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Aziz BAKAY   20300841

Hümeyra Başol ÇETİN

English 101-05

Essay II / Final

December 29,2003

The film Thelma and Louis, which is about their travel, was directed by Ridley Scott in 1991. Thelma has spent her entire life living under the shadow of her careless husband. Dissatisfied housewife, Thelma, goes on a vacation on the weekend with her bestfriend Louise,a waitress at one of the town’s restaurants. However , a drunk man’s attempt to rape Thelma is concluded with the death of him so they are again on roads ,but this time not for fun. They are escaping  from the law,trying to get out of the borders of America is not successful while they are starting to enjoy being a fugitive. This adventurous journey the two characters take in the film Thelma and Louise changes Thelma from a passive,subordinate person to a more active and independent individual.

         Thelma tried to be more active person in their travel, because they started their travel only for fun. Thelma left things behind and concentrated to their weekend. They song, made humorous conversations, tried to forget about the past of their lifes for a while. As the writer indicates that the traveling, itself, has a different power which can make the person forget about the past. "Yet for me the first great joy of traveling is simply the luxury of leaving all my beliefs and certainties at home, and seeing everything I thought I knew in a different light, and from a crooked angle." (Iyer,2000,p.1). She  tried to do as their desires, they ate anything they wanted and they drank what they wanted. In their first stop, in the bar, she tasted a new drink. Also, people dancing and entertaining was a little bit strange to them because they were quite far from an active and funny life. However, no more than a few minutes, she immediately stood up in a full energy to dance. She  got more energitic than ever. The atmosphere of the trip and their wishes about it, made her adapted to the amusements.

         We can see the changes obviously as we compare Thelma’s behaviours before and during the travel. She was weak to her husband and no sincere dialogue between them. Her husband’s dominance can be easily seen in many conversations. She started the travel with this personality and this character showed itself in the first parts of the film. However as the time went, she phoned her husband from a hotel, pretending that they were actually fishing. However they were in fact fugitives at that moment. He wanted Thelma to be home that evening,however she made some excuse to persuade him. After some unsuccessful endeavours, she stopped for a second and then sweared at him and hung up the phone. This was her first oppose to her husband. Her this act made the big hit to her personality, because the first one against him, was the hardest one. So the hardest one has gone, the nexts will be more easy. This could be an evidence of the change in Thelma’s personality on the way of being independent.

         In the following parts, she tried to be friends with a stranger, Brad Pitt, acting as a traveller. She has forgotten about her husband after the phone call. She managed to be closer with this person. Therefore, she accepted him to her hotel room while she was alone, because he said he had nowhere to go. After some friendly conversation they had sex. With this  behaviour, she absolutely rejects her husband’s dominance, and annihilates her weakness against him. This creates a more independent personality in Thelma, because she understood that she could do and behave as her desires and can be with a man leaving her husband behind.

         Passive behaviour of Thelma at home had turned to opposite of it. Her potential active character arised in their travel. Her passive, monotonous life made her forget about living fast, hanging around with full energy. Their urgent travel reminded Thelma of these things. For instance, in ther first stop, she gave Louise hyperactive signals such as suggesting to dance. After sometime she could not get over her will and stood up and started dancing. According to this stuation, we can say that her unleashed emotions are coming up. The writer mentions about this -being active- in his writings, he says that the travel can wake your mind easily and get active. "So travel, at heart, is just a quick way to keeping our minds mobile and awake." (Iyer,2000,p.4). In another part they needed money, they had a break near a market on their travel as fugitives. Thelma robbed the market using her gun and some new skills which she has learned only a few hours before from a robber friend of her. This was a decision that brought responsibility. To manage this, it needs an insane thought of action. In this view, she was given an activation energy by their travel and created a personality change from passiveness to activeness.

 In addition, in a different part of the film, they were stopped by the police in somewhere else very lonely. The police was already warned about these two women. So he was trying to be careful and after checking the licence , he took Louise to his car to arrest . he was about to give information about the incident by police radio in his car, Thelma made a surprising thing. She came near the car and suddenly put her gun straight to the police and threatened him in a kind way. As soon as they got out of the car , she ordered him to get in the baggage. Then she locked him there. She was not so rough as she was putting the gun. Moreover, she was not really wanting to hurt anyone. She only wanted to recover her friend Louise and she was ready to do what was needed at that moment. This behaviour can be analysed like this. If there was somebody who has a more passive personality to do anything or someone to whom the world does not make sense , things would be very different. However, there was Thelma, who could do anything with her full power, courage  and activated behaviour. She managed to do so. I think that these all suits with her active personality. These has been arised by all these events , facts which also made lots of change in her personality.

         All events they had in their travel, revealed a sense of insistence on a decision in Thelma’s personality. After a long pursuit with police, they could not get away from them. They were at the end of the road and there was nothing but a steep mountain. They have not ever thought of surrendering. They always tried to escape but this was the end of the road. They decided not to turn back and to move on , this was a suicide. Their independent personality did not let them to turn back. The things that did this kind of change to their personality are all the events they had, made an independent emotion.

         The things with fear, excite or enthusiasm always leave trace in anyone’s mind. To sum up, her change was effected by their travel and the incidents they had all. They created a remarkable change in Thelma’s personality. The whole travel made her even more active and independent although she had a passive and subordinate personality before.

References

Iyer,P.(2000) .Why We Travel. Page1,4.Available:

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