Mike Dryden
Theology III
10/9/08
Amanda and the Human Condition

In the movie What the @&#! Do We Know?, Amanda, the main character, exhibits two major characteristics of the human condition; isolation and a desire for happiness.

As Eric Fromme states in his book The Art of Loving, “...the awareness of [man's] aloneness and separateness, of his helplessness before the forces of nature and of society, all this makes his separate, disunited existence an unbearable prison.” Amanda personifies these feelings of isolation first through her speech impediment. Speech is necessary for us to be able to connect on a human level with other people; we use it to convey feelings, ideas, and knowledge. This communication allows us to connect with other human beings and erase the isolated feelings we have. Amanda, however, is almost completely denied this connection; especially when she meets the young man at the wedding she is assigned to photograph.

Amanda also exhibits the human condition in her attempt to feel accepted through diversions and distractions. As Blaise Pascal writes in his took Pensees, “Being unable to cure death, wretchedness and ignorance, men have decided, in order to be happy, not to think about such things.” This holds especially true for Amanda. Being unable to save her previous marital relationship from the grasp of lust, she decided to ignore it and not think about it; until, however, outside stimuli brought back her memories of her husband cheating on her. In order to stop these dark memories, Amanda took anxiety pills and even at one point resorted to alcohol, at the wedding reception for the couple who hired her to take photographs. These material distractions and diversions, however, ultimately had no effect; Amanda was still forced to make a decision on whether or not to return to her ex-husband. This is very reflective of the human condition; we can ignore and try to drown out all of the low points in our lives, but ultimately we have to face the truth about them and the decisions we made during those low points.