Harold and Maude (Hal Ashby, 1971) - who cares if you make an ass of yourself?

[CThompson]

Harold and Maude, directed by Hal Ashby and produced in 1971, is a dark humor film about a young man of 19 who is suicide-obsessed. Harold comes from an extremely wealthy background, where he lives with his self-absorbed mother and a house full of servants. Luxurious items are insignificant to him, yet his mother keeps pushing items at him to make him, or what she thinks it does, a better, more attractive boy. Jaguars, fancy clothes, parties at the mansion, all items that Harold could care less about. For free time, Harold’s mother likes to throw parties or get her hair done, but for Harold, he finds going to funerals a favorable pastime for himself. So now enter Maude, an older woman pushing 80 who happens to come across Harold at a funeral and takes a sudden interest in him. At first, it seems like Harold is a little thrown off by this funny older woman, but after bumping into her several times more, he too shows an interest in her as well. The reason why they become fascinated by each other? I think it’s because there both different, different from other people, and different from each other. The movie is a story about how Harold learns from Maude, and how he grows as a person from the characteristics Maude brings to the table, and what she offers, which is a different life, not to mention how much he pisses off his mother in doing all this as well.

Towards the beginning of the film, we are introduced to the life style of both Harold and Maude. Harold, being a twisted 19 year old boy, lives in a high class society with fancy things surrounding him. His mansion has endless rooms all stocked with organized, meaningless items filling each room. Each room pretty much has a name too, the music room, the dining room, the library, etc. Now shifting to Maude, an older woman who has a distinguished yellow umbrella, lives in an off road train cart, where it’s hard to tell how wide it is but it looks very long. Her home is also filled with items, but each one meaning something different; figurines, collectables, antiques, all different then from just items filling up a room, they all bring back memories. When Harold first sees her home, he looks thrown off, but then easily adapts into it the more he hangs out there. I believe he enjoys it so much because it’s so different in comparison to his home, or pretty much to his life. So far his life has been planned and been pushed by his mother, and nothing is really his own. Even with the car that is given to him by his mother, he tries to change it as much as possible to make it his own. With Maude, she is so in the moment, thinking of the now, having what ever she wants in her own home, something that I think Harold was never taught how to be, in the moment.

There are certain reasons why Harold is do drawn into Maude, every time they get together he draws a little closer and closer to her, and he eventually ends up loving her. At first, I thought he loved her because she was like the mother figure he never had, this spontaneous woman who believes in individuality. But then I saw the scene where they hit the sheets and after that I was a little thrown off. After viewing the film, I started thinking about scenes from the film that I enjoyed the most, and the ones I liked where the ones Maude wasn’t in. But I think that’s a certain point trying to be made, it’s like she doesn’t fit in the movie, she doesn’t really fit for him, which ties the movie all back in together. But one part of the film I will say that I enjoyed, was the quote Maude made to Harold when they are in the field. She said to him that “very person is allowed to make an ass of themselves at least once in their life,” and I couldn’t agree more with her. For Harold, his mother always made actions for him so that he would seem more appealing to others, the fancy car, the personality test, but with Maude, she came across with the message of be yourself, and don’t care what others think. What I learned most from her is that, do what ever makes you happy, and it doesn’t matter if you look silly doing it or not. That’s why at the end of the movie, when the car goes off he cliff, I thought for sure he had killed himself finally, and that made me so upset. I kept thinking to myself for those 30 seconds we gap until we see Harold at the top of the cliff still alive, had he learned nothing from Maude? Why would he kill herself just because she’s gone? She taught him the value of life, and how to live it, to love it. He walked away from that car accident a different person; he walked away from Maude a better person.

