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.