Popular Culture Review Vol. 2, No. 2, July 1991 | Page 73
Displaced People and the Frailty of Words
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He's just an absolute muck about telling anyone." Without Ethel s
facilitating the relationship between Norman and Chelsea, their
longing to connect might never have been enough. After Chelsea and
her father reach a reconciliation through the help of Ethel, subtle
shifts in language once again illustrate the at least temporary
transformation of the relationship. As Chelsea leaves, she says
shyly, "Well. Good-bye. Norman. . . Dad."
In all three films, characters who are 1) trapped by the inherent
unreliability of language as well as 2) enraged by their own inability
to meet another family member on common ground remain frustrated
and unsure of how to make their feelings clear. Expecting more from
themselves, they feel more and more inadequate. It is Conrad of
Ordinary People who best expresses this inadequacy: "I kept
thinking John Boy would have said something about the way he
felt." The reference to the perfect son depicted in the long-running
family drama "The Waltons" indicates the insurmountable chasm
between Conrad's desire to verbalize his pain and his mother's
incapacity to hear him.
In Terms of Endearment, the stakes are even higher, as Emma
Greenway (Debra Winger) and her mother (Shirley MacLaine)
struggle to communicate after Emma is diagnosed with terminal
cancer. Aurora Greenway is obsessively involved with her daughter
from the moment we see her crawl into Emma’s crib and make her cry
(in order to reassure herself that Emma is still breathing). Emma's
father dies, and Aurora alienates Emma's friends ("Sure would be nice
to have a mother somebody liked," Emma tells her friend Patsy) and
eventually refuses to attend Emma's wedding because she disapproves
of Emma's choice of a husband. One of the first examples of the
difficulty the two have in addressing central issues between them
occurs when Emma and her husband, Flap Horton, move from Houston
to Des Moines. As the family hugs farewell, Aurora clings to her
daughter. Emma says, "That's the first time I stopped hugging first.
I like that." Aurora replies, "Get yourself a decent maternity dress."
Emma's disappointment lies behind her eyes as she says, "You had to
get one in, didn't you?" In the c ancer ward with each new treatment
failing, Emma and her mother are alone. The desperate desire to
connect is evident as each of them tries to stabilize the alternately
troubled/tender relationship between them. Aurora tells her