Silent Bob first appeared in the Kevin Smith movie Clerks. The character is also played by Kevin Smith himself. Silent Bob along with his partner in crime Jay have appeared in several mediums including almost all of Kevin Smith's movies, including Clerks, MallRats, Chasing Amy, Dogma, and Jay and Silent Bob's own feature film Jay and Silent Bob Strikes Back.

Kevin Smith just announced that he will be directing a new jay and silent bob movie

The times when he does talk he does have a great deal of wisdom. He helps the main characters in two movies help resolve a problem that they are conflicted with. In chasing Amy it is lack of sexual experience and in clerks his words help to redefine a relationship. He also has a great deal of knowledge which he shows when he discusses likeness rights in Jay and Silent bob strike back

Silent Bob struggles with Selective mutism. It is difficult to determine if it reaches the level of a disorder because the movies don’t depict if it has a negative impact on his life. Though he chooses not to talk he is still able to develop relationships with others (jay and it sounds like he has had relationships in the past (Amy))

It has not been determined if there is a singular cause is for selective mutism but it often depends on the individual. When I view silent Bob I think that his choice to not talk may come from anxiety and possibly difficulty managing extreme strong emotions.

 

Anger- In watching the films I do wonder if anger plays a role on Silent Bob’s selective mutism. I wonder if he experiences such strong emotions of anger that he does not know what to do with. From the movies it is eluded to that silent Bob is the enforcer of the jay and silent bob dyad. IN mallrats he takes down two security guards by squeezing their necks. IN dogma he throws that two angels out off of the train and in Jay and silent bob strike back there is montage scene where they go around and beat people up for saying bad things about them on the internet. There are other scene throughout the movies that suggest that if people don’t pay Jay silent bob will take care of them. I began to wonder if silent bob realizes how strong he is and that scares him. He seems to want to come off as this nice loving (wants to keep the monkey) but inside he feels as though he is just an angry person. Evidence from the movie suggests that he can possibly have a temper. I jay and silent bob he gets extremely angry at Jay when jay doesn’t understand his sign Language. He also gets upset in the chasing Amy story and says that he is out for blood. He may worry that if he talks he may say something hurtful and push others away which is not his intention.

To help deal with some of that anger Silent Bob may use the defense of primitative withdrawal. He may use weed as a way to manage those strong feeling states

 

SELF-ESTEEM In viewing silent bob I wonder how much Self-esteem is connected to his selective mutism. He seems to vacillate between moments of being self assured and then moments of not feeling “good enough” The dinner scene in chasing amy seems to be the first time that he actually stands up to Jay. At one point saying “do something,” to him which Jay quickly backs down from. He then begins to tell the story of amy which is a girl that he was in love with and lost. The reason that he said he said that he became so angry with her is because that he felt small and he was not good enough.

There is evidence to suggest that silent bob’s self-esteem may get in the way of him living a life outside of his relationship with Jay. In Jay and silent bob strike back there is scene where ben Affleck is talking about Jay and silent Bob wanting more...