Media Outtake 2 : freedom

When reading “The White Heron” I noticed the most important point of symbolism was the heron. To Sylvia, it meant freedom. She felt so liberated up in the tree next to the bird nest. She made the realization that if she gave up the bird’s location to the hunter, she would not only be killing a beautiful creature, but the idea of freedom. Despite her financial disability, she kept the location secret and the hunter departed from her grandmother’s home. To me, it seemed that the bird gave her a form of release – to feel like she was free.

            While watching TV, I noticed a similar form of found freedom. The name of the movie: “The Birdcage.” The film is about a gay cabaret owner and his drag queen partner who agree to put up a false straight front so that their son can introduce them to his fiancée's right-wing moralistic parents. How can the two possibly relate, you might ask. The answer is simple: dressing in drag. Drag queens are gender-confused people who dress into the opposite sex’s clothing. What on Earth is the point; dressing in drag is a symbol of freedom.

            In the film, a bunch of men dress in drag because they feel that is their true identity. While the film mostly revolves on the conflict of fooling the fiancées parents into believing that they are a normal, well to do, and right wing family in order to get their approval. However, that was not the plot of the story. The plot of the story was that two homosexual men, despite the entire ordeal of attempting a false scheme, was that they stay true to themselves despite what anyone thinks. Being gay and a drag queen instead of straight was their freedom. And they refused to have their freedom denied to them because of close-minded, ultra-conservative republicans.

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0115685/