Shutter Island

The movie Shutter Island is about a U.S. Marshall named Teddy Daniels who investigates a mental institution for a missing patient. As he investigates the island and patients he believes that the mental institution planned for his visit and is trying to admit him into the institution by using his post-war trauma. The institution tries to accumulate as many patients as possible to surgically experiment with them in a lighthouse on the island. After he uncovers the truth he attacks the lighthouse to look for his partner and eventually leave the island. At the lighthouse he realizes that his partner has been his psychiatrist since his 2 – year stay at the mental institution. Teddy Daniels is one of the institution’s most violent and delusional patients. The majority of the movie is Daniels hallucinations. We see a flashback of Daniels coming home from work and realizing that his wife drowned his three children. In the flashback he shoots his wife after realizing that she is mentally ill herself. Daniels created this alternate reality in his mind on Shutter Island because he wanted to deny that the woman he loved killed his children.
Shutter Island had a similar twist to Fight Club because the main character ended up being mentally ill. However the twist in Shutter Island was clearly foreshadowed throughout the movie, unlike that of Fight Club. The twist in Fight Club was more shocking because it was so unexpected. The background music in Shutter Island helped create a lot of suspense for the audience. The ending for the movie could’ve been interpreted various ways. After Daniels came to terms with reality, the next day he spoke to his psychiatrist like he was his partner again and the ward decided that a lobotomy was Daniels’ last resort. One interpretation could’ve been that Daniels regressed back to his alternate reality and denial. However I think Daniels intentionally pretended like he regressed back, so his psychiatrist would tell the institution that he hasn’t improved. So he wanted the nurses to take him away because his last line was “Would you rather live a monster or die a good man.” He accepted reality and couldn’t live with it so he decided to die.

Valentine's Day

What does Valentine’s Day really celebrate? Does it celebrate couples everywhere? Isn’t your boyfriend or girlfriend suppose to express their love and appreciation everyday? Not just one day a year? Many people suggest that Valentine’s Day is just another commercial holiday where corporations and companies profit off of corny and cliché couples who buy into “true love.” If you think about it, isn’t “love” suppose to be the most genuine emotion? How can one truly be genuine through artificial gifts like roses, teddy bears, chocolates and cards? Companies thrive off of people who waste money trying to be the perfect girlfriend or boyfriend. They know that couples feel obligated to follow the social norms of Valentine’s Day so they create advertisement to promote this obligation. My friend on the other hand calls it “single awareness day.” Contrary to popular belief, Valentine’s Day doesn’t really celebrate couples it instead reminds single people that they’re single. Think about all the single people who contemplate their loneliness on Valentine’s Day. Just last year, I went out to dinner with all my single friends celebrating our lives without boyfriends on Valentine’s Day. According to Wikipedia, “Valentine’s Day is an annual holiday held on February 14th celebrating love and affection between intimate companions.” Since when did the celebration of love and affection have a specific method. Not everybody celebrates affection the same way. Should a girl accept flowers and hearts despite her preference because its Valentine’s Day. Valentine’s Day is a prime example of conformity in our society because people are too concerned with commercialism than their intimate other.

Happiness

Every child has the dream of becoming rich or famous when they grow up. In Chinese culture this ideal future is drilled into our heads as “the happy future.” My parents have been enforcing the idea that money makes you happy since I was a little girl. My mom, the more traditional one, repeatedly told me I had to support her when I started making money. According to her the only way to do this was to become a doctor or lawyer. Growing up in an environment with this flawed dogma about what makes a person truly happy and successful, has made believe that a high paying career is the only way of life. The idea that money equates to success is not only directly fused into my culture, but indirectly as well. We have a Chinese New Year that is based around money packaged in gold and red envelopes. At Chinese banquets/weddings the primary color is gold also representing money. The list goes on. Generally, Chinese parents are very competitive as well when it comes to their children. At family gatherings, my mom and grandparents are constantly showing me off to relatives as they in turn are trying to do the same. Due to the pressure most Asian children have the mindset that if they don’t make enough money, they’ll disappoint their family. In high school I tried to overachieve in academics and extracurricular activities, thus putting my body through a lot of stress. My parents saw me break down several times over lack of sleep. My dad finally came up to me and tried to instill what he thought a “happy future” meant. He told me he didn’t want me to be rich and miserable because there is such a thing despite what mom said. I remember him saying mom thinks that being rich is happiness so she wants happiness for you. However she doesn’t understand that happiness differs among people. So do anything that makes you happy, rich or not.