Donnie Darko Essay

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Donnie Darko and the Psychological Aspects in the Film Abstract A troubled adolescent, Donnie Darko, living in suburban Maryland in 1988, is awakened one morning by a jet-plane engine crashing into his bedroom. Narrowly escaping death, he soon begins to have disturbing visions, one of which entrails the world ending in 28 days. Taking this bit of information to his compassionate psychiatrist, she hypnotizes him and discovers Donnie has a secret “imaginary friend”. Frank, the six foot tall bunny only Donnie can see, controls him, making him commit acts of disturbing vandalism and worse. During these times with Frank, he discovers the laws of the universe that govern his life. Donnie’s mental illness causes him to confuse real life with imaginary and he struggles to contain his perception of time while fighting schizophrenia threating to take control. Donnie Darko and the Psychological Aspects in the Film There is a nice slice of the world’s population are diagnosed with mental disorders. These people will swear the most outrageous scenarios are true, because in their mind they are. In one of the more serious cases of mental disorders, people claim to hear voices coming from inside their own heads and this can eventually cause them to believe they are two or more different people. This condition is called schizophrenia. The most apparent examples of this in the film is when Donnie hallucinates Frank, when he sleepwalks, and his visits to his psychiatrist. This leads the viewer to assume Donnie is schizophrenic. He is blamed for all the events which happen throughout the movie, although the viewer can see everything is done by Frank’s hand. When Donnie floods the school, he writes on the floor outside, “He made me do it.” (Kelly, 2001). There is also another scene where Donnie hallucinates dark shapes out of the corner of his eye, and when this silver gel-like
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