Infinite Interpretations of a Girl's Dream

 The Pathos of the Unconscious: Charlie Chaplin and Dreams goes into great detail about dreams and how they function in media. From the readings, the most evident fact about dreams in media is that it gives insight to a character’s true emotions. In fact, in Charlie Chaplin and Dreams, it mentioned, “it may be concluded that the most effective manner of analyzing character in film is by a full examination of the character's dreams.”  In movies, a “dream disrupts the film just long enough to explore an alternative reality.” The TV show Gilmore Girls has a great example of this kind of dream in a film.

Gilmore Girls is a long series about the life of a mother and daughter. The mother, Lorelai, is best friends with the man, Luke, who owns the diner in their town. Several people throughout the beginning of the series suggest that Luke has feelings for Lorelai and they also suggest that they would be a great couple, but Lorelai constantly ignores them. In a certain episode, Lorelai has a dream that she is married to Luke and is pregnant with twins. 

According to the reading about Dream Theory, it is said that dreams are not directly. In this case, Lorelai’s dream can have many different interpretations. For example, her dream could be foreshadowing that she and Luke will have a relationship in the future. It could be represented as a nightmare because she would never want this to happen, or it could mean something that you would never even think of because scholars agree that, “everything symbolizes something else.”

In addition, when Lorelai wakes up form her dream, she questions the meaning of the dream. It’s possible that Lorelai is suppressing her unresolved desires or feelings for Luke, and her “subconscious” revealed her reality to her in the dream.

Freud’s Dream Theory, however, states that the solution to the meaning of dreams is generally that “all dreams represent the fulfillment of wishes.” Therefore, his interpretation of Lorelai’s dream may have more to do with her dream as a partial fulfillment of a wish that is usually (but not always) sexual.

Freud’s Dream Theory also divides the mind into two parts, the preconscious and unconscious. The preconscious contains all the ideas and memories capable of becoming conscious while the unconscious is made up of the desires and wishes of a mostly sexual and sometimes destructive nature. The beginning of the dream consists of the unconscious mind at play when she destroys all of the alarm clocks while all of the memories of people mentioning Luke and Lorelai as a possible couple is a part of the preconscious mind.

There are many different ways to analyze dreams as shown above. Right now, we have no way of knowing which interpretation is correct, but the ideas are fascinating.

Dreaming in Avatar

Daniel Walden and Helena Poch's Psychoanalysis of Dreams: Dream Theory and Its Relationship to Literature and Popular Culture: Freud, Billy Joel, Appelfeld, and Abe analyzes the importance of dreams in literature. It claims that the "connection between literature and dream analysis" is "interwoven," but also that "dreams cannot be interpreted directly." One piece of media that involves dream sequences is James Cameron's Avatar. While it is not directly about dreams that one might have while they are sleeping, Avatar send its characters through wild out of body experiences where their minds experience realities separate of their bodies.

Avatar is a science fiction film about a group of humans that attempt to gather
information and resources from a foreign planet and from its inhabitants, the Na'vi. The protagonist, Jake Sulley, is sent on a mission to befriend the Na'vi and to aid in communication between the two groups. Sulley is able to do this buy using a Na'vi suit that allows him to openly explore the terrain and speak the local language. Sulley is able to control this suit remotely, such that his mind and his consciousness exist in the suit, while his body might exist somewhere some distance away.

Sulley particularly enjoys using this Na'vi suit because it grants him the ability to walk, where normally his legs are paralyzed. This is particularly important because the sense of freedom that he feels in the suit impacts his overall impression of the Na'vi people. Sulley feels free to run and move and live in the suit, and subsequently enjoys interacting and living with the Na'vi. This fact eventually ends up impacting the plotline of the movie: Sulley turns against the humans and ends up fighting for the Na'vi and their planet.

The dream sequences that Sulley experiences are Walden and Poch's piece is relevant to Avatar because it represents how Sulley should have interpreted the situation (if he had wanted to be scientifically accurate). Sulley loves the mobility that the Na'vi suit gives him and he also loves the kindness and generosity of the Na'vi people, but the connection between these two is never fully explored, and Sulley never considers it. The movie briefly touches on the fact that Sulley enjoys spending time in the suit because it does allow him to walk, but it does not discuss the fact that his new ability to walk may have shaped his impression of the people. Sulley does not seem to make a distinction between the enjoyment that he gets out of wearing the suit and the enjoyment that he gets from interacting from the Na'vi people. The article reads "dreams cannot be interpreted directly," when in fact, this is exactly what Sulley is doing.