[ltauber]

I would like to respond to the post viewing prompt #1, and C Thompson comments on the reason why Harold and Maude take an interest in each other. Although I politely disagree with C Thompson's statement that the two characters are drawn to each other because "they're both different, different from other people, and different from each other. The movie is a story about how Harold learns from Maude, and how he grows as a person from the characteristics Maude brings to the table" I think Harold is attracted to Maude not because he is different than she is, or because as a couple they are different from society; but because he admires her authenticity.

Harold's entire life is consumed by his mothers vanity, and importance placed on material things and social status. It seems as though none of this makes Harold happy, and his mother has grown to accept his as someone who is familiar with the "absurd". If she is referring to absurd in a similar manner as we discussed it in class today (when there is no correspondence or cohesion between two events) then yes i would agree, harold has been exposed to many in congruencies in his life. his mother is supposed to be a good christian, yet is not altruistic or humble.

Also brought up in class today was Camus ideas on suicide, i.e. "There is only one really serious philosophical question, and that is suicide. Deciding whether or not life is worth living is to answer the fundamental question in philosophy. All other questions follow from that." In the film, Harold's mother asks him this very same question. She decides to impose her own thoughts upon the personality quiz, and answers for harold. I believe she says 3, which is undecided. This leaves the viewer in limbo...is life in fact worth living? Should harold pursue the world which he knows only to be filled with vain and superficial people? Or should he wade through all of the struggling, and search for authenticity. This film is interesting and complex because Maude brings a possibility of authenticity and happiness into the picture.

In the film Ghost World, it can be inferred that the main character enid commits suicide at the end of the film. She appears to be disconnected from society because she cannot relate to their shallow ways. there is a total disconnect between her character and the rest of society (absurdity?) Not only can enid not relate, but she does not have any sort of positive authentic role model to look up to. I think enid commits suicide because she does not see any possibility for an authentic pursuit of happiness in her life.

[kwallace]

Harold and Maude presents its viewers with questions of morality that stem from a life lived in the absurd. For Harold, his entire life until he meets Maude is a façade. He is required to live and breathe according to his mother’s necessity for keeping up appearances. He is tossed into this reality where he has little say over what he wears, whom he sees, which car he drives. His entire existence is a requirement of his mother’s expectations. He attempts to break free from this oppression with his bouts of suicide, but they neither entice nor enrage his mother; the apathy and disdain she shows for his antics are quite sad. Harold lives this way until he meets Maude.

Maude gives Harold a perspective on life and morality that is in direct contradiction with everything that has been required of Harold. She steals cars and interrupts funeral services; she lives in a train car and fights the law. The code of morality and ethics Maude lives by is one that navigates itself through moral relativism and asks the question: is breaking the law such an issue when it doesn’t condemn life? Throughout Harold and Maude’s antics, they never once jeopardize someone’s life or directly put someone in danger. Maude’s beliefs are that life is meant to “LIVE” and if you have to borrow something to achieve this happiness…so be it. It isn’t that she has any malice in her actions that many would deem “immoral”, she is just acting in a way that her agency might disrupt others while she seeks to get things right. She is the character in the film that follows closest with God’s law while others only speak of it. I believe that the way Maude goes about her life is a way in which everyone should take note. I’m not advocating for stealing cars and carelessness, however I do think that we need to stop worrying so much about our perceptions and allow the true nature of our identity out. It is only after Harold lets himself become an “ass” that he seems truly happy in the film.

[NPhillips-Edwards]

I found it interesting that CThompson mentioned her favorite scenes in the film were the one in which Maude was not present, because this was my experience as well. At first it felt as though I had missed the point of the film entirely, since I was unable to relate to this very essential character. It wasn’t that I disliked her, I merely felt as though she didn’t fit the tone of the film. Her seemingly quirky, genuinely uplifted nature contrasts with the dark absurdist humor of the rest of the film. Upon further regard, it became clear to me that this is exactly what she is meant to do. Her various shenanigans, while seemingly just absurd, childish pranks, are in fact are a manifestation of her suspicion and rejection of authority; they don’t seem particularly absurd in the context of Maude’s life as someone who lived at least a sizeable portion of her live with the near certainty of death looming over her. Because of her experiences, she invests little thought in the prospect of death, and as a result displays little concern for the possible ramifications of things like stealing a police officer’s motorcycle. When viewing Maude in this light, I find it easier to understand my initial reaction to her, as well as to understand her actions in the film, and how they teach Harold the value of living.

