Aaron Poelker's Essay - What The Bleep Do We Know!? What can we learn from Amanda?
We can learn many things from the protagonist, Amanda, in the movie: What the Bleep Do We Know!? Amanda is portrayed in the beginning of the movie as a somewhat introverted person who is only interested in her photography and nothing else. We quickly begin to gain insight into her background as we learn that she was immediately cheated on by her husband, Bob, after their wedding. We also see that she takes pills that we do not know the reason as to why she takes these pills. The thought of her husbands adultery continually haunt her state of mind throughout the movie.
One thing I think we can learn from Amanda is not to let things of the past conquer our thoughts. Throughout the movie she is continually weakened by the painful memories of her husband’s affair and it continues to cause her more grief. The pain even begins to distort her view of reality. As the hired photographer at a wedding she thinks she sees the groom having sex with one of the bridesmaids, but it turns out that she witnessed a totally separate couple. We should learn from Amanda to see reality for what it really is like the blind man who leaves the cave in Plato’s Allegory of the Cave. Amanda only begins to see reality for what it is at the end of the movie when she gives up her pills, loves her body for what is, and finally comes to amends with her husband’s unloving actions.
A second thing we can learn from Amanda is to not sedate our thoughts with a foreign drug or alcohol. We witness Amanda “popping” pills throughout the movie whenever she stumbles upon something quirky or difficult. By taking these pills she signals to us that she is not ready to take charge of her life and the problem’s she has so she must attempt to drown out the bad memories. Also, we see Amanda at the wedding having a difficult time with the shoot because of her bad memories of her own marriage. As the wedding continues she begins to start drinking alcohol in order to forget her marital woes. This only furthers harbors her hate and she has an breakdown the next morning.
Thirdly, and most importantly, I think we can learn about the resilience of the human spirit from Amanda. I have aforementioned all of Amanda’s problems and her dependency of her pills. Even though she continually uses her pills to sedate her memory throughout the movie until the end, she also begins to gain insight into her life through chance meetings with different people who have different messages. She takes in all of the people’s advice and ideas and begins to have a change of heart, a metanoia. By the end of the movie she has gained knowledge in her life and begins to love herself and have an all around better spirit. Finally at the end of the movie she able to throw away her pills showing us that she ready for all of life’s challenges. I think the display of resiliency by Amanda is the most important thing we can learn from her.
