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| http://notofgeneralinterest.blogspot.com/2012/08/it-takes-village.html |
Americans
deny death because it is much easier to deny it than to acknowledge and deal
with it. Many people want to quickly move on with their lives rather than
dwelling on the past. This way they can avoid the grief and sadness that comes
along with it. Beetlejuice denies
death in the way that it makes the afterlife seem not so different from regular
life. In real life when someone dies, that is the end and you don’t know what
happens after that. Burton’s film makes it seem like death is just a
continuation of life that doesn’t really change. In fact he makes death seem
more tedious than life because it is portrayed as endless waiting rooms with
endless amounts of paper work. Even in the afterlife, people still have jobs
and deadlines. Rather than a care-free paradise that most people expect the
afterlife to be, the Maitlands are confined to their home and still have
obligations to fulfill. Similar to the way that Americans refuse to incorporate
the reality of death into their lives, Beetlejuice
does the same thing. After the death of the Maitlands, there is no funeral
or grieving relatives. The film skips past this aspect of death completely and
makes it seems like the Maitlands are just returning home to their regular lives
when they are, in fact, dead. The fact that they don’t even know they’re dead
at first is another indication of death denial. The film utilizes black humor
to turn situations that would usually be tragic into comedy. The casual
approach the film takes to death lightens the mood and drains it of any
sadness. An example of this is the team of dead football players who died in a
plane crash. A group of young athletes perishing in a plane crash would usually
be tragic but the film turns it around by having the players believe that Juno
is their coach and that they don’t know they’re dead. Juno’s sarcastic reaction
to them further brightens things and causes the audience to view it comically rather
than tragically. The afterlife portrayed in Beetlejuice
is, in itself, an example of death denial.
I like your idea that Beetlejuice signifies that death is nothing less than a continuation of life. Indeed, the Maitland's problems before their untimely death do not simply disappear because they have died; in fact they encounter new problems and, like any living person, must find ways to solve those problems. Why Americans deny death in such a way is universal among many cultures: we just don't know what comes next, and that frightens us. We are scared to leave unfinished business, to come back as trees and bushes, or to simply find that, no, we don't exist after death. We could also consider religion as a death denial in this matter. Many that practice religion are comforted by the fact that death just isn't the cessation of being; you go on to a bigger and better place, you can return to earth as another type of living thing, or your soul is reicarnated into another person. With these type of notions, there isn't an end to life, it's a cycle that everyone goes through. I believe that our biggest fear about death and the reason we deny it is because we are afraid that it won't be as glorious as what our personal beliefs tells us it will be.
ReplyDelete- Summer Balbero
I totally agree with you, Yamato. Americans deny death because it is easier to cope with it that way. We truly live by the saying, “Ignorance is bliss.” Sometimes we tend to let it almost dictate our lives. We Americans prefer to be ignorant; we act as though death does not exist, even though we know that deep down it does. Burton makes it seem as though life after death is the same as regular life. I guess that if we let ourselves think about death, we would actually hope that it was the same as life. By making ourselves believe that, it makes the thought easier to bear. And that is why Burton did that. He pretended to deal with the situation of death by making it equivalent to life before it. Burton’s way of dealing with it was actually deceitful if you really think about it. The truth is, in this movie he depicts like all other Americans.
ReplyDelete-Asenath Babineaux