhood as the very people who demand particular standards of behavior from their children also drink too much and get lewd at parties.
