zBlogging the Literary Life - AP College English

Baby Thief

In the movie we see that the first person to offer any sympathy to Maria and her need for five dollars is the mental patient who, for what we know, stole the baby.  Maria develops a small obsession with finding the woman's husband and meeting her.  But we know that she wanted to find them again for more than just returning her five dollars.  I believe that Maria respected that woman because she was not only the first person to help her but also because she knew what she wanted out of life, a baby.  It may have been a little crazy for her to take it but she did give it back and she was a mental patient.   

You Know Someone's a Badass When They Carry a Hand Grenade

Diverging from my completely irrelevant title, in the movie Trust, Matthew and Maria forge an unlikely, yet endearing relationship. (No) Aside from the beginning, both Matthew and Maria act with the same goals in mind. Each action they take is meant to cause the least amount of pain possible.

In philosophy class, we've been discussing an idea called Utilitarianism. The chief assertion of this idea is that the only thing that matters in life is making as many people as happy as you can with your actions. This can also be interpreted as "make as few people feel pain as you can with your actions." When Matthew's father comes to Maria's house, asking him to come home, Matthew tells him that they will both be happier if he does not come with him. When Maria first meets Matthew, he gives her a place to sleep, even though he doesn't know her. When Maria's mother attempts to make it look like he was unfaithful to Maria, Matthew tries to set things straight by telling Maria. None of Maria and Matthew's actions can be construed as hurtful. When Matthew tries to blow himself up, he did it because he was trying not to hinder Maria in starting a new life. Maria put up with Matthew because no one else would have. If all of their actions try to promote happiness, then Maria and Matthew must be Utilitarians.

Stereotypes

I think the stereotypes in this movie are interesting.....

At the beginning of the movie, Marie is inferior to her mother, her boyfriend, and her father.  She rebels against her father first by slapping him when he calls her a slut, and then her boyfriend by running away from him when he doesn't express interest in her current situation.  She does not, however, rebel from her mother who kicks her out of the house, and then tells her that she will be working her fingers to the bone forever.

Mathew is inferior to his job, his father, and TV.  He rebels against his boss by publicly demeaning him, and TV by refusing to watch it.  Mathew also fails to rebel from his father who condemns him to clean and re-clean the bathroom.

Both Mathew and Marie are parallels to Meursault.  Meursault refuses to conform to social normality, while Mathew and Marie do not change to be like their parents.

Mathew's father is society's picture of a "guy".  He is rugged, cold and hardworking, dressed in a plaid outfit and a black hat (very manly).  He is always very physical with Mathew, and often challenges him. "What are you going to do about it?!"

Marie's mother is society's embodiment of a "woman".  She is emotional, lazy, and manipulative.  Although she is almost always yelling, she repeatedly asks if the person she is yelling at "would like something to eat" making her seem more motherly.

Neither Mathew or Marie become like their parents.  Marie stays rational and talks with an unusual calm in her voice throughout the movie as does Mathew, while their parents are opposite, very loud and aggressive. Instead, they rebel together, ending with a new clarity of life demonstrated by Marie's use of her glasses, and the failure of Mathew's bomb to explode.

Matthew and the TV Motif

In the movie Trust, the most interesting character is Matthew.  In the first scene, he acts extremely tuff and stands up to his boss and says, "some things shouldn't be fixed."  He seems very in control.  At home however he comes home to an abusive father.  His father forces him to do needless things and hits him when he doesn't do it right (even though that bathroom was spotless).  He has no control at home.  This is why he acts so tuff and in control outside of his house.  I think his dad acts that way because Matthew has grown up to be a brilliant man with so much potential and the dad wants to feel like he is still in control of Matthew's life.

I also liked the motif of the TV.  TV controls society and is call by Matthew "the opium of the masses."  He is just saying that we are dependent on TV and it controls our lives and shapes society.  In the scene were he is watching TV he says that it calms him and allows him to deal with people like his boss and society.  That is not a good thing.  People shouldn't just go straight to their TV to avoid their problems they have to deal with them.

Power in Trust?

To put it plainly, the movie Trust is very complex. Everything from camera angles to characters seem to have a specific meaning. What stood out to me the most was the question of power throughout  the film. Power is shifted throughout the film and it is shown through height, relationships, and gender. The father and mother have power over matthew and marie, matthew has power over pretty much everyone else because he is taller, and almost everyone else has power over marie because she is a girl, and is "stupid"....I guess I don't really know where I am going with that, it just seemed to bear some importance.

Also, it seems like everyone in the film is pretty much bad. Even the kind lady ended up stealing the baby (well as far as we know). We have not seen any really "good" characters in the whole film. It seems like Marie and Matthew are the closest that there is to anything good. Matthew is very similar to Mersault in that they both deny the norms of society. Matthew says that TV gives you cancer and he wont fix TVs even for a higher pay. However, society loves TV. One great scene in Trust is when  Matthew storms out of the store and there is a long line of people waiting to get their TVs fixed. I think this scene symbolized how most people spend so much time and energy on material objects that don't do society any good.  Mersault also denies the norms of society, as weve all examined, for example when he killed a man.

During our talk about existentialism Mr. Heidkamp said something like, "Mersault could be the dullest person in the world, or he could be the most brilliant person in the world, depending on how you look at him". I think that similar things ring true for Matthew. Matthew could be either the biggest jerk in the world, or you could sympathize with his suffering and realize that he is a brilliant man who denies the idiotic norms of society.

why does the director emphasize power so much? or, I could be wrong, does he even emphasize it at all? 

"I don't know what you want!"

When we were watching the movie Trust today in class, I was most intrigued by the character who quite his job and lived at home with his father. Right before we watched the movie, Mr. Heidkamp announced that everything in the movie has a purpose, every line and every gesture seems to have a meaning. While watching the movie I thought of those words in the back of my head.

When the man is at work at what seems to be a computer factory of some sort, he says to his boss when asked why he can't fix it (the computer). He paused and looked around before he replied,  "some things shouldn't be fixed", or something along the lines of that. I wonder if that had any meaning at all or if it was just a remark he had?

Also, his life seems to be a drag. The same thing over and over again. And the audience was able to see that when he was constantly asked to clean the bathroom, even though it appeared to be spotless. I interepreted his dad as being a hypocrite, especially when he comes into his son's  room, which is furnished very little and has books everywhere. He bursts into the room shouting at him and asking "who do you think you are?!" "don't you think about anybody but yourself?, don't you ever think of me?!". When that seems to be all the son does. He obeys his dad and does as he's told, nothing more nothing less. Did anybody else have any reflections on his character or his dad? I found them to be the most complex.