[jdefever]

This movie is themed perfectly to exemplify the notion that money can’t buy happiness (at least in the case of Harold). In the film, Harold’s mother appears to be perfectly content with the luxurious lifestyle that Harold is brought up in, yet the audience is led to believe that she is a superficial character living the “unexamined” life, as Socrates would have it. Harold becomes addicted to the idea of death when he notices his mother’s most dramatic reaction to his alleged death in the lab explosion. From this scene, and the following “attempts” at suicide, it becomes apparent that Harold craves approval or attention from a parenting figure, since his image is dwarfed by the previous family successes (which resulted in the family’s riches). Harold finds such attention from Maude, who (as was previously suggested by CThompson) he takes on as a sort of mother figure.

With Maude as his “mother figure”, it appears as though there is a bit of an Oedipal complex theme present in the film, since Harold eventually ends up falling in love and making love to Maude. It is ironic that Maude kills herself at the end of the film, since Harold had been fantasizing over such an action for quite some time. Is Maude giving in to the absurd by doing this? Or is her death by her own hand justified because of her old age, and only years of pain were to come? I feel that Maude was indeed giving in to the absurd by committing suicide, despite her age, and this was the best lesson Harold could have taken away from his relationship with her. In a way, had Maude not killed herself, the possibility of Harold still wanting to kill himself might have been present at the end of the film. Harold is able to learn through his relations with Maude that material things do not go with you when you die, and so by spending a lifetime trying to attain them is really a huge waste.

Maude’s life is rich in experience and meaningful (she had lived through more meaningful wars than the Vietnam War, which Harold was being pushed towards becoming involved in) and poor in materialism, Harold lacks the existential wealth that Maude possesses, while he is rich in materialism. This existential film provides the audience with the theme that existential wealth is much more substantial than any amount of expensive objects. This is not to say that Harold isn’t aware of what he has in terms of financial stability, but for him, the desire for human relations and a life purpose is stronger than the need for frivolous possessions. It is this mentality, of love for relationships over love for material, that Harold expresses in the film, and which I feel the filmmakers want audience to take away from the work.

[Lsogn]

Like CThompson, I also observed that the mansion belonging to Harold and his mother is compartmentalized with separate rooms for music, dining and reading. In a luxurious setting offering a backdrop for Harold’s repeated faux-suicides--Harold and his mother, as well as visitors and the omnipresent staff, spend a great deal of their lives walking through hallways as well as entering and exiting the oversized and grandiose doors. With all of the macabre undercurrents in their home, one could ask where is the “living” room?

This offers a stark contrast to the abandoned train car where Harold’s eccentric friend Maude lives. Of all the places where Maude could choose to live: why pick a train? What is most curious is that near the end of the film there is a quick shot of her forearm tattooed with a string of numbers, revealing she is a Holocaust survivor. Trains would come to symbolize her journey into terror and suffering.

Also, Maude’s train car is derailed; it doesn’t have the usual “existence” of train cars--where they are attached one to another. It is isolated just like Maude, unsettled. Harold enters Maude’s train car and his jaw drops in spellbinding disbelief at what he sees: collectibles overflowing in all directions. Maude tells him this isn’t a random assortment--each thing is important to her. She has filled her train car with meaningful objects in an attempt to make up for all she lost--her family, friends and previous identity--on the train ride to the concentration camp.

Influenced by her time at the camp, how Maude values life and death is revealed throughout the film. For example, at a funeral she explains her fascination with them to Harold and exclaims they represent “the great circle of life!” Later she tells him that “...I like to watch things grow, bloom, fade, die and change into something else.” Here Maude is reflecting on the natural rhythms of life and death, where one generation lives out a complete life cycle and a new generation begins.

