Extra Credit #2 Harold and Maude

Mrs. Chasen is the mother of Harold. Her lack of parenthood, is likely the cause of Harold’s odd interest in death. Despite the family’s wealth Harold is clearly not satisfied with his life. This brings up the theme (or cliché), that “money cannot buy happiness.” This is a perfect example, given that Harold can have essentially anything he desires but gets the most joy out of things that are priceless, like the relationship he and Maude share. His continuous suicide attempts are likely a result of the neglect of affection he receives from his mother.

Harold is a free spirit. To me this is one simple way of describing him. Throughout the movie he challenges death, like with the hanging in the beginning, or the gunshot, or the driving off the cliff in the end. After seeing this movie the first thing that came to my mind was “Fences” by August Wilson. This was a play about a black man who, like Harold, challenges death. The only logical explanation for this is something physiological, which it most likely was for Troy, the protagonist in “Fences.” Unlike Troy, Harold had physically experienced things that should have killed him and survived them and on numerous occasions. I wonder if it is actually a way of him giving up on his life or just a rebellious mindset that makes him want to challenge the things that are inevitable in life and face them fearlessly. People tend to fear death and Harold’s welcoming of it is respectable to some extent. I think that an interesting twist would have been if Harold actually died in the end, so that way his death can represent completion, since Maude already left him.

Maude, like Harold, is also a free spirit, however in a less dramatic way. She teaches Harold to appreciate life and live it to its fullest. This is an idea that people often forget, especially in this time period. People do not make great use of their time which I think is because their expectations are too great. People see so many glamorous things and are infatuated by them, by greed. I would expect this to be an incentive for them however it actually seems to make people lazy. They expect these things to come easy and do not utilize their time well enough to achieve these things. In the movie Maude gives Harold a new meaning to life and he lives it up. Her significance is great in this movie and it passes on the theme (or cliché); to “live life to the fullest because you only get one.” Of course, some religions (or Harold’s repetitive resistance of death) may challenge this idea, but who wants to take that chance? You can never truly know what will happen when the time comes and our bodies and souls separate, or die together.