A Requiem for Darren Aronofsky's Dream

The passage Charlie Chaplin and Dreams chronicles Charlie Chaplin's use of dreams in his film to not only entertain the members of the audience but also to gain their sympathy for his characters. He would use his movies to invoke a feeling in the audience that makes them feel sorry for his character, and he would do this by developing the character as roundly as possible through the use of a plot that made the rather rare combination of comedy and tragedy. For instance, in his film The Bank, Charlie is first found walking down a wealthy area in a pleasant and gentleman-like manner, wearing nice clothes that fit the setting and allow him to appear as the gentleman the audience sees in him (Le Master 2). 

However, when he reaches the office, the audience sees his take his fancier clothes off to reveal that he is actually a janitor (Le Master 2). Him being gentleman was nothing more than a fantasy. According to the article, such a twist "establishes sympathy with Charlie because we understand the vast difference between who the character is and who he wants to be" (Le Master 2). By seeing how far Charlie is from what he wants to be, the audience is able to see the tragedy in him and feel incredibly sorry for him.

The next part of the film further supports the notion that Charlie uses dreams to gain character sympathy from the audience. In the office, Charlie has a crush on Edna who does not return the love, but late in the film, a bank robbery ensues and Charlie saves Edna and shares a kiss with her only to wake up with his lips on a mop and find out it was all a dream (Le Master 3). In response, the members of the audience transition from excitement in humor (found in the robbery scene) and have a lot of sympathy for Charlie. They pity him enormously because they see the enormous contrast between who he is (janitor) and who he wants to be(heroic lover of Edna).

Such pity that the audience has on him shows how powerful the story's impact is on them as Chaplin’s success in getting them to emotionally connect with the character.

This dream technique used by Chaplin can be applied to Darren Aronofsky's Requiem for a Dream, particularly the final scene. The movie is about four drug-addicts who have major aspirations, and it shows these aspirations being destroyed by their drug problems. 

Harry starts the scene when he has a dream where he sees his lover Marion on a pier, but as he runs towards her, he falls and awakens back in reality where he is in a jail hospital with his arm sliced off due to the amount of dope in it. He lies there crying and reminiscing about his real situation being different from the situation he wanted.

Other characters go through the same scenario. Tyrone, locked in prison for skipping bail on a drug charge, curls into fetal position to have a dream about being hugged by his mother who he wanted to make proud all his life, dreaming about the life desired that is so contrasting to his reality. The same goes for Marion and Harry’s mother who dreams of looking great on a television show she with her son Harry only for her reality to be completely different. 

Such differences in these four characters’ lives make the audience feel so much pity for them because the lives of these four are helplessly opposite of the lives they all dreamed of. The audience seeing Darren Aronofsky’s transition from the characters’ tranquil dreams to their horrifying realities are psychologically impacted in the most emotional and sympathetic way.

Dreaming of Reality

After the three readings: Freud's Dream Theory, The Pathos of the Unconscious: Charlie Chaplin and Dreams, and Psychoanalysis of Dreams by Walden and Poch; it is apparent that a characters true self can be revealed through dreams. All three authors talk in a way connecting Freud's dream theories and the literature he had been acquainted with. In Freud's Dream Theory, by Appignanesi, it is stated that "all dreams represent the fulfillment of wishes", which plays a huge role in how dreams are a kind of hidden way for directors and producers to build characters and show who the characters really are.  

For lucid dreamers, there's no denying that James Cameron's Avatar, has a quality that reminds us so vividly of a fantastical lucid dream environment. Avatar showcases an imagination-rich fantasy environment, filled with alien life forms, epic landscapes and awe-inspiring robotic armies. The movie features awe-inspiring natural environments, advanced alien life forms, floating islands and robotic armies. It also reveals a spiritual nature which tells us that, on the planet Pandora at least, all life is connected and shares a special kind of energy. 

The writer and director, James Cameron noted that the flying scenes in Avatar were actually inspired by some of his own lucid dreams. Most people dream of things they want to do from birth: like becoming a veterinarian, or an astronaut, or a teacher, or having super-speed. Cameron talks about how he had always dreamed of flying, like many of us have. This sparked the ideas that he wanted to create a dreaming imagery where you are almost lucid dreaming while watching the film.