As a Holocaust survivor she watched generations destroyed before her eyes. None of those who died at the camp had the gift of time and a peaceful existence allowing them to live into old age and die a natural death. It is possible Maude suffers from survivor’s guilt asking herself: why did I escape when so many others died? No matter the cause--the result leaves a heavy burden on survivors such as Maude.

“Carpe Diem” is Maude’s underlying theme and is a backlash against her past. The lyrics from a Cat Stevens song, “...and I haven’t got a lot of time” are a perfect accompaniment to her eccentricities which are more than just a way to get attention. They show her irreverent disregard for authority. When pulled over by a motorcycle officer for driving haphazardly, he discovers she has no license--while driving a stolen truck--to transplant a stolen tree. It all makes perfectly good sense to Maude who lives and breathes to defy convention.

She drives too fast and on the wrong side of the road; takes what she needs without asking for permission; sleeps with someone 59 years younger; and sings out loud whenever and wherever she wishes. She even attends the funerals of strangers. While Harold says he does it for “fun”--Maude listens to the last rites and prayers as if it is a way to pay respect for all the deaths she saw at the camp. Buried in common graves or reduced to ashes floating through the air from the crematorium--there was no dignity for the deceased. And Maude witnessed it all.

She tells Harold she is “free as a bird” and then adds: “...zoos are full, prisons are overflowing...and the world still loves a cage.” For someone who lost her loved ones and her liberty while trapped in a cage herself, it becomes almost understandable as to why it was important for her to exercise her personal freedom and control not only her life--but her death as well. She observed that “A lot of people enjoy being dead...but back away from life.” Maude didn’t back away from life or death.

[bcarpenter]

This movie has a very interesting take on life that I found very hard to relate to. Bith of the character’s are already good at getting out of situations they don’t want to be in. Harold can easily just commit suicide and make it look very real, so that the only person who really doesn’t believe it is his mother. If he ever wants to chase someone away or get what he wants, he can. He also has strange auto-mechanic skills that come out of nowhere when he transforms the Jaguar his mom bought for him. He shares this talent of being able to escape situations with no consequences with Maude. She easily manages to thwart police officers when she has done something illegal. When the two team up they manage to get Harold out of being drafted. The “theme song,” of the movie goes. “If you wanna be free, be free.” The movie seems to be saying that you can do whatever you want, but I don’t agree. After I finished watching the movie it made me feel almost worse than Ghost World. In Ghost World Enid is just a normal person who is good at some things, but they can’t allow her to escape the situations that she is in. In Harold and Maude, they can. I was so depressed after watching it though, because I knew I was more like Enid then Harold or Maude. If I was speeding and a cop pulled me over, I wouldn’t be quick enough on my feet to get out of it, and I certainly wouldn’t be able to make such realistic suicides as Harold to get out of situations. I would have to face the consequences, like Enid, and be forced to live in a society of ghosts. It reinforced the notion that there was nothing I could to make a better world, and could only admire people like Harold and Maude.

[tdiamond]

As I watched the film I looked at Maudes character though the lens of a holocaust survivor. When you see her as someone whop has survived a huge tragedy, you begin to see where her outlook on life came from.

She goes through her life with Harold like shes gonna die the next day. She realizes the greatness of life. When you witness thousands of people being systematically slaughter, it makes you think about the frailty of life and the sanctity of it. Maude passes her knowledge of life on to a person who sees no point in it. This to me is the point that is being made in the film

Maude comes around and flips Harolds world upside down. She gives to him her spirit that she has gained from surviving the holocaust.

