How Does Phil Connors Use Of Materialism In Groundhog Day

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Satisfactory Salvation and the Empty Essex Phil Connors (Bill Murray) in the critically acclaimed and beloved movie, Groundhog Day, repeats a day in time over and over. All are forced to follow and follow... and follow this man until the curse is broken and February 3rd is upon him. The audience wants to scream at their screen, instructing Connors how to fix his current emotional and relational state with the people around him. But Connors must learn it on his own. The creators of this film used the recurring day to teach a lesson. Not just the fictional lesson that the leading man so desperately needs to learn, but a lesson people every where needed pounded in their head. Recurring ideas, themes, and images is a powerful weapon in art. …show more content…

The character of Hazel’s strips himself of all former religious ties and dives head first into the depth of human sin. When he arrives to his new town and finds a prostitutes address and lets his feet carry him to the bed of filth. He indulges in the sexuall indevor and doesnt look back. He continues his story and his sexual relations of Sabbath. Haze has turned his back on strict religious upbringing and becomes driven by immoral behavior (Themes…”). Sex has an undeniable presence in Wise Blood. Motes claims to believe in nothing and proves so by engaging in sex with Mrs. Watts. This act seems to prove that he has eliminated his conscience and his religious upbringing that has always instructed what was right and wrong ("Themes..."). O’Connor seems to regard sex as evil, and touches on this theme throughout the novel. Sex is used as a distraction but never fully satisfies the characters. It shows more than just physical corruption but corruption of the human soul and the animal-like instincts in mankind (Satterfield). Sex plays a large role in the novel dating back to Hazel’s youth when his curiosity lead to emotional scars. As Hazel made his way into the exclusive tent he saw the lasting images of a large naked woman. This image stays with him through his years. It takes root and leads to his perception of women and sex. His eyes and mind were thrown into the dirt at a young age and were never wiped clean. As long as Haze does not have a soul he can behave in any manner he wants. Right and wrong do not seem to matter or even exist. He turns towards sex instead of away from it later in life but it brings very little real pleasure. He still searches for answers to his religious questions. Materialism, similarly, corrupts