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Symbolic Imagery In Spike Jonze's Film 'Adaption'

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Spike Jonze’s film Adaption (2002), a meta-narrative about the real-life screenwriter Charlie Kaufman (Nicholas Cage), uses symbolic imagery to provide insight into the intricate psychology of Charlie’s mind. During the course of the film, Charlie is often seen hunched over his typewriter, his self-loathing evident through a voice-over—and a bathroom visible behind him. Jonze’s use mise-en-scene, particularly lighting, costuming, and props, transforms the bathroom into a symbol of Charlie’s journey from being trapped in his own mind to being psychologically and artistically liberated. As Charlie sits at his desk, signs of his mental captivity become apparent. Next to him, the horizontal blinds on the window are indicative of prison bars preventing him access to the outside world. Very …show more content…

The strong horizontal lines of the blinds, along with the intense angles of the tiles and Charlie’s plaid shirt, are reminiscent of prison bars and indicate that Charlie is both alienated from the outside world and trapped within himself. However, the scene also provides symbols of hope, such as the whiteness of the typewriter and the bathtub which indicate the connection between Charlie becoming emotionally clean and his writing ability. The key to Charlie’s psychologically imprisoned state seems to lie in Donald; however, as the open door indicates, it is only Charlie who is holding himself back. In the end, Charlie is never strong enough to take that step. It is only when Donald is forcibly removed from his life that Charlie is metaphorically pushed through that open door, breaking out of his self-constructed cage in the process, and can go through a ritualistic cleansing as he is forced to accept the parts of Donald that have always been in inside him. And, in doing so, he is finally able to become psychologically and artistically

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