The story revolves around a crippled ex soldier, Jake Sully, who goes to sleep, at which point his mind is "teleported" out of his body where he wakes up into an elaborate fantasy world with a blue, 12 foot alien body. In this form, Sully, his avatar name, explores extraterrestrial rainforests, fights savage alien beasts, flies on the backs of dragons and battles 20-foot robot walkers in the process of saving a civilization from a tyrannical invader. The central theme of altered states of consciousness and mind separating from body adheres to the notion of our minds wandering while our bodies lay asleep.

In the movie, Jake Sully is an ex soldier who has somehow lost the ability of movement in his lower limbs, earlier in his career, therefore he is unable to walk and has to use a wheelchair. His brother was a huge asset in this study but had previously died so they asked Jake to do it, the closest thing to his brother. The first time Jake was put into his avatar body, he went crazy. Not a bad crazy, but crazy as in he was able to walk and run and feel his limbs in his "new body." 

Throughout the movie Jake (Sully to the avatars) has the ability to run, to find love, and to live in a community that accepted him. To him, this was more a life than his life in human form. He was first set out to study the ways of life of the avatars so they could take over their "home tree," where they lived. But towards the end of the movie, Jake finds himself in his dreams more and more, never wanting to come back to reality. Jake connects to what Appignanesi says about dreams representing the fufilment of wishes because of his new body and his new abilities to do everything he wishes for, showing his true character. 

Taylor's Obsession

“You, with your words like knives and swords and weapons that you use against me” This is how Taylor Swift’s song “Mean” starts out. Freud would say that Taylor Swift has a bit of an obsession with phallic symbols. In “Freud’s Dream Theory” it is stated that “any manifest object which suggests penetration, such as swords, guns, umbrellas, snakes etc., can symbolize the penis.”(Freud 9).

Taylor Swift’s song mean mentions what could be classified as phallic symbols three times in the first stanza. According to Freud this means that Taylor has to quote the image “Vanity, self-obsession, sexual anxiety, inadequacy, inferiority, envy.” In a way, Freud describes almost every Taylor Swift song in existence. All of her songs deal with boys and the other issues described by Freud.




In the song, Taylor Swift mentions words with very strong Freudian meanings. She uses the words knives, swords, and nails. All of these words are very phallic in nature. In this song, people believe that she is addressing criticism from a song critic who used to be a fan of hers but is no longer one. This helps account for the feeling of betrayal that permeates the song and music video.

A Freudian reading of almost any Taylor Swift song will include phallic symbols due to what her songs are about. Her songs are always about boys, love, and sex. These of course tend to result in a large number of mentions for phallic symbols. In the song, Taylor discusses how mean a certain member of the male species has been mean to her. She then proceeds to discuss how successful she will be without him and in fact in spite of him trying to stop her. To conclude, Freud would probably like Taylor Swifts music.

https://youtu.be/jYa1eI1hpDE

Dreaming of a Better Life

The three articles posted about dreams examine the phenomenon very deeply, and how they impact pop culture as well as character development when it comes to movies. In Freud's Dream Theory, by Appignanesi, it is stated that "all dreams represent the fulfillment of wishes", and comparing that to the concepts about character development in the other articles, it is clear to see how dreams represent and help shape the true meaning of characters in movies.

My first example is found in the movie, Stand By Me, which came out in 1986. The story is about a young boy who goes on a journey with his friends to find a body that they heard was murdered and dumped in the woods. The boys go on the journey to find this body, when really the movie shows how the boys find out who they are as people and their meaning in life.

At the start of the movie, Gordie, the main character, has a dream back to a interaction he had with his older brother who had died in a Jeep accident. In his dream he remembers how great of a person his older brother was, and as he is dreaming his thoughts are interrupted by Gordie's father who starts comparing Gordie and his older brother and asking Gordie why he isn't as good of a person.

In the scene, Gordie is very discouraged by his dream and the fact that he was reminded of how great his older brother was, and that his family wishes it was Gordie who had died instead of his older brother. This is very important as this dreaming experience is the motivation for Gordie to go on this adventure with his friends and find out his meaning as a person. 

Relating back to the readings, this shows how dreams help drive the character development in movies, and ultimately define the meaning behind characters. In Gordie's dream about his brother, he remembers how great he was, and it is obvious that Gordie feels that he should have died instead of his brother, because Gordie doesn't feel as significant of a person compared to his brother. This relates back to the quote from, Freud's Dream Theory, and how our dreams represent the fulfillment  of our wishes, and Gordie wishes that it wasn't his brother who had died and him instead.  