One point that they make in the film is that we have no concrete
reason for her eccentric behavior, just that it “is” the way she is. Later on we finally get that reason, with the very short shot of her tattoo. We finally get why she feels she needs to teach Harold that he needs to live, live for the sake of life. Maude is the teacher who feels finally fulfilled with Harold and feels that its time to end her life on earth. I saw this choice of hers as a fulfillment of her life. She suffered in the holocaust and devoted her life to the absurd. With Harold now on the live life train she can go knowing that shes passed her spirit on.

[jwong]

The agenda pursued by the film Harold and Maude was an extremely difficult one for me to relate to personally. None of the characters exuded characteristics that I find particularly appealing in people or ones that I dislike in myself so engaging with, and relating to, Harold, his mother, and Maude was a difficult task to say the least. As the opening thread makes apparent Harold lives a life of privilege and opulence. His home is more mansion than house, his car – a now vintage Jaguar – would be the envy of any adolescent male yet Harold has no apparent interest in these material things instead finding pleasure in attending funerals and faking suicides. In no way am I saying that I disapprove of shunning material goods, quite the opposite as I find this an admirable trait, but the way about which Harold does it (converting his Jaguar into a hertz for example) and his others interests I find absurd. Life was, by the measure of many, handed to Harold on a silver platter but he decided not to accept it. It’s just frustrating and difficult to relate to on a personally level as I would gladly enjoy and make use of the opportunities afforded Harold. It’s no problem with me to reject luxuries and the like but to find joy in faking suicides is just too much. On a more aesthetic note I did enjoy the dark humor that was present throughout much of the film.

[jkatz]

‘Harold was never taught to be in the moment.’ You couldn’t have put it better. It is exactly right; everything in Harold’s life is planned to a T. His mother wouldn’t have it any other way. Spontaneity is not a word associated with her prim and proper lifestyle. Harold was brought up with careful coordination and invitations and not for his benefit.

I think that’s why Harold falls in love with Maude. Maude doesn’t plan a thing. She does just what she wants with little regard to the bitter world surrounding her. He is so drawn t her because she does not fit into his lifestyle. She is so completely removed from his element.

Harold already knows that money and materialism don’t buy happiness so what does? Maude teaches Harold that happiness comes by living life to your own standards and happiness comes from the quality by which you live your life. Is life really worth living if you are unhappy?

[whughes]

A wealthy young man named Harold Chasen is oddly enough obsessed with death. He is frequently staging his own suicide, so his so called mother would pay attention to him. In his spare time Harold goes to random funerals. During the film Harold runs into this woman, Maude Chardin, on multiple occasions. Maude is an energetic woman who lives life to the fullest. This is where their unusual friendship begins. Their friendship starts to turn into a relationship. Harold clearly wants to marry Maude, but that never ends up happening when he finds out that she purposely took a fatal dose of pills and dies after being sent to the hospital. In his grief, Harold fakes his last suicide then cheerfully plays the banjo.

I believe in our society today it would not be thought of as a good thing for a young man to have a relationship with a much older woman. However it seems to be more acceptable for a younger woman to be with an older man. Yet, this does not change the fact that opposites sometimes attract. Harold is a person who has lived a good life. He's a descendent of a very rich family but in spite of that he basically just wants an excuse to die. He hates his life which puts him in a situation to do and explore a bunch of strange curiosities. Maude on the other hand has had it difficult. In one brief scene, a concentration camp tattoo can be seen on her forearm, signifying a large amount of previous suffering in her life. In spite of all of this however, she keeps a positive outlook on life, and is light-hearted. In meeting someone who was the complete opposite of him, Harold is at last able to embrace life and enjoy it but not for long.

