Out of the Storm and into the Light - Essay Example

?OUT OF THE STORM AND INTO THE LIGHT SCENE FADE IN INTERIOR: DARKENED BEDROOM. EARLY MORNING Three knocks on a door, followed by muffled mumbling sounds. Startled, Kathleen jumps out of the bed, glances at the wall clock and scrambles to open the door and sees her mother staring angrily at her. MOTHER: Do you know what time it is? Kathleen squints at her quizzically. KATHLEEN: 6 am? MOTHER: Exactly! You’ve got one hour to finish all your chores before you go to school. Mother starts to walk away. KATHLEEN: (yawning loudly and then mutters to her mother’s departing back) I always do them before I go to school. MOTHER: (whirls back and angrily points a finger at her) How dare you answer back at me? You have no respect! KATHLEEN: (sighs in exasperation) Okay, okay, I’m sorry. I don’t wanna fight. It’s so early in the morning for God’s sake. Let me just change. FADE OUT CUT TO SCENE 2 INTERIOR: DAY. Sounds of sizzling bacon, sounds of the vacuum cleaner vacuuming, faint sound of the radio playing. MOTHER: (shouting over the noise) Kathleen, is breakfast ready? KATHLEEN: (also shouting) Yeah, mom. MOTHER: Okay, go wake your brothers. Kathleen shuts off vacuum cleaner, retrieves bacon from skillet, gets plates, spoons, forks, and knives, and distributes them on table. She runs up the stairs and knocks on the doors to her brothers’ rooms. KATHLEEN: (shouting) Breakfast!! As she rounds the corner, she suddenly barrels into her father. KATHLEEN: Woops. Sorry Dad, I wasn’t looking. Hey, its breakfast time. DAD: (yawns and stretches) Good morning, Kat. Dad looks concernedly at her harried looking daughter. DAD: Busy day already? KATHLEEN: (shrugs her shoulder) Yeah, well, you know, how Ma is. DAD: (sighs) Yeah, I know. Want me to talk to her? KATHLEEN: Nah, it’s okay dad, I don’t wanna be any trouble. And I’m kinda in a hurry, I don’t wanna be late for class. Kathleen heads to her room in a hurry while her father goes back to the master bedroom to talk to his wife. Dad opens the door and sees his wife lounging in the bed. DAD: Didn’t we talk about you not burdening Kathleen too much with the household chores? Mom sits up on the bed and squints angrily at her husband. MOM: Oh God, are we having this conversation again? What the heck am I talking about? Of course we’re having this conversation again. She has always been your favorite so why should I be wondering why you’re always defending her. DAD: (sighs in exasperation) I don’t have favorites and I am not defending her. I’m just saying, you let her do all the chores, without assigning the boys atleast some of the chores, and even without doing some of them yourself. MOM: That’s her duty, she’s a woman and she should know these chores. I should tell you that I knew how to do all those chores when I was even younger than her. DAD: (angrily) Just because your mother treated you like the house help does not mean you should treat your daughter the same way. MOM: (also gets mad and raises her voice) I am not treating her like the house help. I am treating her like a mother should treat her daughter. In the dining area, brothers Randy 7, Warren 9, and Robert 11 are having breakfast and hearing the muffled sounds of their parents fighting. Kathleen fresh from her shower and ready for school makes it down the stairs frowningly while listening to her parents fight about her. She goes to the kitchen and sits down with her brothers. Kathleen: (smiles at her anxious brothers) C’mon guys, eat up, else we’ll be late for school. Everyone is quiet as they finish their meal and while still hearing their parents fight. Two of the boys finish their meal and head upstairs to get ready for school. Her brother Robert, aged 11 helps Kathleen wash the dishes and clear the table. Kathleen rushes Robert out to get ready for school. Doors slam and her mother storms out of the master bedroom and stomps her way down the stairs and into the kitchen. She points angrily at Kathleen. MOM: Fine! From on Kathleen, you are not lifting a finger. You shall be the little pampered princess. Kathleen stares at her mother sulkily and just walks out of the room, grabs her schoolbags and slams the front door. She starts to walk to school broodingly. She hears someone calling her name and she stops and looks around. LAURA: Hey Kat, what’s gotten you so serious so early in the morning? Been trying to catch your attention for a couple of blocks now, but seems you couldn’t hear me. (Frowns at Kathleen’s teary and sad face). LAURA: (softly) Hey, what’s wrong? KATHLEEN: (tearfully) Nothing…Oh, everything. (sighs) My parents had a fight again about me. LAURA: (looks at her with sympathy) Oh…wanna talk about it? KATHLEEN: (sighs) No, not really. Maybe some other time. I just don’t wanna think about it now, I have a major presentation later, and I’m afraid if I’m gonna start talking about my problems, I would just start crying. I don’t want puffy eyes during my presentation. LAURA: (gives her a hug) Well, after your presentation maybe we can talk about it. KATHLEEN: (sniffs and wipes her