Inception or Reality

After reading the Psychoanalysis of Dreams: Dream Theory and its Relationship to literature and Popular Culture, by Walden and Poch and The Pathos of the Unconscious: Charlie Chaplin and Dreams by David J. LeMaster the first film that I thought applied the concept of dreams was film Inception. Both the film and the articles discuss the area of the unconscious, which is influential in shaping how a person dreams.

The film Inception starring Leonardo Dicaprio depicts the concept of dream theory is vividly. The plot of the film is focused on Leonardo Dicaprio, Dominick Cobb and Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Arthur. These two are extractors who are performing corporate espionage, in attempt to enter the subconscious of various test subjects with the intention to discover and remove information shared in the dream world.

According to Freud the “connection between literature and dream analysis is inextricably interwoven”(Walden and Poch 114). This idea applies to the filmmaking behind Inception, but with films instead of literature. The filmmaker Christian Nolan does so by incorporating films of various genres into the making of Inception. For instance, there are times throughout the film where it feels like a heist, this idea is from the film Ocean’s Eleven, where heists occur throughout the film. Since the film as a whole provides a various set of dream situations this idea works with Freud’s claim that dreams and literature (films) are inextricably interwoven.

This movie coincides with Freud’s Dream theory about the unconscious; Freud states, “the unconscious is made of desires, impulses or wishes of mostly sexual and destructive nature” that we neglect to act on (Appaignansei et all 68).  This idea is present in the scene where Dominick Cobb and Ariadne, who is also recruited to construct the dreamscapes, navigate through the dream world of Dominick and are unable to prevent aspects from his own mind from attacking his wife, Mal. This scene exemplifies that unconscious cannot be acted on and works with Freud's statement that dreams are the “royal road to the unconscious,” and illustrate the logic of ones unconscious mind.

In conjunction to Freud’s idea of dream theory is Carl Jung. Jung claims that dreams are “involuntary spontaneous products of the unconscious psyche”(LeMaster 1). This film proves Jung’s claim as correct with the example I stated earlier of Dominick’s inability to prevent his unconscious self from killing his wife.

Overall, the concept of dreams in the words of Freud and Jung is that the unconscious is something that we desire, but neglect to act on our actions in reality and as well as the idea that literature and dreams work together as one in the mind of one's subconscious. 

A Freudian Psycho Analysis Interpretation of Dark Horse

In Richard Appignanesi, Oscar Zarete, and Tom Engelhardt (1990) Freud for Beginners, the authors discuss Freud and his ideas through the use of a cartoon. The authors Appignanesi, Zarete, and Engelhardt cover a variety of Freudian ideas from how Freud interprets his dream to the importance of dream analysis while also discussing the mind.

Bird from reading

Bird from music video

The music video that I chose for this assignment was Dark House by Katy Perry. One of the reasons that I chose this music video was because it had mythical creatures in it like those that you could quite possibly see in a dream.  In addition to this point the birds that appear in this music video are identical to the ones that show up in the cartoons. According to the reading Freud had a dream about these birds carrying his mother into his room. Freud interprets this to be that of a typical childhood wish. That being to kill the father and have sex with the mother.



In addition to the music video having the same birds as the reading, another freudian thing in this music video is that it appears to be very dreamlike throughout the entire music video. The creatures which appear in the music video appear to be half human and half animal. This adds to the idea of it being a dream as this creatures simply do not exist in the real world. One could interpret this as being that Katy Perry has sexual fantasies with mythical creatures as that is what she is dreaming about.

The song lyrics themselves when put to a freudian reading indicate that one Katy Perry feels as though by singing she frees herself. Mark my words. This love will make you levitate. Like a bird
Like a bird without a cage. This line of lyrics indicated to me that through the use of song that Katy Perry feels free.


Overall, I found the reading to be very informative as the information was presented in a manner in which the reader could clearly understand what the writer intended for the reader to get out of the writing. The comics are very clear and clearly convey the message to the reader. 

Dreams: Everyone Is Doing It (Some Just Don't Know It)

In this weeks readings we learned how dreams can play a role in our live whether they be consciously or unconsciously. More specifically we looked at Freud and Chaplin to see how their dreams played a role in their lives. In Charlie Chaplin and His Dreams Lemaster explains how Chaplin's dream sequences are highly overlooked by critics, he goes on to explain how he used these dreams to get the audience to truly connect with his character. In the reading Psychoanalysis of Dreams by Daniel Walden and Helena Poch they discussed the importance of the analyzation of his own dreams in the work of Sigmund Freud. So, dreams have played a major role in depiction of what the dreamer truly wants or who they are.

