“The Royal Tenebaums”

Over Thanksgiving break, I had the opportunity to watch one of the worst movies I have ever seen in my life.  This movie was called “The Royal Tenebuams.”  This movie was about a family who was torn apart because of a divorce.  The mother took the kids and raised them herself.  They were successful at first, until one by one they all ended up experiencing event that changed their lives.  The father just as well went thorough a life changing experience.  He had been seperated from his family for many many year, and hadn’t seen them in a while.  One day, he heard news of his wife getting re-married and realized what he had been missing all thoes past years.  Things changed for him mainly because he realized he couldn’t have it.  He had had most anything he wanted in the past.  He used to be successful and had a huge house, a family, everything a man could ask for.  When he heard his wife was getting re-married, I think it was then that he realized he couldn’t have her.  It was the one thing he could never have if she got re-married to her accountant.  My thought is that, over thoes past 6 weeks that Royal got to spend with his family, even though he was living a lie, I think that Royal started only then, to live the good life.  He finally got to see his kids for who they really had become, and see what he walked out on thoes years before.  Over thoes six weeks was when Royal had finally reached the good lfe.  Unfortunatley it took so long for him to reach it because he died shortly after.  I think this was sort of similar to the other movie we watched called “American Beauty.”  The two main characters Lester and Royal go through a change in the movie and reach their good life late towards the end of the movie.  It takes a while for them to reach it, but in that short amount of time was the best of both of their lives.

Extra credit “Into the Wild”

From 4 to 6 pm on Friday the 16th, I had the pleasure of sitting in St. Josephs hall and listening to 3 people give their opinions on the book “Into the Wild.” To be completely honest, i fell asleep through the first 2 people talking, and it wasn’t until angela woke me up in the beginning of the third person talking that I actually got something out of it.  We got onto  the topic of the age that Chris did this journey.  The three people on stage felt that they were annoyed with him mainly beacsuse he was still young (age 24) and he had his entire life ahead of him.  He could have done anything he wanted to do and he ended up dieing in the end. They felt that he was immature and just did it out of the need to rebel.  Truth is though, his journey was planned, it wasn’t just something he woke up and did.  He had been thinking about it for some time before he actually went out and did it.  I think that he was mature at the age he did this, and he was just living his thought of the good life, no matter what other people thought about it.  Most of us thought it must have been miserable living the way he did, but in reality Chris didn’t really care.  He only cared about what he thought and not what others thought about him.  I think that this shows that Chris is a very strong person.  To just listen to himself and go along with it shows a lot of maturity.

Are Men Lazy?

During the past english class, we read the short story called Lost In the Kitchen, it talks about a man perspective of Thanksgiving.  He says what typically happens during a Thanksgiving day.  He talks about how his wife and his friends wife cook, while his friend and him watch the big game.  They eventually go to see if they can help in the kitchen, and they are told to watch the kids.  They then proceed to watch the kids, but get distracted and start to watch the game.  My thought about this is, are all men like this?  Do most men do nothing in their house, besides go to work?  If this is true, is this a man’s perspective of the good life? Are they happy with doing nothing all day while their wives cook and clean?  From my experience seeing it with my family, I think this is false.  When I was younger, my father worked two jobs, as well as helped to cook and take care of me and my little brother.  In all my life, I cannot think of one past experience where I felt that my father was lazy.  Then again, I look at my uncle, and I tend to think differently.  He is the exact opposite.  He hardly works, never cooks or cleans, and he seems to be living the good life.  This goes back to the thought that everyones good life is different.  My dad’s good life is working hard to support his family, while my uncles is doing nothing all day.  I think that you need to work for something, or else there will never be anything to work for.  If you have everything, then you will never earn something yourself, therefore you will never truly experience the good life.  My father one day will if he hasen’t already, but unfortunately my uncle won’t because he is lazy.

“Big Fish Lives On”

For thoes of you who read and finished the book “Big Fish” completely, you will know what happens at the end.  The father a seemly dyeing old man, suddenly turns into a fish as his son carries him to the dock.  He morphs into a fish and swims away into the sunset.  My question is, will the old man, or the big fish, ever reach the good life?  Since he lives forever because he is able to change his form, will he ever obtain the so called “Good Life” or will he never reach it?  Then again do you think that he has already reached the “Good Life” and that he is living it everyday of his life.  My personal opinion is that he have already reached the “Good Life” and that him living on forever doing good, or helping people out of situations is the “Good Life” for him.  I think he is special since in his eyes, helping people is his deffinition of the good life.  His son mentions that he has heard weird stories of a strange creature helping people at the end of the book.  Is that in fact his father living on his dream, or is it yet another person who has the similar ability to morph and live forever?

Clyde/Roberta Goodlife?

The following quote is from the book “Cruddy” by Lynda Barry, “And she romised she will give me the little push I need unless osomething happens and she gets together with Neil Young.  And so if you are reading this, if you are holding this book in your hands right now it means my plan worked completely, I am gone.  I am gone.  I got my happy ending” Pg 305.

When I had first read this, I thought that it didn’t make sense at all.  i thought to myself “how could Clyde/Roberta have lived a happy life with all that she had been through, then to get pushed infront of a train to committe sucide.”  I thought that it was a bad ending for the book, but as I read it again a few more times, it started to click in my mind.  I used to think that Clyde/Roberta had lived a terrible life, but then I thought that maybe it wasn’t all that bad to her.  We each interupt the so called good life in a different way.  Maybe the life that Clyde/Roberta had lived was the good for her.  Maybe she did enjoy going around with her dad, escaping the cops, murdering people to get the suit cases full of money for her dad.  Maybe she enjoyed being the so called “navy” killing her dad, then eventually killing herself.  To each person the good life is different in it’s own way.  This posses the question, in your own opinion, do you believe that Clyde/Roberta had infact lived the good life?