Random Harvest Movie Analysis

The return of the past invokes similar effects in the films Stella Dallas and Random Harvest; in both films the past invokes traumatic experiences for those on screen. The film Stella Dallas is a work thats narrative focuses on a women of lower socioeconomic standing that marries rich, then fights to belong within that society while not losing herself. In the end we see that she finally chooses her to embrace her roots and leave the high class society behind. However, it is her past, and true self that causes her continual trauma throughout the film. While this melodramatic work follows the love story of the two, it also depicts the class divides in American society, and the struggles of a working class mother who has a “passing” child(Whitney 6). Nevertheless, while passing is typically used in reference to darker skinned mothers who have white passing

Throughout the first half of the film viewers watch Paula fall in love with “Smithy”, a man who has no history or connection to his past. However, after being hit by a car, Smithy is reconnected with his past and regains his memory. It then becomes clear that he is actually a business tycoon named Charles who suffered from dissociative fugue(Seamon 166) and he is far different than the man Paula fell in love with. Nevertheless, with the return of his past, Charles abandons his life as Smithy: including his love for Paula. This return to his past is the source of trauma for Paula, and she is forced to watch the man she loves have no memory of their own romance, as well as almost marry another woman. That is until the end of the film where Charles is able to remember his past as not only Charles, but as Smithy as well; Therefore, while the return of Smithy’s past is a source of trauma for Paula; in the end when his histories combine, the return of the past does result in happiness for