[JBondurant]

I agree with most of the things posted so far in this thread. I think the reason why characters like Uncle Victor and Harold's mother are not authentic people is that they base their lives and therefore their identities upon popular ideals, not upon who they are as a person. In fact, I don't think that either character at any point in their lives really sat down and thought about who they are and what they want. It seems that they were taught or trained by some other person who learned their ideals from some other person who probably learned their ideals from some other person. Essentially, these characters are all subscribing to ideals and values that make up what we call the "status-quo", which is really just a construct of people who have all been made to believe the same thing without questioning it. And these ideals are not wise ideals that have been passed down from generation to generation. Rather, they are ideals that one ignorant person had the arrogance to impose upon another ignorant person and so on and so forth. To me, that's the real absurdity of the film, and Maude's absurdity - what would be known as typical "absurdity" - is cast in a light that makes it look normal when compared to the behavior of such self-assured characters like Uncle Victor, Harold's mother, the motorcycle cop, or the psychiatrist, for example.

[mhollis]

The character, Maude, is the reason why those who love this movie do. She’s totally unlike any other character in film or books that I have ever seen or heard of. She’s a total free spirit who just lives her life under her own will or circumstances but at the same time is selfless and caring for others. Maude is the complete polar opposite of Harold’s mother, a vane, self-centered woman who molds and constricts her life to fit high class social standards. Unlike her, Maude is about freedom and not paying attention to conformity of social norms and standards. I think this is why Harold is attracted to her. It’s a twist on Freudian ideas, Harold is searching for a new mother figure, since his is obviously out of her mind. He meets an elderly woman, from whom he finds compassion, love and all kinds of positive support, everything a mother should be and then he falls in love with her and since she’s not really his mother she takes over as his lover and shows him a new kind of lifestyle that will fulfill the emptiness left by the cold, separation of his life with his mother in the lonely mansion.

Maude is also not afraid of death, or dying she confronts it and controls it according to her own plans, which is what liberates her so that she can live life without the heaviness that is felt by others. Other people fear the unexpected and try to contemplate the mysteries of what happens after death but Maude truly sees it as a part of life and blindly trusts that since it is inevitable it should not be feared. She lives authentically without anxiety; she’s too wise to be anxious about her life in a world without meaning because she doesn’t search for it. She is the only person who doesn’t search for it but instead just trusts that it is there. Maybe that’s what the meaning of life is, blind trust. We all are conscious of the fact that we will never know the all-powerful “meaning of life” during our lifetimes, but honestly that’s all that matters. Like Sartre said “you are your life and nothing else.” So since we cannot know, why not just forget about it? I wish I could be like this, I think we all could stand to be a little or a lot more like Maude.

-MHollis

[nlipton]

I believe the question, “Who cares if you make an ass of yourslef?” is very valid in our society. While so many individuals are lost worrying about this and that, money and glamour, luxury and kitchen supplies, I feel as though the truly happy are the ones more self-deprecating, more comfortable in their own skin and in living in their own comforts. Although I do not want to discredit those that prefer to have a polished and high brow external image, because that would be to say they aren’t enjoying themselves as well. I am just referring to the class of people who are afraid to mess up, afraid to let go, loosen up their ties and wear a pair of jeans out of fear of humiliation, lowered respect, or some other unimportant human value we have decided matters so much.
In Harold and Maude our little Harold is such a key example of a man living in the world of false perfection and sophistication. It isn’t as if he is surrounded by creative geniuses, intellectuals, and ground breaking scientists who all dress and act in a more sophisticated manner due to personal choice, he is simply surrounded by rich people, who feel as though their look grants them higher power. Harold dismisses this ideology, and even develops a death fetish because of the lack of individuality, freedom, and creativity living in a fake glitz and glam’ world creates.
That is where the beauty of Maude steps in. We have a normal person. Someone who simply lives their life by the circumstances she finds herself in. No wasting time worrying over trivial matters or hoping her shoes are Gucci, Maude acts as Harold’s lasso, slowly pulling him back to reality. I think there the lesson’s learned are so obvious to many that understanding them could be hard for some.
While Harold’s mother cares for him, she does not seem truly connected to him. She does not seem truly connected to anyone really. Her life is about her, things, impressions, visuals, and the values we have created as man. These are not the right values to instill in children as a functioning human should have the core intrinsic values embedded in their soul before transforming into the idiotic consumer we all eventually become. So in turn, Maude represents those core human values. Caring, living, seeing, breathing, experiencing, all on a ground level, a real level, a level that is spontaneous and current, leaving room for unexpected circumstances that could lead to one making an ass out of themselves, or at least that’s how I see it.

