HCA 503 Module 7 Paper: Nomadland and Diversity in Aging Example

Houseless, Not Homeless: Continuity, Integrity and Justice in the Aging of Fern in Nomadland

Student Name

MA in Aging, Arizona State University

HCA 503: Diversity in Aging

Instructor Name

Month Day, Year

Houseless, Not Homeless: Continuity, Integrity and Justice in the Aging of Fern in Nomadland

Introduction

Nomadland, directed by Chloé Zhao and adapted from Jessica Bruder's reporting, follows Fern, played by Frances McDormand, after the gypsum plant in Empire, Nevada, closes and the town itself is erased (Bruder, 2017; Zhao, 2020). Widowed and without a job, Fern moves into her van and follows seasonal work across the West, from an Amazon warehouse to a South Dakota campground and a Nebraska beet harvest. Several of the nomads she meets are played by real nomads, which blurs the line between fiction and documentary. The film challenges common ideas of what aging looks like and whose aging is visible.

My Assumptions Compared With the Film's

Before watching, I assumed that an older woman living in a van was either in crisis or in denial, and that the right outcome would be for her to settle down near family. I also assumed that later life is a period of slowing down. The film rejects both. Fern is poor and grieving, but she is also competent, curious and connected to a community of people who chose the same life. When a former student asks if she is homeless, Fern answers that she is not homeless, just houseless. The film treats her mobility as a choice shaped by loss and economics rather than as a failure. My assumptions reflected what Levy (2009) describes as age stereotypes absorbed from the surrounding culture, which can shape how older people see themselves and how others treat them.

Social Justice

Fern's choices are not made in a vacuum. Her town disappeared when its employer left; her retirement income is not enough to cover rent; and the work open to her is physical, seasonal and low paid. Bruder (2017) documents the same pattern among real older workers who lost savings and homes and took up nomadic labor. The film raises questions of justice: who bears the cost when industries close, why older workers end up in warehouse jobs, and why housing is out of reach for people who worked for decades. The nomad community's mutual aid, sharing tools, skills and information, fills gaps that public systems leave open, but it cannot replace adequate income or affordable housing.

A Theory of Aging: Continuity Theory

Continuity theory holds that older adults adapt to change by preserving their existing internal and external structures, using strategies tied to their past experiences of themselves and their social world (Atchley, 1989). Fern's life on the road can look like a sharp break, but continuity theory explains it as an effort to keep what matters. She keeps her husband's memory by refusing to sell the van or leave the region where they lived; she keeps her identity as a worker by taking any job she can; and she keeps her independence, a lifelong trait, by solving her own problems. When she finally returns to Empire and clears out her storage unit, she is not abandoning the past but choosing which parts to carry forward.

Continuity theory also has limits here. It assumes that adults have structures to preserve. Fern's external structures, her home, job and town, were taken from her. Her adaptation is continuity of inner identity under severe loss of outer structure, a situation more common for older adults with low incomes than the theory's middle-class origins suggest.

A Developmental Theory: Integrity Versus Despair

Erikson (1982) described the last stage of psychosocial development as a tension between integrity, accepting one's life as it was lived, and despair over a life that cannot be lived again. Fern's journey can be read as movement toward integrity. Early in the film, she holds tightly to objects and places tied to her husband. Through friendships with Linda May and Swankie, an older woman who is dying and chooses to spend her remaining time traveling to places she loves, Fern sees others make peace with loss. Bob Wells, the community's informal leader, tells her that he has learned to say "see you down the road" instead of goodbye, after his son's death. By the end, Fern's return to Empire suggests acceptance: she can visit the past without needing to live in it.

The film does not present integrity as tidy. Fern remains alone at the end, and the question of whether she is flourishing or merely coping is left open, which fits Erikson's view that both poles are present throughout late life.

Ethics: Autonomy and Interdependence

The film's central ethical tension is between Fern's self-determination and the help offered by others. Her sister Dolly invites her to stay and is hurt when Fern leaves; Dave, a fellow nomad, invites her to live with his son's family, and she tries but cannot stay. From a principle of autonomy, Fern has the right to choose a risky life, and professionals working with older adults should respect that right when a person has capacity. From an ethic of care, her refusals cost her support she may need as her health and van age.

The film suggests a middle path: interdependence on her own terms. Fern accepts help from the nomad community, such as advice on tires and a place in the desert gathering, because it is reciprocal and does not require giving up her way of life. This differs from the model of successful aging that emphasizes low disease, high function and active engagement (Rowe & Kahn, 1997); Fern is engaged, but in a form that model, built around stable homes and conventional activity, does not easily capture.

Communication Challenges

Fern communicates through actions more than words. Grief makes her guarded; she rarely names her feelings and deflects questions about her husband. With her sister, the challenge is different values: Dolly's family discusses real estate at dinner, and Fern's angry response about lending and home buying reveals a gap that politeness had hidden. With younger employers and customers, Fern is often invisible. These challenges might have been eased by the kind of patient, open-ended questions the nomad community uses: Bob Wells listens before advising, and Swankie speaks about her illness only when Fern is ready to hear it. For professionals, the lesson is that rapport with older adults who have had large losses takes time and respect for silence.

Conclusion

Nomadland asks viewers to see an older woman's choices as both shaped by injustice and genuinely her own. Continuity theory explains how Fern preserves her identity through loss, Erikson's final stage frames her slow movement toward acceptance, and the film's ethical tension shows that autonomy and interdependence need not be opposites. For a professional in aging, the film is a reminder to question assumptions about what a good later life looks like and to ask older adults what they are trying to preserve.

References

Atchley, R. C. (1989). A continuity theory of normal aging. The Gerontologist, 29(2), 183-190. https://doi.org/10.1093/geront/29.2.183

Bruder, J. (2017). Nomadland: Surviving America in the twenty-first century. W. W. Norton.

Erikson, E. H. (1982). The life cycle completed: A review. W. W. Norton.

Levy, B. (2009). Stereotype embodiment: A psychosocial approach to aging. Current Directions in Psychological Science, 18(6), 332-336. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-8721.2009.01662.x

Rowe, J. W., & Kahn, R. L. (1997). Successful aging. The Gerontologist, 37(4), 433-440. https://doi.org/10.1093/geront/37.4.433

Zhao, C. (Director). (2020). Nomadland [Film]. Searchlight Pictures.