Marianna Shannon (4) - "Paris, Texas": Was the journey “complete?”

  In class we had watched Paris, Texas: a story about a man who wanders about the desert and attempts to find his family, as well as reconnect with society. I had missed the class where we initially started watching the movie, but I gathered from the conversation that this was about a man who had deeply messed up his relationship with the woman he loved and had major regrets in his life. Watching the ending we saw the man record his feelings for his son, as well as saw him talk to his wife through the brothel screen. In that moment, there was a sense of clarity between the man and his wife because they knew their true feelings and why they did the things they did. At the end of the movie, we had a class discussion, and one of the main points made was that the journey felt incomplete since nobody ends up together, nothing is truly resolved, and it doesn’t follow Campbell’s traditional hero journey to a T. However, I see it much differently. I see a resolution through feelings laid to rest. They have a mutual understanding between each other, even if there is pain and suffering. The man ensures his son and wife are reunited, then he steps away because he knows that is best for everyone. To me, the emotional clarity is the true ending to the journey. Everyone leaves knowing the truth of what happened and why.

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