While reading the articles for this week I kept imagining plankton and those daydreams he has in the Spongebob Squarepants episodes I used to watch. It seemed like his dreams were always about stealing the Krabby Patty formula in order to make them at his restaurant the Chum Bucket so he could have the popular restaurant and not Mr. Krabs. This (although a very literal example) shows dreams coming from the conscious of the dreamer. This what the person knows they want and are dreaming about how they can achieve it.

Another way dreams are used is in the subconscious of the person. Often the person dreams or does things that without even knowing relay some sort of emotion or action they would like accomplished. One of my favorite nooks and movies are the Harry potter series written by J.K. Rowling. Her stories of a magical wizarding world where anything is possible is amazing and something that i found truly enjoyable. In an interview with Amazon UK she tells the moderator that when she reads chapter 12 from Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone she can tell that she was projecting her emotions of her mother's death onto Harry. Rowling did this not knowing at the time she was actually doing it, in other words her subconscious was projecting her emotions without her intentionally doing so on her own.

Johnny Kassis

Squidward Squarepants

After reading Freud's Dream Theory, The Pathos of the Unconscious: Charlie Chaplin and Dreams, and Psychoanalysis of Dreams by Walden and Poch, it became apparent that dreams go further back than we may think. They provide an insight into our inner subconscious thoughts, giving us a deeper understanding of the characters we see in Film and Television.

From analyzing these readings we can infer that literature and dreams are interwoven (Walden & Poch 114). This idea is known as the Freudian Theory, which explains why we dream about the things we do. The buildup of past experiences and literature lead to our most creative thoughts at night. Relative to film and television, these dreams in media enable the audience to gain a grasp of the character and their persona. These visual dreams in film enables filmmakers to shy away from the “mundane storytelling that could have been used to relay the same information about the characters” (114).

Throughout the history of film, there have been many times in which a dream is used to further understand a character. The author uses dreams as a medium to connote or portray certain aspects of the characters life that have been previously hidden, according to Freudian. Many dreams in these films reflect the characters past experiences and thoughts. The television show SpongeBob Squarepants, produced by Nickelodeon, frequently uses ‘Patrick’s’, ‘Squidward’, and ‘SpongeBob’s’ dreams in order to better understand the characters. The author uses dreams to provide a twist, often revealing subconscious thoughts and feelings regarding certain characters.

In SpongeBob Squarepants, the television series, SpongeBob is pictured in Squidward’s dream shaped as a saxophone. Squidward in the animated series is always playing this musical instrument loudly, and badly, often causing disruption. Here, we see SpongeBob imitating the annoying sound that he has heard many times before outside his house. The crowd is booing due to the terrible sound coming out of the saxophone. As a result, we can see more clearly the relationship between SpongeBob and Squidward, and how much the instrument being played annoys him. We can also see, how secretly, SpongeBob actually likes Squidward and wants him to succeed. At the end of the video, we see SpongeBob aiding in the production of the beautiful sounds leaving the saxophone, resulting in the clapping of Squidward’s performance. The author reveals more about the two’s thoughts on one another, agreeing with the Poch & Walden reading.

We can also see Squidward’s ambitions in this dream, which is to perform in front of a large audience; to be a professional musician. This hasn’t been made as apparent in previous episodes. Now, we can see that this dream has been used as a catalyst for the screenwriter of SpongeBob Squarepants to reveal more about the characters to the viewers. Squidward’s previous experiences have been negativity surrounding his music, and so it’s interesting how his dream regards him becoming a professional saxophone player. Alluding to Freud’s Dream Theory of previous literature and experiences becoming apparent in dreams, subconsciously. Dreams in media often have deeper meanings as we can see here. 

*They are pictured as one in the dream, and thus the title*

Dreaming: The True Wake Up Call

We all have dreamed, whether that means we've dreamt of a situation quite plain and even realistic or we've dreamt of a situation that is downright crazy. We've all been there. In the chapter over Freud's Dream Theory taken from Appignanesi, Zarete, and Engelhardt's book Freud for Beginners, we look closer at dreams through Freud's interpretation of what they could mean. According to Freud, dreams are made of two things: latent and manifest content. The manifest content within the dream is forced to express the latent idea by using symbols and this leads to the conclusion that dreams are only a partial or censored expression of a wish. No matter how normal or how crazy a dream may seem to according to Freud it doesn't stop there, there is always some kind of deeper meaning behind the content and dreams and can represent thoughts deep within one's psyche.

