The Journey of Thelma Dickinson

Welcome to the journey of Thelma Dickinson.

This presentation will be discussing the heroic character Thelma from

the 1991 film by Ridley scott entitled Thelma and Louise.

So let's climb aboard and start at the beginning,

let's meet Telmo,

Thelma and Louise is the 1991 groundbreaking creation of Cali Corey,

winner of the Academy Award for Best Screenplay.

Gina Davis,

nominated for an Academy Award as Thelma and Director Ridley scott

nominated for best director and best film for his film.

Thelma is your typical unhappy housewife with a

boorish husband who's abusive and clearly cheating on her

Louise, played by Susan Sarandon.

Also nominated for the Academy Award for her portrayal

is a diner waitress and a dead end job

and in a relationship that is going nowhere fast,

thermal wonders if there's anything more.

A nineties heroin.

According to Hutchinson,

Thelma and Louise became a representation of moving out of the

feminist backlash of the eighties and into third wave feminism.

Post feminism,

Thelma becomes a heroine in her own right, for many reasons. Internal and external.

The women hit the road and what ensues is an adventure the world never forgot.

And onto the third wave feminism, the cultural,

the culture of the early nineties was

ripe with women who wanted better representation,

both on film and in the media.

In general, Anita Hill,

A one time assistant to Clarence thomas testified before the Senate

judiciary committee in his confirmation hearing for the Supreme Court.

She came forward with allegations of sexual harassment

as she was questioned by all white all male committee,

she never wavered from her story.

And even though thomas was ultimately confirmed,

she inspired countless women to run for office the next year,

opened the public's eyes to sexual harassment and

is credited for starting third wave feminism.

The Violence against Women Act of 1994

signed into law by President Clinton and written by then Senator Joseph

R biden is defined by the national Network to end domestic violence as

the original Violence Against Women Act was the first federal legislation

acknowledging domestic violence and sexual assault

as crimes and provided federal resources

to encourage community coordinated responses

to combating violence against women

up for renewal.

Every five years,

each v A W A reauthorization has built on existing

protections and programs to better meet the needs of survivors.

Thelma's story could be seen as one of the pop culture influences for the act.

She was after all, the victim of domestic violence as well,

was Louise and attempted sexual assault.

As we will see,

The film was so significant that in 2016 it was entered into

the Library of Congress for preservation by the national film registry.

The film was deemed culturally significant,

a high honor for a film and the message it sends.

This brings us to Thelma's journey.

It's a heroic tale in joseph Campbell's mono myth style.

Thelma and Louise are two ordinary women from Arkansas who

decide to go away together on a weekend fishing trip.

Louise is excited for a taste of freedom, but

this is their call to adventure.

Thelma is not quite sure she's ready to leave her

ordinary world even for the weekend since her husband,

Darrell is controlling abusive.

Louise is ready to answer the call,

but Thelma refuses at first because she's scared and not confident at all.

Supreme ordeal.

Louise as her mentor,

convinces her that she deserves this trip and that she needs her to come

and round. Thelma convinces Louise to stop at a roadside bar for a few drinks,

does not want to let loose, which seems to be her motivation for wanting to stop

enter Harlan.

He's a good looking man who's taking a liking to Thelma and shows her attention.

She's not used to getting

flattered, She decides to dance with him and let him buy her drinks.

As Louise heads to the bathroom,

Harlan sees his opportunity to tell Thelma let's go out and get some air.

Selma laughs and cools down.

Harlan grabs her, throws her over the car hood and attempts to rape her.

Louise appears suddenly

Yeah.

Uh

And Louise appears and puts a gun to Harlan's head. She does not shoot him.

She does not shoot him for the attack however,

but when he does not show remorse and makes a derogatory comment,

Louise shoots him in the chest.

The incident that criminalizes Louise is arguably not

the attack in the car park but a

nameless something that happened to her a few years before the film begins in texas.

Uh Some of the tests from and Louise become fugitives of the law for killing Harlan.

Louise tells Selma that they need to go to Mexico but they cannot pass through texas.

Writer. Cory does not say outright what happened to Louise and texas.

However, we can conclude

that she had been sexually assaulted and took

matters into her own hands there as well.

Thelma accepting the test, agrees to the plan.

Test passed

the upcoming tests,

Thumma confronts include a sexy hitchhiker cowboy and how she

will deal with her husband Darrell on the phone.

The women's only ally at this point in the journey is Jimmy. Louise's boyfriend whom

whom she calls to tell him to wire her life savings.

Enemies include Darryl Hell the cop who's trying

to capture them in Harlem the dead rapist

moving right along.

Thelma's tested as they stopped and Louise calls jimmy to find out where he

wired the money and she tells Thelma to call Daryl and do damage control.

Louise tells her to tell him she'll be home sunday so he'll stop raising suspicions.

Thelma summons the summons up some courage,

calls Darrell and he proceeds to yell at her and demand she return

fed up. Thelma tells him go fund yourself and hangs up.

