Schaffner notes that Anderson ’ s films are part of a “ popcultural response to the death of grand narratives .” They show a belief in a materialistic , existential , nihilistic universe , where meaning is found in the human and nothing exists beyond human experience . As Michael Martin has noted , Anderson is “ staring into the void , believing that it exists ” ( email exchange ). His characters may intuit from time to time that there must be more to life than what they have yet found , but the answers Anderson provides for them never reach vertically toward what director Paul Schrader calls the “ Wholly Other ” of the Transcendent . As Mark Browning says , “ His characters search for a meaning in life but without any sense . . . that their actions carry spiritual consequences ” ( 150 ). Meaning for his characters only exists on the horizontal level as it can be found or created in human relationships .
In fact one of the things that makes Anderson ’ s films so intriguing is that he takes seriously the search for meaning . His characters ’ lives follow a similar four-step pattern . First , the characters sense the void , the limitless infinite chaos that they feel life is , without necessarily being able to articulate their existential problem . Secondly , their instinctive fear of the chaos causes them to react by attempting to impose order on or gain control of their lives and by extension , the universe . Third , this attempt to impose order or control fails miserably , leading to a rockbottom experience . And finally out of this failure the characters are then allowed a measure of grace ; they find meaning in their miserable lives through the reconciliation of human relationships .
And this is where the films end — on a comedic note of restoration that suggests that this is the goal for which one should strive . That is , given the limitless chaos of life , any
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