One of the classic examples that backs up this interpretation made by Freud can be seen in the movie American Beauty (1999) in which the main character Lester Burnham is found having a dream about one of his daughter's friends whom which he is finding himself to be sexually attracted towards and this attraction is represented by symbols within the dream. The young woman can be seen completely naked covered in rose petals, the red petals representing passion and romance, and them being flowers can be seen as representing a basic natural urge that Lester is experiencing towards the young woman. What is important to not from the movie and as the backstory of how Lester got to this point in the first place is that Lester is very unhappy with his life, the attraction he is feeling almost awakens him and makes him even more aware of how unhappy he is and it is a turning point in the movie. This dream is almost his way of defying the suppressiveness of suburban life that he is feeling throughout the beginning of the film. It can be safely stated that the film was created to show how even the ideal suburban family isn't always as ideal of some would think, it can be underlined with the symptoms of depression and denial and can lead to a lot of unhealthy behavior. But, this unhealthy behavior and the dream that Lester experiences only help back up Freud's theory of that there is always a hidden meaning behind content in a dream (manifest content represents latent content).

Short and Sweet (Dreams)

After reading Psychoanalysis of Dreams by Walden, Freud's Dream Theory by Appignanesi, and recalling information from principles of psychology and what we learned about Freud's dream analysis theories, it took me a while to think of media that explicitly talk about dreams or use Freud's theory.  The song "Sweet Dreams" by the Eurythmics is a perfect example of media that talks about dreams and hints at Freud's theories.

Freud said that our dreams reveal the inner most parts of ourselves, and are often our subconscious repressed sexual thoughts. This could hold true for "Sweet Dreams", depending on how you analyze it. Like Walden says, "dreams cannot be interpreted directly," so they are always open for multiple interpretations, which is exactly what Sweet Dreams entails. There are many different interpretations of this song in the realm of dreams.

In the song, the singer, Annie Lennox, sings about some sort of a "sweet dream" and asks who could disagree with her. The "sweet dream" here is undefined, but that's where Freud's theories can come in. Lennox then sings about traveling the world because everyone is looking for something. In the eyes of Freud, this could be "partly a conflict" or "partly a compromise," as mentioned by Appignanesi. Everyone is looking for something, but everyone's something is different, and if it's in their dream (by the title "Sweet Dreams") then it could symbolize anything. 

Another lyric of the song could be analyzed by the part of Freud's theory dealing with sexually repressed thoughts. Lennox sings "some of them want to use you, some of them want to be used by you" and "some of them want to abuse you, some of them want to be abused by you," which, by Freud, would be a prime example of a dream manifesting through fulfilling sexual wishes. This line sung by Lennox hints at BDSM, made popular by the novel and movie 50 Shades of Grey. This interpretation of the sweet dream the Eurythmics sing about makes the most sense from Freud's theory. 

In Freud's theory "everything symbolizes something," as stated by Walden, and media dealing with dreams is all about symbols. Not only in "Sweet Dreams" but in most movies and songs mentioning dreams, there is some hint of Freudian analysis. Many people have criticized Freud's ideas because they seem far-fetched and draw from very juvenile/young experiences, but like "Sweet Dreams," many dreams, or media in general, are open for interpretation. 

The American Daydream

The readings this week discuss the roles of dreams in popular culture and the deeper meaning they can reveal about a character or story. Freud believed "generally that all dreams represent the fulfillment of wishes". LeMaster believed that the use of dreams by Chaplin helped develop an authentic relationship between the character and the audience. Walden and Poch go further and analyze the dreams of certain media to interpret the dreams of characters, the deeper meanings of these dreams and what they reveal about a character. 

Jim Carrey ripping out a man's heart in the name of love.

The first example of this idea of dreaming in pop culture comes from the movie Dumb and Dumber. Lloyd Christmas played by Jim Carrey daydreams while driving about Mary, a woman he meets earlier in the movie and seems to be attracted to. During this dream he wins Mary's heart by fighting another man, being the funniest person at a Christmas party and impressing her friends and family. By the end of this dream Lloyd is very happy as he has won the girl of his dreams. But, of course this is all just a dream of his. 