[lbourgeois]

I agree that one of the important lessons that Maude teaches Harold about life is that it's okay to make an ass out of yourself. And I think the salience of this quote is really born out in the contrasting characters throughout the film who offer certain traditional moral frameworks which, most obviously to Harold, seem to be lacking a kind of logical foundation. The main character in this group would be Harold's mother. Mrs. Chasen's logic, which seems absurd to Harold, is one of a keen socialite, who's life and daily decisions revolve around concerns about appearances and what is appropriate by custom. As such when she chastises Harold about the emptiness of his life, she resolves that he must "grow up" by finding a wife. She presumably has found all the purpose she needs hosting dinner parties and swimming in her pool.

We are also introduced to a psychologist, a Colonel (?), a priest - all figureheads of a kind of traditional regurgitated idealogy which, the film suggests, they spout more or less without thinking. The fact that at one point in the film there is a montage of each of these characters shown lecturing Harold, and also the audience, sets up the critique and undermining of their message. In addition, the frames seen behind each character - of Nixon, Freud, the Pope - indicate a kind of blind loyalty that to Harold and the audience seems obviously fake. This kind of situation reminds me of Holden Caulfield who also saw a lot of "phonies". But the purpose of Maude seems to be to show Harold that in the absence of traditional frameworks, and any value system at all, there is still beauty and adventure in the world. Whether that world has a purpose or meaning is another question.

[Jtan]

In the film, Maude is an agent of life. Harold, would appear to be the antithesis, embracing and finding solace in death versus life. What is most ironic in the film is that Maude has faced so many hardships and had terrible things happen to her her (the holocaust) yet she embraces everything and life itself. This compared to Harold, who has lived with a silver spoon in his mouth, his mother and family is very wealth and he has obviously never been without before, yet he is utterly miserable and unhappy. The film is about Harold breaking away from his maudlin way of life and moving towards embracing life. It is through Maude, who is an agent of life, that he is able to do this. Although, it is a little unclear why Maude must die in order for Harold to shed his obsession with death. This final transformation in Harold is seen when he drives his car (a mixture of wealth [it's a jaguar] and his obsession with death [its converted to look like a hearse]) over the edge of a cliff. We think he is in the car until we see him standing on the edge of the cliff staring down at the wreckage. He walks away with his guitar and "has a song". He has finally shed all the things that had been keeping him from life, his wealth and obsession with death, and seemingly embraces life like Maude had advocated for.

[PHarrison]

I also don’t believe that Harold is drawn to Maude solely because she is different than Harold. Where it is true she is different, I believe that Harold is drawn to Maude because of her attitude towards life. Harold appears to be obsessed with death because everything that life has presented him so far has been less than inspiring, causing him to wonder if life is worth living. Harold’s mother, who is merely a product of her environment, represents the materialistic and shallow world centered on money. Uncle Victor, Harold’s only father figure, represents war and blind loyalty. The Priest represents religious authority and the accepted moral values defined by society. Yet, Harold, who sees through his mothers façade, who sees the futility of war and questions the rules of society, finds himself at this moment in his life trying to find his place in the world. When he meets Maude, she shows him there is more to life. She shows him that he is a unique individual and therefore shouldn’t allow his life to be determined by society and that he needs to reach out on his own, discover who he really is, and strive to live life on his own terms. As we discussed in lecture, Maude doesn’t appear to recognize authority, and as a result is free to live her life outside the constraints that society uses to contain her. Harold is drawn to Maude because she is not afraid to live her life and teaches him how to live his.