Run from the Clocks, and Find Bliss

Living in a world of clocks, a world of routine, it follows the same pattern day after day. Individuals are clumped into a group as a whole, never to be taken out one by one again. Once fallen in this trap it’s almost impossible to find the way out, or to have the realization that you have even fallen in a trap that has so slyly become the life of all around. Each person walking down the street has their own story, each dying to share, and be heard, but each one is too worried about the clock chasing them to a job, a family, or an empty apartment. Just to be going somewhere, always in a hurry, slowing down is scaring, realizing how little there is that brings an individual happiness or pleasure is the true defining of fear. Fantasia’s Rhapsody in Blue shows through images how “stuck in a rut” and how fearful people are of slowing down afraid of what might catch up to them, each life in Fantasia follows the same routine, each person is different, but yet the same because following the pattern of one surrounding them. In Rhapsody in Blue, the people are lost in the sense that the only joy they have is received through their dreams at night. In their dreams there is hope for a new day, a new life, and hope for change. In Whitman’s I Hear America Singing, he takes the position of an outsider looking in. Whitman writes about each individuals place in society and the drone of every day life, doing the same thing each day only to end up each night in the dreams of hope, the dreams of freedom, that are seen in Rhapsody in Blue. From 1960 when I Hear America Singing was written, and 2000 when Fantasia created Rhapsody in Blue each individual has been and is waiting for dreams to be fulfilled, waiting for a change in jobs, in each day that seems to follow the same pattern hour after hour, day after day, in the end just praying the clocks will make a turn and choose another victim to chase and haunt. Through Whitman and Disney’s work, the daily lives in American society are challenged and threatened. The life of the regular worker in America is placed under a microscope, their work shows the cycle that so many get stuck in, and the realization each individual must face at the end of each day. In Rhapsody in Blue there is a little girl that is dragged from her bed in the morning to appointment after appointment, all of which she seems to not belong with or even enjoy. In I Hear America Singing, there is a line of a girl sewing or washing which shows the tedious motion that has taken residence in their daily lives. From the little girl standing apart in her dance class, or the girl singing out while sewing or washing, there really is no difference except the fact that young children and teens are the examples of trying to break free from society. The young girl in Rhapsody in Blue is dragged along from place to place, just dying to be set free, or given a moment to make her own decision, and the girl from I Hear America Singing is calling out to anyone who will hear her in hopes that her life may hold more meaning then placing needle through fabric and back through again. “One can choose one’s attitudes in any given circumstances”, Viktor Frankl says this perfectly because no matter what “rut” that holds an individual captive, there are always ways to dance through it, and have even the tiniest glimpse of hope. The girls in both Whitman and Fantasia are searching to find the hope, they search through being apart and standing out in society, one dances like no other while the other sings out. In both Rhapsody in Blue and I Hear America Singing there is the closing of night fall and what happens to society. In I Hear America Singing society at night fall is left for the young. In Rhapsody in Blue, the night is for all in need of a little freedom. In Rhapsody in Blue night is reached, and those that were captured by time during the day take the few moments to breathe and dream. Their sense of dreaming is shown by them ice-skating, they are each a star in their own mind, their dreams are all that matter to them, and the hope that they will come true is emanate. Socrates says, “To know thyself is the beginning of wisdom”. Through night fall each individual begins to find themselves and comes into realization of the routine they have become caught in. In Rhapsody in Blue there is a scene of a man being taken from thoughts of ending his life to thoughts of happiness and a new sense of hope. Dreams are the reason for this, and when does everyone as a society dream, night. Rhapsody in Blue and I Hear America Singing are examples of what society has been formed into, and what has been accepted by individuals in that society. If there is anything taken from these two pieces it should be that dreams are one thing that can keep anyone sane when every that surrounds is following what is approved by society. Society is formed by misconceptions and ideas that this is right or this is wrong. Taking moments, and days to step out and reflect on yourself and society is key to finding the passion that is waiting to be kindled inside of each individual. As Thoreau learns from taking time in Walden, “The millions are awake enough for physical labor; but only one in a million is awake enough for effective intellectual exertion, and only 1 in a 100 million for a poetic or divine life. To be awake is to be alive. I have never met a man who was quite awake. How could I have looked him in the face?” If as a society each one falls into this blindness and routine of society then what can truly be expected, how can happiness truly ever be achieved? Follow the passion in the heart that may be a stranger to each, Follow the bliss of dreams and live alive, live free, live away from society in a higher realm that life is to sacred to be lived each day the same. Let go of the fears of standing out, believe, and all is waiting to be discovered and experienced.