This is a classic dream example of a character dreaming about something he wants to attain but seems to lack the capacity to do so. As Billy Joel once said, "humans dream to release their goals and dream about a magnificent future". This idea is evident in this scene. Mary is completely out of Lloyd's league as she comes from a wealthy family and is very beautiful. Lloyd understands this, and the dream shows what Lloyd strives to be, despite the ridiculous of the dream, it still shows how Lloyd wants to be a better version of himself so that he can one day win Mary's heart in reality. 

A second example of dream's playing a major role in media comes from a classic movie, A Christmas Story. Ralphie repeatedly asks for a Red Ryder B.B gun for Christmas as he believes he is old enough and idolizes a figure who uses the B.B gun to protect people. Of course the lines of "You'll shoot your eye out" are some of the most famous lines from the movie, and prove as opposition to Ralphie getting his gun. Ralphie has a day dream while at the table of using this gun to fight off a group of criminals led by Black Bart attempting to break into his house. 

This day dream sequence really plays on Freud's dream theory, specifically, the instance from Freud's childhood. Freud overhears his father say "the boy will amount to nothing", and in the movie, Ralphie's mother often says that Ralphie will "shoot his eye out." Both of these hurt the ambition of the child. And when Ralphie dreams of fighting off these intruders and saving his family in the process it shows that Ralphie believes he is capable of handling a gun, proving his mother wrong. Also, it makes Ralphie to be a hero in the process, again showing how strong Ralphie's belief in himself is despite others telling him he can't do something. 

Dreaming Reality

The three readings regarding dreams all hint at the same idea: dreams are a way to give insight into a character’s true character. Freud used dreams to make assumptions and inferences concerning him and others, while Lemaster worked to show the development of Chaplin’s character through his various dreams. Walden and Poch, too, analyze the makeup and subsequent inferences based on dream depictions. Thus, it appears that dreams have become a way for producers and creators to build characters via their dreams.

In the second episode, “Lawnmower Dog”, in season one of Rick and Morty, Rick and Morty embark on an Inception-esque journey through several dreams in order to implant in his math teacher’s mind that Morty should get an A. Rick has created a device that slows you to enter someone’s dream once you put the device in their ear, then yours. The two sneak into Goldenfold’s house (Morty’s teacher) and go into his dream once he is asleep. Here is where the viewer has insight into this character.

Goldenfold’s dream shows him as a guy who can win all the ladies, which is quite contrary to his life: a single, middle-aged man, teaching middle school. The two dive further into another dream to avoid death and here Goldenfold has theoretically hidden his repressed feelings into the woman he was trying to flirt with in his dream. Freud “was convinced that ‘the subconscious’ (the part of the mind hidden from humans) is greatly influenced by libidinal thoughts since birth” (Walden & Poch, 1). In this second-level dream, there is an intergalactic party with a very sexualized theme, this jokes about the theories Freud is so famous for expounding upon – mostly revolving around sex. However, it also gives further insight into Goldenfold and how his divorce has made his sexually deprived – thus developing his character even further.

The deepest dream Rick and Morty reach is the dream of a Freddy Kreuger type character, Scary Terry, whose job is to roam the lands of dream purgatory. As seen in the video, his dream catalogs his childhood fears in school where he is embarrassed in class. Scary Terry is a, “character whom audiences can look down on while observing their own faults. Like all of us, [Scary T] struggles against the day-to-day pressures of life” (Lemaster, 7). Through the dream of Scary Terry, we see that he isn’t a maniac like he is originally thought to be after all. His dream allows the viewer, as well as Rick and Morty, to see his true colors and thus ultimately this saves R & M.

Dreams are mysterious and seemingly impossible phenomena to research thoroughly. However, the use of dreams in today’s culture and media gives us an idea of how we interpret our dreams. A common thread appears to be the use of dreams as means to paint a character’s true identity. This may be the idea many have when dreaming in reality, that somehow by analyzing their own dreams they can make sense of themselves.

Why the Daydreamer Dreams

The readings this week, Freud's Dream Theory, Charlie Chaplin & Dreams and Psychoanalysis of Dreams: Dream Theory and Its Relationship to Literature and Popular Culture, discuss what dreams reveal about the dreamer's desires and character.

In movies, dreams often hold a deeper meaning. This is especially true in the children's movie The Adventures of Sharkboy and Lavagirl. Thus, we can use psychoanalytic concepts from the readings to analyze Max the Daydreamer's dreams in the movie.

The protagonist of the movie, Max, is an imaginative kid whose dreams -- and nightmares -- come to life. His two greatest dreams are Sharkboy and Lavagirl. Because they are his greatest creations, they also reveal the most about Max himself.