She's never taken a stand with him in her life.

Test passed

Thelma heads back to where Louise is and comes upon J. D.

A sexy hitchhiking cowboy who's looking for a ride.

Is he an ally or an enemy?

Louise takes a look at him in remarks,

I don't think that's a good idea.

They hit the road again. And Thelma inquires when they will be in Mexico.

Cut to hal the cop breaking into Louise's apartment and meeting up with Darryl.

Cut back to Louise, telling Thelma to find some some back roads

to get between Oklahoma city and Mexico.

Thelma asked why don't they just go through texas?

Because it's the only and best way Louis says we don't want to get caught in texas.

Trust me, I don't want to talk about this anymore.

What's that about? Moving along

the women CJd again, hitchhiking

Thelma convinces Louise to give him a ride but she has her own reasons for this.

Jump to the next step. A motel,

to their surprise jimmy is there. He didn't just wire the money.

Louise tells Thelma to keep the money safe in her room

and she goes with jimmy to talk in his room.

Now we're in Thelma's room and guess who comes a knocking

JD? Of course he is the temptation for Thelma.

They flirt, he seduces her and she has the best sex of her life,

but you know what can they say if it seems, you know, but you know what they say,

excuse me If it seems too good to be true, it probably is

the next morning at breakfast. Louise says goodbye to jimmy. She knows forever.

And Thelma shows up sporting her afterglow.

Thelma has come into her own. She exudes self worth and confidence.

She's never known

as our heroine continues on our journey.

She and Louise realized Thelma left JD in the room with all their money

Now the night before she told Thelma now, the night before,

he told Thelma about how he's on parole for robbing gas stations, et cetera.

This is foreshadowing.

They rush, he's gone and so is all their money.

We see Louise start to break down as the roles between the women start to reverse,

Thelma says, let's get out of here,

broke and running from the law.

Thelma decides to test her newfound courage and robs a mini mart,

which is caught on video.

We now see how his boss and Darryl watching the video of the robbery.

The boss wants to help find them quick,

but the boss wants hail to find them.

Quick hail turns into an ally internally and tries

to think of a way to help Thelma and Louise

Back on the road. We see the nasty trucker passed by flicking his tongue, etc.

They ignore him

driving 110 mph, admiring the scenery. They see the red and blue lights behind them.

Before the trooper can do anything.

Thelma points a gun at his head and forces him into the trunk of his own car

in desperation. We next see Louise call hell.

He says they need to turn themselves in or be charged with murder.

He tells Louise, I know what's making you run, I know what happened to you in texas.

Louise realizes that hell might be an ally,

he knows about her own rape. She's stunned.

Just them.

Thelma aggressively cuts the phone line knowing has been traced and asked Louise.

You aren't giving up on me now, are you? Because something's crossed over in me.

I can't go back.

The women hit the road again with an air of confidence in their decision.

Thelma tells Louise, I feel awake, wide awake.

I don't remember ever feeling this awake,

cutting into Thelma's moment is who else this ship had trucker.

Thelma decides she's had enough of men

looking at Louise who knowingly nas. She begins to mess with the scum,

tease him out of the truck, then blow it to smithereens.

Our heroine has her reward.

Finally, she has found her inner strength, her power and she's not giving it up.

The women speed away. They're empowered and confident.

Then the law appears behind them and helicopters are heard and seen overhead.

They keep going and all of a sudden there looking out over the Grand Canyon,

lui spins the car around but the cops are still closing in.

She spins the car around again and stops,

looks ahead as Louise, Louise loads her gun.

The cops instructing them to put their hands in the air and step out of the car.

Thelma asks what she's doing.

Louise says she's going to fight Thelma says, let's keep going

and looks out over the vastness of the grand union.

Louise looks at her, kisses her and hits the gas.

We see how running towards the car as it speeds straight ahead.

He doesn't want the cops to shoot.

Louise, raises her hand.

Elmo grabs it tight with smiles on their faces. They drive off the cliff.

Alma's journey is over

and she dies a heroin,

not only to herself, but to Louise as well.

Thelma's hero's journey is not the usual one.

She and Louise represents so much more than just women

who break the law and take the easy way out.

Thelma and Louise decision to drive on is a denunciation

of the law enforcement establishment that offered them no protection.

The focus of this film echoes what women experience even more so today, rape,

sexual harassment, sexism inequality.

The writer director and stars hoped this film would

help resolve the challenges that women face every day.

But

this was not to be

this example of the use of film and pop culture is a powerful one,

although the creators didn't realize that it made a footprint immediately

following its release.

Excuse me,

Excuse me immediately following his release 30 years later,

they recognize its importance.

Thelma and Louise is a timeless story of

two friends who expecting only a weekend getaway,

ended up getting back their power and not being

afraid to live the life they want and deserve.

However short it may have been

as a woman.

I find inspiration in their journey and that makes

them the heroines that they were created to be.

Here's my references and thank you so much for listening. I hope you have a great day.

The Journey of Thelma Dickinson

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