The topic of discussion that I wish to discuss is the Bad Girl's pursuit of Ricardo by telephone. This event perplexes my mind and truly has me wondering about the games/tricks that The Bad Girl plays or is it that her tricks have tricked her? If I understood correctly, from the time of their first interaction, The Bad Girl had no true interest in Ricardo. Ricardo would confess his love time and time again yet The Bad Girl literally treated him like a puppy, announcing that he was "unworthy." Still, Ricardo never lost hope, never lost his will to love (lust) her despite her clear neglect of his feelings and emotions. As the events lead up to the "Pursuit of Ricardo," I question, what happened in the Bad Girl's mind? What caused her to retreat to the one who she was not pursuing? We discover that after the Ricardo finally answers the phone and asks to meet, The Bad Girl appears dressed like a beggar and looks so sick he thinks she's going to die. She eventually faints and he takes her to his apartment and then to the hospital. She claims that she was in prison and they raped her, but he doesn't believe her. If I was Ricardo, I doubt that I would've believed her either but as I look deeper, I find that here is some truth in The Bad Girls claim.
Claim 1: She was in prison.
This claim serves as a metaphor to the emotional prison she was in. Here you have a girl that from the time of her character's introduction, she was not fully characterized. Her character lacks substance, lacks understanding. As seen in Madame Bovary and other sources of reference concerning Desire, she is lacking/empty. I hate to be cliche' but she winds up looking for love in all the wrong places. I retract that and conclude that she wasn't looking for love yet only satisfaction for her burning desire. However, as we all are, she's human. After you search and search for something to exist that doesn't, you lose yourself. There is no sense of connection to reality because for so long a dream was being chased. This can serve as a prison-like construct of the soul.
Claim 2: She was raped.
For a mighty promiscuous woman, the word rape doesn't seem likely to be in her vocabulary. Could you believe that one who enjoys violence would claim to have been assaulted or involved in an involuntary act? The point of the matter is that in a sense, The Bad Girl was raped. Raped in this sense meaning the taking of one's innocence, one's purity. Am I suggesting that The Bad Girl was a pure woman? No. But what I do suggest is that underneath The Bad Girl is a good girl who's been hurting for a while now. And who does one go to when they are in need of healing, the one who showed consistant love over a period of time. Unfortunately, that happened to be Ricardo.
I say unfortunately for Ricardo's case because like most good boy's he falls in the trap of the Super Hero syndrome, a syndrome that I know all too well. Upon their meeting, we see that The Bad Girl appears as a sick beggar who is in dire need. What does Ricardo do? He helps her and tries to restore what innocence she may have had but as it is in her nature, The Bad Girl overpowers the good girl and eventually leaves again to play games of "Love." This is a cycle that is seen all throughout Love in American Culture. The good boy goes after the bad girl, thinking that she is the source of the answer of his problems and later gets burned in the end. Blinded by the image of the romantic couple, the good boy can not see the darkness lurking within this girl. There is no good and there is no chance of a relationship. In reality she is a shadow; in his eyes she is a rose. Oil and water do not flow together. I speak from experience.
No comments:
Post a Comment