Psychoanalysts like Freud and Carl Jung would say that dreams reveal a person's desires and fears. The existence of Sharkboy and Lavagirl reveal Max's desire to have friends, as well as his fear of being rejected by his classmates, which occurs at the beginning.

Furthermore, one thing that Sharkboy, Lavagirl, and Max all have in common is parental issues. Sharkboy was abandoned as a baby and raised by sharks. Lavagirl does not know her origins. In real life, Max's parents are constantly fighting and on the verge of a divorce. Max's dreams reflect the problems of his reality. As LeMaster put it in his article about Charlie Chaplin, the dream universe "becomes an extension of reality and demonstrates... inner conflict."

An important dream scene in the movie is when Sharkboy and Lavagirl coax Max to sleep so that he can dream up a solution to save them from Mr. Electric. Although the dream starts out well, it soon turns into a nightmare.

The key to understanding how this dream turned into a nightmare lies in the article Freud's Dream Theory. While asleep, Max's subconscious is triggered by words that Sharkboy and Lavagirl say around him. Sharkboy's violent lullaby includes phrases such as "My first will put you out" and "There is darkness in the air" and Lavagirl mentions "destuction." These dark words, coupled with Max's anxiety about escaping Mr. Electric, are responsible for his nightmare.

Max's dream is also a "predictive" dream. According to Psychoanalysis of Dreams, dream scholars believe that dreams, especially ones that repeat themselves, are predictors of the future. In this case, the futuristic scenes Max foresees are Sharkboy's close scrape with death and the Ice Princess's crystal necklace, which holds the key to saving his dreamworld.

Ultimately, The Adventures of Sharkboy and Lavagirl is a movie about how Max grows up. He starts out as "Max the Daydreamer." Based on the Charlie Chaplin article, daydreaming is about "overcoming immediate obstacles instead of long-range ones." Throughout the movie, Max learns to face his nightmares instead of running away. The turning point is when Max realizes that he should not dream just for himself; instead, he dreams an unselfish dream and ends up saving Sharkboy.

In the end, Max's reality also improves. His parents are once again on good terms. His classmates stop making fun of him. Max, having realized the power of dreams, advises his peers to "dream a better dream and work to make it real." 

A Post Inside a Post

In the reading this week, it talks about dreams and their part in media. There is no doubt that there are several books and movies that depict dreams, and a dream state. However, there is none better (in my mind) than that dipicted in the movie Inception.

Inception stars Leonardo DiCaprio and the movie looks into the future, with the use of technology, and lets one control dreams. In the reading it mentions the signs of dreams and what one's dream might mean. In contrast, the movie Inception concentrates on controlling your own dream, a place that is imaginable and very dangerous.

Also in this movie, it allows one to enter into another’s dream. This is what is desirable about the dream state that can be recreated in the movie. Another desirable idea that is covered in the movie is the ability to go back in time and in a sense, live in the past. For example, near the end of the movie, DiCaprio sees his family and feels the love that he is now lacking in “real life.”

The catch to this dream state is that one can get stuck in this and never wake up. The temptation is something that everyone can relate to if they have ever woken up from a dream that was greater than life. So this movie plot introduces an interesting idea… Is it possible to control dreams?

While we don’t have the answers to this yet, this week’s reading focuses on dream theory and the importance of dreams in our life. On pg. 114 it reads, “nighttime thoughts are a product of the need to escape reality.” An example of this can be seen in the Harry Potter movies, one of which is displayed below.

There are several times when Harry goes back in time and visits his parents, or vice versa. Other times he is escaping a bad situation at Hogwarts or discovering the solution to a trying issue. Nonetheless, this dream state always seems to add importance to the movie, just as it does to people in real life. Because the readings say that dreams are indeed a product of the human mind, each dream is personalized and should be utilized, just as in Harry Potter.

It is also important to note that a dream can carry over to reality. This idea is depicted in the movie Up. The old man, who acts as the main character, has a dream to travel with his wife. However, his wife dies before this dream can be lived out. The old man decides that he will, by himself, live out this dream they had together in memory of his wife. This journey taken by the old man results in a new adventure that brings him happiness and adventure, all because of his decision to live out his dream.

Examples lie these are endless in media, it allows for a different aspect that we can all relate and can bring to life things that otherwise would not be understood. The dream state is one that nearly anything can happen and “arms us with terrible freedom” as the reading says. Media takes this freedom from dream theory and pushes it to its limits as displayed in movies such as Inception, Harry Potter, and Up.