Road Trip In Thelma And Louise

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The myth of an American Road Trip is one that has existed in some way or another for nearly as long as European settlers came to North America. Even the very migration of European protestants to the New World could be seen as reflective of the same aspirations of road trippers today. To explore, seek, and see beyond the surrounding of their early years. In many ways, it is also possible to think of the Oregon Trail as the first and ultimate road trip before the advent of the automobile. These first road trippers were some of the first to truly go bolding into the unchartered and vast lands of the American West. Many films portray a common story of coming of age through the frame of a road trip. The 1991 film, Thelma and Louise, two adult women have their own spin on a rebirth of sorts that accompanies their road trip adventure. The urge to suddenly travel to unknown places with no obvious destination in mind appears to be a purely American tradition that had upheld the test of time. Even today a simple search of road trip supplies endless tips, routes, and …show more content…

Thelma is in a semi-abusive relationship with her husband and Louise is working a dead-end job waiting tables. Both women are a bit older than the traditional ranges for a coming of age story. Perhaps it is for this reason that story has a less than optimistic ending. However, despite the unorthodox ending, the overall feeling of the film is upbeat. After they escape their boring lives for the open road and share in their fair share of adventures and failures, the two characters seem to be completely changed from the people shown in the dreary beginning. Their story seems to portray that road trips are not just for young adolescence and perhaps even young men, but that the American road trip and the experience that goes along with it is something that can be shared across the gender and age

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