nose). Yeah, maybe. (smiles bravely). Oh hey, enough about me, how did last night go? LAURA: (eyes lit up) It was so much fun. We went to this nice pizza place… Their voices gradually fading out as they talk about Laura’s date the previous night. FADE OUT. SCENE 3 INT: LIVING ROOM. Kathleen enters the front door, sees her mother watching television and heads up the stairs to her room to change. Mother glaringly follows Kathleen’s progress up the stairs to her room. Mother follows Kathleen up the stairs, and without knocking enters Kathleen’s room. Kathleen is taking off her socks and is surprised by her mother’s intrusion. MOTHER: (points at her accusingly) What did you tell your father this morning? KATHLEEN: (frowns with puzzlement) I didn’t tell him anything. MOTHER: (snorts in disbelief) Don’t lie to me! Why was he accusing me again of being too hard on you? He wouldn’t be accusing me of anything like that unless you complained. KATHLEEN: (shouts angrily) I did not complain! I even told him to just let it go, coz I did not want the two of you fighting again because of me. MOTHER: Aha!! So you did complain! Why would you be asking him not to fight with me? KATHLEEN: (exasperated) Fine, if you said I complained, then I complained. It’s no use telling you the truth anyway, coz you hardly ever listen to anyone’s opinion but your own. MOTHER: (flares up angrily) How dare you speak to me like that? You have no respect for me at all! KATHLEEN: (sighs) Know what mom, I’m just tired. Tired of us fighting all the time. What do you want from me? I’ve been trying my best since I was little to do everything you taught me. But you are never satisfied. If I clean this house from ceiling to floor, I doubt you’d see that. You’d probably only see the corner that I missed. And I’m tired of it, Ma. I’m old enough to know that I don’t deserve your reprimands. MOTHER: (angrily points at her) Don’t you dare make this about me being a mean mother to you. I am just doing my duty as a mother. You are a girl, it is your responsibility to take care of the house and all the chores. KATHLEEN: (sadly looks at her Mom) That’s it? This is what this is all about? Me learning household work? Hell, Ma, I’ve known how to cook, clean, wash, since I was 9, and now I’m 17, you think you are still teaching me these things? This is it? This is to be my role in life? And in your life? That’s just sad, Ma. And that hurts me deeply, knowing that I really am nothing but the household help. MOTHER: (huffs angrily) Now you are putting words in my mouth! I did not say you’re the household help, I’m just – KATHLEEN: (sharply interrupts her mother) Of course I’m not the household help, Ma. But I’m saying it’s how you see me. Now I wonder if you ever saw me as a daughter? As someone you would dress like a pretty little girl, someone you’d share stories with, someone you’d share life lessons with. MOTHER: (still angrily shouts) What are you talking about? Are you saying I never did that with you? Of course I did. KATHLEEN: No, Ma. You never did. This is my last year in high school, Ma. Know why I tried to avoid arguing with you this past year? Coz I was hoping we’d have a better relationship before I set out on my own after I graduate. But I see now, that it’s never gonna be better between us. And that makes me sad, Ma. I guess in so many ways, this is goodbye. I wish you good health, Ma. I’ll just go to grandmas for now. I’ll send for my things later. Kathleen turns to leave her room, her Mother looking dumbfounded behind her. MOTHER: (screams angrily) Where are you going? Hey come back here! Don’t you dare walk away from me, you ingrate. Kathleen continues to walk away, slowly with a sad contemplative look, a deep cleansing sigh, a tearful gaze back at the home she grew up in. Kathleen looks down the street with a peaceful smile, and walks on. FADE OUT. This script is being contemplated alongside the feminist film theory. Feminist film theory considers the impact of the feminist social movement to film-making. This theory sets forth that films always portray women in traditional and stereotypical roles – of housekeepers, mothers, nurses, prostitutes, or sex symbols, but not as strong career women. Women are also often depicted for playing fluffy and dumb blonde roles; they are not even portrayed as intelligent and smart women. This stereotype is actually presented in this script with the mother, coming from the old traditional upbringing. She was raised to believe that a woman’s place in the family is that of housekeeper and the men must not be allowed to do women’s work. She passed on and drilled this attitude and upbringing to her daughter who was struggling with a bit of feminist spirit. As the story unfolds, traces of the feminist movement and the feminist attitude are manifested in the daughter who then chooses to break free of her mother’s traditional ways. In this script, we see how indeed, to the larger audience, the traditional roles of women are still very much accepted. Only in the more contemporary context is the new liberalized and empowered woman being recognized and respected. Read More